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Grunge-emergent, reliably heavy yet ever thoughtful, Our Lady Peace is easily one of the all-time great Canadian rock bands — and certainly one of our top acts still rolling.
If I wail, “Why-ee-i-ee-i?” you’re instinctively cued to declare, “Superman’s dead!” — just one of their 19 singles to reach the national Top 10 since ’94 on a crowded mantle of Junos and MuchMusic Video Awards.
The ever-lovely Collective Soul opens up in Edmonton on this Calgary-to-Halifax OLP family reunion, with singer and founder Raine Maida, 54, in his Toronto home this week to talk about all sorts of things doomy and/or inspiring as he’s about to hit the road.
Q: Happy almost birthday — big one coming up Tuesday! Know what you’re doing yet?
A: F—, I don’t count them anymore. We’re flying into Calgary and setting up in the arena and doing a full walkthrough. We have these huge video screens and all this s— so that’ll be a long-ass day.
Which is fine, which is great. I’m so fortunate to be able to do this.
Q: How’s (your wife) Chantal (Kreviazuk) doing? How’s your book together shaping up?
A: We’re literally just signing a deal maybe later today, so it’s kind of finished, at least the rough draft.
We just got back from our house in L.A. because of the fires. Fire was 300 feet from our home, so that was pretty horrific for a couple weeks. This tour is a nice diversion from all that stress.
Q: Not to dwell, but did you have to evacuate?
There was this huge plume of smoke, and we knew the Santa Ana winds were coming and he goes, “This is not good, whatever it is.”
Chantal and I got in our car and drove to this hike we do with our dogs every day, and I was like, holy s—, I’ve never seen anything like this — you can see the fire moving literally feet every second, just barrelling down the mountain.
They saved our street, we were luckier than others.
Q: Jesus. It’s like we’re getting a greatest hits of the 20th century in like five years. OK, stay on target — back to the tour. It’s the 30th anniversary of (OLP debut album) Naveed? The world noticing you?
A: I think just like the career and the more expansive part of the band.
So we did three EPs with three new songs with the songs that resonated most with fans. We’re going to play some deeper cuts on this tour for sure. We started off really conservative, but tickets went so fast, so we keep moving the stage back.
It’s like you said, the world is so f—ed right now, like, two hours of escapism with OLP, that’s what I’m looking forward to as a distraction. We’re going to honour that and literally put on by far the best show we’ve ever done.
Q: Spoilers, but can you tease anything?
A: Everything from the technology to the content on the screens — but getting closer to the fans. There’ll be moments where we’re trying to break down that barrier.
I love how it democratizes the space — doesn’t matter what ticket you bought.
Q: And the songs?
A: We haven’t played Automatic Flowers for years, and from the first record is another song called Hope we haven’t played forever. We’re playing Whatever, which we did for WWE and it’s kind of got a terrible (Chris Benoit) story attached. But we’re taking it back as there’s a good mental health message.
So deep cuts, and we’re changing the set list up, so if you’re going to multiple shows, you won’t see the same show twice.
Q: You kind of invented a new way of singing — how’s your voice changing? How are you keeping it in shape?
A: It’s work now, man, for real work. I used to be able to go up there, but it’s definitely vocal exercises, all that stuff — I guess it’s part of the deal as you get older. But I feel like my range is wider, my lower range, for sure.
Mike Patton (Faith No More) is probably my favourite vocalist of all time, his range is f—ing mind-blowing still to me. So not there yet, haha.
Q: I don’t like best and most questions, but looking back 30-plus years, where are the mountaintops?
A: I saw Van Halen in Maple Leaf Garden when I was 14 on the 1984 tour. Eddie Van Halen was such a monster and David Lee Roth was bringing up knives, doing all this dancing and martial arts. I felt like I was on a different planet. And then getting to tour with those guys and becoming friends with Eddie and Alex was a dream come true.
We opened for the Ramones in Jersey when we first started — that’s f—ing Stevie and Joey standing right next to me at catering!
What I love about all this is I am still a music fan. I still get excited talking about this stuff.
And I love the new music we recorded — it keeps you going.
Q: Sound the Alarm is a total banger. That video is so punk, a Dead Kennedys vibe. Overall, do you think you’re a nostalgic person?
A: It’s almost been like something I suppress because it takes bandwidth. There’s a time and a place — I’m just not there yet. I can feel ecstatic about meeting Robert Plant, opening for Plant and Page — those things are cool, but I’m about tomorrow.
I’m always trying to push forward to a fault. I think there’s a better balance there, but I haven’t found it yet.
Q: How did bringing back OLP co-founder Mike Turner last tour go?
It’s interesting how, if there’s any kind of nostalgia part of it, it’s how you can go back and pick up where you left off. No harsh feelings — we’re just going in different directions.
Q: Speaking of spiritual machines, how are you feeling about A.I. now?
A: Ray’s new book talks about the next 20 years, getting rid of food scarcity, the air quality, all these things. So I think A.I. has such potential to help our planet.
But, yeah, it’s going to f— a lot of people in terms of jobs, and we have to figure that out — so maybe universal basic income is the answer. But bigger issues will solve themselves, maybe cancer and other things.
Q: You have dogs, I have a cat — I can’t wait until it translates them! Though I think it’ll just be, “Give me food, give me food.” Oh yeah, whatever happened to Saul Fox from your first few album covers and videos?
A: I think he passed a while ago .We were trying to get in touch with him probably 10 years ago, and he was MIA. He was such a big part of the band over the years, such a cool dude.
Q: OK, one last one: if you could see a Canadian act we can’t see anymore, who would it be?
A: Sons of Freedom were a pretty inspirational band from Vancouver for me. I never got to see them. Neil Young again before he stops performing. Joni, obviously. They’re not gone — but you start to feel like everything’s temporary, you know?
PREVIEW
Our Lady Peace with Collective Soul
When 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 20
Where Rogers Place
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