Our Lady Peace is back.
Five years after their last studio album, Curve, the veteran Canadian alt-rockers have returned with Somethingness, a collection of nine powerfully compelling new songs, spread out over two Eps.
The album also coincided with a special series of conceptual videos beginning with Drop Me in the Water, followed by Hiding Place for Hearts, Nice to Meet You and most recently Falling Into Place, all of which have received loads of views online, and generated a wonderful buzz amongst fans for the new songs.
Listening to Somethingness as a complete work, it’s obvious that Our Lady Peace, comprised of vocalist/primary songwriter Raine Maida, bassist Duncan Coutts, guitarist Steve Mazur and drummer Jason Pierce, are at an artistic peak.
Pierce said the band is more than pleased and proud with the outcome of their creative efforts. And part of the reason for this sense of satisfaction is because Our Lady Peace created Somethingness on their own terms and at their own pace.
“We started tracking Drop Me in the Water about two years ago, so it’s been a long process. But we are lucky in that we can afford the time to come up with the best ideas and if they work as a band, we move forward, and if they don’t we move on to other ideas because we have the luxury of time. There is no label pressuring us saying this is the date it must be out, this is the way it must go. It’s actually four guys saying, ‘is this something we can be proud of? If it is, move forward. If it’s not, why keep banging our heads against the wall.’ The band is in a very lucky space to be able to take creativity as it comes,” he explained, adding that they also chose to road test some of the songs to see how they would fare in a live scenario and in front of their fans.
“When we were out on tour last summer with Collective Soul we ended up playing a bunch of songs that we were still working on and we ended up going back to our mixer and sending him more files before we finished the mixes because we realized the songs needed certain pieces here and there that we hadn’t recorded. We would use the audiences, for lack of a better word, as guinea pigs, and it was incredible. On stage the songs would actually grow into their own entities. It’s kind of strange, but in a cool way; you spend all this time recording and trying to perfect your parts and when you get out on the stage you realize, ‘oh, this is how it’s actually meant to be.’”
The album is unmistakably Our Lady Peace. Although still forward looking and cutting edge, all the elements that fans have known and loved since their 1994 debut album Naveed still comes to the fore; the esoteric arrangements, the crunching guitar riffs, the extraordinary dynamics of the music, moods and lyrical melange. And of course, Maida’s voice and soulfulness imbues every song.
“Raine has a way of conducting the band when we’re all playing live off the floor in the studio and constructing dynamics that really makes each song special. He just knows when things need to be there and when it doesn’t need anything. It’s probably a matter of experience as well as just plain raw talent,” Pierce said, admiringly.
Somethingness was broken into two separate EPs with Volume 1 coming out towards the end of 2017, and Volume 2 coming out in mid-February. As well, the complete album will now be available for download or in physical copy (CD and LP).
One of the songs that has generated a lot of attention from critics and fans alike, with great justification, is Ballad of a Poet, Maida’s emotional tribute to the late great Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie, who succumbed to brain cancer Oct. 17, 2017.
“We actually started playing that song on the Clumsy 20 American tour that we did last fall and it got a really great reaction. It was really kind of cool to see how many people were wearing Tragically Hip shirts in the United States at our shows. It was an honour to see that Canadiana had actually travelled into the States so much. Raine talked a lot about Gord and his passing. He talks about this one time he went to I think it was the Toronto Music Awards and it was a defining moment for him when he saw Gord and the Hip perform. He wasn’t a fan of the band at that point, because this was still really early in their career, but it really forged his view of what he wanted to do as an artist. He had one of those serendipitous moments where he knew exactly what he had to offer as an artist. So Raine said he owes a lot to the Tragically Hip and how inspiring they were to him at that moment,” Pierce said, adding that even though he had no encounters with Downie himself, he understands how heartbreaking his loss was to the entire nation.
“As a Canadian musician, you really feel the gravity of his loss. You feel the gravity when you were watching that concert in Kingston that it was his last performance. When I saw that on TV I felt, as an artist and trying to put myself in that position, it was unbelievable – words could not describe it.”
Pierce joined the band first as a temporary fill-in for departing long-time drummer Jeremy Taggart in 2014 but was made a full-fledged member of Our Lady Peace two years later and contributed his songwriting talents to Somethingness.
“Actually, my relationship with the band started about 12 years ago. I played in a band called Neverending White Lights back then and we ended up doing the Paranoid Times Canadian tour with Our Lady Peace as their opening band. So, I ended up meeting the guys, although I never really got close to anyone. But Duncan and I later became friends, so when the whole Taggart stuff came down, I got a call and met with Coutts for coffee and then jamming with the guys once, and that was it. We just moved forward from there,” he said, adding he always had great admiration for the band as musicians and songwriters, but since joined the group, has gained even more respect for his new bandmates as human beings.
“The first thing I can say is the way they act towards fans and appreciate fans is something I haven’t seen from any other band I have ever played with. They honestly know that the fans are the reason that we still get to do this. And being with a bunch of people who actually respect that is an ideal situation to be in as a musician. And from a personal level, I feel very fortunate that, especially for this record, they have decided to include everyone more in the songwriting process.
“It’s kind of different on this record because the songs actually came from different groups. About half the record is Raine and Steve’s ideas and the other half is Duncan and my ideas. So, they have really stepped up and supported me as a songwriter as well, which is incredible. Head Down and Last Train, those two songs started of as my ideas. And they became OLP ideas through association at that point and through working with Duncan, we took my idea and formed it into an OLP idea. From what I understand this is a completely different way than they worked in the past. I think it’s because over the last few years, the four of us have become a real unit, which is awesome.”
What will also be awesome is the tour Our Lady Peace is planning alongside long-time contemporary Matthew Good. The cross-Canada sojourn begins March 1 at Mile One Centre in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and wraps up March 31 at the Abbotsford Centre in Abbotsford B.C. In between are several Ontario dates, including Ottawa March 8, Hamilton on March 9, followed by shows in London and Oshawa, before a gig at the prestigious Massey Hall in Toronto on March 16. The tour also hits Casino Rama near Orillia on March 17, before heading out to western Canada.
“It’s going to be a great tour. We did a show out at Sylvan Lake, Alberta a few years ago, with Matt and that kind of sparked this whole run. It just seemed like such a good fit. It just works as a combination,” Pierce said, adding that it’s always a challenge for Our Lady Peace to create a set list that balances the desires of their legions of fans, as well as ensuring the new material gets an appropriate airing.
“We put a lot of work into it. The big challenge comes when we’re doing shorter sets. Like, on this tour were not doing two-hour sets, so we’re having to cut so many songs and it’s not easy because the legacy of this band is that there are so many great songs. And we’re also trying to fit new stuff in to bring relevance to the new record at the same time.”
For more information on the tour, or Somethingness, visit www.ourladypeace.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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