Your friendly neighborhood Crawler was fortunate enough to catch up with what are arguably two of the most iconic voices in recent modern rock history—Staind’s Aaron Lewis and Ed Kowalczyk, best known for his work with Live. Both now flirting with 40—and both with three daughters at home—the influential frontmen spoke of their latest projects and the respective roads that got them there.
Aaron It Out
Nightcrawler: Hey, Aaron, I made a note here not to say “It’s been awhile,” as I inadvertently did the last, what, five times we spoke, I think?
Aaron Lewis: (Laughs) That’s right. I think you owe me $50 if you do, in fact!
Then I definitely won’t say it. I will say that a lot has transpired since we last spoke, however. You released and toured on a successful country CD and are now back with a new Staind disc. Can you do this like flicking a switch?
Well, I definitely call upon my voice in completely different ways for the two, but other than that, the genres are both pieces of me, and performing either at any given time does feel natural to me.
The new CD is being hailed as your heaviest addition to your catalogue since your 1999 debut, Dysfunction. And it’s been rumored that the session was the most contentious in the band’s 16-year career. Coincidence?
You certainly don’t need such dissension to make a heavy record, but it does seem conducive to it, doesn’t it? (Laughs.) But really, I always wanted to make a heavy record again, and stuck my foot in my mouth last time I said that because it morphed into something else in the studio, as it so easily can. We made a conscientious effort not to let that happen this time, and I’m very proud of the result.
As you should be. But it did come at a price, it appears, as founding drummer Jon Wysocki reportedly left the band after the sessions. Who is replacing him for the tour? And is he a full-fledged member of Staind, or a fill-in leaving the door open for Jon to return?
Whether or not Jon wants to return is entirely up to Jon. For now, his former drum tech, Sal Giancarelli, is filling in.
Coffee Talk
Nightcrawler: Looking forward to your Sept. 23 performance at Up Or On The Rocks for Radio104 Fest—and if I recall correctly, you were just in our neck of the woods with Open Wings, Broken Strings. Was that a one-off?
Ed Kowalczyk: I was, and, no, it’s a series I created and revisit occasionally to sort of strip it down like a singer/songwriter/storyteller thing that is intimate with the fans. Tonic’s Emerson Hart and Sixpence None The Richer’s Leigh Nash came aboard last go-round, and we were in this neck of the woods earlier this year, yes.
I was going to ask how the songwriting process for your new solo CD, Alive, compared to the Live days—if it was liberating, a dream or what have you. But you did the lion’s share of the songwriting back then, too, didn’t you?
I did. So technically, it wasn’t this big, “freeing” thing or radically different, because I have always come in with progressions, lyrics and melodies. But I’m at a different point in my life—I think I was 20 when we were signed. And it feels fresh, playing with some different people in the band. I also got to collaborate with some great people on the disc, like my good friend Chris Daughtry.
You are also gaining the reputation of being an aspiring barista. Big fan of the bean?
Man, it’s really bad. (Laughs.) Not quite as bad as Dave Grohl, who I hear drank so much coffee in the studio, he was actually hospitalized. But I can’t be too far behind. I even have my own “Songwriter’s Signature Espresso” for sale at my website, edkowalczyk.com.
Send correspondence to Nightcrawler, PO Box 427, Somers, CT 06071; fax to (860) 394-4262 or email Garycarra@aol.com.
