Into the Void

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Ed Kowalcyzk says that he doesn’t like to over-think things, which is kind of like a coroner professing an aversion to torn flesh.

This is a guy who’s built a career out of singing about faith, man’s reason for being and one’s place in the universe — not exactly the stuff that normally soundtracks an evening of keg stands and questionable decision making.

Funny thing is, a decade ago, Kowalcyzk’s band, dramatic rockers Live, came to fame doing just that: The group turned existential uncertainty into driving modern rock with economy-sized choruses that made them fixtures in college dorm rooms and frat parties with their smash 1994 disc, “Throwing Copper.”

But having spent the summer playing Midwestern baseball parks with fellow ’90s breakouts Collective Soul and Counting Crows, the band is leery of the nostalgia factor that inevitably clings to such package tours like alt-rock ivy.

“I think it might be inevitable on some levels, because the huge breakthrough for the band was in the mid-’90s,” Kowalcyzk says. “Some of that vibe, I embraced it, because there’s really no way around it. On our own shows, where our fans have been following the band post-‘Throwing Copper,’ they’re more engaged in our new music, they’re more engaged with the trajectory of the band as it’s existed since 2000. You could say, ‘Oh, it’s just a ’90s tour.’ But at the same time, it’s rock ‘n’ roll for people and it was a cool event. I just jumped in.”

Despite having gone from selling 8 million copies of “Throwing Copper” to 46,000 copies of their latest disc, 2006’s “Songs From Black Mountain,” Live remains a solid touring draw, capable of comfortably headlining 2,500 seat venues.

But when it comes to getting new music to the masses, the band, like many of their peers from that era, has struggled to be heard.

“We have a track record and obviously we’re established and all, but with new records, trying to go into different directions has been challenging,” Kowalcyzk says. “There was a beautiful sort of window for about five years in the ’90s where modern rock radio was still burgeoning and wasn’t really definitively set in its ways. There was definitely more of a potential for an embrace of new things that’s been on the wane for a while.”

Still, Live has built up its name brand to the extent that it can benefit from the shift away from traditional distribution methods for its albums toward the online delivery of its catalog.

Without a record company taking a sizable chunk of the profits, bands can greatly reduce overhead and gross more revenue selling 50,000-100,000 records on their own than they would by going gold on a major label.

To this end, Live recently issued its first online release, the rarities collection “Radiant Sea.”

“We’ve established ourselves to the degree that now we can really take advantage of this new world order that we see in the record business and the music distribution business, it’s a whole different thing than when I started,” Kowalcyzk says. “The crown gem was always the record deal, and then everything fell into place after that, because that was the system. Now, that’s really changed dramatically. We just launched our own online music store where you can download our new bootleg, rarities album. And that’s just the beginning.”

As with his band’s discography, there’s an optimism that hangs about Kowalcyzk, clear as his ringing, robust singing voice, and he seems content with where his career has taken him.

As long as you keep showing up, so will he.

“I think at any moment there’s people that are out there waiting for what you’re going to do, and you just don’t know who they are,” he says. “You just do your thing from the heart and take the chance. You just go and you think later. You jump into the void, and you see how it falls.”