Singled Out: Kurt Deimer's Live Or Die

05-09-2025

Acclaimed hard rocker Kurt Deimer just released his debut album "And So It Begins", and to celebrate we asked him to tell us about the hit lead single from the record "Live Or Die". Here is the story:

"Live or Die" was the first single we released, back in February, off of my debut album And So It Begins... (out today, May 9th!) The song was conceived in my brain because I care about all humanity and people and human beings. The state of the way the world is now is scary and I know there's a lot of people that live in fear every day . They're afraid to do things, they're afraid to take chances, they're living very anxiously. That's why we see higher rates of suicide now, more drug addiction, and isolation. The world is just very chaotic. So, I wanted to write this song so that people would feel a sense of encouragement to do the things they wanna do in life. For instance, if you want to climb a mountain, go climb a mountain. Do you want to parachute out of a plane? Then go parachute out of a plane. Do you want to get a degree but you're afraid you can't do it? Go do it! The point is, don't be afraid to live your dreams - the worst thing that could happen to you is you're gonna live or you're gonna die. That's just the basic truth. We only have one life so make the best of that life. Do what you love to do with that life and be the best you can be. We've got one chance and that's why I wrote "Live or Die." I just want people to enjoy their lives and take those chances and live their lives to the fullest.

Writing the song was very simple for me to do because I care about people and I want people to live their lives and I wanted to express that in a way that would encourage them via our music. I wrote the lyrics with that in mind - to awaken people to the fact that you enjoy your life, live your life, do the things in life that make you happy - so putting pen to paper was easy with "Live or Die." As far as the music goes, it was quite cool. I sent the lyrics to Phil X, who I wrote the song with, and I remember Phil X was rehearsing with Bon Jovi out in New Jersey (he is the guitarist for Bon Jovi) and he texted me telling me he was working on "Live or Die" while he had time off during rehearsal so that was so cool. Once Phil X came up with the magic of the music, which he nailed perfectly to present our vision, we sent it to Grammy Award-winning producer, mixer Chris Lord-Alge and he put the finishing touches on it. Then, we added the drummer, Brian Tichy, to do the drums and hence you have "Live or Die."

Once we had the song done, we decided for the release, we must do a really cool music video for it. My vision for that was just many live or die moments in history, where people are taking chances years and years ago and present day. I wanted to show the carefree aspect of many different types of people who have that live or die attitude and that reach for the sky mentality. We shot the performance part of the video out in LA. We had a lot of fun making the video. I hope "Live or Die" inspires all of you to live your life. Enjoy your life, take chances in life, and be the best person you can be because at the end of the day, as I said, you're either gonna live or you're gonna die. "Live or Die."

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more here