Article: Huge in the 90's, Live is reemerging Options

[SJN1279]

Tuesday, June 5, 2007 (thanks to Dangum on SOY)

By MIKE KERWICK
STAFF WRITER

"I've willed
I've walked
I've read
I've talked
I know
I know
I've been here before"
-- "Selling the Drama," Live

Been here before? No. They had not.

For years they were accustomed to the flip side of fame, making the 177-mile drive from York, Pa., to CBGB, Hilly Kristal's club at 315 Bowery, hoping the $100 they got for the gig would cover gas and flat tires.

Now they had a No. 1 album. Now they had three songs trading jabs with one another on the pop charts.

Now Live's four members were going to learn what it took to will, to walk, to read, to talk.

"It was a fun ride, for sure," Ed Kowalczyk, Live's frontman, said during a recent phone interview. "It also was disorienting in a lot of ways. It took us the remainder of the '90s to figure out how to function as a band -- without pressure, with demands on our time -- all of that. And the fact that we've remained the four original members is a testimony to our friendship."

So when did they finally adjust to riding the pop rapids?

"A couple weeks ago," Kowalczyk said.

The ride has slowed these past few years, a speed change that's part blessing, part curse. Kowalczyk said in one interview that the time outside the spotlight has allowed him to focus more intensely on writing. On the other hand, Live's most recent release ("Songs From Black Mountain," 2006) flopped commercially, never a good sign for a rock band that once ruled the charts.

"It's one of those things," Kowalczyk said. "You make a record. You make the best record you know how to make at this time, what you feel like doing. When it gets out to the public and people start counting [sales]... that's not why I do what I do. I don't pay too much attention to that."

Their legacy lives, their concerts still sell out. Strangers approach Kowalczyk to tell him they chose "Dance With You" as their wedding song. And "Lightning Crashes," one of Live's early '90s masterpieces, is a haunting reminder of death and new life.

"It has definitely been the song for Live that captured the most hearts in terms of people," Kowalczyk said. "Everyday I get somebody that says something to me about that song."

Kowalczyk was expecting a sleepy summer, but a quiet schedule turned busy in a hurry. After playing two New York-area gigs, the group will tour the country with Counting Crows and Collective Soul later this summer.

The band will not be putting out a new album this year. But that doesn't mean Kowalczyk isn't writing. Without that early '90s glare, Kowalczyk is free to devote more time to his passion.

"I think as a songwriter you really cherish your intimate moments in life," Kowalczyk said. "They become less as you get more and more pressure. It's one of the things you have to fight to maintain. That's where all the great music comes from -- when you can block the world out."

E-mail: kerwick@northjersey.com

Link to article: http://tinyurl.com/33gsvy