ed: i think they're definetely one of the seminal bands of our begginings in about '88. at junior high school i played nothing but "nothing's shocking" for months and months. it's atrip to be going on tour with them. to me they r the originatorsof what we know today as the alternative modern rock.

rs:what do u think of the current state of rock music?

ed:i think a lot of it it's heartless. a lot of it doesnt go very deep, so i can't really relate to it.i mean, there is stuff out there that i like, but as a general feeling, it sure as shit isn't '92.

rs:what does it feel to do this after so many years together as a band? does your friendship suffer?

chadt:being in the band its very hard to judge our relantionship with each other, because we are all growing, changing and maturing at the same time together. in order to perceive the change i think that u have to be on the outside looking in, so its probably easier for those who have worked with us through the years and casual acquaitances to see it. i never think about our friendship, so therefore it must still be strong. live has always been four guys with four very separate and distinct personalities and four very strong egos. we all know what we desire.

rs: "throwing copper" sold millions worldwide. do u think you reached a peak with that album and tha's has been a struggle to repeat that success?

chadt:well, i'm afraid that's based on commercial success - and i dont want to base the band's success on anything commercial. the reality is we can't control the commercial, i want to base the band's success on what we can control: the songwriting, the ability to be able to perform the songs, the tour - all the tangible things that we can work on. i know we are still getting better, our fifth album is our best album . so i don't know that the sixth will be better or the seventh.

rs:live's muisc has always contained messages of love, spirituality and peace. do you ever feel that the message is not getting across?

ed: i guess i just persisit because it's what i want to be remembered for. i don't necessarilly get all that inpired from super-stylised music. i like to amke it fun, to have a groove, and be something people can be uplifetd by, but at the same time lyrically i've stayed on the path of pushing the boundaries of my own conscioussness on everything i do and every song that i make.

rs:you've got a guest appearence by tricky in the opening song "simple creed", how did that came about?

ed:he called me on january and i sang on his record first(" evolution revolution love"). i was a big fan of tricky. in fact, i saw him at london's shepherd's bush empire in '93 and loved all his records. he's a big live fan and i didnt even know it. he called me up and asked me to come in, and we did this song in about an hour. he was in la for two months by himself, so my little brother and i were kind of his la escorts. we took him everywhere, all our bars, taking him to melrose shopping, hunting women. he and my brother went out chasing girls, it was great. right before he left la i said, "why dont you come over and sing in our record?" so he came over and returned the favour.

rs:did you write the song with tricky's part in mind?

ed: no, it was finished. we rearranged that section of "simple creed" and he did his thing. that was the attitude that we approched the whole record with. i mean i'm rapping in this record. we just didn't give a shit, we just did whatever it wsa the most fun to do at the time and not think 'that's not live' - and what the fuck is live? let's reinvent what we are.

rs:all of your previous albuns have got interesting titles. why did you settle on "V" for album number five? it's not exactly an inspirational title.

ed: it pissed me off that originally we had this great title , "ecstatic fanatic", and we decided to use thsi pictuer from a really cool photo shoot we did that was like me spinning on the ground, almost like a gang coming out at you, really aggressive. we like that.

rs:like "reservoir dogs"?

ed: yeah it is, very reservoir dogs-ish. we were like 'that's cool ...but it hardily fits with "ecstatic fanatic!"' so we tore that title off, and it was literally like' if you dont name the record now, the record's gonna come out in 2004'. fuck it, live, five, hey it rhymes!

rs:what was the meaning behind the original title "ecstatic fanatic"?

chadt: in the years of doing live, the one thing that has remained true and loyal to the band has been our fans. everywhere we go, alla round the world, we have ecstatic fanatics, live-heads, whatever they call themselves, i mean , it's literally a cult. there was a story about a young guy who was killed in a car crash on his way home from a live show. it was amazing, all these kids from around the world sending flowers and cards to this one kid whoi basically lost his life after coming to a live show. this record is about our fans and our relantioship with them, and ed will tell you that in the songwriting.

rs: on "the distance..." tour, your manager passed away. did that influenec your songwriting in the album?

ed:no! not exactly but i think that it definetely affected me. you realise that the body is something that eventually drops off, it's not a permanent fixture. you don't get a guarantee card with it when you're born. no one guarantess that it will last 80 years and you'll live a full, great life and don't worry about anything. it's going to go one day. it can teach you a great lesson about life itself, i guess it did affect the depths of some of the songs in the record.

rs:live have never seemed to recreate the success they enjoy in the states over here in the uk. how much does that bother you?

ed: it is what it is. to paraphrase rama maharshi, a great indian sage: you know, there is no sense in worrying about things, the worl is what it is. it's going to go the way it does, and things are going to happen the way they are going to happen. i just rest in the eternal self and let things happen.

rs:ok! ed, you had problems before of people misunderstanding you as a person. would you call yourself a spiritual person?

ed: i'd call myself a person that, on my better days, realises that everything is spirit. i think that musc for me , in some ways, is proof that the world is a psycho-physical event, and that, you know, music doesn't really exist anywhere. you look at the cd and where is the music? it's happened somewhere, it's a very magical thing for me, because not only do we get to do this for ourselves, but i can go all over the world and communicate with others as well. that's a trip. it's something that inspires me a lot to keep doing it and getting better.

rs:how many more albuns do you think live have left then?

chadt: the way i look at it, john lee hooker made his best records in the last couple of years of his life. i don't want to miss that oportunity with live. live is a platform for expression. it's that process of building a record, building a song that keeps bringing me back. maybe if we write the perfect record, play the perfect show, or have th eperfect moment. maybe then we can look at each other and say 'it can't get better than that'.

ed:it's unknown. we'll always be a band, but the older we get we'll probably do more projects other than live. obviously we've already started collaborations. i'm getting into that. i like collaborating with other people. the track with tricky was so much fun. the other guys in the band all have their own studios and record their own stuff and other bands'. i'd say to expect more of that from us. we've been in the band fro 16 years, we are not tired of each other , we still get along. i'd like to put a new live record every year. i don't wnat to stop the quickness of this record, the whole momentum we have going. i'd like to keep going. as an artist, your most valuable asset is momentum, the energy's moving, you are not sitting there with a guitar going 'what the fuck am i doing?'.

(+live+deeper - 27th october 2001)