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Ed Kowalczyk: “I still love my Les Pauls”
Daniel Eriksson
04.13.2015

Ed Kowalczyk has kept himself pretty busy during his six years as a solo artist. The former Live frontman has released two solo albums, and done some pretty extensive touring. The current tour is called Throwing Copper Unplugged. It is a celebration of Live’s breakthrough album, which had its twentieth anniversary last year. We thought this was a good time to sit down with Ed, and talk a bit about the recording of Throwing Copper, and the Gibson guitars used in the process.

Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions for Gibson.com. What made you decide to go out and play the songs from Throwing Copper in such a scaled-back setting?

Ed: I had watched it work really well with Chris Cornell, and his Songbook Tour. I know as a Chris Cornell fan I was thrilled to go, and hear him by himself. I think I got some of that same readiness from my fanbase to hear a whole show like that, you know. So it’s been an odyssey because I never did a whole concert like that. It was challenging at first but I feel like it’s become something that I’ve become pretty good at. This show in particular, I wanted to do something different, even more different, and that’s why I’m carrying around this mini movie-screen, and a projector. We did visuals for every song, which was really fun because a lot of those songs from Throwing Copper didn't have any visual content, or anything that was ever made in terms of music videos. So we were able to almost make new music videos for songs like “T.B.D.,” “Stage,” “White, Discussion” and “The Dam at Otter Creek” and stuff, so that was fun.

For this tour it’s only you, and guitarist Zak Loy on stage, could you tell us a bit about this particular lineup?

Ed: I’ve had a really fluid lineup as a solo artist, which has been another really exciting thing for me. I go out with anything from myself, to a trio, to percussion, to bass and me singing. My bass player Chris is a great background singer, and we did a whole European tour just like that, just the two of us, and now I’m out with Zak Loy, who is the guitar player. In this show he’s playing mandolin, lap steel, of course electric, and acoustic. That’s part of this chapter of my life that’s been really exciting - to not know exactly what I’m going to do every time.

Do you feel that the audience react differently to the songs when they hear you play them acoustically as opposed to when it's a full band concert?

Ed: Well, with this one, because of the multimedia thing that we have going with the tracks, and the fact that we can get it really rocking at times - there are a few moments in the show where I can’t tell the difference between full band and acoustic. But we can get really quiet too, because we pair down, and don’t use anything for “Waitress,” and a few songs where it’s just acoustic. This show in particular runs a pretty big dynamic range for being quote-on-quote acoustic. I mean, the only thing about it is it’s two guys on stage with mostly acoustically leaning instruments. But I have other layers of sound that I’m generating up there with some equipment that I have, and of course Zak’s sound is really all over the place with his instrumentation so we get pretty much everywhere.

What was the writing process like for Throwing Copper - did you come to the band with the songs already written, or were they born from you guys jamming together in the studio?

Ed: I was always the primary writer, wrote all the lyrics and melodies, and most of the music with an acoustic guitar. You know, like these sort of more singer-songwriter songs like “Lightning Crashes,” “I Alone,” and “The Dolphin’s Cry” - those songs. Then there were songs like “White, Discussion” from Throwing Copper, and “Lakini’s Juice” from Secret Samadhi that were started with a jam with the band, or a riff or something, and then we would take them from the jam space. So, the process in Live was always sort of a mix of that, always more of me bringing finished, or pretty finished ideas. But there was always a sort of hybrid approach there.

Tell us a bit about the recording of the solo for “Shit Towne, ” I understand you used a Gibson Les Paul for that?

Ed: Oh yeah, a Les Paul, sure. I still love my Les Pauls, and use them almost exclusively on my records. I have a few really nice ones, old ones, and new ones. But yeah, that was recorded on the first one I ever bought, it wasn’t my favorite in terms of look. It had like a really banal kind of wood grain top. It was kind of cool though, because it looked like a workman’s guitar. You know what I mean, it really had a vibe - it wasn’t fancy. It’s a reissue standard, I think. I want to say it’s from the eighties. I think it was maybe an early eighties model. God, I haven't seen that guitar for a really long time. I know I have it, it’s in one of the storage facilities. That was probably the first and last solo I ever did, for “Shit Towne.” It was something that I came up with on the fly, and it felt right and I went for it. I have a great time, especially now with Zak Loy, he’s just a master player. He’s playing that solo with a mandolin in this show, which is pretty out there, but it totally works. We try to do things like that, you know - stay true to the arrangements of the songs, and stuff but change it up.

Do you still own that guitar?

Ed: I do. Yeah, I still have it. I’ve been blessed with making a little money, so I’ve been able to invest in a few that I absolutely adore. I have a ’57 black Les Paul that’s been on every album I’ve made since probably [Secret Samadhi with] Live in ’97 and on to my solo stuff.

So that’s a Les Paul Custom then?

Ed: Yes. It’s really beautiful, and it sounds like nothing else. I also have a ’54 Goldtop. I don’t play that one as much. The black one for me is absolutely irreplaceable. The pocket that it records in is just… For how I play, it’s just perfect. I really like it. I’ve had some vintage Gibson acoustic’s over the years as well that I’ve really liked.

Were you using any of them while recording Throwing Copper?

Ed: No, I don’t think I had any yet in those days. I couldn’t afford them yet. I had a Southern Jumbo pretty much right away after that, I think I still have that one.

One of my favorite songs from the album is the hidden track “Horse.” It's very different in style from the rest of the material. What inspired the country-flavored sound for that particular song?

Ed: I’ve always had a love for alternative country music, from R.E.M. to Vic Chesnutt to Drivin’ N Cryin’. The whole Athens scene was really inspiring to me, melodically, and musically. But that record didn’t really show any of that influence. Maybe a little bit, you can hear some R.E.M. in there. Maybe some heavier sounding R.E.M. style, because I was such a huge fan, still am. But “Horse” was a chance to really do kind of a weird country song, and it was so strange but everybody really liked it. We were like “it doesn’t really fit on the record anywhere because it’s just going to throw everybody off, so why don’t we make it a secret track.” So basically you have to listen to “White, Discussion” and then you wait 10-15 seconds, and this weird country song comes on. We do it, Zak plays lap steel on it. We do 1-14, every track, and we do it right in the order of the album.

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Then there were songs like “White, Discussion” from Throwing Copper, and “Lakini’s Juice” from Secret Samadhi that were started with a jam with the band, or a riff or something, and then we would take them from the jam space. So, the process in Live was always sort of a mix of that, always more of me bringing finished, or pretty finished ideas. But there was always a sort of hybrid approach there.

That's the most credit Ed has given to CCP in years.