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Our Lady Peace Biography
Raine Maida - vocals
Mike Turner - guitars
Chris Eacrett - bass(Duncan
Coutes-now)
Jeremy Taggart - drums
The darkly seductive debut by Our Lady Peace, Naveed, is a compelling
release driven by equal parts guitar, bass, drums and the forceful vocals
of Raine Maida. Bent on stimulating the mind and the soul, these four young
musicians have delivered a decisively gutsy record.
While Our Lady Peace guides its listeners into fairly ominous waters, Maida insists the darkness is underlain with optimism. "Naveed is an ancient Middle Eastern term for bearer of good news encompassing the distance between mysticism and reality," he explains. Naveed bursts with emotional openess coupled with Maida's stream of consciousness musings. The singer intentionally leaves his lyrics open-ended, but the themes are universal, questioning spirituality, love, liberty, hope and despair.
The band embarked on their quest less than three years ago when Raine, a first year criminology student at the University of Toronto, and Mike Turner (a British expatriate who hails from Yorkshire), met and began playing with a succession of rhythm sections. After agreeing in principle to seek out players with as little musical common ground as possible, they joined forces with visceral bassist Chris Eacrett and recent high school graduate Jeremy Taggart, a drummer weaned on the jazz of Miles Davis and John Coltrane.
Maida, 24, puts Otis Redding at the top of his list of influences followed equally by a number of female vocalists including Janis Joplin, Sinead O'Connor and WOMAD artist Sheila Chandra, "because these women are more willing to get naked vocally."
Naveed reflects the passion and conviction inherent in youth. Using their diversity as a compass, Maida's vocals ride the tension in the music driving the anthemic "Birdman," the eastern modalities of "Starseed" and the spiritual odyssey of "Hope." Turner's sinuous riffing is pitted against propulsive rhythms redolent of ancient rituals on tracks like "Denied," while things take a decidedly modern turn on the apocalyptic "Dirty Walls." Through all the mood swings, however, Raine's startlingly expressive voice remains constant, compelling and sirenic.
Think then of Our Lady Peace as your guides on a trek embarked upon without a map. With Naveed as the first signpost, you can be sure the journey with be fraught with, well... good news.
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