XPress Magazine - Live Head to Ed
LIVE Head To Ed
Conversing with Live singer and guitarist Ed Kowalczyk reveals the very spiritual person that he is. He speaks openly and articulately about his beliefs, and how they formed the basis for the band's latest album Songs From Black Mountain. SARAH THILLAGARATNAM reports.
"I think I have a very universal attitude about religion and spirituality: basically, that I'm not religious, I'm spiritual; religion being any set of traditional belief or dogma. I don't really subscribe or align with any specific religion but at the same time I do believe that the core of all religions is love and oneness and were all started by men or women who realise that truth. That somehow is in the background of all my music," Kowalcyzk says.
In Songs From Black Mountain, Kowalczyk' began exploration of the idea of the muse, and her inspiration of the world's art and creativity. One of the important questions he wanted to delve into was why the muse, throughout history, was always a female entity. To do that, Kowalczyk says the process simply involved him personifying his creative spirit as female. "For me, as a man, it was just an incredibly erotic idea and I just started to allow this to enter the lyric and what I came up with were songs like The River, Mystery and Show which are really sexy but at the same time point to this deeper spiritual place for me as a writer."
"I wanted to consider why the muse is always female, why is it always the three Graces or Saraswati? I thought about it and it was like wow, it's really amazing because my relationship with creativity is really one that's very sensual for me and very nurturing and very much like a love affair. It just kind of dawned on me, oh yeah, well duh, that's why it's called the muse. I really had an epiphany about it personally and then I just became obsessed with the idea of allowing that to really dictate the entire lyric of the album."
Kowalcyzk's perception of music is one that is spiritual. In making Songs From Black Mountain, his message was one of peace and oneness - a message that he wants to impart on his listeners. Like the music of U2 and REM had power over him during his younger days, Kowalcyzk hopes his music has that same effect on his fans.
Although the songs on each album do convey certain messages, Live have never been a political band in the sense that these messages have never referred to topical issues. On the new album, the song Home may preach an anti-war message, but it never points to a specific war. Instead, it is a statement against war in general. "My calling is really more about the inner politics, if you would. The inner state of man and finding the truth and singing from the heart. Just going after the inner realities and not as much of the outer political state. It's not that I disagree with people who do that, I mean obviously not, there are people who are really good at it. It's just that my strengths have always been in expressing the human longing for love and truth and all those things. That's what I'm good at, that's what I do." he says.
Kowalcyzk personally believes that adopting some sort spiritual awareness is integral in finding a solution to many of the problems facing people today, and through his music, he hopes to provide a window into these realities. "I think it's more important than ever that people pick up on some aspect of spirituality because I really feel that there are plenty of answers to all the things that bring us so much pain in the world. I really feel that the core of these truths really do help, and meditation is one of them that for me has just been invaluable. Music and art, finding the truths - being freedom for everybody - through these means. There's plenty of it out there."
Having started out in the music industry very young, it's been more than 10 years on and the members of Live are only in their early 30s. The band have enjoyed steady success since they first crashed onto the scene in the early '90s and two years ago put out a best of CD and DVD that chronicled their accomplishments thus far. Songs From Black Mountain marks a new chapter in their career and although Kowalczyk would like to attribute their success to having stayed true to themselves, they have no pretensions about where they stand in the industry as a popular band.
"It all boils down to trying to make important songs in a pop format so they can get played on the radio and people can find out about it. We're definitely a popular band and we try to record the singles so that we can be played on the radio and that's a fun, really exciting aspect of what we do. I think the artistry really comes into making sure it's not just your run of the mill stuff. I think I've done well as a lyricist to just give a lyric that people can sink their teeth into and I try to do that every time."
Posted on April 12, 2006 09:20 AM