and
after scrounging up all their money, made a demo with him. It included
the hit song Starseed, and was recorded at Arnyard Studios in
the northern Toronto suburb of Weston. The demo got passed around to select
labels, and sparked interest in a number of them, both in Canada and in
the U.S.
Reps from many different labels were present
at auditions held for the two remaining spots. Eventually, 17
year old drummer Jeremy Taggart, who was still in high school, and bassist
Duncan Coutts, a friend of Raine's, were chosen.
Soon after, Duncan left to further his
education, and was replaced by Chris Eacrett, who had been studying marketing
at Ryerson University in Toronto. Though all 4 members were from
Toronto, Raine, Mike, Chris and Jeremy had the most
diverse tastes in music imaginable - from Middle Eastern sounds to Punk
to Metal to Jazz. This wide range challenged the guys to take their music
to a higher level, and from the success they got, it's safe to say that
it worked!
The name of the band, Our Lady Peace, comes from a 1943 poem by Mark Van Doren, because it represents the optimism and the range of interpretation in their music.
With the interest shown,
the band decided that if these companies were serious about them, then
they'd have to come watch a rehearsal, where OLP would play their five
songs to date. Only one label, Sony Canada, accepted the invitation, and
arrived with three executives, including the company's president, Rick
Cameleri. They ended up liking the songs, so the band told them exactly
what they needed - full creative control, over the music, album art and
marketing, and the right to develop slowly, at their own pace, to develop
a career. Also, they had only played a few shows together to that point,
and needed some time to work on that. All of this determination paid off.
The men from Sony told them to make a record that sounded just like
the demo, and they'd have no outside interference. OLP also found a small
label in the U.
S.,
Relativity, who agreed on the same terms. In the spring of '93, they were
signed to both, and doing what every band dreams of doing.
Our Lady Peace waited
for Jeremy to graduate from high school, and because they only had three
songs recorded, they rented a place in Mississauga, Ontario to jam all
day onto a cheap cassette player. Arnold Lanni would check up on them daily,
to make sure that everything was OK, and to help them with songs. They
worked on this right through the summer, and later returned to good ol'
Arnyard Studios to record, hiring Lanni as their full-time producer. They
released their first album, Naveed in May 1994
(on Sony in Canada, Relativity in the U.S.), describing the music as "dark
optimism". For the moment, they chose to first focus their efforts on the
songwriting part of the music, rather than the live show.
Naveed went on to sell over half a million copies around the world,
and led to huge opening slots for Page/Plant, Van Halen, the Rolling Stones,
I Mother Earth, The Ramones, Sponge, Letters To Cleo, Alanis
Morissette, Bush, Elastica, and
Better Than Ezra. Before the making
of Naveed, OLP had only done 7 dates together. After it's release, they
went on to do more than 400 shows to over half a million people - about
six concerts a week.
A "spiritual and philosophical difference"
was growing between bassist Chris Eacrett and the rest of the band. They
sat down together, talked, and acknowleged the fact that they were heading
down different paths, both musically and as people. So, in October 1995,
Chris was replaced by Duncan Coutts, who had gone back to studying film
during the production and touring of Naveed.
In May 1996, Our Lady Peace restarted the writing
process for their second album, Clumsy (originally
titled either Propeller or Trapeze). To relieve some tension, and to be
more focused, they isolated themselves in a rented cottage north of Toronto
for six weeks. There, it was easier to just wake up beside a guitar, and
write, without any pressure or egos. At the end of the day, when they were
sick of playing, they'd go out and have a hockey game. In the production
stage, again with Arnold Lanni at Arnyard Studios, doing things cheaply
again, the guys spent a lot of t
ime
experimenting, trying out new ideas. Duncan plays keyboards and sings,
so there were a few more options and angles to explore for the sophomore
album. They even tried cello in a couple of songs, but "it didn't seem
to fit". Luckily, the record company didn't interfere; they gave the band
the time they needed. Because of this, Clumsy took longer to release than
expected, and though scheduled for September 1996, wasn't ready until January
of 1997. The good thing was that the band was happy with every song.
Clumsy also did very well, and surpassed sales of Naveed. In the summer of 1997, Our Lady Peace accepted the invitation to headline the Canadian music festival, Edgefest, which included a heap of canadian talent including I Mother Earth, the Age of Electric and Econoline Crush.
On Thursday, September 18th, 1997, the Much Music Video awards took place in Toronto. Our Lady Peace won 2 out of the 4 awards that they were nominated for, one being the People's Choice for best group. Though awards don't mean much to the band, the ones voted on by the fans are higher up there, because "that's what it's all about". They also performed 'Superman's Dead' later that night.
Just after that, Our Lady Peace announced a massive
cross Canada arena tour, beginning January 3rd. Their goal was to make
the "big arenas not seem like big arenas", which is a hard thing to d
o
when you're selling out venues like Maple Leaf Gardens. However, after
seeing the show in Vancouver myself, I can honestly say that they attained
this goal, and even surpassed it. From the opening "doo doo...doo doo doo's"
of Automatic Flowers, I could see the amount of preparation and worked
involved in what they were doing. They directed their own short films to
show during and in between songs, most featuring Saul Fox (the Birdman
and Clumsy guy), which really got the crowd going. Other highlights were
the slow piano version of Julia, based on a girl named Sarah
Slean's demo tape, and an unreleased song, Trapeze, which had also
been played on the Alanis tour. Trapeze had a great story to go along with
it, and made you really focus on the lyrics to understand the ending.
While Everclear opened for them in Canada, they switched spots for the U.S. tour that followed and are now in Europe to do some dates.
Michael Raine Maida
Mike Turner
Duncan Coutts
Jeremy Taggart
