Even better Live – Ed Kowalczyk promises new music after playing Australia
Live the US band have healed their wounds after a very public fight and are excited about coming to Australia and making new music.
Confidential
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THE break-up of US band Live was a nasty one, even by rock break-up standards.
Frontman Ed Kowalczyk had a major falling out with his three bandmates, and childhood friends, that culminated in law suits and some very public mudslinging.
Kowalczyk wanted to keep touring under the band’s name, the band countered by launching a $2 million claim for trademark infringement.
Smaller fights have buried bigger bands, so fans could be forgiven for thinking that the group that burst out of York, Pennsylvania and went on to sell more than 20 million records was finished forever.
But according to Kowalczyk, speaking from his home in Connecticut, healing the wounds inflicted during the band’s falling out simply revolved around remembering just how good things used to be.
There were not expensive therapy sessions a la Metallica, no mediation meetings.
They simply had to recall what they had and why that was worth having again.
“Our shared history was so good before the break up that we made that the focus of our energy, instead of being at each other’s neck fighting,” Kowalczyk says.
Three years after the burying of the proverbial hatchet, the singer of hits like Lightning Crashes and I Alone says Live are not only healed, they might be even better.
“The time that we spent together throughout our life that was so powerfully good – we’ve allowed that to re-emerge in our life and that allowed us to say, ‘I missed you man – as a friend and as a brother and as a bandmate. We’re still riding that.
“We’re all pleasantly surprised by how well it’s gone, and we have a level of gratitude that means we’re going to be much more careful from now on.
“We learned a lot, and there’s a palpable sense of gratitude and excitement that results in a massive ‘up’, beyond even the best days before the break up. Life’s funny that way.”
Live – Kowalczyk, Chad Taylor, Patrick Dahlheimer and Chad Gracey – were childhood mates who came together as a band in 1984 and made a small splash with their 1991 release Mental Jewellery.
However it was 1994’s Throwing Copper that shot the band to stardom, with heart-on-sleeve anthems like I Alone, Lightning Crashes, Selling the Drama and All Over You striking a chord with fans.
In a very short period Live went from concert halls to huge stadiums, riding a wave of alt-rock mania ushered in by the grunge explosion.
But the band, Kowalczyk says, never really felt part of what was happening on the other side of America.
“We didn’t really feel like we were part of any scene,” he says.
“Geographically we were so far away from Seattle, coming from this little town in Pennsylvania. We never felt connected to that. We felt a kinship to the aesthetic of the guitar rock and wearing your heart of your sleeve, so we felt a connection on that level. But we were listening to REM more than Mudhoney. We felt we were cutting our own road.”
Post the Live explosion, Kowalczyk also had to get used to his intensely personal lyrics being sung back to him by thousands of fans. An uplifting, if unnerving, experience.
“Me as a lyricist, I think perhaps I wasn’t prepared for it,” he says.
“I had these heartfelt songs that were all of a sudden being sung by people around the world and it took me a minute to get my head around that idea. There’s a process you have to go through to grow into that role, and I think we did a pretty good job of that.
“It’s still hard to get your head around. You start out at this humble beginning, sitting in your room trying to learn the songs of your favourite bands and all of a sudden, three years later, you’re going to Australia and playing in an arena. I still look back and pinch myself all the time.”
Kowalczyk says he’s excited about coming to Australia, a country that embraced his band from the very start.
“Australia is one of the first places we left home to play,” he says.
“Every time we play in Australia, there is an appreciation for the fact that we play do or die shows. That we’re going to leave it all on stage. I think that Australian fans really appreciate that.”
And in more good news for fans, Kowalczyk says the Australian shows will be a “bookend” for the band’s touring schedule before it heads back into the studio in May to start work on a new album.
“I’m not going to put a time frame on it, but there’s definitely a new record coming,” Kowalczyk says.
SEE: Under Southern Stars with Live, Bush, Stone Temple Pilots and Rose Tattoo
April 13
Bonython Park
TICKETS: underthesouthernstars.com.au