EDDIE K speaks out... Options

[thefunkyredcaboose]

I don't know how "deep" Ed's writings are compared to others, but it's still more than enough for me to lose interest instantly.

He really needs to stick to writing... songs. His theological writings are as basic as they come. If that's what he wants to believe then great, recommending books would be much better route for him.

[Pokey]

Well, I guess you haven't had to listen at length to any theological speculation by actual priests, ministers, rabbis, imams and what not. because that's more or less how they talk only with more detail.

(Now, I'm an atheist or agnostic or whatever, but I used to study archaeology and anthropology. In some of my ancient near eastern archaeology courses, there were a bunch of people from theology school. That's how I know how they think.)

At least christian Ed's stuff is phrased in a more or less comprehensible way. Some of the earlier stuff was spiritual babble as far as I'm concerned. This stuff is like basic theology mixed with early 90s semiotics.

To be honest, I only tolerated the "spritual" part of Live's 4-part personality because I hoped it might make them better people (without making them Creed) . When Adi-Da was Ed's focus I was totally creeped out.

Like I said before, someone who can make something extremely complex sound very basic is more impressive than someone who makes something very basic sound very complex.

[Sakhmet2]

Like I said before, someone who can make something extremely complex sound very basic is more impressive than someone who makes something very basic sound very complex.

And my point was that if you listen to a student of theology [theologian], this stuff's not basic at all. Priests, preachers, rabbis and so on are taught make it comprehensible for ordinary folks when they have. Theologians mostly talk to each other.
And lay people/enthusiastic amateurs with an excessive interest in something tend to go for the complicated description. And Ed is an *eyeroll* overly enthusiastic amateur. So I'm not saying he's good at this. (In fact those board members who think he has a future as a televangelist can think again. That demographic likes it simple and literal).

[Pokey]

I think you're misunderstanding me .. of course there are things that are incredibly complex that most would struggle to explain in any way other than ... but for something like this it can be made into a children's book and it's got more to do with the attitude one projects when trying to explain these things.
Intergal Naked as a whole is a good example of this .. it just seems to be a group of people trying to make themselves sound a lot more intelligent and enlightend than they actually are by making things sound as complicated as possible.

[Sakhmet2]

I think you're misunderstanding me .. of course there are things that are incredibly complex that most would struggle to explain in any way other than ... but for something like this it can be made into a children's book and it's got more to do with the attitude one projects when trying to explain these things.
Intergal Naked as a whole is a good example of this .. it just seems to be a group of people trying to make themselves sound a lot more intelligent and enlightend than they actually are by making things sound as complicated as possible.

Okay. Now we're clear.
I was agreeing with you about Integral Naked. Those are the kind of "enthusiastic amateurs" I was talking about.

[OutToDry]

I think Ed's had some internal demons for a long time, for that I do feel sorry for him. Found this old interview with Kerrang in which he mentions some personal feelings, beliefs, etc. I think he needed a headshrinker then.....not sure we'll ever ever see the old hard edged Ed again. He's in another place. Can't understand other than greed/ego or some other personal demon that wanted him to wound his friends. This article sheds some light on the early Live years. I made mention a while back that Ed's life is a good analogy for the story line of Floyd's the Wall. This reinforces it a bit. Hey not going to drag on him anymore, my venom was always directed to his taking over the band and the stuff we heard from Chad, made me really dislike the past 10 years of his actions.



http://freespace.virgin.net/c.wood/livepage/inter.htm

The Bare Necessities
Interview with Ed from Kerrang!, October 9, 1999

In the last five years, Live have sold more than 10 million records, yet no one knows who they are. But today, frontman Ed Kowalczyk is sitting in a London photo studio with no clothes on, ready to reveal all about his spiritual beliefs, his big hair days and why so many people want to fight him...

EDWARD KOWALCZYK Mark One is staring bug-eyed at his starter of 12 fresh oysters, which has arrived mounted atop a foot-high metallic contraption that resembles a skeletal darlek. "These are supposed to be powerful aphrodisiacs," says Ed, gurning at his wife Erin. "So you'd better be ready to hose me down later."

It's Monday night in London and Live's frontman is - metaphorically speaking, at least - letting his hair down in one of the capital's more self-consciously upmarket restaurants. He has, after all, spent most of the afternoon having his picture taken without any clothes on. He talks about everything from extreme weather conditions to the reformation of The Cult. He enjoys a good gossip and he smiles a lot. He is definitely not what you'd expect.

The popular perception that Edward Kowalczyk is of, let's be frank, a raving loon who found a spiritual Guru on the Internet: this is Edward Mark Two, and he's arrived for morning coffee at his London hotel the next day.

"I drove a lot through the desert of Southern California and wrote many of the songs for this record in that environment," he says of Live's new album 'The Distance to Here', his brow furrowed deeply. "The beauty of the Earth in that part of the country informed a lot of the elemental metaphors that I use on the record. It was if I disconnected from the world to find it again."

It is for statements like this that you, Edward Kowalczyk, are regularly referred to as a crackpot.

"Ha!" he hoots. "I'm aware of that definitely. Does it bother me in a place that would ever affect my vision? No. Believe me, my skin is tougher than most people would ever imagine."
BORN 28 years ago in the small village of York, Pennsylvania, Edward Kowalczyk and his younger brother were brought up by just their mother - a legal secretary - from an early age.

"I was seven when my mother and my father divorced," he says. "It definitely forced me into an early manhood. But I had a great relationship with my mother. She was a woman who could at once lay down the law and keep a very open-minded vision in her household - everything from teachings of Buddha to John Lennon. Although there was a Christian background, as much as most people in the States have growing up, it wasn't something that was beaten over my head. I was able to explore what I wanted to."

"We didn't grow up with lots of material possession and our happiness was never based on those things. I think my value of things now comes from that. Our happiness was always based on creating things. My mother played the piano, and from very early on my brother and I picked up the guitar. I was always singing."

Did you like going off on your own as a child?

"I've always been a loner. I've always been a guy who's just a very self-sufficient being and struggles at times to integrate myself with the world. Being in a band is like the ultimate therapy for me, because it forces me into a place of relationships with people at a very intense level."

It's hard to pin Edward Kowalczyk down on personal matters. Time and again, you'll be extracting information from him and he'll divert the conversation back to music in general and usually Live's in particular. He says his most vivid childhood memory was coming home and finding his mother crying; John Lennon had been shot.

BY HIS own admission, Kowalczyk spent his formative years in Live. He joined the band at 13, when after seeing Chad Taylor (guitar), Patrick Dahlheimer (bass) and Chad Gracey (drums) playing together at a local talent show ("They were definitely the coolest thing happening in school"), he invited himself along to one of their rehearsals.

Back then they were called Public Affection, and their first release was a self-financed cassette album titled 'Death of a Dictionary' in the late '80s.

"When I was about the years 13 through 17," says Kowalczyk, "even then, it was us against them in a way, because we had something different. My friends in high school - the guys who were headed to college - the moment they found out I was going to do the rock band thing there was, I think, a tinge of jealousy but also this sense of, 'Are you insane?!'. I remember feeling emboldened by that rather than crushed by it.

"We played our first dance in an ice-rink to 30 people. We were doing the more alternative mid- '80s songs, which was totally informed by Patrick's brother Matt. Without his record collection, we wouldn't have ended up succumbing to our teenage Duran Duran fandom. We all had pretty big hair a few years and there are some pretty damning photos: that's why I've shaved my head so young."

A FEW observations about Edward Kowalczyk. Over a meal he'll look you straight in the eye, but during an interview his chocolate brown eyes remain fixed at a point just beyond his feet. He smokes 'natural' cigarettes, although not in the company of his wife. When she joins us briefly at the hotel's coffee bar, he stabs one out and promises not to smoke too much. As soon as she's gone, he lights another.

In 1994, Live became America's biggest band in America as their Second Album 'Throwing Copper' sold by the million. When he finally did return to York, Kowalczyk was surprised to find that people wanted to fight him whenever he went to a bar. Partially because of this, he has since moved to Los Angeles.
"I remember the summer of '95 being a particularly violent time," he says. "There was definitely some jealousy going on. There was some distance between us and a lot of people we knew, too, that made us feel quite lonely. I did a lot of drinking. It was just dealing with all the stress."

"That whole period was like getting hit by a freight train. I've only recently begun to have a perspective on it, because there's some distance now. It was tremendously disorientating. The amount of pressure and the number of people who were talking about us - good and bad - completely freaked us out. Three years was what it took to adjust to a level of peace in our lives."

I met Edward Kowalczyk at the start and the end of the 'Throwing Copper' tour, and the contrast was marked. At the end of it, he seemed to have erected a wall around him to ensure that he didn't have to speak to anyone unless it was absolutely necessary.

"Yeah, exactly," he says now. "That wasn't a happy time for me."

Did you find yourself losing control?

"In a breakdown kind of way? No. And that's because of what I've embraced in my personal life. Even in my darkest and loneliest moments, my interest in spirituality has kept me with a sense of hope and an innate sense of a greater reality out there. When I was feeling so alienated by the success and the fame, I was still able to find that in myself."

"We've been able to stay pretty clear of hard drugs as well. But we don't deny the experimental natural excursions: they can benefit you if you use them in discretion and moderation. Always moderation. The hard drugs never appealed to me, because they don't lead anywhere positive."

IN 1997, Live released the 'Secret Samadhi' album. Less successful and much darker than its predecessor, it featured a collection of lyrics which were as strange and oblique and, well, mad as any you'll find on a mainstream rock record.

In the interviews that accompanied it. Kowalczyk announced he'd become immersed in the teachings of Adi Da, a guru he'd first discovered via the Internet. How people laughed.

"There was tremendous scepticism, sure," he says. "It didn't hurt me, because my core as a person is so utterly convinced of a greater reality than this one, I'm able to take those things in my stride. I've always had a very open-book policy with my life. I'm the type of guy who that dives in head first and doesn't see the depth marker on the side of the pool."

"One of the lessons I learnt from 'Secret Samadhi' is that I want to keep portions of my life for myself. Whether it be my spiritual practices or whatever."

There is also a feeling that dabbling in spiritualism and finding a guru is a very successful-rock-star thing to do.

"Ah yes, I've seen that. All I would say to anybody who thinks that about me is to do a little Live history lesson. Go back to our first album 'Mental Jewelry', when it was four guys with nothing to lose, and we've always been about that.

It isn't something that erupted because I moved to Hollywood and bought a yoga mat. It ain't about that man. I really do feel it's deeper than that, and it's something that my life has been about for a long time now."

A RECORD constructed to move stadia, 'The Distance To Here' is Live's best and, says Kowalczyk, their most optimistic yet. Lyrically, it once more finds their singer discussing his beliefs. On paper these can appear trite and simplistic (essentially, that love will conquer all). Of more gravity is the sense of doubt and fear at the heart of each song.

Today Kowalczyk initially says he does not want to talk about these beliefs in depth because he's "exposed" enough of himself in the lyrics. In reality, he's probably become accustomed to how badly they translate in print. He also struggles to articulate his personal views. He's undoubtedly sincere, but he often sounds as if he is quoting huge tracts from a textbook.

"I've really struggled on the lyrics with 'The Distance To Here'," he says, "and worked harder than I've ever done to maintain the universal appeal. It's dreadfully important to me to be able to relate to everyone."

Would you describe it as a spiritual record?

"In a way, yes. In that sense, it's probably the most complete and coherent statement of my intent as a singer, as a seeker and as a human being. If that is spiritual, which I feel it is, then that's something that I also want to feel and make up their own minds about."

"But more than use the word spiritual, I would describe it as human first. The word spiritual is so overused. It's like the word love, in that it really can't contain everything that it's meant to. My ultimate message in the record is that human and spiritual are one thing - that we are spiritual beings first and foremost. The world is fluid, and I've seen how it can move and grow and evolve into different understandings."

Do you believe in an afterlife?

"What I've been feeling about reincarnation lately is that life itself is evidence of no beginning and no end. If it's really over when it's over, then what are we doing here? I remember as a very young child hearing about the Big Bang and thinking it was bullshit. How could anything come from nothing?"

I've recently gotten into a writer named Ken Wilbur, who talks about integrating the greatest profundities that we've discovered as scientific beings with the most profound discoveries that spiritual teachers have made. Just meditating on that is enough stuff for many more records from my ass, that's for sure."

We were talking last night about the TV news coverage of events in East Timor. Doesn't that make you feel hopeless?

"Never hopeless. Absolutely distraught to the point of tears sometimes, but never hopeless. I really feel the evolution for mankind is choosing love. Consciously. There's a human tendency to look at the physical world for all of the answers, when they are maybe not there. They're in our own hearts."

WE DECIDE to conclude with a selection of random questions.

"Kerrang!'s really good at this," says Edward with a smile.

When did you last cry?

"Watching the news. Three weeks ago some madman opened fire on a community centre in LA. My wife and I were sitting there watching this unfold on TV. It was this image of these children who were spared being lead out hand-in-hand by their parents. Seeing their innocence and realising an adult had achieved this level of insanity just fucking broke my heart. Thinking about it now, I could cry."

When did you last hate yourself?

"Hate's a strong word. I don't know if I ever hate myself. That's a good question. I have bad days, but I don't ever really feel that I hate myself for it. I'll have to come back to that one..."

What do you dream about?

"My dreams are erotic. But I think I share that with many men."

What sort of drunk are you?

"A squinty-eyed one. You can always tell when I've had a few pints - my eyes go semi-shut. I become really relaxed. The same when I partake in the Amsterdam coffee special. Squinty-eyed and contemplative. I'm not a very righteous being."

When were you last envious?

"I can't even think. I dunno."

What do you always carry with you?

"A laptop. My prayer beads that were given to me by Adi Da. They've never left my person in the last three or four years."

What's next?

"For Live, to touch as many people with this album as possible. My vision overall, though, is to world in the year 2000 that can begin to find itself in the mist of all this craziness. Find a means of hope and love. Because it's a scary world."

This post has been edited by OutToDry: Jun 12 2010, 3:39 pm

[Merica]

"I drove a lot through the desert of Southern California and wrote many of the songs for this record in that environment," he says of Live's new album 'The Distance to Here', his brow furrowed deeply. "The beauty of the Earth in that part of the country informed a lot of the elemental metaphors that I use on the record. It was if I disconnected from the world to find it again."

I absolutely fucking love this. Adds so much to the wonderful, wonderful record that is TDTH.

[LivesMeltdown]

I absolutely fucking love this. Adds so much to the wonderful, wonderful record that is TDTH.

greatest.cd.ever.

[Deku]

Cheers for posting that. I never knew Ed smoked/smokes. I found this bit quite interesting:

It's dreadfully important to me to be able to relate to everyone

I think perhaps now Ed relates to everyone by going for the obvious, the contrived. TDTH relates to me because of how Ed really took this journey, out in the desert and within himself, with his own visceral feelings and emotions spilling out in every song. That relates to me. And it's still a special record.

[Sakhmet2]

Cheers for posting that. I never knew Ed smoked/smokes.

Back in the early days, Ed smoked cigars (which may explain the character of his voice on some songs). I've heard stories of him smoking them well into the late 90s, backstage in no-smoking zones. When I read this article, I was struck by the fact that it was cigarettes.

I think perhaps now Ed relates to everyone by going for the obvious, the contrived. TDTH relates to me because of how Ed really took this journey, out in the desert and within himself, with his own visceral feelings and emotions spilling out in every song. That relates to me. And it's still a special record.

I think that was it.
You know, I've heard people argue over the truism that you can't be happy and be an artist, that art proceeds from some deep pain or conflict or searching. If Ed truly is happy in his new religious fervour and feels he has found his ultimate answer, it doesn't exactly prove this theory, but it shows that his most evocative art came from the time when he was searching for answers.

This post has been edited by Sakhmet2: Jun 12 2010, 7:55 pm

[+Ed+]

This is a tremendous read. Cheers, Bob!

[+Ed+]

Btw the NATURAL cigarettes is not the tobacco you are thinking of. It is an indian sort of herbs alltogether rolled into one, but it is purely legal.

[Sonic Tonic]

Btw the NATURAL cigarettes is not the tobacco you are thinking of. It is an indian sort of herbs alltogether rolled into one, but it is purely legal.

I thought by "natural" in quotes meant a joint. Either way, it was a great read. Especially about people wanting to fight them cause of jealousy and what not.

[Aitkens]

I thought by "natural" in quotes meant a joint. Either way, it was a great read. Especially about people wanting to fight them cause of jealousy and what not.

A good majority of the people that wanted to fight him, wanted to fight him because of the song "Shit Towne", and because he was always a cocky asshole.

[Merica]

A good majority of the people that wanted to fight him, wanted to fight him because of the song "Shit Towne", and because he was always a cocky asshole.

That's stupid if they fought him cause they were pissed about Shit Towne. It's an awesome song!