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Live has pushed back the release date of their upcoming album Songs from Black Mountain from April 11 to May 9.
Black Mountain will be the band’s seventh full-length release and first for new label Epic/Sony. It was recorded in a three-week session with producer Jim Wirt in a Santa Barbara studio.
[ADBLOCKHERE]“We haven’t recorded that quickly since Throwing Copper,” said Live frontman Ed Kowalcyzk. “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 single from the album, “The River”, is currently available for purchase as a download from the iTunes Music Store and can also be streamed in the following formats:
Lyrical themes are again (or still) inspired and influenced by Kowalcyzk’s views of spirituality. He says many of the songs refer to his muse, a character or entity he sees in female form.
“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.”
One song, “Home” is an anti-war song — although Kowalcyzk says it goes beyond that.
“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.”
Live formed in York, Pennsylvania in 1988 and is still Kowalcyzk, guitarist Chad Taylor, drummer Chad Gracey, and bassist Patrick Dahlheimer.
