After making music together for more than
half of their lives, touring their way
around the world and selling more than
20 million records, the four members of
Live – singer, Ed Kowalczyk; guitarist,
Chad Taylor; bassist, Patrick Dahlheimer
and drummer, Chad Gracey – say Songs
from Black Mountain marks a new beginning
for the band.
Before recording the new album, the members
of Live – all of whom are still only
in their early 30s – put together
a music and video retrospective spanning
the quartet’s six studio albums.
Since forming in middle school in York,
Pennsylvania in 1988, the band has become
an international success with two albums
reaching #1 on Billboard’s Top 200
album chart (Throwing Copper and Secret
Samadhi); five #1 singles, nine Top
10 singles and number #1 albums in Australia,
Holland, South Africa, Canada, Belgium
and New Zealand.
“It was such a cathartic experience
putting together our greatest hits because
it reminded us of where we came from and
gave us a clear idea of what we’ve
grown into as a band,” says the band’s
singer and chief songwriter, Ed Kowalczyk. “Now
that we’ve signed with our new label,
Epic, it really feels like we’ve
closed a chapter and with this new record
are starting over.”
Two years ago, when Kowalczyk began writing
for the quartet’s seventh studio
album, Songs from Black Mountain,
he was intrigued by how much of the world’s
art has been inspired by the female spirit.
“Historically, the muse has always
been a woman – from the muses of
Greek mythology to Saraswati in India.
And my experience as a songwriter has only
reinforced that idea. I’m surrounded
by women – my wife and two daughters
especially – who spark my creativity,” he
explains. “With that in mind, I started
exploring the idea of personifying my creative
energy as female in the songs I was writing;
basically writing songs to my muse. When
people listen to these songs they’ll
probably hear a love story between a man
and a woman, but for me it’s deeper
than that.”
The first single from Songs from Black
Mountain, “The River,” weaves
the album’s heady lyrical theme
into a contagious pop melody. Bring
your burning skin to my river once again,
I’ll give you life.
“This song probably has the most memorable melody we’ve ever recorded,” Kowalczyk
says. “I really like how we’re using something so catchy to convey
these abstract lyrical ideas I have about songwriting. When I sit down to write
a song, I always feel like I’m wading into a river where a nurturing
female presence guides me and pushes me along when I need it.”
THE ALBUM
The band came together with producer Jim
Wirt (Incubus, Hoobastank) at a studio
in Santa Barbara in May 2005 for what
became a whirlwind session. In just three
weeks, Kowalczyk says, the multi-platinum
band recorded all 12 of the album’s
songs in a frenetic burst of creativity
that surprised everyone. “We haven’t
recorded that quickly since Throwing
Copper,” he says. “We
were like the Chicago Bulls when they
won six championships. When we got in
the studio, we all slipped into the zone.
We were working hard, but we were completely
at ease, open to each other and in the
flow. Everyone was awestruck by not only
how fast we were recording, but also
by how good it sounded.”
The first song the band recorded, “Love
Shines (A Song for My Daughters About God),” is
a song about spirituality Kowalczyk wrote
for his young daughters. “I have
to teach them about God one day and I don’t
want to take them to some boring church.
This is their catechism,” he explains. “It’s
a simple lyric about awareness and how
it’s shining all the time. It’s
something you can take refuge in. No matter
what happens in life, it’s always
there. No matter what faith, there’s
a presence – whatever name you give
it – that’s always there as
an internal refuge. I thought that was
a beautiful message for kids to learn.”
The album’s title, Songs from
Black Mountain, is connected, Kowalczyk
says, to the song “Mystery.” Mine
eyes have seen the glory of a love that
does transcend/Mine eyes have seen the
worst inside of man
“Black Mountain is a place near
my house in California where the oak trees
are so thick that it’s dark there
all the time. It has this mystical aura
that reminds me of what it feels like to
write a song. You’re traveling down
a path without knowing where you’re
going, but guided by something unknowable
the pushes you along. There’s no
linear meaning to this song. It’s
about using melody to bring people to a
place that is beautiful and open to individual
interpretation.”
Kowalczyk says some of his favorite songs
possess a mysterious quality that take
the listener to a point allowing them to
personalize the song by filling in the
blanks. “U2’s ‘Where
the Streets Have No Name’ is the
perfect example,” he says. “You
know the band had a spiritual background,
but they approach it so artfully on this
song. They didn’t beat you over the
head with a point of view because it would
have limited the song.”
“Home,” the album’s
only topical song, is an anti-war song
written from a soldier’s perspective. When
they coming home?/When they leaving that
place?/To see their lover’s face
again/Kids’ll see their daddy’s
face again
“I had to be careful writing this
song because I wasn’t interested
in writing a political protest song that’s
locked into a specific point in time. I
wanted to transcend the topical and write
a song about the human experience of war,” Kowalczyk
says. “This song is not just about
stopping this war, but all wars.”
The last song Live recorded – “All
I Need” – stands out sonically
from the rest of the album. “It’s
a weird song,” Kowalczyk says. “We
saved it until the end because we weren’t
sure how to approach it. Because it wasn’t
a major priority, we felt like we could
take chances with the song. It wound up
being one of my favorite songs on the album.
“That’s why making records
is fun – sometimes your priorities
can be subverted by synchronicities. You
expect a song to go one way, but the complete
opposite happens. And then when you look
back, you realize the song turned out exactly
the way it should have. The songs know
the way, all you have to do is listen.”
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