WHEN Ed Kowalczyk listens back to Live's breakthrough album Throwing Copper he recalls the intensity of the times.
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It was 1994 and Kowalczyk was 23 and fronting the US alt-rock band, which he formed with Chad Taylor (lead guitar), Patrick Dahlheimer (bass), and Chad Gracey (drums) at high school in the Pennsylvania town of York.
Live had enjoyed moderate success with their second album Mental Jewelry (1991) - and first since ditching their original name Public Affection - but they found themselves at the crossroads. Would they pursue their musical dreams or follow their parents' wishes to go to college?
"We decided two years before that record came out that we weren't going to go to university," Kowalczyk says. "So we were under a lot of pressure to succeed as a band as our parents were kind of pissed off that we weren't going to school.
"We had a lot of pressure on ourselves to work hard and do well. So there's an intensity and a drive in those songs that you can palpably feel.
"We were a band that needed to make it. We had no choice. We needed to make it work as we were putting it all on the line.
"I can feel that. I remember those years being very intense. Very joyful, but a lot of work and a lot of faith and a leap of faith into the unknown that ended up working out really well."
Working out really well, is a giant understatement. Throwing Copper made Live global rock stars, topping the US Billboard and ARIA charts on its way to 8 million sales.
The singles Lightning Crashes, Selling The Drama and I Alone have become '90s alt-rock staples.
"The emotional and spiritual impact of it is very deep and the lyrics I wrote have aged well," Kowalczyk says when explaining the continued popularity of Throwing Copper.
"They're not stuck in an era. They're open to interpretation just enough so people can make them their own.
"People say they're the soundtrack to their lives and they've been able to adopt them in a way that's really extraordinary for a writer to experience. Because you're making these little songs in your room and then all of a sudden thousands or millions of people are getting something from it and feeling it.
"It's a lesson on the universal nature of our relationship as human beings with music, especially when you experience it like we have as a band with a big record."
Live's career continued to flourish post-Throwing Copper. The darker Secret Samadhi topped the US charts in 1997 and produced the hit Lakini's Juice, which was followed by the more commercial The Distance To Here (1999).
By the late 2000s cracks started to appear among the four school friends. In 2009 Live began a two-year break which eventually led to Kowalczyk being replaced by new vocalist Chris Shinn.
Taylor, Dahlheimer and Gracey then commenced legal action against Kowalczyk for continuing to use the Live name and released the album The Turn in 2014 with Shinn.
But by 2016 relations had thawed. After catching up with Taylor over a beer, Kowalczyk rejoined Live and the reunited band released the EP Local 717 in 2018.
In April Live return to Australia with fellow '90s alt-rock heavyweights Bush and Stone Temple Pilots for Under The Southern Stars. After the tour the focus will shift to recording. Kowalczyk hasn't made an LP with Live since Songs from Black Mountain in 2006 and he's desperate to return to the studio.
"People stream and just go and get their favourite song and don't have to listen linearly from front to back, but we still love the album format and we still think in terms of an album when we're writing and working and producing," he says.
"We like a story. We want to tell a story front to back and have all the songs mean something together. That's just the old-school album fans in us.
"Is it relevant to nowadays? I think it still is."
And what can Live fans expect from a new album?
"I would expect tons of guitars and energy," he says. "We're gonna have a lot of fun making this record."
The Under The Southern Stars Tour passes through Tuncurry (April 3), Parramatta (April 4), Gosford (April 5), Wollongong (April 9), Mornington Peninsula (April 11), Yarrawonga (April 12), Adelaide (April 13), Perth (April 15), Sunshine Coast (April 17), Brisbane (April 18) and Newcastle Foreshore (April 19).