Our Lady Peace
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| Our Lady Peace | |
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 Our Lady Peace performing in Kitchener, Ontario, 2006
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Genre(s) | Post-grunge [1] Alternative rock |
| Years active | 1992–present |
| Label(s) | Columbia, Sony BMG |
| Associated acts | Fair Ground, Pedestrian |
| Website | www.ourladypeace.com |
| Members | |
| Raine Maida Jeremy Taggart Duncan Coutts Steve Mazur |
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| Former members | |
| Mike Turner Chris Eacrett Jim Newell |
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Our Lady Peace, often abbreviated OLP, is an award-winning Canadian alternative rock band consisting of Raine Maida, Duncan Coutts, Jeremy Taggart and Steve Mazur. Throughout their career, the band has sold over five million albums worldwide,[2] won four Juno Awards, and won ten MuchMusic Video Awards—the most MMVAs ever awarded to any artist or group.[3]
The band has thus-far released six studio albums, one live album, and one compilation album, and are known famously for their many hit singles ranging from "Superman's Dead" to "Somewhere Out There". The band is currently working on their seventh studio release,[4] which is nearing completion. No specific release date has yet been noted.
OLP's first four studio albums, spanning from their grunge-styled Naveed to their 2001 concept album Spiritual Machines, are widely considered to contain their most unique, raw and original music to date.
Many cite a distinct change toward a more generic, mainstream rock sound in their two most recent studio albums—Gravity and Healthy in Paranoid Times. Frontman Raine Maida has acknowledged this change himself, and says that former band producer Bob Rock pushed the band in that direction.[5] Maida struggles with the change, and says he "might be able to get back to that [original style of music]" in future albums.[5]
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[edit] History
[edit] Formation and debut (1992–1996)
Mike Turner placed a "musicians wanted" ad in Toronto-based Now Magazine in 1992. Michael Maida, a criminology student at the University of Toronto, was the first to reply. The two formed a band called As If with Jim Newell playing drums and a friend of Mike Turner's, Paul Martin, playing bass. Having played a number of gigs in Oshawa with sets containing a mix of original and cover material, Turner's friend departed and the band placed a "musicians wanted" ad for a replacement bass player. Chris Eacrett, a business student at Ryerson University, replied and was accepted after the audition. During that time, Turner and Maida attended a music seminar where they met songwriter and producer Arnold Lanni, the owner of Arnyard Studios. The band, with Lanni, commenced writing new material and recorded some material under the As If name.
To better reflect the new musical direction, the name of the band was changed to Our Lady Peace, and with encouragement from Arnold and his management team, they performed some gigs in Eastern Ontario and Montreal with the assistance of D.J. Williams (a Ridley College alumnus and classmate of Michael Maida, also a Ridley College alumnus), in conjunction with The Tea Party. During this time, Maida began using the name Raine to reduce the confusion of having two Mikes in the band. An independent video of the song "Out of Here" was also created during this time period by Sam Siciliano, a Ryerson University film student and friend of Mike Turner, who produced, edited, and directed the video. The video was aired on MuchMusic on their Indie show.
After returning to Arnyard Studios to continue writing and recording material, Jim Newell departed the band. Writing and recording continued with session drummer John Bouvette. With Coalition Management (Rob Lanni and Eric Lawrence) representing the band, and temporary drummer Jody Wilson, short showcases were arranged with Warner Canada, EMI Canada, and Sony Music Canada. Sony Music Canada head of A&R, Richard Zuckerman, liked what he heard and along with Sony president, Rick Camilleri, Mike Roth and Gary Furniss (both with Sony Music Publishing), saw the potential of the producer, the band, and band management, and made an offer. The band commenced writing additional material for a first album, as well placed a "musicians wanted" ad for a drummer. Jeremy Taggart answered the ad, and on the strength of his potential, the producer and band asked that he join the band.
After additional material was written and recorded, with the continued assistance of John Bouvette on several tracks and guitarist Phil X contributing a solo on "Denied," Our Lady Peace released its debut album Naveed in 1994 on Sony Records. The record was later picked up and released in the United States in 1995. Following the release of the album, the band toured with fellow Canadian acts I Mother Earth and 54-40. Touring continued on into 1996 with time spent touring with Canadian Alanis Morissette. The title track, "Naveed," became a hit in Canada, while "Starseed" became a hit in both Canada and the United States. "Starseed" would later be featured on the Armageddon film soundtrack. After touring as the opening act for Van Halen through the summer of 1995, and as the band began writing material for their follow-up album, Chris Eacrett and the band parted ways due to musical differences. Rob Coutts (a Ridley College alumni and classmate of Raine Maida) joined the band as Duncan Coutts on bass.
[edit] Mainstream success (1997–2002)
Their second album, Clumsy, was released in 1997. It features the hit songs "Superman's Dead," "4AM," "Automatic Flowers," and the title track "Clumsy." It is widely considered the group's best effort. It established Our Lady Peace as a leading band in the Canadian rock scene, and provided them with an international presence.
In 1998, Our Lady Peace founded the Summersault festival, that toured across Canada in 1998 and 2000 with lineups that included Foo Fighters, A Perfect Circle and The Smashing Pumpkins.
In 1999, the band released their third album, entitled Happiness...Is Not a Fish That You Can Catch. The album included such hits as "Thief," a song about a young girl, named Mina Kim, the band met who had cancer, as well as "One Man Army" and "Is Anybody Home?" Legendary jazz drummer Elvin Jones was featured on the song "Stealing Babies". Jamie Edwards, a multi-instrumentalist, was brought in on the sessions for Happiness... in 1996 and remained an unofficial member until 2001 when he was asked to officially join the band to finish the album Gravity. Shortly after the completion of the record Jamie chose to leave the band, returning briefly to stand in for Mike Eisenstein during the Canadian tour of Gravity. The band also played an eleven song set at Woodstock 1999.
In 2000, the band released Spiritual Machines, a concept album inspired by Ray Kurzweil's book The Age of Spiritual Machines. During the recording of this album, drummer Taggart was sidelined with an ankle injury. Good friend Matt Cameron, Pearl Jam's drummer and former member of Soundgarden played drums on "Right Behind You (Mafia)" and "Are You Sad?" in his place. Spiritual Machines sold below expectations. This album featured the singles "In Repair," "Life" (which found a soundtrack listing for the Canadian sports comedy film Men with Brooms) and "Right Behind You (Mafia)." In December 2001, after commencing work with producer Bob Rock, Mike Turner left the band citing creative differences. According to the band members the separation was amicable. Turner later joined Fair Ground. In April of 2002, Steve Mazur was announced as the new guitarist for the band.
[edit] Changes in direction, near break-up (2002–2005)
Some critics and fans contended that with their fifth studio album Gravity, the band's music changed, adopting an increasingly mainstream sound and softening the music considerably. Many of these critics blamed new producer Bob Rock for pushing the band in this direction. Raine Maida later agreed that it was Rock who encouraged the changes, and said that this marked change in OLP's music is something that he struggles with.
Despite such criticism, the album's chart-topping first single, "Somewhere Out There," became the band's biggest international hit to date. The second single released off the album was "Innocent." "Made of Steel" was also a hit across North America.
In August 2005, the band released their sixth and final studio album to date, Healthy in Paranoid Times, which included the tracks "Angels/Losing/Sleep," "Will the Future Blame Us," and "Where Are You?" Shortly after recording the album, the band disclosed that during the making of the album, they nearly broke up.[6] According to Rolling Stone, it took 1165 days to create it, and its twelve tracks were chosen from forty-five that the band had written and produced. Maida has since criticized the album, saying that "(the) record was total excess, total bullshit in the sense of, we finally had succumbed to a label: making us record that many songs, trying to find the right singles for American radio and MTV.".[5]
For the Healthy in Paranoid Times tour, the band added a fifth stage member, Joel Shearer (of the band Pedestrian), which saw them stopping in several North American cities between April and May of 2006.
[edit] Greatest hits compilation (2006)
In November 2006, their greatest hits compilation entitled A Decade was released. There are two new songs on the album, "Kiss On The Mouth" and "Better Than Here;" Steve Mazur wrote in a blog on the band's fan club that the new songs on the disc are two unreleased songs from the Healthy in Paranoid Times sessions.
The collection also includes the Top 10 tracks: "Where Are You," "Clumsy," "In Repair," "Somewhere Out There," "Innocent," "Thief," "Naveed," "Starseed" and "4 A.M." A Decade also includes a bonus DVD containing live concert footage and exclusive interviews at the Massey Hall concert. The single "Kiss On The Mouth," the first off A Decade, has received play on radio stations across Canada.
[edit] Forthcoming album (2007–present)
Since February 2007, the band has been working on their first studio album since their 2005 release Healthy in Paranoid Times. According to frontman Raine Maida, the new album is "huge" and will be a "proper rock album again"—featuring a return to the raw originality of the band's first album Naveed, though a "little more mature".[4]
With Arnold Lanni having produced the band's first four studio albums, and Bob Rock having produced their last two offerings, vocalist Raine Maida is reportedly the sole producer of their seventh release, noting how "it feels like (Naveed) again [...] I can engineer and produce and not have anybody intrude on our sessions". [4] As of May 2008, the band has recorded 12 songs for the new album, and plan to get together for one last music session before the album is completed. [4] The currently untitled album is expected to be released in late 2008 or early 2009.
[edit] Discography
| Year | Album | Chart positions | Distributor | Sales | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. | Canada | U.S. | Canada | |||
| 1994 | Naveed | — | — | Columbia | 400,000 | |
| 1997 | Clumsy | 76 | 1 | Columbia | 1,000,000 | 1,000,000 |
| 1999 | Happiness... | 69 | 2 | Columbia | 300,000 | |
| 2000 | Spiritual Machines | 81 | 10 | Columbia | 200,000 | |
| 2002 | Gravity | 9 | 2 | Columbia | 1,000,000 | 200,000 |
| 2003 | Live | 112 | 5 | Columbia | ||
| 2005 | Healthy in Paranoid Times | 45 | 2 | Sony BMG | 100,000 | |
| 2006 | A Decade | — | — | Sony BMG | ||
| 2008 | Untitled 7th studio album | TBD | TBD | Sony | ||
[edit] Band member timeline
[edit] References
- ^ [1] Biography of Our Lady Peace on All Music Guide
- ^ "Our Lady Peace Get Well", Rolling Stone, August 1, 2005.
- ^ .MuchMusic.com > MMVA06 > REWIND > 97, 98, 00. MuchMusic. Retrieved on 2007-01-17.
- ^ a b c d Canoe interview; with Raine Maida
- ^ a b c Montreal Gazette interview; with Raine Maida
- ^ "Our Lady Peace Get Well", Rolling Stone, August 1, 2005.
[edit] External links
- Our Lady Peace official website
- Clumsy Congress official message board
- OurLadyPeace.net official fan club
- Our Lady Peace at MySpace
- Raine Maida official website
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