You look at a song like 'Lightning Crashes,' and it's just so universal.
— Ed Kowalczyk
It's something I've always been passionate about - which is the power of rock and roll itself. I'm a walking example of its power, 'cause I was totally altered in the seminal years of Live by bands like U2 and R.E.M., U2 in particular.
With 'Mental Jewelry,' we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to get something happening. I think we lost some of the personality in the music. 'Throwing Copper''s mission was to begin to get some of that back.
Music, in its clearest and simplest form, can be a catalyst to thought, but that's about it.
I always thought it odoriferous for people to go about trying to pummel others with their ideas.
I really don't do concept stuff very well. If I'm sitting thinking about what kind of song I want to write, within a few minutes, I'm kind of bored. It's just a personal thing for me.
I consider our music a catalyst, something that might spark a thought or a question.
All my favorite artists were pretty serious in the sense that their music was something I could sink my teeth into, from Peter Gabriel to U2 to these artists that made me want to read the lyrics and dig into it.
One of the lyrics from Bono that always sticks with me is 'Where the Streets Have No Name.' Just the name of the song, that sort of oneness, and there isn't any division in yourself, and your just at peace and fired up at the same time.
Those first big concerts we played as 'Throwing Copper' started to really reach people worldwide - I think we played our first big arena show at the George Estate basketball arena down in Atlanta. I remember showing up and standing on stage and just being like, 'I can't believe this is going to be full of people. This is huge.'
To make music that means something, you kind of have to drop the cool. You have to be prepared and willing to be uncool.
I remember people telling me that at 5 1/2 minutes long, 'Lightning Crashes' would never be a hit song.
When we were starting out as a band, I was addicted to college radio.
Life is full of inspiration, far more than I'll ever get to write about.
We've never been a band that gets up on stage and says, 'OK, we're going to play our entire new album.' Of course we want to introduce new music, but we also want to play the songs people want to sing along with.
With every kid, there has just been a deepening of my humanity, because there's no more of a feet-on-the-ground moment than having a child.
What I think shines through for us is that we have a real respect for the music and a real reverence.
I believe that rock and roll can really make a huge impact on people's lives.
The Web has incredible potential for an artist who keeps in touch with millions of people.
Part of being an artist is that you want to express yourself to as many people as possible. But you don't want to exclude anyone.
The way you perform really depends on the way you live your life. It's not two separate things.
I've never allowed my specific personal practice or belief to be overtly integrated to the music. Because that's crossing the line into, 'We want you to think this.' And that's not what we're about.
When you accept the way things are, there's really no other way to operate than the way you've been conditioned to. You live in America: you're free to vote, you go vote, and you continue to see the problems of being a nationalistic society. You don't really know what to do because you're conditioned to feel that's just the way things are.
Anarchy would be a world that nobody felt responsible for, that nobody felt any sort of love for. When there's real intelligence happening, when there's real love happening, there's a sense of responsibility: Hey, we've got to take care of this place and each other.
When I was a kid, my aunt coached me a little bit for choir, and what she taught me actually stuck with me. She basically taught me to sing from my diaphragm and not from my throat.
I've found lyrics in songs that always center me.
From the very beginning, we were all a hundred and ten percent about the music, from the very early days when we could barely play our instruments, and we were just covering other people's songs when we were in high school.
I think 'cool' is overrated.
We've never been your traditional rock-pop band. Lyrically, I've always had more of an interest in spirituality and that kind of thing.
I kind of spooked myself about getting older. It's not that bad really.
We came from a small town where there was no music scene or no other bands, and we decided to put ours together and go for it.
We don't want Offspring-itis, Green Day-itis: you know, that thing where bands are all over the place at once, getting everything at once - major airplay on radio, major airplay on MTV.
Ever since we started, we've been trying to give people music that is pop music where you could just get into the melody and get into the performance of the band and be quite satisfied.
Lots of human-rights tragedies deserve concerts, but there's something extra with Tibet. It's a spiritual culture, a country rooted in humility and compassion. And among artists, there's a lot of Buddhists, people who want an alternative to basic Christianity, which doesn't offer much.
I'll never forget the first concert I basically went to. Actually, Sonny and Cher was my first concert, but U2 was my first real concert. I was 17 and saw them at JFK Stadium and had really crappy seats.
There's a lot of spirituality and hope in our music that I think people are catching on to. It's not punk, it's not Green Day, not Offspring, not Soundgarden, not Stone Temple Pilots, not all of the other bands that are coming out.
You're living in a fantasy to think that music can actually change something.
If there is a doctrine, a message behind Live, it's just that wordless intensity that doesn't necessarily have to mean anything.
Arenas, to me, and especially sheds, are really great venues. You get that sea of humanity, but everybody can still see it and hear it. And that's really important to us.
Until you solve problems like fear individually, resolve why individuals feel the need to believe in whatever, there's really no point in organizations, in things that turn the world into a concept rather than an individual fact.
We take the art seriously. We take communicating it seriously. And maybe we took ourselves a little too seriously in the beginning. Sometimes I watch the videos, and I think, 'Yeah, you could've relaxed a lot in the 'I Alone' video,' you know?
I love Peter Gabriel, and I've come so close to working with him a few times. We were on a movie soundtrack together, but we didn't actually write together.
It's always so rewarding, gratifying to me, as an artist and a writer, to see how this music gets more important for a lot of people as time goes by. And it's not just nostalgia. It's a feeling of it's really relevant to their lives, even though it's 20 or 25 years old or more.
All of my favorite artists who inspired me were never afraid to be uncool and never afraid to wear their hearts on their sleeves - no matter how much flak they took for it.
I took a page out of the U2 book. They've always had a universal approach. Nobody doubts they're Christian, but there's an open door for everybody in any faith to consume the music at any level.
I grew up in an area that was the typical city that was a racially divided and economically segregated place. And it had a big influence on me.
I've never had trouble finding inspiration for new songs, no matter what I'm doing.
I think that every band, whether they admit it or not, is going out there to succeed. I've always worn that on my sleeve.
I hit this point - I guess you'd say an end of a chapter - where I felt like I kind of did everything. I wasn't interested in music. It was a really strange feeling, and needless to say, it freaked me out a little bit. I really started to go inward and say, 'Hey, what is this about?'
I feel proud to be a part of rock n' roll and the whole tradition of rock n' roll.
