Interview with Ed Kowalczyk of Live: Will Perform with Counting Crows at Daily’s Place

August 2, 2018
3 mins read

25 Years and Counting, Counting Crows with LIVE

After three weeks on the road with the Counting Crows, Ed Kowalczyk is in high spirits surrounded by old friends and playing new music with his band Live with a renewed intensity. It’s not a place he ever imagined to see again but he’s grateful to be back.

“It’s amazing. We’re having a blast,” says Kowalczyk from Austin, Texas where Live and Counting Crows will share the bill on the Crows’ 25 Years and Counting Tour. “We’re sounding bigger and more rock than we ever have. It’s really at a fever pitch.” The tour pulls into Jacksonville Aug. 4 for a stop at Daily’s Place.

Both bands are celebrating huge career milestones. The tour is a nod to the Crows’ longevity as a band that still records and tours with its original lineup. Live also marked the 25th anniversary of its 1991 release Mental Jewelry last year and will celebrate its seminal album Throwing Copper which spawned such hits as “I Alone”, “Iris” and “Lightning Crashes” next year.

(Read interview with Counting Crow’s frontman Adam Duritz here.)

Live reunited in 2017 after a 12-year hiatus and played a series of festival dates to text the waters. Playing alongside peers and influencers inspired the band to record its first new material in over a decade. “Love Lounge” is the first single from the band’s new, soon-to-be-released EP.

“There’s this renaissance going on in our lives as a band that’s kind of like riding a bike. Except it’s like riding a brand new bike with a Tesla engine on it. The new music has taken it to a whole new level of energy,” says Kowalczyk. “We’ve added two new touring members to the band, Zak Loy, who was my guitar player when I was solo, and drummer Robin Diaz is playing percussion. We haven’t changed the songs but it’s added a new layer and is really opening things up to new colors that we didn’t expect so we’re super excited all over again.”

The 25 Years and Counting Tour marks Live’s third time out on the road with the Counting Crows. The bands toured together in 2001 and again in 2008. But their history dates back long before they were touring mates. Kowalczyk shares a unique perspective and parallel journey with his old friend and Crows’ frontman Adam Duritz.

“I go way back with Adam to the days when I lived in southern California and we were hanging out. We got together as friends first and then did the first tour. It’s crazy that it’s almost 20 years ago,” he says. “I was talking to Adam about the way it all came together. They’re celebrating, of course, their 25 years and counting. Our 25th anniversary of Throwing Copper is next year which is pretty damn close to the same trajectory. It felt really great to be able to put this tour together. Not only do we get along really well but this music is still so important and so relevant to people for both bands that it’s just a great feeling.”

Kowalczyk was recently walking through Manhattan when he became aware of his friends’ continued influence. Counting Crows songs were playing in the gym and echoed from the window of a passing car.

“Maybe it’s like when you get a new car that you think nobody else has and then all of a sudden you see them everywhere.  It was like that but it was with Adam’s music,” he says. “As soon as we started the tour, I’m hearing Counting Crows music everywhere. I sent him a text and said ‘hey man, your music is still everywhere’ and he texted back ‘yeah, we’re the survivors’.”

As the tour continues throughout the summer, Kowalczyk is humbled by the opportunities that he’s received with his bandmates in Live over the last 25 years and he isn’t taking a moment for granted. “It’s an interesting thing because you have you be crazy enough at some level to believe that you can be around this long but when it actually happens you just end of pinching yourself. Not only that we’re still doing this but doing this with so much joy, maybe more than ever,” he says. “It’s a real trip. There’s been a lot of ups and downs in the band and to be able to hone back in on the music and have the music still feel so great, it’s a dream.”

Current Issue

SUBMIT EVENTS

Submit Events

Advertisements

SingOutLoadFestival_TheAmp_2025
liz-buys-houses-digital
generac-home-standby-generator-banners

Date

Title

Current Month

Follow FOLIO!

Previous Story

#EatUpJax: Two Dudes Seafood Comes to Riverside, New Kosher Restaurant Downtown & Other Dining News

Next Story

Bite by Bite 2018: By Cuisine

Latest from Feature

Get Your Golden Ticket to a Sweet Take on a Classic at the Alhambra

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, THE NEW MUSICAL is a very different take on the classic based on the book by Roald Dahl.  If you’re expecting the songs from the original musical or movie, for the most part, they have new counterparts.  When the show moved from the West End

Listen Locally

May 16  “Blest” – Yuno Former Jacksonville local artist Yuno dropped a new album “Blest” this spring. The album is a mix of eclectic, indie/dream-pop and is influenced by trap and rock with popular hits “Blest” and “True”. If you’re a fan of Steve Lacy and DJO, you should certainly

The Fourth of July: America’s Loudest, Proudest Day of Reckoning

Words by Teresa Spencer Every summer, on the fourth day of July, fireworks slice through the night sky, flags ripple in the humid air, and hot dogs vanish at an alarming rate. Beneath the parades and pyrotechnics, however, lies a radical idea that still crackles with revolutionary energy: that

Chaos Sells

Why your favorite brand wants you thinking about murder, nipples and the apocalypse  Words by Carmen Macri  We’re officially in the era of weird branding, where companies are getting riskier, louder and a hell of a lot funnier. The playbook hasn’t changed much — grab attention, be louder than
July 5th Cleanup
GoUp

Don't Miss

Adam Duritz of Counting Crows in Jacksonville, Florida at Daily's Place, Photo by Richard Chappell for EU Jacksonville Newspaper

25 Years and Counting Tour Brought the 90’s Back: Counting Crows and Live Sizzled at Daily’s Place

Twenty five years doesn’t sound like a long time until

25 Years and Still Counting Crows: Interview with Adam Duritz

There’s a number of advantages to having a 25-year career