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Our Lady Peace's Day In The Sun
June 2, 2002
After selling millions of albums worldwide and performing in a string of successful concert tours, Our Lady Peace was growing tired of the status quo. So last November, the Toronto-based band escaped to Maui and the studio of its new producer Bob Rock -- in search of a fresh sound. "It's just a magical place," says OLP front man Raine Maida . "We were totally isolated from family, friends, management and television. When we weren't working, we were surfing or riding mountain bikes. If we had been recording in Toronto, we'd be going to see other bands and just be bombarded by the music business. In Maui nobody could get to us. There were no distractions and it was amazing."
The end product of that magical vacation is OLP's fifth album, Gravity, which is due in stores June 18. Rock, who has worked with Aerosmith and Metallica , stripped away many of the band's complicated musical layers to get at a cleaner sound. "Bob just let the melodies soar," says Maida, 31. "We'd record a song, sit back and ask, 'Why isn't this sounding like everyone is hearing it in their heads?' Bob would say 'let's simplify the drums,' or 'let's make that bass line simpler.' He was able to pull out why we didn't sound on albums like we do live."
One member of the band wasn't so at peace with the process. During the recording, guitarist Mike Turner -- who formed OLP with Maida in 1992 after meeting at the University of Toronto -- left the group. "We wanted to make more of a rock record and Mike's not that type of guitarist," says Maida, who adds that he and the other original members, drummer Jeremy Taggart and bass player Duncan Coutts, harbour no hard feelings. After an extensive search, Turner was replaced by Steve Mazur . "With Steve, we're like a small club band that's ready to explode," says Maida. "It's really exciting to be playing, look over to my right, see him, and find myself totally inspired, again."
Maida also found some rock 'n' roll inspiration in the strangest of places. After he and his wife, singer Chantal Kreviazuk , travelled to Iraq with War Child -- an international network of organizations that helps young victims of war -- Maida says his lyrics became "much simpler and to the point." Seems it took two trips abroad for this Canadian band to truly find itself.
Source http://www.macleans.ca
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