Rockpile Magazine 1997 - Interview with Patrick Options

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I found this magazine on eBay recently... Apologies for any typos


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Rockpile Magazine - July / August 1997

Pat Dahlheimer tells Rockpile's Joe Kirschen about life in Live.

Cinderella story. Four guys from York, Pa., put together a band, stumble upon some serious industry cats and get the chance to put out a major label record. The record does well enough to warrant a second. A year later the second record is bigger than backwards baseball caps on the crew cut does of fraternity guys. U.S. tours, European tours, top-10 videos on MTV, a slew of radio hits the list goes on.

By 1995, Live was claiming a huge chunk of the music market and had pretty much taken over as commercial radio's poster child. And it seemed to have happened out of nowhere, leaving even the band members scratching their heads. The chemistry between singer Ed Kowalczyk's mature-beyond his years style and the band's unobtrusive yet immediate sound was a perfect fit for various commercial radio formats. The album sold like crazy.

Two years later, Live is out with its third full length, Secret Samadhi, which, although debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard charts, has been met with mixed emotions by music reviewers. Still, two singles, 'Lakini's Juice' and 'Freaks', landed heavy radio rotation shortly after the release, and at the time of this interview with bassist Patrick Dahlheimer, the band had just returned from a European and Australian tour and was readying for another European leg and a summer tour in the states.

So right now you guys are getting set for the tour?
Yeah. We've been off now for about two weeks. We just finished up Australia and some festivals in Europe.

How big were the venues you were playing over there?
We were doing clubs like 3,000 seaters through Europe. And then we did the festivals, actually headline Pinkpop in Holland.

Is it any different playing over in Europe than here?
Your situation changes. And the things around you change, like the conveniences. But that happens when you go on vacation, let alone touring. You have to assume that when you go to Europe things are going to be different. As far as crowds go, really not a big difference, except in Brussels where they just clap three times in between every song, because they're just very polite.

Was it a fun tour for you?
Things were great in Europe. The Australian leg was really amazing. It was the first time that we were able to get out of the U.S. and do arenas on our own. We did two weeks in Australia, pretty big rooms, like 13,000 people. And that was a rush. It was the first time that we'd been able to do that beyond the U.S. and Canada.

It still sounds like you get a rush out of playing. I know you've toured plenty since the band exploded a few years back, so do you still get a jolt out of playing live in front of big audiences?
It's a blast. There's just an energy. It's not only between the four of us. I don't know if it comes from the crowd or it comes from the four of us. But there's definitely some energy created when we hit the stage. I don't know where it comes from. I could be pretty down, not feel like even doing a show. But I think once I get up there, that energy thing, whatever it is, takes over, that energy.

Have you ever though about adding behind-the-scenes instruments on tour so that it's easier to recreate arrangements from the record? Or do you like the live sounds a s four-piece better?
We've kicked it around. We've thought about the fact that maybe Ed doesn't need to play guitar all the time, so we could free him up. But then we sat back and thought there's not a whole lot of bands around anymore doing what we do. The Pumpkins went out and picked up people. R.E.M. went out this time and picked up players. And I mean, everybody goes out and lately has been just taking some extra players with them. So we just kind of though let's give Live some more time so people can identify and know what we're about as four people, and just kind of show them what we can do.

So where will the current stretch of touring take you?
We go back to Europe next week for two weeks, do some more festivals. Then we've got, I guess, two more weeks down time. And we're doing Letterman and Stern and Modern Rock Live right before we kick off at Hershey, (Pa.). And then the U.S. summer leg is 11 weeks long starting in July. And then there's a couple of weeks off for a break. We're probably going to go back and do some secondary markets, do indoor arenas, get back up into Canada. After that it's kind of to be decided as to how we're feeling and how the record is doing.

The success of the second record caught you guys by surprise, and you would up being on the road for a year longer than you had planned.
Right after that record came out, we hit the road and toured for like a year, and it went really high. It went to No. 1 like a year after it was released. In that juncture, at that time you can't just say we're tired, we're gonna go home and do nothing. So we ended up being out on the road for another nine months.

Did you wind up hating it during the last seven months or so?
Actually the last thing we did was the U.S. summer tour. And we did a lot of the same venues that we'll be doing this time. I mean, the energy was still there, but we saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and we knew it was about time to wind up.

Was this record written while you guys were off during the past couple of years?
Some of the songs we wrote while we were on the road. I know 'Ghost' we threw together on that last summer touring during sound checks. There's stuff written on the road, things we brought to the table when were off. Everybody came in with different ideas. We took link of a working vacation in Jamaica and came up with a couple of songs there.

You're still living in York, right?
More or less. I'm here a lot, actually.

I know you're playing Hershey Park July 25. Did you know you're one of two bands to ever sell that place out?
Yeah. I think it's partially because it's our back yard, it's more or less hometown for us. But it's a cool thing just saying you sold it out. And it went pretty quick. I mean, it went within a day or two, and that's a shit load of tickets.

Do you have a set line-up of openers for the tour?
Yeah. Fun Lovin Criminals and Luscious Jackson are on the whole tour with us.

I saw a progression for the band between Mental Jewelry and Throwing Copper in there being so many radio hits on the second album. Where do you see the progression between the second album and the new one?
I don't see so many radio songs, actually, this time around. I think, again, it's a growth record. To be it had more to do with life a little more than the first record. I think Throwing Copper was kind of a roller coaster ride. You got on and it took you up and down and around with kind of different things. But I think this had a little more to do with the first record in it's got more of a musical common vein that runs throughout. I can't really touch on what that is. There's a little more cohesion to this record, I think.

Are you completely satisfied with the final product?
Not really. I'm as happy as I ever am with a record. But I don't think you should ever be completely happy. I still listen to it and think I could have done this or should have changed this in the mix. But I mean, that's just what being a creative person is. I don't think your dream is ever fully realized. If it is, then I think you maybe give up.

Do you plans plan out how the overall record will sound? Or do you simply record the material you have, and that's what the album will be?
We never premeditate anything. Especially with the last record, because there were so many different writing periods and sessions, it was hard to sit down and say, this is what we're going for, we're shooting for this kind of record. And I think we've just been lucky they've worked out to be pretty decent records so far.

Are you guys thinking ahead to how your sound may progress or change of the next few years?
Not really. That's almost too far away from us right now. The stuff that we've been messing around with since we've been on this little break have been just more just trying different things sonically and taking a step back and looking at how we were writing songs before as far as structure, and kind of questioning why we were doing chorus/verse/verse/bridge/chorus, blahdy blah.

When all's said and done, are you hoping at all to be viewed and a band who's sound grew from record to record?
I don't know if it's so much the sound. I would kind of hope there's always some integrity there. If we do change sonically every record, that's great. But I think integrity and honesty is the thing to maintain no matter what you're going to do.

What do you do besides being the bassist in Live? I mean, do you ever go fly fishing or something like that?
I don't even have my license to go fishing. I travel with the band, then I go home. Then I go nuts, so I travel some more. I've been collecting vintage instruments. Just a bad habit that I picked up along the way. It started in pawn shop in Florida. I ended up getting this pretty bizarre, old Fender Precision bass and kind of started finding out the whole story with it, and the history behind it. And it just lead me down a path of obsession.

How far has your obsession gone? How many guitars do you have?
As far as vintage, there might be like 30.

I understand that you guys purchased a building in York. Any truth to the rumors that you're starting a club?
That's what everybody thinks. We bought this old bank, it's called The Trust Building. We bought it strictly for rehearsal, storage and office space, and everybody thinks we applied for our liquor license.

So there's no truth about the liquor license?
We wouldn't be doing that as four people. One of us might be doing that. I'll leave it at that.

What drives you guys as a band? Is it success now, success in the future, the corporate power to be?
Right now the four of us drive each other. Success is nice and I'm glad we've attained it. If it flies out the window, at least we got to ride it for a while. Right now I think it's the four of us wanting to be creative and push each other and do things we haven't done before. And the simple fact that we've been together for 10 or 11 years and literally only probably have 50 songs. That's not a lot of songs. That's not a lot of material. So I think right now we're just pushing each other to be creative and write and challenge each other.

Do you guys ever imagine yourselves still touring in like 30 years or something?
I can see some longevity if things can maintain as they are.

Sounds like things are great.
Yeah, life is good.