Ed has no plans to rejoin LIVE, 6/8/11 Interview Options

[OutToDry]

the opening of that article is a interesting play on words

The rock band Live’s breakthrough 1994 album, “Throwing Copper,” sold 8 million copies in the United States. Songs from the album — “I Alone,” “Selling the Drama” and “Lightning Crashes” — were omnipresent during the mid-1990s on radio and MTV.

But for some reason, lead singer, co-songwriter and lead lyricist Ed Kowalczyk never became a household name. Maybe it’s because his last name was, uh, Kowalczyk.

The band had continued success throughout the 1990s and first decade of the millennium, but the quartet of middle-school friends from York, Pa., broke up acrimoniously in 2009.

After the breakup, Kowalczyk, now 39, wrote and recorded his solo debut, “Alive,” which was released last summer. The album, which is in the same modern-rock vein of the music produced by his former band, shows a man who has discovered faith. That’s a dramatic change from his early songs for Live, which called its first album “Mental Jewelry,” a term that was intended as a dismissive stab at religion

[Pokey]

It's like a catch 22.

If the reason he moved on from Live was to branch out and do his own stuff, then why is he relying so heavily on all things Live related?

It brings us back to that wonderful video where Ed was interviewed and asked the hard questions by that European guy and he kept stumbling for an answer. He tells the interview the whole thing against him was a lie (oh wait sorry, a "mischaracterisation" which technically means that it's not that everything he was accused of didn't happen, it's that he has reasons for why he did it). Ed then stumbles for an answer for a bit whilst you can see him stalling inwardly going "shit shit shit, need an answer" and then it dawns on him what to say ... that him deciding to leave Live wasn't a very popular decision, implying that this is what started CCP's campaign of lies.

Can anyone honestly believe after reading all of CT's blog about how downhill everything went in the final years of Live that at the end CCP were threatening that if Ed left they would start slinging shit?
It sounded more like CT was hoping the plug would be pulled but didn't have the heart or strength or courage or whatever to end it himself. So when the rug was pulled out from under him I can only imagine a big sigh of relief. But of course it would be mixed feelings. But I just refuse to believe that Ed's "unpopular decision" was what caused CCP to go on the attack.

The difference between CT and EK is that CT knows when he's done fucked up. He posted a public attack on Ed. He then later said he regretted it. He said it should have been kept private. (Personally I don't agree, I thought it was fantastic). EK just keeps getting more and more caught up in his own contradictions.

I'd love the chance to interview him.

This post has been edited by Pokey: Jun 8 2011, 6:32 am

[Aitkens]

Zman, I worry about your safety. You're rocking the EK look. Either grow some hair, or some facial hair. I'm worried that Gracey might have an angry flashback and he'll kick your ass.

You guys that support EK blindly, go, enjoy yourself. Just know that you're supporting a sub-par act that's clinging to what once made him rich. His new band isn't Eddie Kowalczyk former of Live. It's Eddie and the K's. He needs some shit lounge act name, because that's what he's become. I'm just waiting for the giant fish bowl to take a seat on the stage, so people can walk up and throw a few dollars into it.

[OutToDry]

this is always good to bring up at the appropriate times.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8bbS05QCvM&NR

pay attention to the 4:20 mark.

[FishOutaWater]

I think that the reason Ed uses the Live catalog in his new shows is:

1) He can sing them with another band and it can sound like Live (like David Lee Roth used to perform classic Van Halen songs in his solo career). The presence of the songs and the fact that his voice can make it sound like Live sells tickets to his solo shows. More tickets means more money and more promotion of his solo material. I don't begrudge him of any of that. I would do it too.

2) He truly believs that I Alone and Lightning Crashes and Pain Lies on The Riverside and Beauty of Gray and Dolphins Cry were the product of only Ed without any help from the others. His quote in the article is "My show is a mixture of all of the hits of my work as the singer and songwriter for Live as well as my new solo material. " He does not value the concept of synergy and contribution and creative flow from the enitre group of 4 people. I have heard and read enough interviews with artists about the songwriting process and the creative magic and synergy of a band working together, combined with direct emperical evidence of the progression (or digression really) of Live's catalogue, to know that Ed is flat out wrong about that. All you have to do is listen to TGF to hear the creative energy that was present in MJ, TC SS and TDTH. When the four guys were working out material in a garage in York and trying to create something in the wake of Throwing Copper, high on dope in Jamaica, who could possibily think that Ed did all of the work and it would have been no different if CCP were no where to be found. Even the smallest guitar chord, or change-up in drum beat is what infused Live with MAGIC that didn't exist anywhere else in the universe except from the collective contribution of those FOUR guys. But Ed's ego won't allow him to see it. It is so ironic that the guy who inspired me to reach such spiritual depths based on deep universal eastern spiritual truths has developed an ego so big that it can't get out of his own way.

This post has been edited by FishOutaWater: Jun 8 2011, 8:25 am

[OutToDry]

His quote in the article is "My show is a mixture of all of the hits of my work as the singer and songwriter for Live as well as my new solo material. " He does not value the concept of synergy and contribution and creative flow from the enitre group of 4 people

He used to value it.....his pre 1998 words are 'we,we'we'. He got corrupted or figured it out that he needed to say I,I,I. to keep the EK train rolling along. See the BOP dvd.....all I,I,I. This ended it for me.

He either is lying, or it was his MO all along.

[Pokey]

The thing is I can't completely begrudge him from singing them, however if you make a big song and dance about how you needed to do something different and that you were the one that left the band and then you go and try and make yourself a carbon copy of the thing you are apparently changing from ... it just smells bad.

Personally if I were Ed for promotion purposes I'd be advertising myself as the (former) lead singer of Live, to get the name out there and sell some extra tickets for people that don't get name recognition. Once the tickets are sold and butts are in seats then it's a different game .. they're hearing TBD, Waterboy, Unsheathed, Walk In A Dream ... whatever. I couldn't stand playing those same songs over and over, if people go there expecting to hear the hits, fuck em. This isn't Live, it's the lead singer branching out and doing his own stuff and when he does do Live he is delving into the back catalog and digging deep. Pick 2 big hits per night, pick 3 more obscure Live songs and then load the set up with the stuff that is supposed to show that you have spread your wings and are doing something different.

See if Ed was doing something like that, even if I wasn't a fan of his new stuff I could at least give him some respect but no, not in my eyes at least anyways.

I don't think anyone is saying Ed can't perform the Live songs, he can. It just makes his words carry a hell of a lot less weight. I guess the other thing with the performances, as previously discussed, is that as bad as some people, myself included, thought KM's take on LJ was. To me it is equally as bad hearing Ed's band trying to tackle some Live songs. They're just sub par musicians compared to the caliber that Ed has performed with in Live. Especially that drummer. Good god he is terrible.
So it's as if Ed is not only contradicting himself but he's shitting all over this apparent "energy" that is still in the Live music he performs by surrounding himself with mediocrity. KM and TGF had the good grace to give it a shot and then go "hey whoa this isn't working, lets back off on it". It is just going to flog that dead horse dry and bleed it for every bit of cash he can.

[Aitkens]

The thing is I can't completely begrudge him from singing them, however if you make a big song and dance about how you needed to do something different and that you were the one that left the band and then you go and try and make yourself a carbon copy of the thing you are apparently changing from ... it just smells bad.

Outside of everything Ed has turned into and become, which I absolutely hate, this is the biggest thing that angers me.

[Pokey]

Exactly, I mean hell as much as it would absolutely suck. If Ed had said that he was feeling trapped in Live and needed the change and to do something different and all that jazz, then went solo and released a hip hop album ... I mean it would provide a lot of quality laughs, but you could at least say he meant what he said and wanted to get out there and do something different.
The differences between SFBM and Alive are just so minimal it's not really worth it. Ironically it was the rest of the band who came out with something quite radically different to anything Live had done in years. If Ed had broken free and came out with an album with music on the same scale as TGF and was legit actually trying to sound like he was turning back the clock to TC .. then that's something different. Making Grace and saying it could have fit in on TC is just pathetic.

As others have said, his ego is way too big .. he hears his voice and that is the be all and end all. He probably does truly believe Grace belongs on TC because after all, "hey its the same guy singing it!". Screw all the other elements that make a song. Unfortunatly this is what people like Nick and the other big Ed fans hear the most. To them a front man IS a band. Nick's comment about the LJ performance having "no noticable drop offs" is probably the exact same way Ed hears it when he listens to recordings because to him, the voice is there, so what else could possibly matter?! Call me a music snob, but people who think like this really don't deserve music.

This post has been edited by Pokey: Jun 8 2011, 8:52 am

[OutToDry]

That's the thing....total catch 22 again, he can play the songs all he wants, no issue. The message he puts out there about distancing himself from Live then playing mostly Live material stinks.

I still think it's his MO...IMO

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Q22GQAPM

[Aitkens]

Nick's comment about the LJ performance having "no noticable drop offs" is probably the exact same way Ed hears it when he listens to recordings because to him, the voice is there, so what else could possibly matter?! Call me a music snob, but people who think like this really don't deserve music.

That song is completely neutered now when Eddie and the K's perform it. Its complete nothingness.

[Pokey]

That song is completely neutered now when Eddie and the K's perform it. Its complete nothingness.

I honestly just think of a wind up drumming doll like this when I think of that drummer:


They both have about the same skill set.

This post has been edited by Pokey: Jun 8 2011, 9:06 am

[Aitkens]

He makes Meg White sound like Neil Peart.

[FishOutaWater]

I think that on one level, Ed is not saying something hypocritical when he says that he needed a change from doing the same thing he had been doing for 20 years and that he needed to leave Live and go solo - but then he goes on to play Live songs in his shows. Because what he needed a change from is playing with CCP, being beholden to CCP to present the music to them and tolerate their input, and sharing revenue with CCP on albums and touring (which was probably still 25% each). Ed needed a change from the dynamic within Live, the economic deal that Live had and the friction between them. It also sounds like Ed was critical of Chad Taylor's guitar skills and the sound coming from the drums - based on comments made by CT and CG. It got to the point where CT was in tears and Gracey was ripping him a new a-hole for putting him behind plexiglass. Every time Ed presented CCP with his new music, they probably couldn't hold back their gag reflex and probably tried to no avail to get Ed rock the songs up a little. Every time CCP presented Ed with music that had testicles attached to it, like the riffs that turned into Believe and then Honest Man, Ed probably dressed it up in a skirt and put a crucifix on it. That probably turned the gag reflex into full on vomit right in Ed's face. As far as I'm concerned, CCP should have been the ones that should have wanted a change and wanted to move on - but Ed's voice and stage presence were Live and we've all seen how commercially viable it is to start over with a new band. In Ed's mind, all of Live's great music was solely attributable to him and not to CCP. In Ed's mind, he was the songwriter, lyricist, and frontman. It was all him. So in Ed's mind, he is the rightful owner of those songs and the rightful artist to play them and perform them for audiences and use them as leverage to sell tickets and promote his solo work. He didn't want to move on from Live and leave Live music in his past. He wanted to move on from CCP and leave them in his past. Now he has total creative control and freedom, and can take all the money he can for his shows and albums, after paying the back-up band the smallest amount that he can get away with without having them quit.

[deepenoughtodive]

Well said, Fish. I think that is the "true" reasons behind his desire to split but he doesn't want to admit it because it makes him look like a douche. The sad thing is, he looks like one anyway. He's not fooling anyone.

I still hope he comes to his senses in regards to his former bandmates someday. I don't think it will be anytime soon.

This is a little harsher than I usually care to be towards Ed but I really hope every "solo" album he does is a complete and utter failure. I hope he is someday forced to face the fact that he alone was not the reason for the strength of LIVE's success. I think failure as a solo artist might be the only thing that could ever get through to him.