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Word search
Singer Ed Kowalczyk looks for just the right lyrics as he and the band Live, headliners of this weekend's Starfest, work on their sixth album.
By BRIAN ORLOFF
© St. Petersburg Times
published May 23, 2002
[Publicity photo]
LIVE: Chad Taylor, left to right, Chad Gracey, Ed Kowalczyk, Patrick Dahlheimer.
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Ed Kowalczyk is a man of many words. His band, Live, which will headline Star 95.7's Starfest on Saturday, relies on that. After all, he is the lead singer and principal lyricist.
But one word he particularly likes has never made it to a Live album, he said from his home in California.
"Odoriferous. I think it means, smells really bad. I'm always saying it, all the time. Odoriferous. I think I heard someone say it on TV once, and I've been intrigued by that word." Whether odoriferous will make the cut is hard to say, but Live is working on the followup to September's V, the band's fifth and most experimental album, Kowalczyk said. They hope to be in the studio in July.
"As far as the next record, I think V was about as experimental as we're going to get for a while. I would expect this next record is going to be just really straight ahead . . . more like a classic Live kind of record. We're just going after the songs really hard core." Kowalczyk has tapped into his experimental side, recording with techno guru Tricky, an experience he called "an eye-opener artistically."
Live has been on hiatus since releasing V and is warming up in Europe before playing Florida. "Before we get to Florida we're going to be in Holland for a few days, doing the Pinkpop Festival and a couple of our own shows. A few weeks after that, we're all getting together, and I'm going to bring my songs in and everybody else is going to bring their ideas in, and we're just going to jam as a band. We've just kept writing the whole time, so we're pretty stoked about that."
Can the Starfest audience expect any debuts?
"I don't know at this point if we're going to have a chance to get anything together," Kowalczyk said. "We always try to do that for at least four or five or six shows during the writing process, as far as what's getting people and what isn't and what we need to work on. I would imagine we'll do that some point in the summertime."
Live's career has spanned more than a decade, longevity its leader attributes to a classic combination.
"We'll always be a guitar-bass-drums-singer band," he said. "I don't think that ever really goes out of style as long as you're trying to make the best songs you can make.
"If I listen to the radio now I think that there is no reason why our band can't stay in that party. When I listen to the radio, I'm hearing good rock, melodic rock, guys that are really coming from the heart."
And that, Kowalczyk said, is all that matters.
"The heart is always relevant -- it's a part, no matter if you're touched by a brand new sound, a brand new type of instrument, a brand new type of production -- whatever it is, if you touch somebody's heart, it's going to be a timeless moment. I think that Live has been blessed to be able to do that a few times."
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