Edward Kowalczyk
Encyclopedia
Edward Joel Kowalczyk is the former lead singer of the band Live
. Since leaving Live in 2009, he has launched a solo career. His first album, Alive
, was released worldwide in June and July 2010.
and Glen Ballard
and singers Anouk
, Neneh Cherry
and Adam Duritz
of Counting Crows
. He featured on the song "Evolution Revolution Love," from the 2001 Tricky
album Blowback
. He collaborated with Chris Frantz
, Jerry Harrison
and Tina Weymouth
(ex-Talking Heads
, then performing as The Heads) on the song "Indie Hair" from their 1996 album No Talking, Just Head
.
's "Imagine
" with Slash
in 2003 at "Peace on the Beach," a rally to protest the coming War in Iraq. In 2008 he appeared in a video with will.i.am
from The Black Eyed Peas
, John Legend
, Scarlett Johansson
and Nick Cannon
, supporting US Presidential candidate Barack Obama
and appeared at campaign rallies for Obama with will.i.am.
film Fight Club
as a waiter, his only film acting credit to date.
of Polish descent and attended William Penn Senior High School in the York City School District
, where he met the other three members of what would become Live. His father was a teacher at the local High School (Northeastern).
His younger brother Adam Kowalczyk
is also a musician, who toured with Live from 1999 to 2009, playing rhythm guitar and providing backing vocals.
Solo singles
Live (band)
Live is an American rock band from York, Pennsylvania, composed of Chad Taylor , Patrick Dahlheimer , and Chad Gracey . Lead singer and principal songwriter Ed Kowalczyk left the band in November 2009....
. Since leaving Live in 2009, he has launched a solo career. His first album, Alive
Alive (Ed Kowalczyk album)
Alive is the debut solo album by former Live lead singer Ed Kowalczyk.-History:Kowalczyk entered the studio in early 2010 to record material that he began writing in 2008. He wrote songs for Alive with an acoustic guitar, as he had when he wrote for Live.The lyrics on Alive feature much religious...
, was released worldwide in June and July 2010.
Live
Ed Kowalczyk was the lead singer and primary songwriter for the band Live. In 2009 he left the band and the other three members issued a statement detailing what they felt were inappropriate actions by Kowalczyk.Solo career
Following his departure from Live, Kowalczyk recorded a solo album, Alive, which was released in 2010.Collaboration with other musicians
Kowalczyk has worked with musicians Stuart DavisStuart Davis (musician)
Stuart Davis is an American contemporary musician and songwriter. He has been performing throughout the United States and Europe since 1993...
and Glen Ballard
Glen Ballard
Glen Ballard is an American songwriter and record producer, best known for co-writing and producing Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill , which won Grammy Award for "Best Rock Album", and "Album of the Year" amongst others, and is ranked by the Rolling Stone amongst The 500 Greatest Albums of...
and singers Anouk
Anouk
Anouk Teeuwe , professionally known by the mononym Anouk, is a Dutch singer.After being discovered by Golden Earring frontman Barry Hay, Anouk had her breakthrough in the Netherlands in 1997 with the single "Nobody's Wife"...
, Neneh Cherry
Neneh Cherry
Neneh Mariann Cherry is a Swedish singer-songwriter, rapper, and occasional DJ and broadcaster...
and Adam Duritz
Adam Duritz
Adam Fredric Duritz is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, and film producer. He is best known for his role as frontman and vocalist for the rock band Counting Crows, in which he is a founding member and principal composer of their catalogue of songs.Duritz has recorded solo...
of Counting Crows
Counting Crows
Counting Crows is an American rock band originating from Berkeley, California. Formed in 1991, the group gained popularity following the release of its debut album in 1993, August and Everything After, which featured the hit single "Mr. Jones"...
. He featured on the song "Evolution Revolution Love," from the 2001 Tricky
Tricky
Tricky is an English musician and actor. As a producer and a musician, he is noted for a dark, rich and layered sound and a whispering sprechgesang lyrical style. Culturally, Tricky encourages an intertwining of societies, particularly in his musical fusion of rock and hip hop, high art and pop...
album Blowback
Blowback (album)
Blowback is the sixth album by Tricky, released in 2001. Like Nearly God, Blowback contains several collaborations, but the album's sound is much brighter and more relaxed by comparison. Tricky himself said that he wanted to get airplay with this album, while most of his earlier albums were made to...
. He collaborated with Chris Frantz
Chris Frantz
Chris Frantz is an American musician and record producer. He was the drummer for both Talking Heads and the Tom Tom Club.-Career:...
, Jerry Harrison
Jerry Harrison
Jerry Harrison is an American songwriter, musician and producer...
and Tina Weymouth
Tina Weymouth
Martina Michèle "Tina" Weymouth is an American musician, best known as a founding member and bassist of the New Wave group Talking Heads and its side project Tom Tom Club .-Profile:Weymouth is of French heritage on her mother's side. Weymouth was a cheerleader in high school...
(ex-Talking Heads
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...
, then performing as The Heads) on the song "Indie Hair" from their 1996 album No Talking, Just Head
No Talking, Just Head
No Talking, Just Head is an album by The Heads, a band composed of Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth, and Chris Frantz of Talking Heads, joined by a variety of guest singers...
.
Political activities
Kowalczyk performed John LennonJohn Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
's "Imagine
Imagine (song)
"Imagine" is a song written and performed by the English musician John Lennon. It is the opening track on his album Imagine, released in 1971...
" with Slash
Slash (musician)
Saul Hudson , known by his stage name Slash, is a British-American musician and songwriter. He is best known as the former lead guitarist of the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. During his later years with Guns N'...
in 2003 at "Peace on the Beach," a rally to protest the coming War in Iraq. In 2008 he appeared in a video with will.i.am
Will.i.am
William James Adams, Jr. , better known by his stage name will.i.am and occasionally by his other stage name Zuper Blahq, is an American rapper, musician, songwriter, singer, actor and producer...
from The Black Eyed Peas
The Black Eyed Peas
The Black Eyed Peas are an American pop group , formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1995. The group includes rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap, and Taboo, and singer Fergie. Since the release of their third album Elephunk in 2003, the group has sold an estimated 56 million records worldwide...
, John Legend
John Legend
John Roger Stephens , better known by his stage name John Legend, is an American singer, musician, and actor. He is the recipient of nine Grammy Awards, and in 2007, he received the special Starlight award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.Prior to the release of his debut album, Stephens' career...
, Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Johansson is an American actress, model and singer.Johansson made her film debut in North and was later nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for her performance in Manny & Lo . She rose to further prominence with her roles in The Horse Whisperer and Ghost World...
and Nick Cannon
Nick Cannon
Nicholas Scott "Nick" Cannon is an American actor, comedian, rapper, entrepreneur, record producer, radio, and television personality. On television, Cannon began as a teenage sketch comedian on All That before going on to host The Nick Cannon Show, Wild 'N Out, and America's Got Talent...
, supporting US Presidential candidate Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
and appeared at campaign rallies for Obama with will.i.am.
Acting
He appeared in the David FincherDavid Fincher
David Andrew Leo Fincher is an American film and music video director. Known for his dark and stylish thrillers, such as Seven , The Game , Fight Club , Panic Room , and Zodiac , Fincher received Academy Award nominations for Best Director for his 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and...
film Fight Club
Fight Club (film)
Fight Club is a 1999 American film based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. The film was directed by David Fincher and stars Edward Norton, Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter. Norton plays the unnamed protagonist, an "everyman" who is discontented with his white-collar job...
as a waiter, his only film acting credit to date.
Personal life
Kowalczyk is married and has three daughters. He announced the birth of his third daughter, Cecilia, on April 14, 2011. He grew up in York, PennsylvaniaYork, Pennsylvania
York, known as the White Rose City , is a city located in York County, Pennsylvania, United States which is in the South Central region of the state. The population within the city limits was 43,718 at the 2010 census, which was a 7.0% increase from the 2000 count of 40,862...
of Polish descent and attended William Penn Senior High School in the York City School District
York City School District
The School District of York City is a public school district serving the City of York, Pennsylvania in York County. The district encompasses approximately 5 square miles. According to 2000 federal census data, it serves a resident population of 40,968...
, where he met the other three members of what would become Live. His father was a teacher at the local High School (Northeastern).
His younger brother Adam Kowalczyk
Adam Kowalczyk
Adam Kowalczyk is an American musician who was born in York, Pennsylvania. He is the brother of Ed Kowalczyk, the former lead singer of the band Live. -Biography:...
is also a musician, who toured with Live from 1999 to 2009, playing rhythm guitar and providing backing vocals.
Discography
Solo albums| Year | Album details | Peak chart positions | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
AUS ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
BEL Ultratop 50 Ultratop 50 singles, often just Ultratop 50, is the weekly chart of fifty best-selling singles in Flanders, Belgium, and is produced and published by the Ultratop organization. The chart has existed since March 31, 1995... (FL Flanders Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp... ) |
NED MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
||
| 2010 | Alive Alive (Ed Kowalczyk album) Alive is the debut solo album by former Live lead singer Ed Kowalczyk.-History:Kowalczyk entered the studio in early 2010 to record material that he began writing in 2008. He wrote songs for Alive with an acoustic guitar, as he had when he wrote for Live.The lyrics on Alive feature much religious...
|
166 | 42 | 27 | 4 |
Solo singles
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Album | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Alt. |
AUS | NED | |||
| 2001 | "Evolution Revolution Love" (Tricky Tricky Tricky is an English musician and actor. As a producer and a musician, he is noted for a dark, rich and layered sound and a whispering sprechgesang lyrical style. Culturally, Tricky encourages an intertwining of societies, particularly in his musical fusion of rock and hip hop, high art and pop... featuring Ed Kowalczyk) |
35 | — | 79 | Blowback Blowback (album) Blowback is the sixth album by Tricky, released in 2001. Like Nearly God, Blowback contains several collaborations, but the album's sound is much brighter and more relaxed by comparison. Tricky himself said that he wanted to get airplay with this album, while most of his earlier albums were made to... |
| 2010 | "Grace Grace (Ed Kowalczyk song) "Grace" is the first single by former Live lead singer Ed Kowalczyk from his debut solo album Alive.... " |
— | 100 | — | Alive |
| "Stand" | — | — | — | ||
Songs in TV
- "Evolution Revolution Love" (Tricky featuring Ed Kowalczyk) was used in the NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
series The West Wing in the episode "Manchester (Part 1)Manchester Part I and Part IIThese episodes of The West Wing deal with President Bartlet's decision to run for re-election, and the activities of the weeks leading up to his official announcement. Written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Thomas Schlamme, the episodes contain the first appearances by Ron Silver, Evan Handler and...
".