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Lanni has worked closely with OLP since the band's inception, sharing writing credit and producing the group's very first demos.

After the four-piece signed to Sony Music Canada, he went on to produce the band's 1994 debut, "Naveed", and the follow-up, "Clumsy". His brother, Robert, manages the band with partner Eric Lawrence.

Lawrence says OLP has been writing for the new album since Oct. 1, mere weeks after its Summersault festival tour ended.

"They have a rehearsal room warehouse, where they are just working on different song ideas and different arrangements and different parts," says Lawrence. "It's the early stages. They'll go into the studio, probably in January or February. We'll see how the writing's going."

According to Michael Roth, co-head of A&R at Sony Music Canada, "Clumsy" is "closing in" on 900,000 sales in Canada and about 600,000 in the U.S.

After two stellar LP's of power driven drama rock.., Our Lady Peace is well on their way to becoming a group with the staying power to enjoy a career long oppurtunity producing quality music.

Their debut Naveed earned them a superstar status in their native Canada while setting the pace for their american breakthrough. The album highlights suck as the stark U2ish 'Birdman' and the eloquent 'Julia'.......... introduce the
basic ideas of where they were coming from.

Raine Maida (vocals) and Jeremy Taggart (drums) recently explained why their debut proved to be a learning experience for them.

Raine: We got a lot out of Naveed. It introduced us to people and gave us a really good foundation to spring from. You also gotta understand that when we did that record, we hadn't even done a tour yet. We were just a bunch of kids.

Jeremy: Everything was so new to us. Our experience level didn't compare to what we were thrown into. The shows throughout the album.

Modern Rock jumped all over the records lead single "Starseed" and the title track. The attention provided the building blocks for them to refine their approach and delivery of their sentiments.

Looking at the facts, there's some serious truth to those statements. Prior to OLP none of these guys (rounded out by bassist Duncan Coutts and guitarist Mike Turner) were in other bands.

Raine:None of us ever were in cover bands or anything serious. When we started writing songs, it was the four of us. This is definitely the only lineup I could function with.

Its a rare oppurtunity to genuinely watch four individuals simultaneously grow and gel as a unit and as indviduals as their songs and abilities grow.

Clumsy the year-old sophomore LP has continued their wining streak at home where they "sell out hockey arenas" and in the US where they continue to grow on a steady basis.

Raine: Things have gone really well for us in Canada. I can't bitch or complain about our success at all. But I like how we're doing things over here too.

Jeremy: Exactly, since we didn't come out and sell 3 million albums over here right off the bat, we have the luxury of being able to do things at a gradual rate. Things like word of mouth exposure has been great over here.

Raine: I really feel for the bands that come out with one hit song and then fall into a black hole. We feel that in alot of ways we are missing out on the scenes that other eras of popular music have had. There's alot of guys going in for the quick cash and disappearing.

It hurts because the scene doesn't have a chance to grow musically. We're looking to build our (personal) identity. Look at how R.E.M. did it. They built a career and you can't do that quickly.

Plenty of road work has served to further the success of the singles '4 AM' and 'Superman's Dead'. While filling in the middle spot on 3EB's Bonfire Tour (power pop upstarts Eve 6 provided the intro honors) Our Lady Peace often stole the show from the headliners. A revolving setlist and a stirring cover of the late Jeff Buckley's 'Eternal Life' complemented Raine's rising energy and the band's back line of dynamic power.

Jeremy: We've been changing the setlists on this tour quite a bit. To keep everything fresh, we change it at least 3 times a week. This tour has been very relaxed, we're not headlining so we don't have that pressure.

Raine: We're very comfortable with who we are. We really don't sound like anyone else, so it sort of makes us the black sheeps of the bill. Its good for rock fans because they can see a variety of sounds, it gives them a chance to compare and contrast.

Contrary to the presumed catholic overtones, Raine went on to point out that the band's namesake is not a saint, but the genesis of an old war time poem.

Raine: We all just dug how it sounded. It's very open ended. You don't hear it and say 'Oh thats a metal band or an alternative band, or a rock band'. (Thats good for us) because our lyrics are very much open to interpretation (also). I write about things that are close to me but I don't grandstand or preach. i walk that line between my problems and (what other people can take in as their own). I don't get so self-absorbed that I don't realize when what I'm writing may not connect (with people).

Its such a special feeling when people tell you what word or a line may have meant to them in their lives. It's just like a painting that can be viewed through the eyes of the beholder. Its crucial that our material keeps that ability to move (people) individually.

That x factor plays a huge part in their overall battle plan. Taggart and Maida both concur on their theory that "People tend to stick with a band they've grown up with. It's that core audience that make it worth it. They are just as much a part of it as we are. Its natural for those people to stick with us no matter what we do."

Our Lady Peace has achieved their goals without the usual controversy, VIP girlfriends or gossip chatter that often propel's a band into the charts. When the subject comes up the duo laughs off the thought as if it's the first time they've been posed the question.

Jeremy: We are so not involved with that sort of thing. We all grew up in small towns, we've had regular lives, there really is no big story besides the music.

Raine: If anything it would probably hurt us if people knew how boringly normal we really are. If you want to look at our (tour) rider to see what we eat and drink you can, but do people really care about our personal lives that
much?

The answer to Raine's remark is yes and no. As they connect with individual after individual, it's only a matter of time before high school flames and disgruntled former friends begin selling "I knew them when..." stories to the media.

Talk to Raine Maida, lead singer of Our Lady Peace, and you're in for a pleasant surprise.

Some singers - especially singers in bands that make this much noise - will ramble incoherently if you ask them about their lyrics. It's not really their fault, either, because explaining artistry and feelings can be a tricky business.

Mr. Maida can do it, though. He's coherent. Heck, he's informative.

Take the song Automatic Flowers, from the band's current disc, Clumsy, on Columbia Records. He has the whole story.

Mr. Maida began by thinking about a woman who lived alone in her apartment. She has little going on in her life, and the apartment is dingy, without much of a view. She has boxes from her childhood, and one day she takes out a pop-up book and opens it to a garden with pop-up flowers. Whenever she wants to cheer herself up, she opens the book.

He doesn't put that entire history in the lyrics, just traces of it - ``Crying, crying/She couldn't afford the view/Crying, crying/These automatic flowers won't do.''

The band is on a U.S. tour and will play tonight at Whippin' Post on Washington Road. Mr. Maida promises a show that is ``very honest and passionate.''

``You have to see us live to really understand,'' he said.

The band rocks hard, but its biggest fans are those who root around lyrics, trying to figure out what they mean, Mr. Maida said. You have to figure he's right - one of the band's fan-initiated Web sites invites interpretation of the Mark Van Doren poem from which Our Lady Peace takes its name.

Before the band signed its record deals - it released Naveed for Sony in 1994 and Clumsy for Columbia this year - Mr. Maida said most people who saw the band perform in a club didn't understand the songs.

But now that they have two albums, people can take several listens and read through the lyric sheets. He loves it when he sees someone at a show singing along to a song from Clumsy other than the single Superman's Dead.

Most of the band's songs are angry or bitter.put-downs, from} In the song Supersatellite on Naveed, for example, Mr. Maida sings: ``I've read the Bible/I've read Dylan/I'm reading people now because it is much more chilling.''

Mr. Maida said he doesn't really have a dark view of people. The songs are a way of cleansing his system.

``It's really about comforting and dealing with stuff and not just being angry for the sake of being angry,'' Mr. Maida said. ``That's just typical gen X stuff.''

On stage

What: Our Lady PeaceWhen: TonightWhere: The Whippin' Post, 2834
Washington RoadHow much: $5Phone: 733-1944

Ordinary, average people having a telephone conversation...

O.K. So here I am, in my room, waiting for the phone to ring. SODA, knowing that I am a big Our Lady Peace
fan, asked me to do a telephone interview, my very first, with Jeremy Taggart, the band's drummer. Our Lady
Peace is becoming one of Canada’s favorite bands, leaving others in their dust! I was slightly obsessed with
O.L.P. (no, I’m not a stalker),so I was excited, but also a little freaked out. Jeremy was very gracious when I
asked dumb questions, and he talked a lot, which made it easier for me. Doing the interview made me aware of
how different people’s comments appear on paper, and also made me aware of how much work goes into an
interview. Hey, I learned something! So here it goes…

MERCEDES CALVERT (SODA): I have never really done an interview like this before, so you’ll have
to excuse my nervousness. I don’t really know a whole lot about the band, but I really like Our Lady Peace’s
music... So I just thought I would ask you a bunch of questions and if any of them are stupid or intrusive, let
me know...

Were you guys all friends when you first started out?

JEREMY TAGGART (OLP): We weren’t, no, not like high school buddies, age varies a lot in this band but
we basically all got together through auditions from a local paper in Toronto. It’s funny how it all came
together, it’s not very exciting but we basically clicked once we all found each other.

So you were looking for someone to play with and… I guess that’s the way it works in the bigger cities, it’s a
lot harder to connect with people.

Yeah but I think that the best thing about it is that we were very starved musicians looking for something and
once we got together it was a very strong relief.

Was it strange for you at first when you recorded Naveed that people were actually buying your album
and probably listened to it on a daily basis?

I think it was neat that people dug what we were about, but we didn’t expect anything that crazy. We expected
to sell 20,000 and be able to make another record. That was our highest achievement goal. Obviously we’ve
surpassed that by far. Yeah I think when we were making both of these records, in our heads we knew, or
we thought, that these were eleven great songs that we were trying to make and we knew that we liked them
individually and we’re not really that different than most people. So I think the fact that we look at each song
individually and completely openly and honestly and we judge songs in the studio as much as anyone else would,
on the street, listening to a new song, so... I don’t know, I think if we all had huge heads and we thought people
would enjoy listening to a car starting up as a song, and thinking that was the greatest thing then...

... you wouldn’t be getting anywhere...

Exactly. Music is very subjective in that sense, but I think we kind of have an idea right now, of what we like
anyway.

Do you guys get recognized a lot? I mean obviously when you’re on tour, but when you’re on personal time?

A lot more in Canada than in America, that’s for sure. I could go outside right now and there wouldn’t be
anyone who could care less.

Well you do have kind of signature glasses!

We’re in Phoenix Arizona right now, which would warrant that anyway. I think it’s a lot different in Canada
than here, but usually people are pretty cool.

They don’t want to scare you off

I think that’s the best thing about most of the people who buy our records and listen to them, is that they’re
usually quite intelligent, they’re not just like screaming people that have no reason to just blab at you and say
"You’re on TV!" It’s a job, it’s the same as anything else.

Speaking of screaming people, what was it like touring with Van Halen?

It was fun in the sense that those guys were really, really nice, and great musicians, and inspiring in that they still
give 110% after 15-20 years, but in the beginning we weren’t Van Halen fans at all, we were very surprised
that we were actually doing it.

How did it start out?

I think in the beginning of the whole thing happening, the manager’s son was a big fan of Our Lady Peace and
eventually the manager became a fan, or got a CD to the band, and the band (Van Halen) started to really like the
record. It’s pretty weird but that’s how it happened and we just kind of realized that it would be a good
opportunity to grow as a band. I think looking back we’re glad that we did it, but I mean it was very difficult
sometimes to try and win over their crowd because...

...they’re so different.

Yeah, we’re not Van Halen right?

Do you want to go to the States and tour smaller venues and win over them as an audience or are you planning to
tour more in Canada, make more money and do bigger shows?

The best thing about what we’ve done right now is the fact that we can kind of concentrate on other countries a
little bit more, whereas with the first record we were still trying to maintain something in Canada. We know we’re
at a stage in Canada where we can kind of organize tours and play a little bit farther in advance. We can not
have to worry about touring across the country 7-8 times a year like we were doing before, which was very
tiring in terms of how far each distance is between each city, but we never have really done our own tour in
America. Every other time in America we were opening for other bands or doing one odd show by ourselves.

Are you taking other Canadian bands on tour with you?

Actually no, we’ve had a few opening bands along the way but there’s yet to be a Canadian band. There are
not a lot of Canadian bands that have a record that’s new and coming out here (in America) that have the
opportunity to tour. It’s so mismatched. Usually when you make a record, or an up and coming band makes a
record, like our first record, it comes out in Canada a year before it does in America.

Is there a Canadian band that’s up and coming that you would say is one of your favorite bands?

We haven’t been at a grassroots level for the last 3-4 months, we haven’t really been around, so it’s hard to
try and get a grasp of what’s happening in the underground. But the last time we were at the grassroots
level it was Glueleg that was the great new band, and Change of Heart, but everyone knows them. Change
of Heart is one of the best bands in Canada. Does O.L.P. have involvement in politics, do you do
benefit shows of any kind?

Once in a while, if we have the time or the venue to do it. Sometimes we’ll do shows, off the cuff, not realizing
we’re there. In America we’re at the stage where we can’t really chose to do a benefit, we’re just trying to get
some kind of momentum with the fans and get people to come out, let alone pick a benefit and make people
come out. I don’t think we can do that yet. The last benefit we did in Canada that was organized was
something that I put together on the side with the band and some other musicians in Toronto, for a girl from
South Africa, but that was a year and a half ago. We’ve done a couple of benefit shows...

Well I guess it’s difficult when you’re working with a major label as well (Sony)?

It’s just more difficult finding the time. We get a lot of letters of things that happen that there’s no way we can
get to, like there’s something in Quebec City in a couple of weeks, meanwhile we’ve been booked down here for
the last three months. We’re not the type of band to do something like that and then tell everybody what we did
either. We definitely do things.

Do you have any regrets signing with a major label?

No, not at all. I think signing with a major label or bands that have a problem with that, well I don’t understand
the prospects of playing live, why don’t you just keep playing in your basement if you don’t want to join a
"major label". The only difference is with a major label you have an opportunity to tour and an opportunity to
make records. It depends how you do it, I mean there’s lots of bands that probably don’t get a lot of creative
control, but we have 100% of that so... It’s pretty stupid for a band to naïvely go into a record deal and lose their
shirt and not be able to make a record that they want to make. I mean that would be pretty sick, I’d rather shoot
myself than do that.

I have a silly question for you.

O.k.

If you were a Spice Girl what would your name be?

Umm...

Have you been asked this question before?

I don’t think so. We don’t know that much about the Spice Girls other than the fact that we don’t like them. I
have no idea, I apologize, I’m not really "spiced up".

How about just "Not Spiced Up"?

Yeah, o.k. I’m not a big fan.

How much input does OLP have in the videos you do? Is it one person that has an idea or is it the record
company that has an idea?

No, usually it’s a collaboration with the director. The last video for "Superman’s Dead" was our vision with
George Vale directing, but for "Automatic Flowers", which just came out, we completely did it ourselves. We
directed it; there was no other director involved.

Do you prefer to do it that way?

Umm, it was easy. I don’t know if you’ve seen it but it’s a very simple video and it was fun to do by ourselves. I
don’t think we could have screwed it up. This video definitely gives a vibe of what we do in our rehearsal
space.

Is it hard to have relationships with friends, girlfriends and wives?

It’s difficult, but you know, this is what we do and at the end of the day, what else do you want to do? There’s a
drag point, but on the whole it's a lot better than anything else we’ve done in our lives and we’ve been lucky
enough to be able to get up every day and do something that we really want to do.

So the compromises...?

It’s not even an afterthought. It’s just "oh well".

Well thanks so much for calling

Thank you.

It was really nice talking with you and hopefully we’ll see you in Victoria next year.

   Kindly taking time out of his busy rock star schedule, Our Lady Peace's drummer, Jeremy Taggert gave
Spank! a few minutes over the phone during a full day of interviews. Although a little groggy, Taggert
enthusiastically answered every question thrown at him. Being the youngest of four of the most talented and
respected musicians in Canada right now might seem a lot to most of us, but Taggert seems to have taken it all
in stride. "The freedom I have and the fact that I'm doing something I love, that's the best part about it," he says. "I don't have to succumb to anything or get up and do something I don't like to do, I can do whatever I want!"

Our Lady Peace hit Canada's music scene in 1994 with Naveed, an album filled with the haunting voice of Raine
Maida, lead singer and guitarist. Of course OLP wouldn't have become the hit they are without the rest of
a talented cast which includes Duncan Coutts (bass), Mike Turner (guitar) and Taggert. Naveed sold millions,
due to hits like Naveed, Starseed and Supersatellite. Their second disc, Clumsy is far surpassing the first.

OLP has struck a chord with Canada's youth, creating frenzies of hysterical girls and equally (but less vocal)
excited guys whenever they play a gig. This was clearly evident when Spank! covered OLP's recent Calgary,
Alberta concert. The crowd of 9,000 screamed at every word Maida spoke or sung. It was deafening but
exciting.

Although OLP is in the business to make music, and they love their fans for sticking behind them, Taggert has
stories of out-of-control fans who literally go crazy when the band hits the stage. "That stuff is a little out of hand,
when people are just jumping and screaming, but if they like the music, they like the music. If people are
passionate about that they like, that's fine, but don't be pulling hair, pushing around or just yelling, that doesn't
make any sense!" Taggert admits though that he might not be so calm if he met his favorite band, the Beatles. A
dream gig if there ever was one.

OLP tours Canada this year with friends and opening act, Everclear. The guys are excited because this will be
their first arena tour as headliners. Taggert hopes that "at the end of the show everybody will get their fill." But, he continues musingly, "you always want to leave them wanting a little more."

Like most musicians, Taggert can remember when his father didn't want him in the music business. "He was a
jazz musician and went through the tough times. There's no real career, no real bucks in jazz so I can totally
respect that.

"But once he saw I was serious he was completely behind it. He just said be really good, be the best you
can - if you're going to do something don't go halfway."

Being signed to such a large label, Sony Music, one would think there would be a lot of management pressure to make each album better than the one before. Taggert says, fortunately that's not the situation with OLP. "We don't succumb to that, no matter what people say. We can't worry about other people to make a good record. We only worry about the five people in the studio." This philosophy is clearly evident in both Naveed and Clumsy, which make both a must to listen to in their entirety.

On a more technical drum-guy note, I have to ask Taggert certain questions, like which stick he likes best
(Super 5A, longer than the 5B but not as thick), and his role in writing songs. While Raine writes the lyrics,
Coutts, Turner and Taggert compose the music. Taggert isn't impressed by guys who write drum rolls and
flamacues just for effect. "I just play, I don't think about that stuff. Are you trying to do something musically or
are you trying to impress people? The most important thing to me is trying to have my own thing and my own
sound.

"It's difficult because a lot of people fall into the trap of 'I'm going to do this neat lick here and throw some
metric modulations there'. Then you're just muso-creative man. But if you make all the chops and
stuff your own style, then that's fine."

And with that my few telephone minutes are up and Taggert must get ready for another interview.

After completing their opening slot for the Rolling Stones in Quebec City, late last year, singer Raine Maida, drummer JeremyTaggart, bassist Duncan Coutts and guitarist Mike Turner went home - that "home" being their new tour bus, headed for NovaScotia in the middle of the ice storm that turned Montreal into the arctic. This is their first-ever headlining arena tour, the big time. Last summer's EdgeFest seems like a sideshow next to the production logistics of this rock monster (which includes self-directed short films).

    "Opening for the Stones was very cool," admits Turner from day one of the tour that never ends (and has just begun). "It was very hard to get into that one Stones date, knowing that we're doing our own arena thing, starting the following day," he sighs with delirium. "We didn't even stick around to meet them. The whole experience was great and weird at the same time."

    Our Lady Peace's sophomore disc, Clumsy (which was preceded by the multi-platinum Naveed) is about to bust out with a fourth video/fifth single, "4 am", one of the many spinning twisters presented within their branch of guitar rock with melodic pop undertones. After toppling platinum sales, six times over (600,000 copies) in Canada alone, OLP continue to break and rise.

    "The point was never to become rock stars," says Turner, when asked about their impressive and sudden burst to fame. "We just wanted to write great songs. You can become insular and jaded, but I just listen to Jeff Buckley.

    "I realize how much we've only just begun to scratch the surface."

    "I think Naveed was always the eternal optimist that hung out in a dark cloud." says lyricist Maida about their debut disc and it's character.

    "There's a connection between the song 'Clumsy' and it being the title of the album. There's a line in the song that says: 'I'll be waving my hand/watching you drown/watching you scream', it's about seeing something but not seeing it for what it really is. It is about decisions. That image of 'waving your hand/watching you drown', is about seeing someone in the water, they're waving back at you and you're just waving back, not realizing that they are drowning. Or, you think they're drowning, but they're just waving at you. It's those weird situations where you just take something at face value, but you can be so wrong. You have to look deeper and question things. I think it's something that too many people don't do these days.

    "We're so inundated with fucking media, and you just believe it. How many times, not to just focus on us, have we read an interview or an article where we've been completely misquoted? We're just some small band, you think about some of the major players and you really have to question how true it all is."

    It was only five years ago when Our Lady Peace could be considered truly a "small" band. Formed in 1993 when Turner responded to a "musicians wanted" classified ad placed by Maida, the Canadian outfit taped a three-song demo with producer Arnold Lanni in Toronto, and over a year later, they were signed on to Sony Canada and Naveed, which sold multi-platinum in their native country, followed soon after. "Starseed," taken directly from the demo, became a Modern Rock and Active Rock hit in the States.

    The twisted and skewed trance of Naveed is now reconstructed in Clumsy, a direct, warm and personal album. With additional instrumentation and new inspiration, Clumsy reveals a self-developed sound. Produced and mixed by "fifth member"Arnold Lanni at Arnyard Studios in Toront, the band took "no longer and no less" than imaginable to make Clumsy.

    "Time passes, you change," admits Turner matter-of-factly. "I don't know if that's good, bad or indifferent, it just is. Naveed certainly wasn't an experience that we could go through and not be changed. That's why Clumsy sounds the way it does."

    "As a lyricist, I've grown tenfold," continues Maida, a former criminology student. "I don't know for what reason, maybe you just get better with age or experience. I think the lyrics are not as surreal and ambiguous as they were on the Naveed disc. I think Clumsy's lyrics kind of hit home, a little more. They all derive from personal experience, but I don't think people will think I'm overindulgent and just talking about myself. Clumsy's lyrics guide the listener through the story a lot quicker. You'll be able to pick up on the meaning within the song, without trying as hard. There's a lot of room for interpretation, they're still very open, which I think is important. My problems really aren't all that unique, so if people can't take them home with them and feel like they can somehow relate them to their lives, then it's not really worth it."

    Most of the band's spotlight has been shining on singer Raine Maida. Now, known for his wild stage antics (which included bot a knee and back injury throughout the Naveed tours) and his incredible vocal range, with comparisons to Sinead O'Connor, Maida still believes that song must tell a story. Within that context lies a certain joie-du-vivre, no matter how strange the subjects may be or how "Carnival"-like a theme might seem.

    "It wasn't by design, that was kind of strange," says Maida, when discussing Clumsy's concepts. "Some of the first lyrics I wrote were for 'Trapeze', a song which never made the record, but we play it live. These initial ideas kind of set the tone, because I really told a story. 'Trapeze' is about the head trapeze artist at a Russian circus who was married to one of the female performers. The couple got a divorce because he found out she was having an affair with someone else in the camp. That kind of set the tone for the record, which I think is based on making desicions, but when you get caught off guard and you have to make a choice. It's about what people choose to do in those times.

    "The song 'Big Dumb Rocket' is about me almost killing one of my best friends with a gun. It was one of those stupid incidents. I didn't know there was a bullet in the chamber, it was a Beretta, I removed the clip, but I didn't know that the bullet stays in the chamber always. That happened about two and half years ago, and I still have nightmares about it. I was just a fucking idiot. Every song, is pretty much based on those four or five seconds where you have the chance to make the right or wrong decision. Luckily, in some of those instances, I didn't have to pay, but I did make the wrong decision."

    Clumsy, without reading too much into the lyrics or themes is a unique recording. For the most part, this mega-success has dumfounded the nay-sayers, while gaining momentum at every turn. As Our Lady Peace opened for Everclear on most of their current tour, Everclear flip-flopped and became the opening act for Our Lady Peace when their cross-Canada tourcommenced in the latter months of 1997. This peculiar touring regime has opened both bands eyes to the power of the audience, more importantly, the buying power.

    "We're honest and very hard workers," says Taggart. "We're making music and gearing everything for our fans, the future, rather than relying on our previous success. We want to inform people about our music, but not to the point of making them sick with what we achieve. Everything we've accomplished, we've done with our audience, right there with us. Clumsy is about what we've done and what we're about to do. It's nice to know that new faces keep joining us for the music."

    "All the touring with the many different bands have made us what we are," says Turner in regards to Everclear, Alanis Morisette, Van Halen, Page/Plant and even the Ramones. "It's not something we dwell on. We've had the extreme honor of playing with practically everyone. We've learned from every show, and now we're continually moving forward."

    This learning process has been on-going since the release of Naveed. Now, with Clumsy, as songwriting changed from a general, aggressive, outgoing and esoteric stance to something more roots-oriented, with space and much more introspection, Our Lady Peace finds sincerity in the heart.

    "For Naveed, I wrote things in a certain way, almost to protect myself," admits Maida. "With Clumsy, I just wrote straight from my heart, telling stories. It's just kind of there and you can take it or leave it. There were some cases where there were a lot of chords and melodies already there. The four of us get into a room and we interpret whatever we have, that's just the initial spark. Things really happen when we all start playing."

    "If the energy is in the room, then the song is worth working on, if it's not then we discard it. As a songwriter, I can write songs myself, but that's not what I'm in this for. I'm in it for the interaction within the band. Whoever brings the idea in, it's got to have a life after the initial three chord melody."

    "Everyone in the band has a very different musical background and it goes beyond that," says Taggart. "We're all different people. I don't know if we came together, not as a band, if we'd hang around with each other. When we play music together it's very interesting because we are so different. The way I hear rhythum is very different from the other guys. It's everybody playing off of those different ideas."

    Turner concludes: "Every time we're working on something and someone mentions an idea, I'll be like 'nuts!', I never would have thought of that, which always leads to something else. It's the dynamics within the band.

    "The song can start from anywhere, but it's at that point where things start to get interesting because of our different dynamics. That's what makes us become the way we are, we act with respect for each other and with surprise as well."

    The two years in between discs showcases the maturing unit - four distinctly creative members making songs that at once touch the soul and question it. It is those ideals that make Clumsy so remarkable. It is these songs that...(where I got this from said it just cuts off like that)

Discography: Clumsy, 1997; Naveed, 1994.

Sales: 2.5 million.

Importance: The group's rise to the top is unparalleled. Formed in 1992, when singer Raine Maida answered an ad by a band looking for a singer, Our Lady Peace opted out of the club scene and immediately cut a small demo tape with the help of producer Arnold Lanni. The tape ended up in the hands of a Sony Records exec, who signed the band on the spot and promptly sent the foursome into the studio. They emerged with their first record, Naveed. The response shocked even them: The record went platinum within the year and before they knew it, they were opening for The Rolling Stones.

   Typically, some members of the hipper-than-thou music scene have been making whining noises about OLP's quick rise. But the intense live shows, the intelligent lyrics and the uncommon song structures show an unquestionable depth of talent. From the 22-year-old whiz-kid drummer to the sexy, charismatic frontman, the band has an achingly earnest commitment to music. "You've got to keep it pure," says Raine, doing the Jimmy Dean cool thing and making it work. "You enter as a musician and if you're not careful, you end up as an entertainer."

    Just for the record, OLP's second release, Clumsy, is selling more than 15,000 units a week in Canada, and 25,000 in the States.

Influences: The Beatles, Sinead O'Connor: "Her music is naked, plain and basic."

Buzz: "Our Lady Peace knows the only reliable measure of ubiquity is how many people in Waukagen, Ill., are courting carpal-tunnel syndrome learning your tunes." -C.J. O'Connor, eye Magazine, Chart Magazine and E! Now.

What's Next: Touring until summer, then starting work on a new album.

It's tough being a rock star. There were rumors that Raine Maida, the hunky lead singer of Canadian rockers Our Lady Peace, was paralyzed in a snowboarding accident on the band's day off -- but the truth turns out to be much less dramatic. The band had a very important date at last weekend's Juno awards (Canada's version of the Grammys), and they hopped a jet to get there in time. Unfortunately, Maida hopped a little too high, pinched a nerve in his neck, and had to be hospitalized. He was treated, and kept overnight for observation. The diagnosis? An owie (aka a pinched nerve). He was thus released with a month's supply of Vicodin, plus a warning to take it easy and to please try to rock a little harder. But not right away -- so the band was forced to cancel their next three shows with Black Lab and Headswim. Not it that mattered, since Black Lab's Paul Durham was having a few problems of his own. He had come down with a virulent case of food poisoning after eating Shrimp Vindaloo at an Indian restaurant in aaaaBoulder. Indian food in Colorado? That was his first mistake -- how many turban-swathed heads have you seen in those mountains? The only band that was functional at all was Headswim, and that was
because their lead singer was well-rested after recovering from a bout of tonsillitis last week. The shows that were canceled were Boulder, Colorado, on March 23, Salt Lake City on March 24, and Vail, Colorado, on March 26. No word whether they will be rescheduled. The ailing troika, armed with improved health insurance, will be back on the road for their Portland show on March 27, and for the KNND Winter Radio Fest, Board Stiff, on March 28.

Toronto band Our Lady Peace, recent two-time Juno winners, resume their U.S. tour tomorrow night in Portland.
They had to cancel two shows this week because of the hospitalization of lead singer Raine Maida in Vancouver.
Turns out Maida, who was forced at the last minute to pull out of performing at Sunday night's Juno Awards with his five-time nominated band, had a pinched nerve in his neck. During the Junos show, Maida's band members said he was suffering from "a recurrent back injury."

"They weren't sure if it was his neck or his back because it was so swollen," said a Columbia spokesman yesterday. "He's doing fine."

OLP, who cancelled a Monday night show in Boulder, Colo., and a Tuesday night show in Salt Lake City, will make up those dates later.

The Junos may be heading west for the second time this decade -- they take place one week from today at Vancouver's GM Place -- but the band to beat appears to be from Toronto.

Alterna-rockers Our Lady Peace are currently the biggest Canadian group going, with numerous kudos over the past year, not the least of which is a leading five Juno nominations.

OLP's latest release, Clumsy, got the nod for best album, best-selling album and the fan-voted Blockbuster rock album of the year. The title track is also up for best single, while OLP is up for best group.

"It's very, very flattering to be nominated and be considered a peer with the people that we share our nominations with," says guitarist Mike Turner, on the phone recently from Columbus, Ohio, after week one of the band's 10-week U.S. tour.

"However, I don't feel it. Know what I mean? Maybe it's just sort of an unreal thing. If anyone who's nominated for a Juno got into the business to be nominated for a Juno then they're screwed. One, you can't count on that kind of thing, and second, it's beyond your control. You can control the music you make and how you are -- how you present yourself, that's all. So you better be doing it for those reasons, 'cause other than that you're living your life in somebody else's control, which would really suck."

What doesn't, uh, suck, are Clumsy's impressive sales of over 700,000 in Canada and 500,000 in the U.S.

Our Lady Peace, who played a sold-out show at Maple Leaf Gardens in January, also have upcoming appearances on David Letterman and Saturday Night Live and a featured article in Rolling Stone.

Billboard magazine recently heralded that OLP "seems poised for a significant breakthrough" in the U.S.

While you'd think all this might add up to a clean Juno sweep for OLP, they're up against another major Canadian success story of the last year.

Halifax-born, Vancouver-based singer Sarah McLachlan is up for four Junos, including best album (Surfacing) and best single (Building A Mystery), where she will directly compete against OLP.

Her other two nominations are for best female vocalist and songwriter.

In addition to having the hometown advantage this year, McLachlan is fresh off two Grammy wins, not to mention an appearance on the Grammy show, the success of her all-women Lilith Fair music festival, an upcoming Rolling Stone cover and widespread U.S. media exposure in general.

Surfacing, meanwhile, has sold three million copies in Canada and the U.S. combined.

"The star system has never enjoyed greater acclaim than it does right now," says Lee Silversides, the president of the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

"And when your calling card is the likes of Sarah and Shania and Celine and Alanis, etc., etc., certainly people are sitting up and paying a lot more attention to it."

Although both OLP and McLachlan have more nominations than any other artist in this year's Juno pack, which includes Shania Twain, Jann Arden, Paul Brandt and Moist with three nominations each, there's also encouraging news on the fresh new faces front.

Montreal music collective Bran Van 3000, of Drinking In L.A. fame, also got three Juno nods: Best single and best new group, and their gold-selling debut, Glee, is up for best alternative album.

"It was a nice surprise," says James "Bran Man" Di Salvio on the phone from Montreal. "And then I was really happy to find out that album was one of them, 'cause it's kind of important that it doesn't become a single-focussed thing. Everybody worked really hard on making sure that the thing flows musically and to bring back the concept of the record, not just lure you in with one or two hooky singles and the rest is filler."

Other newcomers to do well are Winnipeg native Holly McNarland and Lakefield family act Leahy, who each picked up three Juno nods, and Spanish-singing Montrealer Lhasa, who picked up two nominations.

Among the established acts to get recognized this year are country star Terri Clark, singer Roch Voisine, Vancouver's Matthew Good Band and rockers The Tea Party, with two nods each.

And despite the Vancouver-centric feel to this year's Junos -- Victoria native David Foster is being inducted into the Canadian Music Hall Of Fame and Joni Mitchell's manager, Vancouver-based promoter Sam Feldman, is getting the industry builder award -- that apparently wasn't a factor in getting the awards show out west.

"We decided right after the last show in Hamilton last year that it was time to move to a new environment, as gracious as Hamilton had been and Copps Coliseum -- a great facility," says Silversides. "I think the academy had the confidence after three sell-outs that we could take this show on the road."

As for where the Junos will go next year, the rumor is they will head to Halifax first before returning to Toronto for the millennium.

"There's been a number of Canadian cities that have expressed interest in hosting the event," Silversides confirms before adding: "No decision has been made at this point in time."

THE JUNO FILE

WHERE AND WHEN: GM Place, Vancouver, March 22. Live broadcast on CBC-TV begins at 8 p.m.

HOST: Jason Priestley.

PERFORMERS: Our Lady Peace, Sarah McLachlan, Shania Twain, Diana Krall, Jann Arden and Leahy.

PRESENTERS: Ross Rebagliati, Mark Messier, Quincy Jones, Robbie Roberston.

LAST TIME THE AWARDS WERE HELD IN VANCOUVER: In 1991 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

While last summer's border-crossing EdgeFest tour was chock full of popular Canadian bands like OLP, Tea Party and I Mother Earth, the strategy for "Summersault" calls for OLP to headline at least four concerts in the eastern region of Canada, supported by five other modern rock acts who've achieved mass appeal in the U.S. or Great Britain but little north of the border. Then "Summersault" heads below the belt, to let an elite non-Canadian band headline the U.S. leg of the festival in just-south-of-the-border-cities like Seattle, Cleveland, Detroit and Buffalo, with OLP to assuming a more supporting role. OLP manager Eric Lawrence has 20,000 to 25,000 seat venues in mind for the tour. In Lollapalooza and H.O.R.D.E. tradition, "Summersault" will feature a second stage for less-established artists.

"It puts Our Lady Peace in a good position because we can offer up the opportunity to any American or U.K. bands to play four shows in front of that many people," Lawrence says. "But, in turn, let's take this thing into America and, if you're further along in America than [OLP], that band can go on stage last." As of yet no bands have been contacted to appear on "Summersault," which will likely begin in July, but Lawrence's wish list includes bands like Green Day, Garbage, Foo Fighters and the Verve.

In the U.S., Our Lady Peace's sophomore release, Clumsy, has just gone gold (500,000 copies sold) on the strength of the single "Superman's Dead" and the title track. Impressive, but in less-populated Canada, OLP is more popular than maple syrup, having sold nearly three-quarters of a million -- amounting to seven times platinum on the conversion scale.

"We can do shows now and play to about 1,500 people a night [in the U.S.]," Lawrence says, "but if we're able to flip something and end up playing to 15,000 or 20,000 people, you can't lose."

What happens when four nice Canadian boys get together and form an alternative rock band, molding themselves in the style of the old-time groups who were in it for the long haul and not the flash-in-the-pan million-dollar hit? Well, at first not much. But after "touring and touring and touring," Our Lady Peace's second album, Clumsy, has gone gold. And their latest single, "Clumsy," is charting in the top 5 in alternative radio.

And, it would seem, they've only just begun. "The way I used to feel about music," says lead singer Raine Maida, "when I was growing up, with a few bands I was really into, it felt like there was a confidence in the band and their music that you're going to get to grow up with them. It doesn't seem that a lot of bands kind of offer that anymore. And that's something I think we can definitely offer, that we're going to continue to make records rather than hit singles and continue to tour and play. And hopefully, we'll get better, and the fans can grow up with the band."

All spoken in a dreamy kind of fashion that makes you picture him in a meadow somewhere or near the ocean just really wanting everything to be OK. And for all their fans to be happy and dig their tunes.

And what a fine array of tunes they have to dig, too. One hit after another has launched Maida's twangy, raspy, sometimes whiny, always powerful voice over practically every airwave out there. You've probably been singing their ditties in the line at the grocery store without realizing it.

But their lyrics can be deceptive. Take those nasty lines from "Clumsy": I'll be waving my hand watching you
drown/watching you scream/quiet or loud. But Maida explains, "It's all about perceptions. I think a lot of times people tend to not give people the benefit of the doubt. It's a lot easier to get angry at someone and shrug them off, than really spend the time and put the effort into feeling out what may be troubling them or disturbing them or building a nurturing relationship with someone that you care about.

Consoling is not an easy thing to do on a real level. It's easy to hold someone for two minutes, but to really put in the effort to build a bridge or something that can help them get out of a hole is tough." Can you hear the waves? But in truth Our Lady Peace is a good, solid rock band that toured relentlessly on their first release Naveed (four times across America, five times across Canada), driving it into multiplatinum status in Canada.

Naveed was released on the indie label Relativity in the United States and drew the fledging band the reviews and sales needed to build on for their sophomore effort (they granted themselves eight days down time between albums).

Having just enjoyed a 10-day break after an arduous Canadian tour, Our Lady Peace is on the road again, for their first headliner in the United States."I think we're really excited about it," Maida says.

Having been hand-picked to open for the likes of Alanis Morissette, Robert Plant and the Rolling Stones and most recently playing with Everclear, this tour will reflect more of their personal style:video screens; dark, twisted films directed by the band; and longer, 75-minute sets.

But the thing that will keep them on an upward sweep is their sincere commitment to the songs. "If I ever feel like an entertainer up there," Maida says, "where I'm just singing for the sake of selling records or tickets, I quit."

    What a concept! Our Lady Peace wants to make a career out of music.  "It's really important to us to build what hopefully turns into a career," says Raine Maida, vocalist/lyricist for Canadian rockers Our Lady Peace.  "Everything seems to be fast food right now and nobody seems to care about having careers.  The idea seems to be to try to sell as many records as you can right now."

    "We want to just keep building.  That seems so volatile these days trying to have a career.  I want that to be the norm for us, just constantly progressing and building."
    The quartet who take their name from a Mark Van Doren poem are doing some solid career foundation building.  They formed in 1993 and have already been on tour with Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, The Rolling Stones and Van Halen.  Their first album, Naveed, was multi-platinum in Canada and sold half-a-million records around the world.  Rober Plant, in seeking out the band to tour with Page and Plant, said he had not heard anything with as much conviction in nearly five years.

    Clumsy, Our Lady Peace's (OLP) second album, was released in the U.S. in April of 1997 and is still producing singles.  The album has sold more than a million copies in North America alone so far and has gone seven times platinum in Canada.  In January of this year, the title track featured on the soundtrack for the hit teen thriller I know what you did last summer, was in the top 10 on alternative radio.  The Album's staing power firts very nicely into Maida's concept of how a  career should be built.  Thou he says he is not comparing the band to U2, he cites as a good example of what he hopes OLP can have in the fan loyality accorded Bono and company in the early years that allowed U2 to develop.

    He does see the seeds of of that in the OLP experience.  "Our gague is when we play outr shows and we see people singing songs they don't hear on the radio or see on MTV," Maida says "That means a lot to us.  They get the whole thing.  With CD players its so easy to skip and shuffle and program only the songs you want to hear."

    Our Lady Peace seems to be in no rush to record a new album, though they are working on material at sound checks and on their tour bus and are cataloging the work for future consideration.

    Right now the game plan is to tour, tour, tour.  To finally be able to headline makes a world of difference, Maida says. "It really does feel much better.  When you're only playing 40 to 45 minutes, its really not enough for us to show what the band is all about."

    He feels OLP is the strongest at playing live.  People who love the album can come out and gain a different perspective on the music, he suggests.  "We expand on what they are able to find in the record.  It gives our fans an insight on how much we really care about this stuff," he says.

    Vocally, he says his influences are definately more on the feminine side.  He was inspired to pursue a singing career after seeing Sinead O' Connor perform in Toronto.

    "At the time, macho singers and deep voices threw me off a bit. That provided a bit of insecurity." he admits." But over the last three years of touring I feel really comfortable with the direction I'm going in.  I completely embrace the Sinead O' Connors.  There is a nakedness in women's voices I don't find in too many men.  I'm m uch more drawn to that than anything else."

    He hopes listeners can make a  connection, not only with his voice, but also the lyrics.  "I judge things by how they touch me.  I keep a journal.  I won't go back to something I've written in a journal until weeks later.  If it has some kind of impact on my emotions, then I can start working on a lyrical level.  I try to make lyrics universal and leve them open for interpretataion."

    When it all comes together live, it is a very passionate, honest experience, he suggests.  "When the audience is into it, its obviously great , but it really relies on the four of us when we play well together and are able to get in that zone where everything is clicking."

    Achieving that zone doesn't happen every show. "It doesn't happen a whole lot.  It's once every four or five shows and it's pretty incredible when it does happen," Maida says.
"When you are in that zone, you feel all the hard work and shows you've been doing are worth it.  You've built a place where you can feel free musically."

    There was a lot of musical freedom in making the clumsy album, he says.  "We wanted to expand all the things we heard in our head.  We didn't play too many shows before we made our first record.  We were able to be more creative in the studio this time.  We saw how we can really use it as a tool.  The studio is like the sixth member of the band.  Our producer Arnold Lanni is like a member of the band." He says.

    Maida says Lanni, whom they consider a friend, gave the musicians free reign of his Toronto studio.  "Every dial, every piece of gear, we felt empowered to do whatever we wanted in that situation.  This was our friend's studio.  A lot of band overlook how important it is not to get sucked into  [the glamour of] whoever recorded in the studio last."

    Lanni gave them the freedom to explore and learn.  That is vital in the making of the music they want to make, Maida implies.  Music is worth the time.

    And music, good music, is the stuff of which long careers -like those being soughty by Our Lady Peace- are made.

Who's Clumsy?

There has been absolutely nothing peaceful or clumsy about the band that Toronto modern rock station 102.1 The Edge declared creators of the top album of 1997; talk about Edge-ing out Radiohead and Oasis!

Before '97 was over, Our Lady Peace had hit the seven times platinum mark (700,000 albums) in Canadian sales alone for their album Clumsy. "I certainly don't think Clumsy is a better album than {Radiohead's} OK Computer," says guitarist Mike Turner, displaying typical Canuck modesty over the accolades. "But just to be in that peer group is very flattering. We got a little misty-eyed over that."

Their efforts are paying off Stateside, where Superman's Dead was already a big radio hit. South of the border, OLP went on a recent sold-out club tour with headliners Everclear. But here in Canada, Everclear are currently opening for OLP - in sold-out arenas.

On the eve of January's Toronto date, Turner jokes about success and the fear of failure. "We have a secret feeling we'll get on-stage at Maple Leaf Gardens and there'll be two dozen people there going: Fooled you!" Try 20,000 people, Mike. "The Gardens is the place I saw bands like U2 Rush and Queen, not a place I play.

But the reality of arena rock is sinking in. "We'd been travelling in one bus with a trailer," he remembers. "Now there are six tractor-trailers and three buses. We designed the stage, the lighting show, shot some short films, edited them and added sound effects. We're very proud of this show."

The next stop? More work in the US. "We'll play as long as they want us. France, Germany, we'll suck up to anybody that lets us. "The ultimate judgement of any band is the experience of seeing them play live," he adds. "I understand the facility of pulling off a great sound on CD, but I'd much rather see a sweaty, passionate band making mistakes but with a visceral intensity."

As for great sounding CD's, one casualty in this near year-long road trip has been OLP's songwriting. "On the road, we write separately. All I need is a guitar and a quiet corner and I can work on a riff...but we can't get together as a band. When we went into a studio for a couple of days, it was all thoughtful mid-tempo stuff. That's because we don't have a chance to do the big drum kit and electric guitar rock stuff, but just sit down with acoustic guitar." C'mon now, Mike: these automatic ballads won't do!

His final words on the unsatisfying mid-tour studio session? "There was lots of navel-gazing going on."

Then again, life is a matter of perspective - because plenty of Our Lady Peace's fans would probably just love to gaze at their navels!

Our Lady Peace has seen the enemy. And that enemy is indifference. That enemy is apathy. That enemy is Van Halen. (Or, more accurately, the fans of Van Halen.)

Some bands might be a tad intimidated by the thought of performing a gig for 5,000 screaming rock fanatics. But that's a walk in the park for Our Lady Peace, which performs a sold-out show at UWO's Thompson Arena tonight. After all, this is a band that's weathered some tough, hand-to-hand combat in the trenches of rock 'n' roll.

This is a band that survived an opening slot on a Van Halen tour. The supreme test came one night in Minneapolis, when the Toronto-based foursome faced some hard-rock fans renowned for their less-than-ecstatic enthusiasm for anyone other than their revered, veteran string-twisting hero -- Eddie Van Halen.

"I heard horror stories about bands that got chanted off the stage and had stuff thrown at them," says Our Lady Peace guitarist Mike Turner. "We basically had to battle indifference -- overwhelming indifference. Basically, I'd look out (into the audience) and see all these guys with their arms crossed over their chests, looking at me like, 'Dude, you are not Edward.' "

On most nights during the 2 1/2 months with Van Halen, Turner says Our Lady Peace overcame the stony stares of Eddie's army. By the end of most shows, he says, many fans would be nodding their heads to the music, their faces sporting a look of surprised satisfaction.

But that almost all came crashing down -- literally -- during this monster Minnesota show when Our Lady Peace were unable to crack the crowd's indifference.

The crisis came as Our Lady Peace singer/songwriter Raine Maida was introducing the song Starseed, explaining how it was based on a book about automatic writing and creativity and a few other esoteric topics.

"And of course, this crowd just wasn't getting it," recalls Turner. "And Raine kind of lost it and told the crowd off, which might not have been the best idea. He said, 'I don't even know why I'm explaining this to you guys, you're too stupid to understand it even if I did lay it out as clearly as can be.' "And that's when I found myself praying that the seats were bolted to the floor." Apparently they were, since no projectiles marked E 12 were rocketed toward the stage.

Turner laughs about it now. But the incident touched something that has helped propel Our Lady Peace into the big leagues of rock.

"We take our music very seriously," he says. "It's everything we've ever wanted, everything we've ever fought for and everything we've ever believed in. So to see somebody treat it with indifference is possibly the most offensive thing you could do to us.

"I'd much rather you got up on your seat and started hating us, because then I know I've made an impact. I've obviously said something clearly enough that you've heard it and disagreed with it."

Judging by its success, a lot of people are hearing Our Lady Peace and liking what they hear. While its 1994 debut album Naveed sold more than 400,000 copies in Canada, national sales of the band's second album, Clumsy, have now exceeded 600,000. Along the way, the band has shared the stage with Bush, Elastica, the Ramones, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant and -- just last month -- the Rolling Stones in Quebec City. But Monday's headlining gig at Thompson arena will be a welcome change.

"I'm so looking forward to this," says Turner. "It's been hard slugging our guts out in small clubs in secondary markets for the last month."

The show also marks a bit of a homecoming for Turner and bassist/keyboardist Duncan Coutts, who both studied at UWO during the mid-'80s (Turner majored in English, while Coutts studied film). But despite some murky memories from his days as a resident of UWO's Saugeen-Maitland Hall, Turner stresses that the band calls Toronto home.

"We've been claimed by pretty much everyone from Halifax to Vancouver," says Turner, who was born in England. "I think it's because we came about without much of a link to any scene. We just sort of toddled on out on our own."

But despite his London links, Turner says he won't be waxing nostalgic.

"There's a lot of memories to be recovered from that era," he says with a laugh. "I've yet to remember them, so reliving them might be a problem."

Columbia Records band Our Lady Peace is coming back to America to headline an extensive concert tour beginning February 26 at Toad's Place in New Haven, Connecticut (see itinerary below). Headswim has been scheduled to open for the popular Canadian group on all U.S. tour dates with Black Lab coming onboard the tour from March 4 onward. OLP has played more than 160 shows in this country since the end of February 1997.

Our Lady Peace's second album, Clumsy, was released in the United States on April 11, 1997, and has gone on to sell more than a million copies in North America alone; Clumsy is 7x platinum in the band's native Canada and is approaching gold in this country.

The band's current single, "Clumsy," is currently a Top 10 record at alternative radio and is a featured track on the Columbia Records soundtrack for the hit teen thriller I Know What You Did Last Summer. "Superman's Dead," the first single from Clumsy, was also a Top 10 alternative smash. Our Lady Peace recently lensed a provocative video for "Clumsy," directed by M att Mahurin. The "Superman's Dead" video was directed by Ken Fox. OLP has performed recently on NBC's "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" and MTV's "Oddville."

Our Lady Peace recently walked off with two prestigious "People's Choice" awards at Canada's Much Music (the Canadian equivalent of MTV) Awards ceremony; OLP was voted "Favorite Group," while "Superman's Dead" was voted "Favorite Video."

The band's first album, Naveed, became a multi-platinum seller in Canada and ultimately sold half-a-million records around the world. Released earlier this year in Canada, Clumsy debuted at #1 on the Canadian SoundScan chart, hit platinum in that country within three weeks of its release, and stayed in the Top 20 for a full year.

Our Lady Peace formed in 1993 and, shortly thereafter, cut three demos (including their smash hit "Starseed") with producer Arnold Lanni in his Toronto studio. Those demos quickly led to a deal with Sony Music. Released in 1995, the group's first album, Naveed (released on Relativity in the States), generated the Top 10 Modern Rock and Active Rock hit, "Starseed." Following the album's release Our Lady Peace embarked on a marathon round of touring, playing more than 400 shows to over half-a-million people as the band shared bills with Alanis Morissette, Bush, Elastica, Sponge, and Better Than Ezra.

Our Lady Peace 1998 U.S. Tour

Date            City/State              Venue
Feb 26     New Haven, Connecticut       Toad's Place
Feb 28     Rochester, New York          Water Street Music Hall
Mar  1     Liverpool, New York          The Big Ballroom
Mar  3     State College, Pennsylvania  Crobar
Mar  4     Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania     Metropol
Mar  6     Pontiac, Michigan            Clutch Cargo's
Mar  7     Cleveland, Ohio              The Odeon Concert Club
Mar  8     Grand Rapids, Michigan       The Orbit Room
Mar 10     Columbus, Ohio               Mecca
Mar 12     Chicago, Illinois            Club Metro
Mar 13     Green Bay, Wisconsin         Riverside Ballroom
Mar 14     Milwaukee, Wisconsin         Modjeska Theatre
Mar 15     Minneapolis, Minnesota       First Avenue
Mar 17     St. Louis, Missouri          Mississippi Nights
Mar 18     Lawrence, Kansas             Granada Theater
Mar 19     Columbia, Missouri           The Blue Note

Additional Our Lady Peace tour dates TBA

Since the release of Naveed in 1994, North Americans have grown with alternative phenomenon Our Lady Peace to the tune of hundreds of thousands of records. Naveed is a middle-eastern name that stands for the bearer of good news, which can now be translated to read "good fortune." In the beginning, Our Lady Peace's name was confusing, difficult to understand and, at times, mixed up with the name of another up-and-coming Canadian act called I Mother Earth. OLP, as fans affectionately call them, have since become a Canadian staple in the households and disc players of many, many fans. The name of the band is derived from a poem by author Mark Van Doren; guitarist Mike Turner explains, "We all read it and took something different from it, and that's the sense we want from the music."

Without question, you can say the success of the band has propelled them into the limelight and they are now the torchbearers to show the world what Canadian music has to offer. In half the time it took for the now-legendary Kingston, Ontario quintet The Tragically Hip to reach lofty sales, OLP have smashed down barriers making the absolute best use of their musical career, a career that can sometimes be very fleeting (Andrew Ridgeley, Helix). What OLP have been able to do that, unfortunately, the Hip have not is make a dent in the American charts. This can be partially attributed to opening slots for such heavyweight acts as Alanis Morissette, Van Halen, Page & Plant, Sponge, Letters To Cleo, and most recently Everclear. But this can mainly be attributed to OLP's grinding
hooks and frontman Raine Maida's exuberant howls and commanding presence, whether he be onstage or on the set of the band's latest video.

Another hurdle that Our Lady Peace have overcome is the treacherous sophomore jinx, which often falls on to bands recording their second album, showing the public and critics that they didn't have a chance to grow and are only one-hit wonders. It hasn't been a complete bed of roses for the Toronto band, even though their record deal sounds like a fairy tale the band played less than a dozen shows together before signing to Sony Music. In 1995, OLP had to replace bass player Chris Eacrett with Duncan Coutts and learn, again, how to work as a team to achieve success. With Clumsy already surpassing sales of Naveed, the band's formula for success with producer Arnold Lanni (ex-member of Sheriff and Frozen Ghost) seems to make just the right amount of chemistry.

After a seven-month tour of the United States opening for Everclear, OLP will be back on northern turf to play a string of capacity shows, which will include Winnipeg on Jan. 20, Thunder Bay on Feb. 5, and Sudbury on Feb. 7. Everclear will open the first leg of the tour, which includes Winnipeg's show, while OLP-approved hip-hopsters BTK perform opening honours for the second leg, including Thunder Bay and Sudbury.

Our Lady Peace are comprised of Raine Maida on vocals, Duncan Coutts on bass, Mike Turner on guitar, and Jeremy Taggart on drums. Just before Christmas, Maida had a chance to speak to me about Naveed, Clumsy, New England Patriots, BTK, Everclear, Chantal Kreviazuk, Sinead O'Connor and more.

lowdown: How did you guys hook up with Everclear?

Raine Maida: It was really, I guess, organic, for whatever reason. I think he (Art Alexakis, Everclear frontman) heard our first record, or heard "Superman's Dead" on the radio in the States, and we were touring and he called us and asked us. They had six weeks starting at the end of October and they needed somebody to open up and they asked us. At first we kinda didn't want to do it because we were having a lot of fun headlining and things were going really well. Then we said, "You know what it would be... I think their audience is a little different than ours." So we decided to do it and it worked out well. They were talking about touring Canada in January and so we said, "Why don't you guys come play with us?"
 

l: Were the American Everclear dates in large arenas?

RM: No, no, it was smaller. I don't know what you would call it: really big clubs or theatres 1,500 seaters. It was nice, really hot and sweaty.

l: Were you at the Boston show where the girl (23-year-old Tameeka Messier) alleged that New England Patriots' Drew Bledsoe and Max Lane both leapt from the stage and landed on her during Everclear's Nov. 13 performance at the Paradise Rock Club?

RM: Yeah. I don't know, it's such a weird thing. No charges were laid; it seems the girl had three disks removed from her neck. I mean, there were a lot of other people who could have landed on her as well. It just so happens that they were football players.

l: How long have you guys been touring the United States?

RM: We've been down here for about seven months now.

l: What do you think of touring the States?

RM: We feel really isolated down here, like we're doing something radically different, because Everclear tends to be more punkish or raw it's either that or the whole ska thing. I don't know where we fit in, with songs like "Car Crash" and "Carnival." Our reviews have been really positive.

l: What do you find different between Canadian and American fans?

RM: Nothing. Just size. It's still building here. We're selling a lot of clubs on our own now; I think a lot of it's the same, you know, in the sense the kids are going out and buying the record and digging the whole album. "Clumsy" was just released as a single here, but even two months ago all these kids who knew "Superman's Dead" from the radio and video were singing "Clumsy" at the shows. Especially in America, when we get a single on the radio and it starts doing well, and then TV starts playing the video, I always get very apprehensive (Maida lowers his voice to make like he is disappointed): "Oh shit, here it is. We're not going to be the band that gets to develop. It's just a big single." And that's what you become just that single. We were worried about that with "Starseed"; I think it's very real and we're developing real fans, rather than kids that won't give a shit with the next record.

l: How did you guys get hooked up with BTK for the Canadian tour's second leg?

RM: I saw them in a small club with my girlfriend in the summer when we were home in Toronto doing the Edgefest stuff. And I saw the video for "Superchile" that they had briefly on MuchMusic and I really dug it, and I went to see them, and it was unbelievable. We got them to open up on some of the Edgefest dates in Ontario and they're just amazing live; we want to give them the opportunity to play. It will definitely be to a different crowd because their crowd is probably not our crowd, but that's the interesting thing and that's what music's all about.

l: With all your touring, have you developed a solid fan base?

RM: Yeah, when the album first came out we just toured the colleges and universities 'cause that's where we started from, and we'll probably do it when the next record is released as well. It means a lot to us to play those rooms that we played back when there were only three people in them.

l: You have done your share of videos for both records, but with the latest ("Automatic Flowers") the
band took over the role as director.

RM: Yeah, we did. We'll sit around and talk about the concept for a video and then explain it to a director. Then we'll get it on paper and everything looks fine, but it kept happening over and over that the final product was nothing, or it fell very short of the vision that we saw in our head. Finally, with "Automatic Flowers," we were touring the States, it was really hectic and we were talking to all these directors and thought, "This is just gonna happen again." So, we said, "Forget it. Just book us some time and we'll do it ourselves." And I think we're happier with it.

l: Why did you do a second video for "Superman's Dead"?

RM: We did another one for MTV, only because Columbia Records down here in New York liked the first "Superman's Dead" video but they wanted to put more band footage in it and, conceptually, it didn't fit with the Canadian version. We felt it would compromise the integrity of it so we said, "Forget it," and we didn't want to kill the video and its meaning just for more band footage, and we just did another one.

l: Rumours have it that you have taken some heat from adoring female fans over the relationship with your girlfriend. (Maida is dating Winnipeg singer Chantal Kreviazuk.)

RM: Oh, really? Oh god, I couldn't tell you. I try to keep my personal life personal.

l: But as the band's success grows, your profile is reaching higher levels. Your personal life is becoming more public.

RM: Well, kind of. I find on the Web site, and questions asked by E-mail and regular mail, that they are pretty much more about the music and shows. That's what we give to the fans. If you give everything about yourself, you become a prostitute.

l: Then, if it's about the music, I guess you're questioned often about the lyrics. How does that process work for you?

RM: I think it's like having a baby it's very painful for me. It's all observational for me and I take notes about things that interest me. I go back to them every couple of weeks or months and see if they have any relevance to me and slowly decipher stuff until we're ready to put music to the words. It's a really strange thing how it all happens for me and it's tough, because when I write, I'm playing the acoustic guitar and trying to put all these melodies to the words and, all of a sudden, you have all these rules. It's not like poetry, but I feel that I'm becoming better at it and hope to continue getting better.

l: Would you say that Our Lady Peace are more of a cohesive unit since the arrival of Duncan Coutts?

RM: Absolutely. Things were going really well when Chris was in the band: We were starting to sell a lot of records and we felt like we were achieving something, but there was this whole spiritual and philosophical difference between Chris and the rest of us. It was hindering us from enjoying any of the success, so we sat down and decided what the problem was and realized that we were heading down different paths, musically and as people.

l: It must have been kind of hard. Was it like kicking out a member of the band?

RM: It was more of an agreement. In a perfect world we wouldn't want it to happen and it was a tough decision to make. We didn't want to have to make it but I think, looking at the career of the band, it was a very important decision. Bringing in Duncan has made it more of a family. He was the first bass player we auditioned for this band but he was involved in school, so he let us travel in the little school bus for three years and then decided to join.

l: After playing Naveed live over 400 times, does it become monotonous?

RM: In terms of integrity, we feel we have 100% integrity. Even with all the warts and scars of that record, there are things that aren't perfect, and it's something that we have captured a time in our life, three months something that's documented and we're happy with that.

l: With all the touring for Naveed, do you feel that is what pushed the band past the sophomore jinx for the recording of Clumsy?

RM: Oh, definitely. For us, making music is not an easy thing. We put so much pressure on ourselves to make great records, not just to make singles. We don't let the record company hear anything until we have 11 excellent songs, and that's where the pressure comes from. And Duncan is a great mediator: When things get tense he becomes the voice of reason, which is something we didn't have before. I'm an extremist and Duncan balances me pretty well. What it basically comes down to is the respect that we have for one another and that we're able to check our egos at the door and just concentrate on making music. I think that's where a lot of bands fall short.

l: How does it feel being put up on the pedestal as one of Canada's best bands?

RM: I don't really think about it. We've grown, and so have the fans, although lately, when I think of the show we will be playing at Maple Leaf Gardens, it puts butterflies in my stomach. Because I grew up watching every band in the world play there, but at the same time we're looking at goals further down the road to make a career of this. The record industry has become so cynical and disposable, it seems just having a career is harder.

l: When you first started off, the first single from Naveed was "Birdman," which didn't get very much rotation on MuchMusic. Did the idea of a music career ever seem out of reach?

RM: Yeah, we didn't get any play on "Birdman." And even though Naveed sold like 400,000 copies, it was a gradual effort. It wasn't any one single that really did it. I think we were getting nervous only because the record company and management were. But we told them to come out to the shows and see how the people were connecting. It wasn't anything like a one-hit-wonder kind of thing; it was a real personal connection that people were getting from the lyrics and the show.

l: Now, OLP's Thunder Bay show won't have the same problem as the last one you played there, will it? (A riot broke out Nov. 12, 1995, OLP's last Thunder Bay show.)

RM: I really hope not. I think it will be a little more organized. I don't mind talking about it. It was really disappointing. We did all these colleges and had no problems and then we got to Thunder Bay and we had some lady, who, for whatever reason, put the kids' safety aside by putting up little tables as a barricade. We've played enough shows to see every kind of barricade and every problem that can arise, and a kid could have easily broken their neck or collarbone or whatever for us and it's just not worth it. Music we'll do anything for music but I won't see some kid get hurt.

l: The venue in question has since put up new barricades, but I think the concern was over the crowd-surfing and the cement floor. Would you say you promote stage-diving and crowd-surfing at your shows?

RM: No, we don't. Well, I don't want to dictate what the kids should do at the show. During Edgefest there were many kids that got hurt and we have heard a lot of stories about kids getting hurt, even at our shows where we've had a girl break her neck, broken arms and stuff. Finally, after Edgefest, I sat outside with our manager right by the B-stage and we watched St. John's Ambulance pull these kids away, and this one girl almost died because she couldn't catch her breath. Yeah, you know, it just came to a point where I thought someone was gonna die at one of our shows and I would probably wanna quit then. So that's why, with this arena tour, most, if not all, the shows are seated. There might be some backlash from our fans, but in essence we're doing it for them. I'll tell you if someone ever did die at one of our shows, I don't know if we would still be a band. It would be really hard to get through.

l: For the third album, do you plan to stick with producer Arnold Lanni or try to do the production yourselves?

RM: You know, with Arnold he is kind of like the fifth member. We do everything together, he's like our Brian Eno. It's such an ideal relationship that we have never thought of anything different. If we're all growing together, there's no need to change. The same studio (Arnyard Studios) will probably be used. We're not gonna go to New York or LA to spend a million dollars on an album; we're going to do it for cheap and stay in Toronto. I tell you, man, it's not fancy or anything. There's nobody there doing our laundry for us or anything. It's not the studio or the gear that makes the music, it's the creative minds and that's what's nurtured in the small place.

l: Is there one person in the world who you'd like to meet, but haven't had a chance to yet?

RM: Sinead O'Connor. She's probably the only musician that I would be a little starstruck by, just because I have such a strong belief in her beliefs. She has complete integrity so what if she's not selling a million albums. I think she is just a brilliant musical mind, and she has probably been one of the biggest influences on me as a singer, and just someone I have a lot of respect for.

"Are you kidding? We use something similar to that for our ideas," says Our Lady Peace guitarist Mike
Turner in response to my apologies for the dated tape machine placed in front of him. "It's the worst
thing when you think of an idea and you think ‘that's really cool, I'll remember that,' and then you go to
play it and it's like ‘those are the notes but that's not it'."

The fact that the guitarist of one of the most successful Canadian band ever uses a dinky tape recorder
and not some mobile studio is my first indication that Out Lady Peace is not your average rock band,
Although we are in an executive suite of a fairly high class Toronto hotel, Turner didn't arrive with any
kind of entourage or bodyguards. He isn't even staying as the hotel but instead drove in for the
interview from his home and began our discussion by revealing his difficulty in finding a parking place.
He isn't the least bit pretentious and thinks carefully before offering clear and fairly concise answers to
my questions. But while Turner may not take himself too seriously, it is a different story with regard to
the music that he and fellow bandmates Raine Maida (vocals), Duncan Coutts (bass) and Jeremy
Taggart (drums) create.

"We're very serious about what we do. We've worked all our lives to make music, to make an album.
Not that our music is perfect by any stretch but it is as accurate and powerful as we are able to make it.
We really believe in what we do."

Without question thousands of music fans across the country also believe in what Our Lady Peace
does. The band's debut album Naveed was released in 1994 and became an instant success. There
seemed to be an immediate attraction to the emotional intensity of their music and songs like ‘Birdman,'
‘Starseed,' ‘Hope,' and the title track all became hit singles. Three years later the band responded to
their popular debut album with Clumsy, a record that not only equals the quality of Naveed but
surpasses it by being more intricate musically, more personal, and by displaying an even stronger sense
of conviction throughout. The album debuted at number one in Canada and took just over three weeks
to go double platinum. It also spawned such massive hits as ‘Superman's Dead,' ‘Automatic Flowers,'
and the title track. While numbers ans sketchy (and not necessarily a good way to judge quality)
Clumsy has sold reportedly 700, 000 copies since it's release.

Of course Turner is pleased about the group's successes, but not simply because they have been selling
records and selling out venues, but also because of the kind of responses they have been getting from
their fans.

"We've had some very touching e-mails, [particularly] about the song ‘4AM' and how it's helped
people in their relationships with their parents which is really special. But honestly, to know that our
music has had an effect like that is a little intimidating."

Other fans that have been intimidating have been those of the famous kind. Led Zeppelin legend Robert
Plant was so impressed with Our Lady Peace that he invited tem to open various Page & Plant dates
and te band has also opened for Van Halen. Not only do Turner and his bandmates share musical talent
with these superstars but apparently also a surprising amount of humility.

"One of the most interesting things about the icon figures that we've met is that people like Plant, Page,
and Eddie Van Halen are regular guys. It's neat to see people of that calibre acting perfectly normal.
Robert Plant said that we had a conviction that he doesn't hear much in today's music and then he
apologized for interrupting our dinner. Ed walked up to us and said ‘Hi I'm Ed' and we're like ‘No
shit'."

But what Our Lady Peace fans from Robert Plant to a twelve year old groupie and everyone in
between seem to enjoy about the band is its raw emotional power. But Turner says that though it's
intense, their music and Raine's lyrics tap into a directed anger which is much more useful than simply
being angry.

"Anger is a legitimate emotion but undirected anger is just rage," he explains. "There are a lot of bands,
and I'm not going to name names, that...give off a sense of anger and dismay about nothing or about
really mundane topics which is ridiculous. We'd rather figure out what it is [we're angry at] and have a
resolution."

This kinda of focused intensity is something the band likes int heir on favorite musicians as well.

"We're all huge fans of U2 and The Beatles. I'm also a big fan of Ministry and Nine Inch Nails while
Raine is a big fan of Sinead O'Connor and Jeff Buckley. We mainly like musicians where you hear an
individual, or and individual identity expressed by a group, that has heart and passion. I mean
Radiohead are so brilliant at that it's terrifying, and Soul Coughing and one of the most original bands
playing right now."

But while Turner readily shares the band's influences, their own sound is quite different from any of the
acts he rhymes off.

"We assimilate everything we come into contact with but we're not good enough to imitate it so that you
would recognize it," he laughs.

Along with it's rapid and staggering success, Our Lady Peace also has another unique feature that
separates it from most Canadian acts. Rater tan having to slug it out at clubs making no money and
touring independently, they had the luxury of being signed almost instantaneously to do a major
contract.

"We did a demo with the songs ‘Julia,' ‘Neon Crossing,' and ‘Denied' in order to get gigs, and a friend
who was going to the CMJ conference in New York took a few copies with him; they didn't even have
a real label on them, just our name scribbled on a Maxell tape, and we got a call from Interscope and a
call from Geffen and they were like ‘We'd really like to hear more material' but we hadn't recorded any.
So we passed it around to a few Canadian Labels and Sony basically said they'd lie to carry us on
beyond those first three songs. They had faith in us and didn't even hear the other eight songs until we
gave them the finished master. But if they hadn't come around we would have started slugging it [as an
independent act]."

The yin and the yang of this speedy success had also had an impact on the band. When asked how
Raine feels about having been turned into a sex symbol by fans and the media, Turners reports that not
only does Raine personally dislike the title but it is also something that can potentially hurt their music.

"He doesn't like that. He's very uncomfortable with that but people perceive what they want to
perceive. Raine is a good looking guy which can be a little detrimental because I think he is a brilliant
lyricist and I think the message of his lyrics sometimes gets obscured by the fact that people will read
them with the script of him being this sex symbol boy. Not that there's anything wrong with being a
thirteen year-old girl but I'm sure some of them are missing possible meanings of a song because they
want to hear it as a love song and anything that [is detrimental to] the music to us is bad."

Our time has ended. Turner is on a busy schedule doing interviews all day so the record rep informs me
that we'll have to end.

Turner says he'll walk me downstairs because he has to put money in the parking meter and though the
rep offers to do it for him, he'd rather just do it himself. Like I said, he is not your ordinary rock star.

It's the fans who make a band -- come to the shows, buy the records, spread the word.

Most rock groups take this for granted. Not Our Lady Peace.

OLP fans got the royal treatment yesterday afternoon in Vancouver -- a private pre-concert show, an autograph session and an opportunity to point their disposable cameras at Raine, Mike, Duncan and Jeremy.

Sixty-odd fan-club members and contest winners filed into GM Place yesterday afternoon to catch an up-close-and-personal with Canada's biggest pop sensation.

The young fans took their seats next to friends and parents as Our Lady Peace laid into a chopped-song, sound
check-cum-mini-concert under the bright lights of The Garage.

"Hey, everybody, thanks for coming out," said frontman Raine Maida over the closing chords of Superman's Dead.

They played Clumsy and Automatic Flowers, chewed gum and swigged bottle water.

"I'm getting this ridiculous slap off the back wall," complained guitarist Mike Turner to the sound guy. "I'm getting so much crap back from out there. It's unbelievable."

The fans --Êmost of them blowing off third period -- didn't mind.

"We just bought the CD the week before the contest," said contest winner Sean Bales, 13, who brought his buddies Jason Howe and Davin Shikaze, also 13, along for the show. "I just like their kind of sound . . . just sittin' back and listening."

Our Lady Peace stepped down from the stage to shake hands with the fans and sign posters, CD covers and Pied Piper's Union fan club stickers.

They were gracious and cool.

"They seem really friendly and down to earth," said 18-year-old Hanieh Khataee, of Vancouver.

"Really sweet," added her school chum Adeline Kong.

Tammy Nielsen, 21, and Daru Dhillon, 19, made the trek from Victoria to catch their heroes.

"Definitely groovy," said Nielsen of the mini-concert. "We've been fans since we first laid eyes on him." (Him being poster boy frontman Raine Maida.)

Fifteen-year-old Erica Fong got the thrill of her life when she met Jeremy Taggart. The drummer pulled a figurine out of his pocket, a self-portrait crafted by Fong.

"Oh, are you the one that made them?" asked bassist Duncan Coutts over his bandmate's shoulder. "Cool. Thanks."

"I made them all one," said Fong. "I put magnets on the back. Maybe they can put them on the tour bus or something."

It sure didn't take long for Canadian kids to "get" Our Lady Peace.

Less than a year ago, the band played to 620 people in the Dinwoodie Lounge.

Last night, it was 12,000 fans in the Coliseum - a young, rowdy crowd whose cheers threatened to drown out the newest kings of Canadian arena rock.

Move over, Tragically Hip.

Having paid hard dues on the road backing up the likes of Page and Plant, Van Halen and Alanis Morissette, the Toronto foursome was up to the task.

Our Lady Peace presented a hard-rocking, dynamic show remarkable both for psychedelic lighting effects and a dynamic array of moods. The band has only two albums, Naveed and Clumsy, but it turned out to be plenty of music to create a satisfying and diverse rock concert.

Following an energetic and delightfully sloppy set from opening band Everclear - plus the "evil puppet" episode of Twilight Zone shown on the screen during the break (a nice touch) - Our Lady Peace made its grand entrance. The crowd took to its feet immediately, cheering in a deafening din. The lights went down and band mascot and mentor Saul Fox appeared on the screen - a 75-year-old man dressed as an emaciated superhero. It was kind of creepy.

Through the opening tunes, Automatic Flowers and Hope, the spotty sound quality came together quickly as the band kicked the energy level to high gear.

The crowd's adulation was firmly focused on Raine Maida, the Hamlet-like singer of the band. Look in the dictionary under "intense young man" and his picture would be there. All he needed to do was stand there and girls would lose their minds. Needless to say, his nervy, flailing gyrations - at times rivalling Hip frontman Gord Downie - went over well. Singing with a strident nasal wail that revealed surprising range, it's as if his every tortured lyric was a psychic arrow through his heart. He couldn't lay it on thick enough.

A key dramatic moment came during Superman's Dead, featuring that distinctive, keening line: "whyeeiieeii" echoing across the arena. Maida paused near the end of the tune, letting the screams wash over him as huge lighting trusses moved above him.

"You guys feel like singing tonight?" he asked, needlessly, before leading the chant of "doesn't anybody ever know (repeat several times) that the world's a subway." What the hell is that supposed to mean, you ask? It doesn't matter. It works. The young audience (me and Everclear singer Art Alexakis were probably the oldest people there) knew all the words to OLP's most cryptic tunes.

Stranger and more dramatic moments followed. Between the hard-rockers came subtle highlights that included the dream-like ballad, 4 a.m., plus a piano and vocal version of one of the tracks recorded for Naveed. Cigarette lighters dotted the crowd for this one - the timeless "big rock" tribute for any slow, quiet song played by a rock band in a hockey arena.

One exotic-sounding song in particular was written about a husband and wife trapeze act, as Maida explained at great length. Upon realizing that his wife was having an affair with the human cannonball at precisely the moment he was about to swing down to catch his beloved, the husband had four seconds to think about it. That's what Trapeze is about: those four seconds, said Maida.

Get it? The crowd did.

Today arenas, tomorrow stadiums? Time will tell for Our Lady Peace. It didn't take long to get to this level.

Our Lady Peace's second album, Clumsy, was released in the United States on April 11, 1997, and has gone on to sell more than a million copies in North America alone; Clumsy is 7x platinum in the band's native Canada and is approaching gold in this country.

The band's current single, "Clumsy," is currently a Top 10 record at alternative radio and is a featured track on the Columbia Records soundtrack for the hit teen thriller I Know What You Did Last Summer. "Superman's Dead," the first single from Clumsy, was also a Top 10 alternative smash. Our Lady Peace recently lensed a provocative video for "Clumsy," directed by Matt Mahurin. The "Superman's Dead" video was directed by Ken Fox. OLP has performed recently on NBC's "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" and MTV's "Oddville."

Our Lady Peace recently walked off with two prestigious "People's Choice" awards at Canada's Much Music (the Canadian equivalent of MTV) Awards ceremony; OLP was voted "Favorite Group," while "Superman's Dead" was voted "Favorite Video."

The band's first album, Naveed, became a multi-platinum seller in Canada and ultimately sold half-a-million records around the world. Released earlier this year in Canada, Clumsy debuted at #1 on the Canadian SoundScan chart, hit platinum in that country within three weeks of its release, and stayed in the Top 20 for a full year.

Our Lady Peace formed in 1993 and, shortly thereafter, cut three demos (including their smash hit "Starseed") with producer Arnold Lanni in his Toronto studio. Those demos quickly led to a deal with Sony Music. Released in 1995, the group's first album, Naveed (released on Relativity in the States), generated the Top 10 Modern Rock and Active Rock hit, "Starseed." Following the album's release Our Lady Peace embarked on a marathon round of touring, playing more than 400 shows to over half-a-million people as the band shared bills with Alanis Morissette, Bush, Elastica, Sponge, and Better Than Ezra.

Our Lady Peace 1998 U.S. Tour

Date            City/State                   Venue
Feb 26     New Haven, Connecticut       Toad's Place
Feb 28     Rochester, New York          Water Street Music Hall
Mar  1     Syracuse, New York           The Big Ballroom
Mar  3     State College, Pennsylvania  Crowbar
Mar  4     Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania     Metropol
Mar  6     Pontiac, Michigan            Clutch Cargo
Mar  7     Cleveland, Ohio              The Odeon

Additional Our Lady Peace tour dates TBA

The album was the national smash-hit Cancon album of the year-- it topped the Record's national chart, debuted at the number-one slot on the national SoundScan chart and has spawned a slew of hit singles-- from vocalist Raine Maida's whine-turns-to-operatic-angst showcase "Superman's Dead" (what is it with Superman and Canadian bands? First, the Crash Test Dummies hold a musical funeral for Clark Kent, now Our Lady Peace makes sure the job's finished off) to the brood-fest "Automatic Flowers" to the bands latest radio staple, "4a.m." The band just scooped a MuchMusic Video Award for "Superman's Dead" and the album is now six-times platinum in this country. And to rub in how wrong I can be, the band (Maida, bassist Duncan Coutts, guitarist Mike Turner, and drummer Jeremy Taggart) headlined the summer-long Edgefest roadshow, which visited Commonwealth Stadium in '97. In their home town, they sold out a Maple Leaf Gardens show in one lousy day. Now, the band's going to return for one last Canadian tour before it goes off and tries to win over markets in other parts of the world. And it's no minor gig, either... it'll be a Coliseum show with an opening act --Everclear-- that could do pretty good business on its own. The band has already completed its first mission. It had to prove to Canadian audiences that the out-of-nowhere success of its debut record, Naveed, was no fluke. Mission accomplished: Clumsy has smashed Naveed's sales points.
Maybe they should stop playing "Automatic Flowers"

So, despite the fact that he's currently freezing his ass during a tour stop in Denver, what is Maida's most pressing worry? He thinks that Clumsy may actually be getting too much airplay in Canada. "The support we've got it fantastic, but I worry that with the singles and all that there might be some over-play on tracks from the album." But the swell of fans the band has earned through its two major-label releases in not something Maida takes for granted. And while "Clumsy" has just gone to radio in the United States, he says the band's lastest jaunt through the world's pop-culture centre reminds him a little bit of the days right after the album was released in Canada. "It's amazing, the support and dedication we've received in Canada and that it's lasted through the entire five months the album's been out. 'Clumsy' [the single] just went to radio and tonight's show in Denver is a sell-out. Our music is going out to the audiences, even though we don't have the big single here."

You scratch my back...
And how did the band get an act with a stature of Art Alexakis and Everclear to open for it? It's a case of great rock
reciprocation-- two bands looking after each other. OLP opened for a national Everclear tour in the United States. Now, Everclear is returning the favour. In Canada, the success of Clumsy has created a second-life cottage industry for Naveed. Since, obviously, more people own Clumsy than the band's first record, there is now a swell of new OLP fans who are buying the debut to discover the body of early work. While the smash success of OLP is not something Maida takes for granted, he doesn't dwell on fame, either. To him, the band is only as good as the last show it has played. "We don't really think about that kind of stuff," says Maida. "We'll play every night and we think about working on the next record, but we don't think about if we're playing in big arenas or in clubs. We just go out and try to play hard every night." While Edgefest gave the band a platform to play in front of huge audiences, this national tour will allow OLP to control the look and feel of every show. When touring on a festival, a band can only customize its show to the slightest extent, as it has to share the stage with a bunch of other acts. So, this tour will mark the first time OLP will be able to put on a big-time arena show it can truly call is own. "This is our chance to do what we really want," says Maida. "This will be a little different than most arena shows, but I don't want to give away too much. But we will be bringing to life a character that has been integral to the life of Our Lady Peace."

Catering to the southern market
After this, the band has to return to the United States. The album has sold 300,000 copies down there. "The States is surely a huge market," says Maida. "It's importance is well understood. Things are going so well for us in the United States, it's exciting. I expect we'll have to be there for four to five months once the ball starts to roll there. We've already got the urge to get back in the studio, though. And I know we'll go back once the urge to get back in the studio is more powerful than the urge to play live. In terms of a new record, I don't know exactly when our fans can expect something new, but I hope we're recording by the fall of '98 and have something out before Christmas. I'd love to see that happen." Even though the band has receive accolades for its videos, Maida does not want to be seen as a video star. "Our Lady Peace realizes videos are a tool," he answers dryly.

Finally, Maida reflects on the last Edgefest tour, where he rates Calgary and Edmonton as the best stops for the band. "We were really surprised by the fan base we have in Alberta. In Calgary and Edmonton we were setting records for attendance, I think we did 55,000 between the two shows. And not only was it great for us, it gave us the opportunity, as music fans, to see a lot of other bands that we really like and respect. It was a great opportunity." OLP's star is rising so fast, it probably won't be long before we spot them as the main attraction for arena shows in the United States and abroad. After all, since they've already proven my old pals and me wrong, why not become the biggest band in the world just to emphasize the point?

But Raine Maida, 27, lead singer of Toronto's Our Lady Peace, is striving amid the frenzy of footlights and fanfare to complete the 2 1/2 credits that stand between him and a criminology degree.

The problem is that his touring and recording schedule doesn't allow for the usual four-month semester that it takes to complete a course.

"You just want to get it done with," says Maida. "I did three straight years, then we signed a record deal and I wasn't able to finish the last semester.

"It's more about finishing something I've started. It's not like I'm going to use it, like those 2 1/2 credits are going to change my life."

It took a rock band and an ensuing deal with a major label to change Maida's life. In a mere three years, the four members of Our Lady Peace have emerged as one of Canada's most successful alterna-rock bands.

Their debut album Naveed was an instant hit that solidified their radio status, particularly in the U.S. After winning Casby Awards (Canadian awards voted on by fans) in three categories, playing more than 400 concerts (including opening for Page and Plant and Van Halen) and a second hit album, Clumsy, the band -- made up of Maida, guitarist Mike Turner, drummer Jeremy Taggart and new bassist Duncan Coutts -- is a big enough draw to headline GM Place Monday night.

The band's powerhouse sound and Maida's big voice is a gritty mass sustained by a thread of melodious pop. Although the group has been compared to bands as diverse as the Doors, Smashing Pumpkins and Alice in Chains, Maida's inspirations are the likes of Otis Redding, U2, Janis Joplin and Sinead O'Connor.

"Even Stevie Wonder's stuff," adds Maida. "There is something so inherent in their voices, you believe every syllable. And that's the only way I view music, that's the only stuff I can listen to.

Of O'Connor, he says, "she for me is the ultimate. She stands above everyone for me.

"She is so far above most people it's not even funny. Every time I hear one of her songs or see her, I lock myself in a room for a week because I'm so inspired by her."

In order to find the muse that inspired Clumsy, the band locked itself inside a cottage north of Toronto and recorded songs in a round-the-clock catharsis. It was necessary, says Maida, because a 2 1/2-year absence while touring for Naveed meant constant distractions from well-meaning friends and family. Armed with his 300 or so pages of music notes, songwriter Maida and the other band members isolated themselves.

"We were cooking meals and living together like we did on the road," he says. "Waking up at four in the morning, and you're almost sleeping on an acoustic guitar because there are instruments everywhere."

With the rare exception, it takes months to write a song, says Maida, who carries a notebook with him to record thoughts.

However, his most personal song, 4 am, was so instantaneous he makes it sound like it could have been the result of divine inspiration, which is clearly a troubling thought.

"4 am was like an epiphany," he says. "It happened at about 4 a.m. in my bedroom one night -- I wrote the chords and lyrics in about five minutes.

"Those types of things scare me, because you can't rely on that stuff. I get a little worried about that. When it happens that quickly, you feel like it's a gift. Sometimes I feel like I didn't write it," he adds, cryptically. "That someone, wherever, gave it to me."

Awards and praise aside, Maida, who is often praised for his lyrics, wants to convey a universal message through his music.

"That song is about as personal as it gets," he continues. "I'd rather people criticized me for being honest than for being some guy who is preachy or full of shit.

"There are too many egos and machismo in male music -- that's why most of the artists I look up to are female."

It follows, then, that Maida is content with the current emergence of new female artists and the most obvious monument to their success, the all-female Lilith Fair tour.

"Thank God," he says. "Because the music industry is in this huge disposable wasteland right now. I'm seeing nothing. I go to a record store and there's not one CD that I want to buy that's new.

"I'm going back to all my Sinead O'Connor records now."

MEET OUR LADY PEACE

The band: Raine Maida, vocals; Mike Turner, guitar; Jeremy Taggart, drums; Duncan Coutts, bass and keyboards.

Home town: Toronto.

Albums: Naveed (Columbia), 1994, Clumsy (Columbia), 1997.

Biggest hit: Superman's Dead from Clumsy.

Beginnings: Signed by Sony with only four songs produced and no touring experience.

Status today: Voted Canada's favourite group at 1997 MuchMusic awards.

Look at their recent track record in Edmonton for proof.

Three years ago, the Toronto-based fourpiece played for a couple hundred die-hard supporters at The Rev.
Just 11 months ago, they played to a packed house of 600-plus at the University of Alberta's Dinwoodie Lounge.
In August, they headlined Edgefest at Commonwealth Stadium. About 30,000 fans, already pummelled by nine hours of shimmering sun and deafening music, erupted with their loudest cheers when Our Lady Peace finally took the stage. And on Friday night, they'll put on the first big rock show of 1998, at Edmonton Coliseum.

With apologies to The Tragically Hip, Our Lady Peace has abrupty, spectacularly, become Canada's biggest band.
"Man, can you believe it? It's unreal to think we're playing arenas," lead singer Raine Maida said recently from the road, a day before kicking off the band's 25-date cross-country tour in Saint John, NB.

"You can't predict that stuff or even hope for it. We've just tried to take it one step at a time, and tried to make each step more important."

Maida sees Our Lady Peace's homegrown success-- their records Naveed and Clumsy have sold nearly 1.5 million copies combined.

He said as much during Edgefest, a 12-band bill dominated by domestic acts such as I Mother Earth, The Tea Party and up-and-comers Age of Electric and Econoline Crush.

Midway through Our Lady Peace's set, as the moshers up front settled down, Maida paused and intoned, "I think what we're doing on this tour is making Canadian musical history."

He still feels that way.

"I can't remember a time growing up when there were that many good Canadian bands that could play together," said Maida, who's in his mid-20s.

"And there are a ton of other bands that could have easily been on that bill, bands with huge sales and audiences, like Moist or whoever. That's a testament to how far the Canadian music scene has come in the past five years."

Maida said he thinks the turning point was 1993, the year Our Lady Peace released Naveed alongside notable debuts from likeminded modern rockers such as I Mother Earth (who put out Dig), Moist (Silver), Tea Party (Splendor Solis) and Sloan (Smeared).

"For whatever reason, that was the year everything popped up. I guess the scene before that was dry enough that it created bands that were trying to do something different, something other than what the Canadian stigma of music was," he said.

Maida said he still saw evidence of that "stigma" during Our Lady Peace's lengthy tours of the U.S., where the band is slowly but surely breaking through. (At last count, OLP's sophomore release, Clumsy had sold 230,000 copies south of the border, about halfway to gold.)

"The perception of Canadian music outside of Canada is still pretty horrendous," said Maida, whose most recent American tourmates, Portland's Everclear, will open Friday night's Coliseum show.

"Alanis (Morisette) kind of bypassed that stuff for whatever reason. People don't really view her as Canadian, somehow. But it's still, you know, Celine Dion, Byran Adams and that's about it.

"And Loverboy. Loverboy hurt us a lot. They all thought we were going to wear those headbands down there."
Maida hopes Our Lady Peace's success in America will open ears of radio and video programmers to more Canuck acts like The Hip, whose well-documented failure to break through the U.S. he calls "a real shame."

"It's nice to see that our music is crossing the boundaries or borders that seem to make it difficult for way too many bands in this country," he said.

"We hope to carry a torch for Canada down there."

At his home in Toronto, Saul Fox doesn't know what to make of the attention of a famous rock 'n' roll band whose music he barely understands, but he has no problem with it.

"There are thousands of people who seem to love their music," Fox says. "I'm not 100% in tune with their music, but I have no objection to it. I believe people should sing what they love to sing, and if this is their bag and somebody loves it and they can make them happy, then go for it.

"I know the boys are very nice people. They really are. They're not punks. As far as I can tell, they're young gentlemen and that's good enough for me."

This unusual friendship between a 20-something modern rock band and 70-something retiree started while Our Lady Peace was creating the cover concept for Naveed. The band had an idea what they wanted, but had difficulty putting it into words. Fox helped clear it up.

"In helping them to express it, they felt, I presume, that I had lots of empathy for what they wanted to project," Fox says. "They were coming from a different generation than mine, actually at least two generations away, so it was a different world than these fellows come from. But I seem to understand what they said they were trying to project. This is before I heard them.

"Let me remember now," he speaks haltingly, "They were trying to project the soul of young people in a world which seemed to be different from their's.

"When they're playing among themselves and when they have people in front of them, mostly young people, who are obviously enjoying what they had to give, they were in their own world, their own milieu. Otherwise, walking down the street or going to a store, they don't feel that their soul is at home there. They probably have difficulty expressing it and this is the only way they can do it, I guess. There's a certain amount of pain involved, but I think most young people have that pain. What they have to say inside is difficult for them to express. They don't have the vocabulary. They don't have the ability to express it in words. They have a difficult time even identifying it.

"All they know is that their soul has a feeling and they've got to express it."

And that they are. While Fox might not understand Our Lady Peace's music, millions of fans do. At this point, the band has sold more than 1.5 million albums in Canada, with Clumsy approaching the magic "diamond" mark (one million sold). The new album is also nearly gold in the U.S. (500,000 sold).

Says Maida, "Just from the stuff we get on our Web site, I think people are really connecting with these lyrics. For me, it's gratifying, but it's kind of where I was going anyway, whether people got it or not."

                                         SOUND BITES

It's been a short run for a long slide.

Less than a year ago, Our Lady Peace played the Dinwoodie Lounge, a 620-seat club on the U of A campus. Now only a hockey arena will do. But this jump in popularity wasn't as sudden as it seems. The band has logged nearly 500 shows to get where it is today.

March 1994: Album Naveed, meaning "bearer of good news," is released on Sony Music. Band had only been together 14 months and had played only seven shows. "We were a bunch of naive kids," singer Raine Maida recalls. "I don't really know if we should've had a record deal."

Oct. '94: Band plays the Rev in Edmonton.

Feb. '95: Another scheduled date at the Rev is postponed due to a slipped disc suffered by Maida.

June-July '95: After hearing the song Starseed on the radio, Robert Plant was so impressed that he invited Our Lady Peace to open a handful of dates on the U.S. Page-Plant tour.

Sept. '95: Our Lady Peace returns to Edmonton, this time backing up Van Halen at the Coliseum.

Oct. '95: Bassist Chris Eacrett is replaced by Duncan Coutts.

May. '96: Band begins work on second album.

Aug. '96: OLP returns to Edmonton again, backing up Alanis Morissette in the Coliseum.

Jan. '97: Album Clumsy released.

Feb. '97: Band performs a sold-out show at the Dinwoodie Lounge.

Aug. '97: OLP headlines Edgefest tour, topping a day-long bill at the Commonwealth Stadium.

Sept. '97: OLP is named "favorite group" at the MuchMusic video awards.

Nov. '97: Band opens for the Rolling Stones in Quebec City and also announces new Canadian tour, officially headlining its first arena shows. "I think we're ready," says Raine.

Tickets are still available for Our Lady Peace's concert in Edmonton, with Everclear opening.

Call 451-8000 for details.

A young Toronto quartet, only two albums into its career, stealthily began chipping away at the Tragically Hip's seemingly untouchable standing as the biggest band in the country.

Proof positive of Our Lady Peace's entry into the rock 'n' roll big leagues: The band has just embarked on its first-ever headlining stadium tour, set to arrive at the Corel Centre tomorrow night, with million-selling American power-popsters Everclear claiming opening-act honors.

"It's not something we really planned to do until someone said 'You know, you guys could do (a large-venue tour) if you wanted to,' " admits bassist Duncan Coutts, calling from Toronto a couple of weeks before O.L.P.'s Jan. 7 cross-Canada tour launch in Saint John, N.B.

"It's rewarding, but I'm also nervous as hell. All of a sudden, we've gone from doing low-dough shows to over $20 a ticket."

Of course, it's not like O.L.P. doesn't have the clout to pull it off. The band's most recent record, Clumsy -- six times platinum in Canada -- is still scanning more than 9,000 copies a week one year after its release, and is four-fifths of the way to gold status in the crowded U.S. market.

O.L.P. was one of the major draws on this past summer's hot-ticket Edgefest tour, and its current, 25-date road swing is about 70% sold out nationwide.

Tickets for the group's lone hometown date at Maple Leaf Gardens this Saturday were snapped up in less than a day.

All this is even more impressive when you consider the band had been together for, oh, about 15 minutes when its smash debut, Naveed (five times platinum in its own right), arrived in 1994.

"It's a short time," says Coutts, who joined the band during its lengthy touring for Naveed.

"Two albums and all of a sudden we're doing stadiums -- I don't know if it's really hit me or not. Especially playing Maple Leaf Gardens, which is the first place I ever saw a concert. You know, where I was a little kid and I said 'I want to do that.' "

O.L.P.'s vaguely Smashing Pumpkins-esque, give-it-your-all sound has always been stadium-friendly, but Coutts says the band still felt it necessary to give its fans a little something extra for their money this time out.

"There's a danger of coming off sort of cheesy and overblown," he says, "so it's not going to be too elaborate ...

"You want to do something visually, so we've designed a set and we've finished some stuff for a video screen.

"Hopefully, it's like a welcoming into the Our Lady Peace environment."

The band should know a bit about overblown rock spectacles, having scored opening slots on big tours by the likes of Van Halen in the past and, most recently, a coveted spot warming up the crowd at the Rolling Stones' date in Quebec City on Jan. 5.

O.L.P. was actually asked to open a series of dates for the greying rock legends, but turned down all but the one show because, Coutts says with a laugh, "we're playing big venues on our own."

Although he's grateful for the exposure, Coutts says he found the news Mick and Keith wanted O.L.P. to open a few dates for them more "odd" (from a "why us?" perspective) than awe-inspiring, since he's not a rabid fan of the band.

"There are a couple of Stones albums I think everybody should own," he says. "Having said that, I haven't listened to the Stones in a long while."

In fact, Coutts sounds much more enthusiastic chatting about the bootleg Soundgarden video he just picked up ("The sound quality is so bad, but it's so cool because you can see them doing it live.") or meeting Soul Coughing's lead singer during a double-bill show in Phoenix ("Oh, my god -- we talked to M. Doughty and he knew who we were!").

That music fan's perspective would seem to indicate the members of Our Lady Peace are keeping very much grounded despite their ascending celebrity.

"If you see me down the road and we've sold a lot of records and I've got a big head," says Coutts affirmatively, "feel free to smack me."

Raine Maida loves screaming girls.

That is, unless they are standing right beside him.

"I like it when people scream during concerts and I don't mind the crowds when I'm onstage because I can run off," says Our Lady Peace's soft-spoken lead singer.

"I don't like being stuck in crowds."

Nevertheless, it's something Maida has had to get use to over the past three years since the release of the band's platinum-selling debut, Naveed, and its equally successful sophomore album Clumsy, released early last year.

"I'm not against being a rock star," he asserts with a sniffle during a phone interview from Quebec.

"I'm not depressed and I won't lock myself in a house ... but I don't think I'm all that unique for people to scream out my name."

The reluctant rock pin-up admits he is happy with being in one of the most successful Canadian bands ever and says he is extremely excited to embark on the band's "first headlining" tour.

Uh, didn't Our Lady Peace headline last summer's Edgefest travelling rock festival?

"Edgefest was great because we were headlining, but there were so many other bands sharing the stage," says Maida of the festival that featured The Tea Party, Age of Electric, Silverchair, Collective Soul and Dodgy among many others.

"With this tour, we're trying to make our fans feel like they're at an Our Lady Peace show instead of just a regular rock show.

"There's a little bit of pressure now because we want to give the audience a unique show, but we don't have the budget of say, U2 or The Rolling Stones, even though we're playing essentially the same venues ... and that sucks."

Our Lady Peace will try its darn-dest to impress Calgary fans on Jan. 22 at the Saddledome with special guests, Florida-based rock trio Everclear.

"Good, I hope it's freezing in Calgary," Maida says with a cruel laugh after being told of the city's cold snap.

"We've been taunting them for the whole tour."

Charming.

To think this is the way OLP is returning the favor of opening up for Everclear in the U.S., where the band has been doing extremely well.

With two countries conquered so far, it's only a matter of time before Our Lady Peace attempts to take on the world.

"Absolutely -- hopefully by February."

Our Lady Peace's Raine Maida could probably use a break about now. It's been almost a full year since the release of his band's second album, the smash hit Clumsy, and the quartet remain on the touring treadmill, which brings them to a sold-out, hometown show at Maple Leaf Gardens Jan. 17, with openers Everclear. Still, speaking over the phone en route to a Montreal concert date earlier this week, Maida is not concerned about downtime, the 10,000-plus copies Clumsy continues to sell each week, or even the harsh ice storm outside that's making life on the road just that much more of a drag. He's thinking about Our Lady Peace.

"We want to make sure that people don't ever get the feeling that we just have a couple of hits on the radio," says Maida of his band's success. "We're not a singles band. We want to be known as a live entity, and the way to do that is to tour.

"So, our focus for the next five weeks is putting on a definite Our Lady Peace show in arenas where people have seen anyone from Pearl Jam to Oasis to U2. We want to make sure people leave there feeling like they saw something that was a little bit different. That's the challenge."

Maida says O.L.P. -- which also includes guitarist Mike Turner, bassist-keyboardist Duncan Coutts, and drummer Jeremy Taggart -- have tried to meet the challenge by scaling down some of the arrangements from Clumsy,
and their 500,000-selling 1994 debut Naveed, to sound "a little more intimate in a setting that usually discards intimacy."

They also shot a series of short films to accompany the show.

"It's naive to think that just standing on stage and playing is enough," Maida explains. "That person in the back row, they don't get to see the expression on your face, and they may not get the emotion that you're pouring out. You need other things that are able to express that.

"There are standards that have been set, and it's hard to ignore those and go into an arena and not do anything. I don't want to say that we're competing against someone like the Rolling Stones, but if people have seen their shows, we are.

"No matter how you slice it, we're just another show. And our biggest fear is becoming some commodity that's disposable. The bands that we grew up with, the early U2s and the R.E.M.s, there was a connection. That's what we want to achieve, a friendship with our fans."

Some would argue that O.L.P. already have a lot of friends -- 1.5 million of them alone are willing to shell out for their albums.

"We've always been very careful never to let that stuff go to our heads," says Maida. "You're setting yourself up for a big fall if you do. We were just confident that we made a better record, that we evolved, which, especially on
your second record, seems like a tough thing to do.

"Sitting here right now and knowing that we're still selling that many records a week, I'm baffled. I don't know who the hell's buying it. But now's not the time to revel in that stuff. This arena tour is an opportunity to make sure all these people who bought this record realize that we're going to be around a long time. We have to secure that relationship."

The signals are certainly there.

"It's been gratifying to hear people here and in the States singing along with deep album tracks like Car Crash, not just the singles," the singer says.

"These days it's just so easy to skip through CDs, and that's why I think the music business has turned into this huge disposable wasteland.

Our Lady Peace guitarist Mike Turner has no trouble remembering OLP's first arena show. "It was opening for Page and Plant," he says, recalling the time his band, barely out of training pants, opened for the British dinosaurs. "And the beauty of it is, we were so stupid, we just had no idea what we were in for. We drive up to this major arena show in Chicago in our little van and they're there and they're like, 'Right, where's your bus?' " Mike says, feigning the voice of a confused English rock star.

"'No bus? Where's your production tech?' It went on like that. I mean, we drove our van right into the arena."

The gig went well, Mike says. He didn't lose his cool until months after the show when the band were reminiscing and somebody said, "Hey, did you know that when you were soundchecking 'Starseed,' Jimmy Page was dancing behind the drum kit?"

Mike didn't know and said it was better that way, because despite the fact that playing stages bigger than most clubs has become de rigueur for Our Lady Peace, they are the first to acknowledge their neophyte status.

Their success has been phenomenal, verging on ludicrous, as far as Canadian success stories generally go. They signed to Sony barely a year after forming, before playing a single gig. Their first record, Naveed, sold half a million copies worldwide. Their second, Clumsy, debuted at No. 1 on The Record's retail charts and has sold more than 600,000 copies in this country. They've opened for Van Halen, Rush, Alanis Morissette and headlined Edgefest last summer. They said no to the Rolling Stones when asked to open for them on their current North American tour. They accepted an opening slot in Quebec, mostly due to a scheduling conflict, but have their own solidly booked stadium tour, thank you very much.

They're as popular as you can get in Canada -- more popular than that -- but heaven knows they've taken their wallops from a press who criticize them as just another post-Nirvana record company construct or, what Mike says is more common, have "flat out ignored" them.

Hard to ignore a sold-out Gardens show, though. And you can only ignore that dreamy lead singer dude called Raine for so long. Heck, my 10-year-old cousin in Tillsonburg got Clumsy for Christmas and looked at me with love in his eyes when I said I had chatted with a member. Which means TV loves them and also, I suppose, that their demographic is wide.

The trip from Toronto boys to Canadian phenoms has been quick and the learning curve has been steep, Mike says, but learn he has.

"Now I know not to wear colors on tour. They're too hard to launder," Mike says. "And Bruce Gordon from I Mother Earth taught me stuff, too. He was showing me how to roll my T-shirts instead of packing them flat. They get all wrinkled that way."