by Erinn Fortson
A lot of important albums turned 20 this year. In 1993, we heard In Utero for the first time, Nirvana’s third and final studio album. The same year, Wu-Tang Clan burst onto the rap scene with their groundbreaking debut Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). And in a few months, Throwing Copper will be another record celebrating two decades worth of success.
Their second album is what put Live on the map. Throwing Copper spent numerous weeks on the Billboard 200 chart, in addition to selling millions of copies. It gave Live its mainstream status and more importantly, it was and still is able to really reach listeners, both old and new.
“I can’t believe it. I really can’t believe it. The old adage cliché now is, time flies when you’re having fun. Tell me about it,” says Ed Kowalczyk. “I can’t even imagine that 20 years has gone by since that record. It’s just incredible.”
You can hear the nostalgia in his voice when Kowalczyk talks about Throwing Copper. It’s an album that still resonates for the former front man of Live. Since making the decision to pursue a solo career, Kowalczyk has remained particularly connected to its music and continues to play Throwing Copper songs when he’s out on the road.
“People have grown with this music, myself included. I wrote “Lighting Crashes” before I had any kids and now I have four.”
To celebrate the milestone of Throwing Copper, Kowalczyk will travel to Australia in February of next year and play select performances at various venues. The singer and his new band will play the album in its entirety, a few months before its 20th anniversary.
“It doesn’t feel like, ok, we’re just going to rehash this old record. It feels like we’re going at it in a deeper way,” says Kowalczyk. “It feels like my fans and I are going to uncover new aspects of the record that are relevant to us now. It’s a timeless record because people still get something from it every time I play. And that’s just amazing.”
Kowalczyk is currently on tour, traveling nationally to different cities and performing acoustic sets. On November 9th, he will be stopping in his former hometown of York, Pennsylvania, which is the same place Live got its start.
“Going home definitely brings it all around full circle,” Kowalczyk says.
Back in 2009, after playing with the same band for nearly 20 years, Kowalczyk came to a crossroad. The lead singer of Live had reached a plateau and found himself trapped in a creative box. He needed change and suddenly, the excitement of the unknown became too enticing to ignore. Leaving the band wasn’t easy and there were certainly bumps along the way. But in the end, it was worth it. Kowalczyk released his first solo record, Alive, in 2010 and hasn’t looked back since.
“The whole reason behind my solo career was to really get my mojo back, my interest, [and] my excitement back about music, which had kind of faltered over doing it the same way for so long, with the same people,” Kowalczyk explains.
(photo credit, Douglas Sonders)
“I value all my years in Live, I value all those experiences. But I needed to change it. I needed to reinvigorate it. It very much came right along with grabbing an acoustic guitar and going out as a solo artist; playing songs with just the guitar and making the new records, and meeting my new producer, Jamie Candiloro, and all the amazing musicians I’ve played with. It’s really just been an integrated re-amp of my energy about music.”
At the end of last month, Kowalcyzk released The Flood and the Mercy, his second solo album. Even though he stuck with some of the ritualistic methods previously used in his songwriting with and without Live, the innovative music Kowalczyk begun creating since he went solo continues with his latest record. From start to finish, The Flood and the Mercy stay true to the passion Kowalczyk regained within the last few years. He’s experiencing a new sense of creative freedom and it’s easy to pick up when you listen to his music.
“I feel like [The Flood and the Mercy] is my finest work yet as a solo artist and in a very long time in general,” Kowalczyk tells me. It transcends, in terms of production, anything I’ve ever done. There’s a song called “Seven” [on the record], the first single, which has an amazing intro and this new organic approach to the drums, mixed with this nonorganic, kind of Massive Attacky intro and approach; tons of vocals but really well placed.”
There’s such a unique approach to every song that blows me away and I’m so proud of [the album] and so proud of Jamie Candiloro, my producer. I feel like we met at a time in our lives when he was really hitting his stride as a producer and I was in a real great place, writing wise. So I’m super proud of it. And I think fans [who have heard it so far are loving what they hear]. They feel like it’s a return to a darker sound and more experimental sound that resonates with them in terms of maybe some of the mid-nineties work that I was doing in Live. So, I think old and new fans are going to find something there.”
Kowalczyk has been fortunate in that way. Many times when singers leave a band to venture out on their own, supporters can be very critical and not always accepting of the new work. But Kowalczyk seems to have a different kind of bond with his fans. They stuck with him through his Live days and were with him the minute he went solo, anxiously waiting to see what Kowalczyk did next.
“I think a lot of it was just the relationship we had developed through my lyric and my approach over the years. So many shows, so many amazing moments all really kind of build into a well that I went to with this solo career. And I dipped back into that [well] and it was full right away. People were right there with me.”
