Ed interview '99, Timely words of wisdom Options

[swamiscott]

Came across this October 1999 interview with Ed. I find this particular section interesting:

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Men With A Message

10/15/1999 4:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Gail Worley

Live's charismatic singer-songwriter, Edward Kowalczyk, is reluctant to take on the guise of New Age Pop Guru. Nevertheless, the allegiance to a spiritual path that permeates his lyrics is so deeply enmeshed with his being that it is, in fact, written on his body.

....

LAUNCH:
Live enjoyed phenomenal success with Throwing Copper, yet Secret Samadhi was, relatively speaking, a disappointment. What are your thoughts on why that record failed to go all the way for Live, and also, what did the band gain from doing that record?

ED:
The use of the word "samadhi" [a state of meditation] was something that was so personal to me, but it did in some sense distance us from a large portion of the population that doesn't necessarily know what that word means. The record was never designed, conceptually or in any facet, to be a Throwing Copper Part Two, which is what people wanted. It was really a record that we needed to make as a band at the time, that we felt we needed to do to grow as musicians and songwriters. I, personally, as a lyricist, was kind of hiding for awhile from the "man with the message" persona that I had come into with Mental Jewelry and Throwing Copper. I think it was a growth record. It was a band searching to find a level of comfort in itself.

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"...a record that we needed to make ... to grow as musicians and songwriters."

OK, we've heard this before. But when I revisit those words post-Samadhi, and I think about where Live is now, I'm more convinced than ever that the band needs a personal and experimental album. The River, I don't think, shows much promise of that happening on Black Mountain, but it's only one song.

The point, if there's one at all, is that Live did find "a level of comfort in itself," and it's stalling the band artistically. The Distance to Here was a natural extension of Samadhi, and V was a cute little experiment with the notion of Limp Bizkit-lite angst and cockiness. Bird of Pray - grossly underestimated in my view - was never-the-less a retreat to comfort. Will Black Mountain continue this trend? Or we in store for Bird of Pray II in the same way that the band opted not to make a Throwing Copper II in the mid 90s?

So many questions and so many release date delays. Time enough, though, for Ed to think about making another personal record. An artist should constantly strive for growth; push the comfort level; dwell in vulnerability.

[andthelettuce]

I think what defines Live best is that their best albums have a cohesive sound to them; V and BoP may each have songs that are similar sounding to other tracks on the album, but I don't get a sense of unity from either album. From what I've heard of SFBM, I think there is going to be significantly more unity and listeners will feel as if it's more of an album than a collection of songs. This says nothing of the quality of the songs, but let's face it: Live never really wrote the greatest songs. All of their old hits were basic songs with decent lyrics, and that formula hasn't changed. What has changed is the level of optimism in the songs, which has nothing to do with comfort levels or lack of development. Go ahead and listen to MJ, TC, SS, and TDTH again, and you'll hear that the only huge differences between those albums are the general feel of the album; the songs never got more complex or interesting. SFBM is a continuation of that pattern, I believe, like it or not. What keeps me going is that it seems that Live is truly passionate about the album, which I think goes along with a cohesive album sound and was lacking on the last two.

[mrmcpheezy]

This says nothing of the quality of the songs, but let's face it: Live never really wrote the greatest songs. All of their old hits were basic songs with decent lyrics, and that formula hasn't changed. What has changed is the level of optimism in the songs, which has nothing to do with comfort levels or lack of development. Go ahead and listen to MJ, TC, SS, and TDTH again, and you'll hear that the only huge differences between those albums are the general feel of the album; the songs never got more complex or interesting.

I'm gonna have to disagree here. While I will agree that Live has never done anything all to complex/complicated/difficult, the quality of the music has most definitely dropped. Listen to the forms of development in songs like the dam at otter creek, iris, tbd, stage, white discussion, heropsychodreamer, and gas hed goes west. All of these songs have at least mildly creative song structures. They all have at least mildly creative methods of theme development. They all have at least mildly worthwhile and interesting lyrics.

It's obvious that the tone of the music has changed. But the dark emotions are not the only things that have decreased in recent albums: the creativity has as well.