"It's like working, almost," Our Lady Peace guitarist Mike Turner says jokingly about his current situation. Turner's spent the better part of his past two days holed up in a depressing place he calls "the Columbia bunker," doing interviews and live on-air stuff in promotion of his group's new album, Happiness...Is Not A Fish You Can Catch. Despite the tedium, he's in good spirits, battling a cold but sounding otherwise chipper on this particular Friday morning. "It beats working in the machine shop," he adds after a pause, "I've had shitty jobs and this isn't one of them." Presumably not. OLP's sophomore album, Clumsy, has sold more than two million copies worldwide. Happiness... is a near-lock to do even better. It marks a quantum leap in the development of the band, to boot.

"This is the closest we've come, in terms of what we've had in our heads," Turner says of the album. "We tried to take what we thought was original and identifiable about our first two records...and use that as the basis and really push in that direction, try to be original and make it something that will stand as a mark of us."

To achieve that end, the OLP shook things up a bit, disposing of the closed-door policy it had clung to, as far as collaborating in the studio with non-band members, and bringing in musical Jack-of-all-trades Jamie Edwards for the recording sessions.

"He's insane," Turner says, "the guy is awesome. We'd just think of something and then he's like, 'Oh, wait, wait...so I can take this sample and manipulate it this way and do this...' and we're like, 'all that stuff in the middle, we don't know what you're talking about...but you always get the right thing.'"

The result on Happiness..., especially obvious on standout tracks "One Man Army" and "Is Anybody Home," is the confident, fully-realized sound of a band coming into its own.

"I don't think the band's ever sounded better," Turner says. "I feel weird saying this because it implies dissatisfaction with either of our previous records. We're proud of both of our previous records, but there would be songs where someone would be saying, 'I don't know if we should play that.' But this record, it's like, we have to play the whole damn thing, there's not a song on there that we don't want to play."

Touring is a way of life for any legitimate national-level rock'n'roll band, and Turner is convinced his group's rigorous touring schedule has had a lot to do with its current super group status in its native Canada.

"The only reason we're doing better in Canada is we've been playing there longer," he says. "We started playing hundred seat dives and worked our way through because we tour hard. That's just the way it works."

The guitarist doesn't mind playing smaller venues in the U.S. or in other parts of the world. "I love the fact that we can come here and play large clubs and theaters...then go over to Europe and play little tiny clubs," he says, "I love the fact that we still get to do everything and haven't been shut out of any particular venue. I can only look at it as a positive. I think given time...." Turner's voice trails off.

An interview question leaps off of the page, through the phone line and into his ear.

"Given time Our Lady Peace will be playing more gigs like Woodstock '99?"

"For us, that was really neat," Turner not-quite answers, "because, being close to the border, there was a huge Canadian contingent. So we walk out and all these Canadian flags appear. I mean like 30 to 50% of what we could see, there were Canadian flags being held up." Unfortunately, the good vibe apparent during OLP's set did not last for the rest of the festival. "Obviously," Turner says, "nothing good can overshadow what happened. I think the biggest tragedy is that what could have been great is going to be overshadowed by people who turned into assholes."

No matter what happens with the asshole population of the world, the new album and Our Lady Peace, generally, the guitarist is happy.

"I play guitar for a living," he says. "If I can keep doing it, I'm still cheating as far as I can figure. We all think any day now someone's going to come over and tell us 'uh-oh, you don't get to do it, told 'ya, you don't belong here.' We're grateful for the opportunity. Being a musician is something you are, it's not necessarily what you do. If five years from now, we're not on a major label, we're not supported or whatever has happened to bring about an end, we'll all still be musicians."

Kind of like the guys from Winger?

"Actually," Turner says, "during some of the downtime yesterday, we had VH1 on and there was like Slaughter on, and they still put out their own records on their own label. They sell fifty-thousand copies and make a lot of money, because they're not in bed with a major label anymore."

Ultimately, rock music isn't about how many records a band sells, or what label a band's on. It's about music and attitude. If Our Lady Peace's guitarist is any indication, the group has the right attitude. It could take them a long way.


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