It shouldn't be surprising religion runs through the music of an act whose moniker could double as the name of a parochial school. The debut single from Our Lady Peace, "Starseed," is No. 14 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart.

"It was based on this book by Ken Carey, 'The Starseed Transmission,' about a channeling experience he had," says singer Raine Maida. "I took the premise of that and combined it with Western religion and how it's so hard to convince my father's generation of anything other than the religious values instilled in them."

"My dad tried to raise me as a Catholic," recalls Maida. "Every time I talk about religion with [him] it's kind of tough, you just kind of have to go about it on your own and persevere under the duress of your family, usually."

The singer suggests nontraditional religion is finding a welcome audience. "I think our whole generation is looking for [answers] and looking for bits and parts of religion and not being sucked in by the whole stringent approach, like Catholicism and stuff like that. And the [song's] whole chorus is about if you've had this channeling experience and found something that actually meant something to you, bringing it back and trying to convince anybody else is not always an easy task.

"We're obviously not the first generation to [seek spiritual answers], but it seems really relevant right now, especially the last few years with the economy and everything, everyone's questioning stuff. Especially my three years at the University [of Toronto], it seemed like everybody was just passing time, and they knew they wouldn't have a job [upon graduation]. They were still going through the motions. It's just been a weird few years.

"I think these days with the whole global village, information is so readily available, you can learn about Taoism or any type of philosophy or religion, so you can pick good things out of all of them and make your own... If you are going to have religion, it should be something you're comfortable with, not something you're fighting." taken from Billboard, week ending May 13, 1995