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OLP returns to its roots

Getting back to the basics with ‘proper rock and roll record’ Burn Burn
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They say that good things come to those who wait. Well, for masses of loyal longtime Our Lady Peace (OLP) fans, almost four years of anticipation and patience has paid off in spades with the band's latest 10-track release, Burn Burn .

Over the span of their 18-year career, the iconic Canadian alt-rock band has sold over five million albums worldwide, won four Juno Awards and taken home 10 Much Music Video Awards. With Raine Maida on vocals and acoustic guitar, Jeremy Taggart on percussion, Duncan Coutts on bass guitar and backing vocals, and Steve Mazur on guitar and backing vocals, the group has also shared stages with legendary musicians like Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, the Rolling Stones, Van Halen, Faith No More, The Ramones, Goo Goo Dolls, No Doubt, Stone Temple Pilots and Blur.

But they've also had their share of struggles in that time and were close to calling it quits while making Healthy in Paranoid Times in 2005.

"We kind of always had most of our creative control and freedom in the studio, but as the business kind of declined over the last like five years and the last couple of records with Columbia, and because somewhere out there our Gravity record sold a million copies, all of a sudden they wanted to do that again, so the powers that be in New York were really hard on us," Maida explained in a recent interview.

"It was just a pain in the ass - it wasn't fun, it wasn't musical, it wasn't creative."

Instead of packing it in, they regrouped and decided to get back to the basics, quietly retreating to Maida's personal studio space to work. You see, the band made some of their first recordings in a small, dungeon-like studio space in Mississauga, Ontario.

"It was just four guys in a room trusting their instincts and, you know, it got us a record deal and it basically made Naveed , the first record, with that mentality," Maida added.

This time around, they ended up with Burn Burn , the first album the band has released without a record label having a real say or influence. The end result shares the tone and feel of some of the group's first big hits back in the early '90s: real rock, pure and simple.

"We wouldn't have been able to do this five years ago - it's because of all the crap we went through and just myself learning to be an engineer and a producer on other people's projects, it just allowed us to have the four of us in a room with no other outside influences."

With this seventh studio album, OLP didn't go into the project looking to churn out chart-topping singles or mainstream crowd pleasers.

"If it didn't sound good with the four of us playing it, if it felt like it needed a bunch of other shit to make it feel like a good song, then it wasn't a good song."

Their goal, instead, was to make music that would come across as well in a live performance as well as it does on the recording.

"We just wanted to write and record material that would translate immediately to the stage and that's what happened with this record, live. It feels like our early stuff because it's easy to play," Maida explained.

"To me, it's like a proper rock and roll record. It's nice to be there again - it took a little while, maybe we're slow learners. I'll accept that."

Free of outside influences and in control of their own destiny again, OLP has started fresh with a renewed energy and sense of purpose.

"It sounds so cliché to say that it's like a new beginning for this band, but it really is," Maida said. "It's been an amazing journey so far, and like I said, we don't regret the way things worked out on the last record, but it was a good thing because it really propelled us to take ownership again and kind of take back our career, in a sense."

As lead vocalist, Maida is the man behind almost all of the group's lyrics and music. But going forward, the group is trying to write together more as a band.

"The fact that everyone has a vested interest in everything now - the videos, we pay for them, artwork, we're paying for it, all that stuff - everyone has a say and everyone feels like a big part of it, so I think we're able to take better care of everything now."

So far, the simplified, hands-on approach seems to be working.

"This last year of touring has been really powerful," Maida said.

On top of a solo project Maida is currently working on, the band is also preparing for a brand new Canadian tour that's set to kick off in March, which will see the band recreating their Clumsy and Spiritual Machines albums in their entirety, live.

Though Maida now splits his time between Los Angeles and Toronto, he's still a proud Canadian at heart.

On top of their upcoming spring tour, the band will also be in Vancouver and Whistler next month for four days to perform as part of the loaded entertainment lineup for the Olympics.

"I think the nationalism in us comes out - we're really proud that it's in Canada and I think to be a part of it and just feel the energy and just being in Whistler Village - I'm sure it's going to be crazy up there and down in Vancouver, as well - I think we're going to get the real experience."

This will be OLP's first trip to an Olympic Games, and they're excited to not only perform, but to take in the entire experience.

"There's something about the Olympic Games," Maida said. "It's like, would I ever sit down on a Sunday afternoon and watch figure skating on NBC? Probably not. But I think that's one of the things one of my friends has tickets to on one day off that we're going to go to, and I'm actually excited about it."

Maida and the rest of the OLP crew seem to have realistic expectations for their Olympic performances, recognizing that music isn't the main draw for most people coming to the Games.

"This is a different thing - there's an international host of people there, a lot of people probably won't even know who we are," Maida said. "We're going to be light about it. It's our show, but it's not. I think we're just being representative of Canada and just kind of take it from there."