Ed Kowalczyk working for LIVE Reunion?! Options

[OutToDry]

Jimmy, its's quoted for archive on page 1:

here:

Posted on Fri, Jul. 27, 2012
Ed Kowalczyk: An escape into rock stardom
Patrick S. Pemberton
In the ’90s, while working a crummy job in a bleak Midwestern town with little to offer other than a mall, the Live song “Sh*t Towne” provided me a cathartic release.

Like Springsteen’s pleading lyrics “We gotta get out while we’re young,” it channeled a desperate desire to be somewhere — anywhere —else. Yet its own lyrics— “gotta live in sh*t towne”— reminded me that I had to stick it out where I was, at least until I got out of my own sh*t towne.

“I’d say that song is most everybody’s story about growing up in a small town,” said Ed Kowalczyk, the lead singer of Live, who penned the song while living in York, Pa. “Especially if you combine that with the angst of wanting to get out of wherever you were born. Then you compound that with the fact that, you know, York, Pennsylvania, was hardly the hotbed of culture and music that I would have dreamt of. So you throw that together and write a song about it and — there you go — a lot of people can relate to it throughout the country.”

Luckily for Kowalczyk, he managed to escape (as I did) to the California coast. But the Ojai resident does occasionally get back to the York area to visit friends and family, and to perform.

“It still sucks,” said Kowalczyk, who performs as a solo act at the Mid- State Fair on Saturday.

It was that small-town angst, though, that gave Live’s music an edge that appealed to music audiences still clinging to the spirit of grunge in the middle and late ’90s.

The members of Live were actually in junior high school when they formed, with Kowalczyk joining their freshman year in high school. By the time they had a recording contract, they had been together nearly a decade—yet they were only in their early 20s.

While their debut album, “Mental Jewelry,” exceeded expectations, the follow-up, “Throwing Copper,” rose to No. 1 and spawned five top 20 sin-

gles, including “I Alone,” “Selling the Drama” and “Lightning Crashes,” a dramatic tune that showcased Kowalczyk’s powerful vocal delivery.

“It emerged from this idea of a baby being born and then a death in the same hospital,” Kowalczyk said. “Hospitals have this cycle of life — people leaving and people coming. And then it really opened up into this sort of mantra about that energy flow.”

Through the years Live fans have spent considerable time trying to dissect Kowalczyk’s lyrics. On the site Songfacts.com, one man claimed “Lightning Crashes” was about his sister-in-law, who was killed in a car accident. While the song was indeed dedicated to Barbara Lewis — a former classmate killed in a crash—Kowalczyk said the song was written before the accident.

“I’m not a real conceptual writer,” he said. “I don’t sit around and think, ‘I’m going to tell a story and it goes like this.’ It’s more like a song like ‘Lightning Crashes,’ where you have almost a montage or a stream-of-consciousness kind of flow. And I have heard just about every kind of interpretation of that story of mine. And that’s fine. In fact, it’s something that I invite.”

As Live’s music became more mysterious, Kowalczyk admitted, he adopted a look to match. So while he looked like a college student in the band’s earliest videos, by “Throwing Copper,” he had shaved most of his head and lost his shirt.

“I was always intrigued by artists that kept you guessing in that sense,” he said, citing Peter Gabriel as an example. “So I had to get my rat tail going.”

Beginning with the band’s debut album, spirituality and religious references have always been present in the lyrics. But while Kowalczyk’s view on religion seemed almost skeptical in the early song “Operation Spirit,” they became more cryptic in the “Throwing Copper” songs.

“I’m a huge fan of Bono’s lyrics for that very reason,” Kowalczyk said. “That he’s able to express his ultimately positive ideas but also in a way that aren’t always super happy.”

By the 2003 “Birds of Pray” album, though, Kowalczyk was much more literal about his Christian beliefs. And his first solo album, “Alive,” from 2010, is a continuation of that.

Having children, he said, was part of the impetus. (In the Live song “Heaven,” after the birth of his first child, he sang, “I look at my daughter, and I believe.”)

“There’s nothing like the birth of three girls— or three kids in general — to put your feet right down on solid ground and allow you from that point to go deeper into what it means to be alive and what it means to be human,” said Kowalczyk, who is working on new music. “It definitely impacted me in a major way over the years.”

Kowalczyk said he left Live in 2009 because he needed a creative spark. But the band has not been pleased. Just last week, Live, which has a new singer, filed a lawsuit, trying to prevent Kowalczyk from using the Live name.

“I don’t take any of that seriously,” said Kowalczyk, referring to reports of discontent. “I mean, the fans obviously are interested and deserve some sort of reunion with the four original members. And I’m still working for that.”

Reach Patrick S. Pemberton at 781-7903.

[dangum]

Not working:

Sorry I posted the wrong link. Try this:
http://www.fansoflive.com/forums/index.php...ndpost&p=107686

[Lerxst]

“I mean, the fans obviously are interested and deserve some sort of reunion with the four original members. And I’m still working for that."

I don't know about saying obviously .. but as far as still working for that goes. I'd have to say please stop working for that. CCCP has arrived.

-Jimmy

[dancing queen]

I had forgotten that in this article he says York still sucks.

[jayda]

Someone has to describe this town to me! Is it really that bad?

[Pokey]

Someone has to describe this town to me! Is it really that bad?

I always imagine it to be a little like my side of town, good old Dandenong ... just probably with less Sudanese refugees.

[EvilOne]

York isn't a bad place, it's just your average rural town, recovering from being a manufacturing center and shifting to a service base center, the last time I was there downtown was actually really nice.

It's nothing hideous or special, it's just another town.

[SJN1279]

York isn't a bad place, it's just your average rural town, recovering from being a manufacturing center and shifting to a service base center, the last time I was there downtown was actually really nice.

It's nothing hideous or special, it's just another town.

And its under a hour from Hershey PA, which I love! Hey Beth nice to see you again!

[dangum]

Hard to do that while using 2nd rate musicians butchering 80% of a setlist that deserved better from a musical standpoint.

Are you also including Adam Kowalczyk as a second rate musician?

[SinfulEyes]

And its under a hour from Hershey PA, which I love! Hey Beth nice to see you again!

An* hour from

[Aitkens]

York...

I was born and raised in York. I still live in York.

York is an interesting place. We're roughly an hour from Baltimore, and an hour and a half from Philadelphia. So the location is nice.

Around 2000, York started to see a bunch of big Bars pop up downtown. It gave the younger crowd something to do, but they were just bars and clubs. Nothing special about them. People went out, had a good time, but it also brought out a criminal element. Fights started, then muggings and robberies took hold. Many of those bars closed as a result of their clients not wanting to go downtown any longer. A few years ago some really good restaurant/pubs opened up. That's starting to draw people back downtown. They've added more parking downtown, so you're not stuck walking as far to get to these places, which was a huge safety issue.

The criminal element is still there, which is somewhat of a shock for a place like York. The city doesn't have the money to beef up the police force, so they're ultimately understaffed big time. Just 2 years ago a friend of mine was mugged in front of a bar. He was on his cellphone talking to his girlfriend when a bunch of teens tried to rob him. He thought they were screwing around, and when he went to walk away they shot and killed him.

In addition to this criminal element, it also fuels into the racial undertones within York. York has also had a troubled past when it concerns race relations. When you talk to older York natives, you hear it loud and clear. It's actually really sad.

As someone mentioned earlier, some industry has left York over the years, and it's hurt the place. That's why Live doing what they can for the city, adding jobs, and pumping money into the city is such a great deal. The place needs it. So for someone like EK to shit on York, the place he's from, the place that helped shape his early life and inspire him, it's disgusting to hear. He owes York much more, and he will never realize it. He's taken it for granted, which is why York doesn't embrace him like a son the way they embrace Chad, Chad, and Patrick. York High's own band is struggling, and at one point was on the chopping block. Even though all 4 original members of Live were in the band, it was Chad, Chad, and Patrick that have helped the cause.

[thefunkyredcaboose]

Are you also including Adam Kowalczyk as a second rate musician?

I seriously thought this was an SJN post before I saw who wrote it.



Adam hasn't been in Ed's band for well over a year Dan. I'm sure Jimmy could tell us more about why.

Also, I wouldn't consider Adam to be a first rate musician anyway. I know some around here like him but I've never been hugely impressed.

[FishOutaWater]

I seriously thought this was an SJN post before I saw who wrote it.



Adam hasn't been in Ed's band for well over a year Dan. I'm sure Jimmy could tell us more about why.

Also, I wouldn't consider Adam to be a first rate musician anyway. I know some around here like him but I've never been hugely impressed.

I had to do a double take too. Made me think for a second that Nick and Dan are the same person. How do we really know there is a guy named Dan in Australia running this thing? Maybe Nick just forgot he was logged in under the Dangum user name.

This post has been edited by FishOutaWater: Oct 10 2012, 9:40 am

[OutToDry]

Are you also including Adam Kowalczyk as a second rate musician?

You'd love to know why he's not playing with his bro wouldn't ya!!! But my silence is going to remain that!!!

[FishOutaWater]

You'd love to know why he's not playing with his bro wouldn't ya!!! But my silence is going to remain that!!!

Hmm. Intriguing. I had no idea that there was any drama there.