Live Talking - interview with Ed Kowalczyk, BMG Music Discovery Magazine 1997 Options

[dangum]

Ed was interviewed in BMG magazine in 1997. I purchased scans of the article and have transcribed the interview below. Excuse any typos.

High quality scans can be found at the following links:

Cover: https://imgur.com/cMEIMjq
Article: https://imgur.com/0fckGJC

Discovery Interview
Live Talking

Contributing Editor Bob Gulla talks with Live's Ed Kowalczyk, leader of the York, PA, quartet, about stardom, spirituality, and the passion behind their latest album, "Secret Samadhi".

Bob Gulla: Live's superstar status has come a long way from its humble beginnings, don't you think?

Ed Kowalczyk: We're the luckiest band in the world. It's karma. The intensity we put into our music brings good things to us. We started in a garage with this dream to be a huge rock 'n' roll band and to make music that matters. But it's funny, From the day we decided to get into the business we knew we'd be successful. It's not a matter of saying, "Let's go out and kick butt." We've always just believed in what we were doing.

BG: Has this journey been like a dream for you then?

EK: I'd be lying if I said this was nothing but fun and games. We're not sitting in luxury hotel rooms with fluffy robes on having cocktails and meditating. We're a rock band, and we're confronted with temptation just like a lot of other rock bands. But what really matters is that place we go when we take the stage. I can't really tell you how it feels because I don't think there are words for it, at least in my vocabulary. Someday I hope to be able to.

BG: Live has been criticized for being too earnest. How do you answer your critics?

EK: There's a fine line between being earnest and being passionate, and in the past we've crossed it. It's not a bad thing if you're in the audience and you can really relate to what we're saying. For me, music is all about losing yourself, and there are other people out there in the audience getting lost with you. People use music to lose themselves more than they try to derive any message out of it. I'm not saying you're travelling in some "lost place" with each other or anything, but there's a certain kind of energ in the air, and that's what makes it such an incredible experience. I really think that's why I do what I do, and it's also why Live is such a special band. There's something else in our stuff - there's a real possibility for transcendence in this music.

BG: "Secret Samadhi" is more articulate and lyrical than your previous work. Do you feel you're growing as a band?

EK: "Secret Samadhi" is about sound and words revealing themselves rather than having to explain everything like we've done in the past. I think we've really improved as songwriters. I feel more confident when my concentration is on discovery and not on providing an explanation. The only thing that becomes harder for us is to better ourselves. We never want to hit a plateau. We can only avoid that by making sure the four of us continue to work together as a band. Yeah, I've seen a natural progression through all four records. On an emotional and spiritual level the whole Live experience is the most pure it's ever been. We're all pretty centered. But it's taken is three albums to come up to this level.

BG: Has your regimen of study and meditation helped you find your place as an artist?

EK: Krishnamurti [an Indian philosopher] introduced me to the Eastern idea that the ego is a limited activity conditioned by the past, and it can be transcended only by conditioning and deep self-knowledge. That has been a really potent concept to me and has absolutely changed by whole approach to life. Because I've tried hard to eliminate ago, when I go onstage in fron of 5,000 people it's the easiest thing I do all day. It's challenging, but it becomes less and less about me and that makes it easier to bear. Acknowledging the spiritual potential of mankind and realizing that it's faith that's lacking in the world right now.. those are real challenges.

People don't understand the spiritual potential of the human being as it exists right now. There are so many other things to occupy your mind and things to worry about, if you don't have real faith and realize that there's more to life than what you think.

I've gotten may letters from people telling me that this song or lyrics helped them through something in their lives, so it ultimately works on a one-to-one basis. On a large scale, sure, it's happening in this sort of cultic way where people are worshipping what we're doing as a band and the personalities involved, but I maintain that that's why I continue to do it.

It's important for everyone to take that trip, but everyone has a different canvas. I have the guitar, but what about the guy who works a nine-to-five job every day and doesn't have any medium to express himself? That's why I'm working my butt off, so you can put my record on and go to that place with me.

[Ecstatic Fanatic]

Thanks for posting this. This was a really good read and reminds me of why I feel so connected to Live, particularly the first four albums, despite all the less than inspirational going ons since the millennium started.

“People don't understand the spiritual potential of the human being as it exists right now. There are so many other things to occupy your mind and things to worry about, if you don't have real faith and realize that there's more to life than what you think.”

So many ways to read and interpret Lives lyrics and reflect on them. Looking back at the last 30 or so years I’ve been a Live fan it’s cool that I can listen to TC or TDTH or anything else and still find find evolving and deeper meanings to the lyrics.

On another note, I wonder how many people still write Ed letters.