In 2009, a public spat between Ed Kowalczyk and the rest of his bandmates in post-grunge chart-toppers Live lead to him acrimoniously departing from the group. The rest of the band continued on, hiring vocalist Chris Shinn to take his place, while Kowalczyk continued on with his solo career. Much as they tried, however, the two parties could not outrun one another – it was inevitable that their paths would cross again.
“I would always get asked about it,” says Kowalczyk, calling from his home on a rare day off before heading back out on the road.
“At the time I was really focused on the music that I was doing by myself, but I never completely ruled it out – it was important to never say never. Sure enough, Chad [Taylor, guitar] and I started texting about two years ago. After the drama settled down, we started talking again – seeing how the other was doing, checking in on our kids, stuff like that. We ended up meeting for a beer in York, our hometown, and within two days we were rehearsing. It was a really beautiful moment that we weren’t expecting – this real mix of surprise and gratitude.”
So it came to be that the original lineup of Live – Kowalczyk, Taylor, bassist Patrick Dahlheimer and drummer Chad Gracey – announced their return at the tail-end of 2016. They have spent the majority of the year on the road, going from a few key headlining dates to a full-blown tour due to the demand. “When we were first playing again, we were so excited,” says Kowalczyk. “I think there was more excitement there than there was focus on the actual music. I listened back to the recordings we made and I was like, ‘We need to brush up.’ It was all riding on this thrill of doing this together again. Now that we’ve been doing this for a few months – we started up back in May – I think we’re sounding better than ever.”
Naturally, the shows have been riding a wave of nostalgia, as Kowalczyk and co. perform the songs that made them a platinum-selling name to begin with. There is, however, more to it than that – looking ahead to 2018, Live plan to record their ninth album. It will mark the first time the original lineup has made an album together since 2006’s Songs from Black Mountain, and Kowalczyk is understandably excited by the prospect.
“We’ve already started writing a few things,” he says. “We would have gotten to work sooner, but the touring has been so much busier than we ever could have anticipated. Over December and the holidays, we’ll slowly start to move into the studio. Just to see if we can get something going that we all feel good about. The plan is to hopefully have a single out at the start of next year, so we’ll see how we go.”
In the meantime, Live’s world tour will come to a close this month with a whirlwind three-date jaunt to Australia. Having last performed here with the Shinn-lead version of the band, this tour will see them bringing out fellow countrymen Lifehouse and The Calling – both of whom are arguably indebted to Live in one way or another from a musical perspective. Having toured multiple times over the years, with everyone from Shannon Noll to Sugar Ray, Kowalczyk is endlessly positive in his praise of Australia. “There are so many great memories that this band associates with being down there,” he says.
“I remember the tour in support of The Distance to Here in the late ‘90s. We had some Indigenous performers doing our on-stage intro – they had this ensemble of about 12 didgeridoo players, and their performance ended on the exact same note that our first song was in. It was magical – you never forget stuff like that.
“We’re so geographically removed from the country, travelling for hours and hours and for thousands and thousands of miles. To go that far and always be made to feel right at home is such a true honour for us. It never ends.”
