The Arcade Interview with...
... Duncan Coutts of Our Lady Peace sounds off on
one-hit wonders, the Rolling Stones, and the great
debate of our time, Junos vs. Grammys.
Andrew Kirkpatrick
Arcade Editor
Fresh from receiving their Juno Awards last week, Our Lady
Peace are on a headlining American tour in support of their gold
album Clumsy. Bass player Duncan Coutts spoke to the Arcade
from Vancouver last week.
Arcade: How's the
tour going so far?
Duncan: It's not bad.
It's been on hold for
a couple of days,
because our singer
(Raine Maida) had a
bit of a back
problem, but we're
off to Portland
tomorrow morning.
How are the opening
acts looking?
The lead singer of Headswim got really, really sick before the tour
even started, so we've been sort of holding the spot open for them
to come back, but it looks like we may be getting somebody else.
Black Lab, though, are great guys.
What are your plans after this American leg?
We're home for, I think, just a few days, and then there's some
talk of doing some radio festivals, but then we're headed off to
Europe on the 24th of May. Things are just geting rolling for us
over there in Europe. So I think we'll just be doing an initial tour
over there, and then maybe come back and do some more later.
Since you've opened for both, who's cooler, Page and Plant or the
Rolling Stones?
I'd have to say Page and Plant, because the time we opened for
the Stones, we didn't meet them. Hopefully the next time, (April 17
in Syracuse, NY) they won't drive by us in a limo indoors like they
did last time.
What's going on with the puppet motif in Clumsy's liner notes?
I don't know; it's just a cool play between good and evil. You know
how dolls and puppets and all that stuff are supposed to represent
innocence and childhood, and these ones are quite sinister-looking.
You're not exactly sure what's up with it, you don't know to take it
one way or another. Raine with his lyrics really likes to leave
everything open for interpretation. We just thought it was a cool
interpretation of the philosophy we take in songwriting. You know,
when I was growing up, the coolest thing for me, was you get a
band you like and song you like, and it's really neat if you have a
totally different interpretation of the lyrics than your friend does. A
song can just show a totally different spin on life, and that's why
you leave everything open for interpretation.
You've got a gold album in the U.S., a seven-times-platinum album
in Canada. Does it get any better than this?
It's pretty nice. It's rewarding, it's not really validation for what we
do, because I'd be lying to you if I said it's not nice to sell albums.
It's great, because it means we get to make more albums, but our
goal has been just to make an album you're proud to have your
name on when you get out of the studio. The fact that it's sold
records is just a bonus.
What's been the best moment for you so far on this tour?
There've been so many moments. You know, you can have great,
awesome shows in really small clubs. We had a really awesome
show over in Germany; that was really the highlight of '97. We did
a Canadian tour, sort of January, February, in arenas. In our
hometown (Toronto,) we played Maple Leaf Gardens, and it was
totally sold out, and that was the very first place I ever saw a
show, and I've seen tons of shows there since then, and it was
really just sort of, very scary, but magical, and I got out on the
stage and looked out at the section where I saw my very first
concert, and that was a great moment. But I know I'm cheapening
some other moment by mentioning that one.
Is it different playing hockey arenas as opposed to smaller clubs or
theaters?
We try to keep it the same as much as possible. It is a little
stranger, you know, when there's that many more people. It's
harder to connect on a personal, eye-to-eye level. We did some
little film vignettes, based around things that mean a lot to the band,
with a character that's very representative of the band, essentially
we did that to make (the arena) a kind of OLP theater, and the
feedback so far has been great. We've scaled down the video
screen stuff and brought it back to the States with us. I like them
both, it's just, in the arenas, you're not sweating all over the crowd.
What's better, the Junos, or the Grammys?
I don't like awards shows in either sense. I think they're both ...
I'm being a Bill Clinton or a Jean Chrétien here, but one is not
worse than the other. They're both awards shows, and it's nice to
be recognized by your peers. Everybody who congratulates me
(about the Junos) seems to be more excited than I am. This is a
young band, and we want to have a career. I think '96 and '97 will
be remembered by the songs, not the bands. I think there's a lot of
one-hit wonders out there, and we really want to have a career
and try to make albums. It seems to be a little premature for me.
I'd love to get one 10 or 15 years from now, because that would
mean we still had an audience.
OK, album justification time. Why should someone buy Clumsy as
opposed to, say, Spiceworld?
How can you compare us to the Spice Girls? They always kick our
ass. Up here on MuchMusic, we always get dethroned by the
Spice Girls or Backstreet Boys. I think it's because we made an
album, and hopefully, you can hear conviction or honesty. We
spent the same amount of time on every single song on that record,
regardless of whether it was going to be a single or not. Because
I'm in a band doesn't mean I get free CD's, I go buy CD's lots, and
it frustrates me when a band has a good single, and I go get the
album, and maybe one other song is good and the rest is filler. I
don't know if that comes from lack of work ethic or what, but
there's a lot of bands that if I ever meet, I'd like to ask them for 15
or 13 of my $17 back.
Our Lady Peace will play the House of Blues April 14 with Black
Lab and (maybe) Headswim. Tickets are $10.
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