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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,
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,[publisher= Canoe] which is nearing completion. No specific release date or album title have yet been confirmed.
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 and original music to date. Maida's distinct high-octave falsetto was also an important factor in the music's success, prominently used in songs such as their 1999 single, "Thief".
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. Maida's falsetto was also lost during these albums. Maida has recently acknowledged this change, and says that former band producer Bob Rock pushed the band in that direction.[url=www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/arts/story.html?id=529733b0-3e18-45b7-81ed-6b61bb12a36c] Maida struggles with the change, and says he "might be able to get back to that style of music" in future albums.
HistoryFormation and debutIn 1992, guitarist Mike Turner placed a "musicians wanted" ad in Toronto-based Now Magazine looking to form a new band. 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.
NaveedAfter 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.
Mainstream and international success (1997–2001)After Naveed had launched Our Lady Peace into international stardom, the band began work on their second studio album. As the writing process ensued, bassist 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 during the recording of their second album.
Clumsy
Entitled Clumsy, the band's second album was released in 1997. It features the hit songs "Superman's Dead", "4 A.M.", "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.
The album cover was based on a song called "Trapeze", which was initially going to be the name of the album. They decided to leave the song off the album but still performed it live.
Happiness... Is Not a Fish That You Can CatchIn 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.
Spiritual MachinesIn 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 Jeremy Taggart was sidelined with an ankle injury; 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 was less commercially successful than its predecessors. The 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)".
Changes in direction (2001–2005)In December 2001, after commencing work with producer Bob Rock on a new album, founding guitarist Mike Turner left the band, citing "creative differences".["The Torch article Our Lady Peace disappoints fans with new release". Retrieved on July 21, 2008.] According to the band members the separation was amicable. Turner later formed the band Fair Ground. In April 2002, Steve Mazur was announced as the new guitarist for the band.
GravityOLP's fifth studio album, Gravity, was released later that year to mixed reviews. Some critics and fans contended that the album was a radical departure from Our Lady Peace's musical style, adopting an increasingly mainstream sound. Percussionist Jeremy Taggart disclosed in a 2002 interview that the new direction was intentional, and that Gravity was "by far their best album".
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", which was also popular, and also regained popularity recently through American Idol. "Made of Steel" was also a hit across North America.
Live from Calgary and EdmontonOn June 24 2003 Live was released on Sony BMG. Live from Calgary and Edmonton contains some of the band's most epic songs as played throughout tours in Canada. Notable differences to the studio versions are Naveed / Life, which was played as one single song throughout the supporting tour.
Healthy in Paranoid TimesIn August 2005, the band released their sixth album 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.
Maida has since criticized Healthy in Paranoid Times, 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."
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.
Forthcoming album (2007–present)future album Section
Since February 2007, the band has been working on their first studio album since Healthy in Paranoid Times was released in 2005. 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".
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 he's excited to "engineer and produce and not have anybody intrude on sessions".
A song from the album entitled "Dreamland", described by Maida as "a lullaby", was performed live at the 2008 Atlantic Superstore Festival of Lights in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island on June 29. Though Maida confirmed that the song was from their upcoming album, it is not known whether or not "Dreamland" will be released as a single.
Recent album developmentsAs of July 2008, the band has recorded at least 16 or 17 songs["melodic.net: Our Lady Peace recording new album". Melodic.net. Retrieved on July 20, 2008.]. On July 5 guitarist Steve Mazur posted on the band's MySpace blog, noting: "Many songs are finished, we're just writing more now `cause we're having a good time doing it [...] so we figure why not just keep going until we feel that we're out of juice". According to Mazur, the album title and artwork are currently in discussion.
Band member informationCurrent members- Raine Maida (1992–present): vocals, acoustic guitar
- Jeremy Taggart (1993–present): percussion
- Duncan Coutts (1995–present): bass guitar, backing vocals
- Steve Mazur (2002–present): guitar, backing vocals
Former members- Mike Turner (1992–2001): guitar, backing vocals
- Chris Eacrett (1992–1995): bass
- Jim Newell (1992–1994): percussion
- Larry Galea
Record producers- Arnold Lanni (1992–2001): Naveed, Clumsy, Happiness, Spiritual Machines
- Bob Rock (2001–2005): Gravity, Healthy in Paranoid Times
- Raine Maida (2007–present): untitled seventh studio album
Member timeline chart
ImageSize = width:600 height:auto barincrement:25
PlotArea = left:100 bottom:60 top:0 right:50
Alignbars = justify
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy
Period = from:01/01/1992 till:01/01/2008
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
Colors =
Legend = orientation:horizontal position:bottom
ScaleMajor = increment:1 start:1992
PlotData=
Discography- 1994: Naveed
- 1997: Clumsy
- 1999: Happiness...
- 2000: Spiritual Machines
- 2002: Gravity
- 2003: Live
- 2005: Healthy in Paranoid Times
- 2006: A Decade
- 2008: Untitled 7th studio album
Copyright Citations
This article is licensed under the GNU License
Click here for original article: Our Lady Peace
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