Source: Vue Weekly, January 22-28, 1998

AT PEACE WITH SKYROCKETING FAME
Canadian rock stars see their stock rise outside our borders
by Steven Sandor

I remember Our Lady Peace from my last days of life in Toronto -- often, you'd see them and one other band -- I Mother Earth -- lumped onto the front-end of showbills, the local lead-off attractions for well-established touring acts.
My friends and I used to guffaw at them, wondering if they'd ever give up and get real jobs. After all, they were Canadian bands playing a style of music that had oversaturated its market, right?
And amazingly, people still let me write about music.
I Mother Earth, through its two major-label albums, married art-rock and modern metal syles together and earned a legion of fans in Canada. And Our Lady Peace? Well, the quartet are a hell of a lot bigger than that. If you haven't heard a single from their current album (and second release for Sony Music), Clumsy, you probably are dead.

KILL CLARK KENT, AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN...

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 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 band's latest radio staple, "4 a.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 is 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 album releases is not something Maida takes for granted. And while Clumsy has just gone to radio in the United States, he says the band's latest 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 favor.
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 its 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. "Its 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 go back into te 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 received 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 empasize the point?


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