It doesn't take a zombie to appreciate Ed Hyman's quirky new release, "Red Ed and the Undead," but a sense of humor and an appreciation for creative wordplay helps.

Hyman, a classical music composer as well as a guitar and piano teacher, makes his first foray into the pop rock singer-songwriter genre with a CD that includes songs with such unconventional themes as reverse future-shock, fear and alienation in a Japanese train station and a saucy take on the holiday season called "Naughty or Nice."

"For me, it's all about the process," says the Foxboro native and Salem State College grad who will hold a CD release party April 20 at Steve's Backstage Pass in Taunton. "If you can't enjoy the ride, you'll be disappointed in your destination."

Hyman, who also writes chamber music for violin, guitar and piano, says he enjoys playing with words and concepts in his pop songs. "2000" is an amusing, looking-forward-into-the-past tune based on those people movers and helicopter-in-every-garage futurescapes that were supposed to come true in our lifetimes but didn't.

"I find that just a little disappointing, don't you?" says Hyman. But Hyman is no Weird Al Yankevic. Hyman can also wax semi-serious, with plaints ranging from relationships ("Perfect Stranger") to contemplating the countless quiet intervals that separate all the significant events in our lives ("Waiting for The Green").

For Hyman, who appears on the cover of his new CD as a gun-wielding caricature holding off a sea of the aforementioned Undead, getting around to singer-songwriterhood has taken a long time. After getting his early music experience as a bass player in a teen band, Hyman graduated college with a degree in communications and spent two years in Tokyo teaching English as a second language. It was only then that Hyman felt the strong pull of a musical career.

"It dawned on me that I wasn't going to happy if my life didn't have something to do with being an artist," he said. Hyman studied piano at a Japanese conservatory for a year, then headed back to begin studying at the New England Conservatory of Music as well as private work in composition with the Boston Conservatory's John Clement Adams.

Hyman has also taught piano and guitar for the past 10 years at White's Music in North Attleboro and through his own business, Attleboro Music Studio. Hyman says he finds working with young students and adults stimulating.

"I never judge talent," he said. "It's focus and work ethic I try to encourage."

Hyman says he's enjoying his foray into recording and stage performance - enough so that he's already written several songs for a follow-up disc.

"It's a continuing process," he says. "And I'm always looking forward to the next chapter."