Information about Our Lady Peace

Our Lady Peace, often abbreviated OLP, is a Canadian alternative rock band consisting of Raine Maida (vocals, guitar), Duncan Coutts (bass), Jeremy Taggart (drums), and Steve Mazur (guitar). Until 2001, guitarist and founding member Mike Turner was a member of the band. During their career they have sold over 5 million albums worldwide,^[1] won four Juno Awards out of twenty nominations, and won ten MuchMusic Video Awards, including the in 1997, 1998 and 2000. They have the most awards won by any artist or group at the MMVA's.^[2] The band has finished its 'Paranoid Times Tour', which saw them stopping in several North American cities between April and May of 2006. With them was a fifth stage member, Joel Shearer (of the band Pedestrian).

Band history

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, Mike'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, Mike and Michael attended a music seminar where they met songwriter/producer Arnold Lanni, the owner of Arnyard Studios. The band, with Arnold, 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, Michael included 'Raine' to reduce the confusion of having two Mikes. 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" 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.

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 1999, the band released their album entitled Happiness...Is Not a Fish That You Can Catch. The album included such hits as "Thief", a song centered around a young girl the band met who had cancer, as well as "One Man Army" and "Is Anybody Home?". The band also played an 11 track setlist at Woodstock. 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.

In 2000, the band released Spiritual Machines, a concept album inspired by Ray Kurzweil's book The Age of Spiritual Machines. Spiritual Machines sold below expectations. This album featured the singles "In Repair", "Life" and "Right Behind You (Mafia)". Shortly thereafter, in December 2001, after commencing work with a new 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.

Some critics contended that in the early 2000s the band's new music changed, adopting an increasingly mainstream sound and softening the music considerably. Some critics of the band's fifth album, Gravity, called it "overproduced" and "too mainstream". However, its 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 large hit across North America.

On 2 July 2005 the group played at the Canadian Live 8 concert in Barrie. In August, the band released their sixth album, Healthy in Paranoid Times, which included the tracks "Where Are You?", "Angels/Losing/Sleep" and "Will the Future Blame Us". Shortly after recording the album, the band disclosed that during the making of this album, they nearly broke up.^[3]

However, the band has also said that they were really proud of the album. According to Rolling Stone, it took 1165 days to create it and its 12 tracks were chosen from 45 written and produced (most of which will almost certainly never see the light of day).

At a November 2005 concert at Massey Hall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, it was announced that the concert would be filmed for the purpose of creating a DVD. The DVD that was filmed there was put on the "A Decade" DVD (for Canadians only).

Recent developments

On November 21, 2006 (November 28, 2006 in USA), 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 "4AM." A Decade also includes a bonus DVD containing live concert footage and exclusive interviews at the Massey Hall concert. Currently, "Kiss On The Mouth", the first single off A Decade, is on radio stations across Canada.

According to a popular OLP fansite, the band has stated on their official website that they have already begun working on a new album as of February 2007.^[4]

Discography

Main article: Our Lady Peace discography

Year	Album	Chart positions		Label	Sales
		U.S.	Canada		U.S.	Canada
1994	Naveed	—	—	Columbia	100,000	400,000
1997	Clumsy	76	1	Columbia	1,000,000	1,000,000
1999	Happiness...	69	1	Columbia		300,000
2000	Spiritual Machines	81	10	Columbia		200,000
2002	Gravity	9	2	Columbia	600,000	200,000
2003	Live	112	5	Columbia
2005	Healthy in Paranoid Times	45	2	Sony		100,000
2006	A Decade	—	—	Sony

Band member timeline

Trivia

• The band's song "Whatever" was used as the entrance music of late professional wrestler Chris Benoit in World Wrestling Entertainment.
• The song "Somewhere Out There" was used in the film, soundtrack, and advertising of the action movie XXX (film) starring Vin Diesel.
• Matt Cameron, Pearl Jam's drummer and former member of Soundgarden, is a good friend of Our Lady Peace's drummer, Jeremy Taggart. When Taggart was sidelined with an ankle injury during the recording of Spiritual Machines, Cameron played drums on "Right Behind You (Mafia)" and "Are You Sad?".
• Naveed means "bearer of good news".
• Legendary jazz drummer Elvin Jones played drums on the song "Stealing Babies", featured on the album Happiness...Is Not a Fish That You Can Catch.
• The band has covered many songs, such as "Drive" by The Cars, "Imagine" by John Lennon, "The Needle And The Damage Done" by Neil Young, "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Dear Prudence" by The Beatles, "Eternal Life" by Jeff Buckley, "With Or Without You" and "All I Want Is You" by U2, "Teardrop" by Massive Attack, as well as many others.
• The band performed at the XVI International AIDS Conference Benefit Concert on August 13th, 2006, which took place at the Rogers Centre, in Toronto, Ontario.
• Our Lady Peace were the founders of the Summersault festival that toured across Canada in 1998 and 2000 with lineups that included Foo Fighters, A Perfect Circle and The Smashing Pumpkins.
• Saul Fox is the man pictured on the album covers of Naveed, Clumsy, Happiness...Is Not a Fish That You Can Catch, Spiritual Machines, and has reappeared on the band's greatest hits album, A Decade.
• Their song, Life, from the album Spiritual Machines, has recently been used as a background song on commercials for the upcoming NBC television show, Life.

References

External links

• OurLadyPeace.com (Official Band Page)
• Clumsy Congress (Official Message Board)
• OurLadyPeace.net (Official Fan Club)
• Our Lady Peace on MySpace (Official)
• Official UK Band Page
• Raine Maida Official Site

•  • [ e] Our Lady Peace
Raine Maida | Duncan Coutts | Jeremy Taggart | Steve Mazur
Mike Turner | Chris Eacrett | Jamie Edwards | Joel Shearer | Mike Eisenstein | Jim Newell
Discography
Albums: Naveed | Clumsy | Happiness...Is Not a Fish That You Can Catch | Spiritual Machines | Gravity | Live | Healthy in Paranoid Times | A Decade
"The Birdman" | "Starseed" | "Naveed" | "Hope" | "Supersatellite" | "Superman's Dead" | "Clumsy" | "Automatic Flowers" | "4 A.M." | "Carnival" | "One Man Army" | "Is Anybody Home?" | "Thief" | "In Repair" | "Life" | "Right Behind You (Mafia)" | "Somewhere out There" | "Innocent" | "Made of Steel" | "Not Enough" | "Where Are You" | "Angels/Losing/Sleep" | "Kiss on the Mouth"