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Newly signed to Sony Music Canada is Our Lady Peace, a band that, well... band that we've never
heard of before! Probably you haven't either! They're so new, in fact, that they just formed in
November 1992, and have only played a handful of gigs - and now they're out with their 11-song
debut, entitled Naveed. Now, how can this infant act score a major label deal? Singular named singer
Raine filled us in recently.

"The band is just over a year old, and we're all from Toronto," begins Raine. "The guitarist (Mike
Turner) and myself played together before, and then we got Chris (Eacrett, bass) and Jeremy
(Taggart, drummer), and we started demoing material." Our Lady Peace took their name, according
to Raine, "from a poem written by Mark Van Doren. The poem's about a fiddler who talks to an angel
who watches over a little town."

It wasn't long before they acquired a producer, Arnold Lanni of Frozen Ghost fame. "We weren't
sure about working with Arnold 'cause we only know his work from Frozen Ghost," discloses Raine,
"but then everything just took off on a personal level. We actually started recording, and it was an
unbelievable experience. We'd go in with Arnold and do stuff live off the floor, just to library stuff - we
wrote maybe 18, 19 songs right away. To our surprise it was great - he brought in all these new ideas
to us that just blew us away, and it kind of changed our view on him. He's a real honest guy, a straight
up kind of person."

Then came management. "Eric Lawrence and Robert Lanni, Arnold's brother are managing us, from
20/20 Management," he continues. "It's the same management as Wild T. We didn't hook up with them
until the record deal was almost inked with Sony, but it was the same thing - more of a trust thing. After
meeting so many dishonest people out there in the music business, we could trust Eric and Robert to
handle us."

Then came the deal, under a year from their formation, A&R'd by Sony's Richard Zuckerman. "When
we signed the deal it was really weird. We weren't expecting to get signed right away. Our plan was to
release an indie CD, sell it sidestage and all that stuff. Fortunately, Sony came around and they let us do
what we wanted to do."

Then came the recording of the record. "We recorded the record at Arnold's studio, Arnyard," says
Raine. "It's not the greatest studio in the world - kind of like a clubhouse, not fancy, kind of dirty - but
it's the kind of atmosphere we wanted. Sony has their own studio where (label mates) Junkhouse
recorded their record, but I don't know how they did it - we didn't want people from the record
company hanging around."

How did they get their deal? "This is how it went: We had the demo, and we were kind of selective
with the labels we sent it out to on Eric and Robert's advise. We sent them out to a few here, and a
couple in the States. We got feedback from the States - from Geffen, and Interscope. The U.S. labels
said positive things, but they wanted more stuff from us. But Sony liked us just the way we were. After
Zuckerman heard the tape, he called, and then Mike Rhodes called, and like three weeks later we
had both Zuckerman and Rhodes, along with (Sony Music Canada President) Rick Cameleri, down
at the studio watching us rehearse.

"The U.S. interest is still there," adds Raine. "We've been talking to Epic - nothing's confirmed yet, but
our management have been in close contact with A&R."

So why jump on a Canadian deal when you had the American's interest tweaked? "At first we
obviously thought, 'Okay, let's get out of Canada,'" admits Raine. "But it was a very nice deal - Sony
was offering us everything. Right when we signed, (ex-Sony Music Canada President) Paul Berger
had just left for Sony Europe, and the whole agenda of Sony is that Paul Berger is now going to work
the Canadian stuff there. We were talking to some people, and they said just sign directly to the label in
Canada. It's an awesome label. It's nice because they're in the same city, and it's kind of hands on.
When you sign with Geffen in New York or L.A., you don't know what they're doing day to day. Here
it's really convenient - it's like a little family the way they treat us."

At first listen, you can really hear the Canadian in Our Lady Peace - bands like Doughboys, 54-40,
The Tragically Hip, and even modern Rush come to mind. Their's is a sound that is in one sense
dark and foreboding, yet on another it glows with hope and anticipation. Raine describes the
indescribable. "It's a combination of a lot of stuff," he attests. "We're so diverse in our tastes - Zepplin,
Cream, Carol King, Janis Joplin, The Beastie boys, Rage Against the Machine. We don't
sound like any of these directly, but it all kind of comes in. I don't think we sound Canadian, but many
way we do. But hey, Canadian music is turning around for the better - I Mother Earth, for example -
so if that's going to be the new Canadian sound, then I guess we do. The label kind of thought we had a
European flair in our sound. We just took our time to make an album that was listenable all the way
through."

Their first single from Naveed is 'Birdman," and it will be followed-up with either 'Hope,' or 'Starseed.'
Raine explains the title of the record. "Naveed" is kind of ties in all the lyrics. Naveed is a middle
eastern name that stands for the bearer of good news, and a lot of the songs talk about strife and
struggle, but it's more on a personal level for me. 'Naveed' talks about someone scared to die, but at
the same time interested in it."

And what are their expectations? "Everyone around has high expectations, but the band is happy that
our music is recorded," contends Raine. "We learned a lot during it, and it's improved us as musicians.
We just want to get out and play...we want to go across the country. That's when we get off on our
music - seeing the crowd reaction. We're really young and green in terms of our live show. I think
we've played maybe 11 or 12 dates so far as a unit. It'll be great to see how people react to us once
they know a few songs."

  A stacked pike of glass ashtrays shudder, then topple off the bar, clattering all over the floor of downtown Toronto sweatbox, Ultrasound. Victimized by a sonic boom triggered by local grunge rockers Our Lady Peace as they run through an ear-bleeding soundcheck.

"Did we do that!" asks guitarist Mike Turner, staring down at the carnage. "I guess that qualifies us as rock gods," he laughs.

With both 'Starseed' (off their debut Naveed album) and 'Needle And The Damage Done' (their contribution to the Borrowed Tunes Neil Young tribute disc) receiving heavy national airplay, the narrow dimensions of Ultrasound seem ridiculously confining for a band of Our Lady Peace's velocity. However, members Turner, vocalist Raine Maida, bassist Chris Eacrett and drummer Jeremy Taggart couldn't be happier. As they would prove later that
night, the claustrophobic crush and sweat of a packed club is the ideal launching pad for a band obviously set on winning over their own audience. "There was a lot of media-generated hype about us when Naveed came out, but I don't mind saying we're green as hell and we're not really ready for that stuff yet," explains 23-year old Maida, gingerly favouring his three-times operated-upon knee, as he and Turner take time out from rehearsals for a spell
of self-promotion. "We're still a very young band and we want to develop in stages. When we opened for I Mother Earth, I'm on a big stage, big lights, with an audience so far away and I felt disconnected. I prefer this situation (at Ultrasound) where the audience is right in your face."

"Yeah, we like to blur the line between them and us," says Turner, picking up the conversation. "We see the crowd as a bigger us. There's four of us playing instruments, but that doesn't make the audience any less part of the show. It's like a communal free-for-all."
 

Our Lady Peace was formed two and a half years ago by Turner -- an ex-patriot Brit from Yorkshire -- and Maida, a criminology student at the University of Toronto. When their original group refused to get serious, Maida and Turner decided it was time to find more committed bandmates. "When you throw away a university education at the U. of T., you'd better be committed," laughs Maida, who says his father still wants to know what courses he's taking this fall.

In recruiting Eacrett and Taggart, Turner and Maida were looking for musicians who could challenge them and create new ideas rather than fitting into a preconceived direction. With Taggart (who was 17 at the time), they got a jazz-trained drummer whose complex time signatures added a sense of sophistication to the arrangements -- balanced by Eacrett's heavy metal bass influences. "They'd come up with something together and I'm thinking,
where do I fit into this," laughs Turner. "Then by the time the music had taken its final form, Raine is thinking, 'and I've got to sing on top of this.' But it's that diversity which made things work. There were always surprises. Nothing ever went in the direction you'd think it would go -- so everything was always a challenge."

Limited finances made for limited studio options, so the foursome found themselves at Arnold Lanni's Arnyard Studios in the northern Toronto suburb of Weston, with just enough coin to record a three-song demo. "We didn't have enough money for an indie release so we wanted the three songs to be as close to our sound as our budget would allow," explained Turner. Lanni, a noted producer, musician and songwriter with Frozen Ghost and Sheriff,
kept check on the sessions, dropping in occasionally to "give us a pat on the back or a kick in the butt," cracked Turner. Lanni tipped off his brother Robert (head of Coalition Entertainment Group) who saw enough potential to shop a copy of the tape to Sony president Rick Camilleri, whose reaction was immediately positive.

"We sent demos out but we really didn't expect anything. All we wanted to do was continue working together," said Maida. "Next thing we know, we're getting calls from Geffen and Interscope in the States. It was all very exciting." An offer by Sony's Camilleri "to make me a record that sounds like your demo" -- with no outside interference -- was the most appealing invitation. Our Lady Peace elected to return to Arnyard, with Lanni hired as
full-time producer. "We were signed on faith that we could come up with more material like the demos but there was so much emotion and adrenalin flowing amongst us, I think we had ten more songs written inside a couple of weeks," allowed Maida.

It was Lanni's patience and understanding which transformed a series of raw ideas into the polished arrangements which constitute Naveed. Never one to dominate the sessions or take a heavy-handed approach, Lanni threw the timeclock out of the window and allowed his neophyte charges to learn by trial and error. "He'd let us toll for eight hours rather than solve the problem himself," noted Maida. "He'd let us work it out ourselves when the fixed
reality is to say, 'don't let us do it. Stop us right now!'"

Like the band's name, which originates from a 1943 poem by American Mark Van Doren -- whose message espouses the philosophy that life is about the pursuit of ultimate goals, and not the goal itself -- Our Lady Peace project an aura of mysticism in both the music and lyrical content of Naveed. It's not that the band are heavy disciples of eastern cultures; more a healthy respect for the cultural sanctity of eastern music which has allowed certain aspects to seep into their own sound. Maida says he's a great admirer of WOMAD artist Sheila Chandra and feels the melding of western and eastern cultures -- as practiced by the likes of Peter Gabriel can only enhance music as a spiritual therapy. Naveed itself comes form a Middle Eastern name for 'bearer of good news' and embodies the idea of an on-going quest for knowledge. Musically, any eastern spirituality in OLP's music is derived, according to Turner, "from Jeremy's hippy parents who think The Tibetan Book Of The Dead is a
damned good read!"

Lyrically, Maida admits the songs contain a lot of heavy narrative ('The Birdman', 'Under Zenith' and the spiritual trilogy of 'Starseed', 'Hope' and 'Naveed') and says the material has to be challenging enough for him to retain an interest in performing them long term. "I'm the one who has to sing these songs and if it ends up being 300 nights a year, they'd better have a powerful effect on my life. Otherwise, they'll end up feeling stale."

It's a philosophy Our Lady Peace practice as well as preach. When asked to contribute a song to the Neil Young Borrowed Tunes tribute, they elected to re-arrange Young's acoustic ode to the peril of heroin addiction 'The Needle And The Damage Done' into a blistering hard rocker while still retaining the song's mournful sentiment. So strong is the result that their cover is now competing for airtime against 'Starseed' and has become a highlight of
their live performance. "It's pointless to take a Neil Young song and reproduce it, because you won't even come close," allows Maida. "So we changed the arrangement to accommodate how we would play the song. I was also attracted to the song's timeless message. It still has as much weight today as when he originally wrote it."

Like Crash Test Dummies, Barenaked Ladies, Moist, Tea Party and tour mates I Mother Earth, Our Lady Peace is part of a new breed of Canadian artists. Groups who are setting new rules rather than conforming to existing standards. Their music is aggressive and uncompromising, and -- like their Seattle counterparts -- is based on a stance that they'd rather build their own audience over a period of time than jump on the corporate bandwagon.

A position the 120 fans, shoehorned into the sweaty confines of Ultrasound, support wholeheartedly -- even if stepping on shards of shattered ashtrays becomes an occupational hazard.

RAINE MAIDA: Vocals
MIKE TURNER: Guitars
CHRIS EACRETT: Bass
JEREMY TAGGART: Drums

"Naveed is the ancient Middle Eastern name for bearer of good news," explains Our Lady Peace vocalist/lyricist Raine Maida."We took the concept of Naveed and placed it into the dark optimism of our music. Naveed is a constant quest to obtainknowledge, possessed with the desire to grow mentally and spiritually. We have forced Naveed to travel the distance between mysticism and bitter reality."

Our Lady Peace is a Toronto-based group of four young musicians who have only played together a short time, but have managed to land a major record company deal and a great deal of notoriety among music industry insiders in Canada and abroad.

Unlike most bands, Our Lady Peace chose to eschew the normal "indie" release and Queen Street club scene in Toronto to refine their songwriting before even seeking a live gig. As guitarist Mike Turner flatly states, "It comes down to songs. It's great to play live but attitude alone can only carry you so far. We hardly knew each other on a personal level, but when we began working on a musical level the vibe was so great that we couldn't ignore it...the songs became our first initiative. Getting into the studio was the next step.

"We were checking into the studios when we met up with [producer] Arnold Lanni. He took the time to talk to us and with brutal honesty shattered any illusions we had about the music business," says Raine. "It was that first conversation that made us want to work with him...it was the right decision!" Together they went ahead and made a demo that immediately got the attention of the majors, and eventually landed them a deal with Sony Music Canada.

Each member of Our Lady Peace has an equal say in the songwriting, with Raine writing the lyrics. Each member of the band also brings his own unique personal history and musical tastes to the group. Raine, 23, was a former criminology student at the University of Toronto. His influences are as diverse and eclectic as his lyrics. For a male vocalist, he cites such female singers as East Indian chanteuse and worldbeat artist Sheila Candra, Sinéad O'Conn or, and Janis Joplin as sources of inspiration. "It's the depth of emotion in their voices that attracts me," although he adds, "Otis redding can do no wrong."

Mike Turner, 30, has a degree in English from the University of Western Ontario, and until recently worked in a machine shop. Turner says he got into music when he was growing up in England during the punk explosion of the late '70s. "The Sex Pistols, Boomtown Rats, and The Jam made anything seem possible."

Chris Eacrett, 24, was studying marketing at Ryerson University in Toronto when he began playing with Raine and Mike. A fan of Rage Against The Machine and Living Colour, Eacrett adds Seal and early Sting to his list of influences.

Jeremy Taggart is the youngest member of the band at age 18. The group graciously waited for him to finish high school before they began recording. Despite his apparent youth, Jeremy knows his chops and freely discusses the work of John Coltrane and Miles Davis. In the same breath, he's opining on the virtues of Led Zeppelin and The Doors. "My parents like them."

"We write as a unit," says Raine. "One big noise," adds Mike. They all concur that the songwriting process is very dramatic. The band says that they take each song through every possible musical arrangement before they decide which version they will
ultimately commit to record.

They described the recording process as a "huge" learning experience. We literally lived together for three months," says Jeremy. That concept, the quest for wisdom alluded to earlier, seemed to provide the motif around which the album developed.

"There's nothing on the album we didn't want there," says Mike. "If we didn't feel a song suited the setting we'd created, it was dropped. We recorded this as an album. There is no filler."

"There are no machines on this album. We played every track as a group, together in the studio. Nothing has been lost in the transition from studio to stage."