Wingstock Artist Our Lady Peace’s Raine Maida Reflects on 20 Years of OLP, New Album, ‘Gravity’ + More
We are less than two weeks away from Wingstock 2012, June 16 at Fifth Third Ballpark. Our Lady Peace, Pop Evil, Dokken, Wayland, Foxy Shazam and Gunnar & the Grizzly Boys are set to make this one night to remember. Our Lady Peace frontman Raine Maida shared his thoughts on the band's new album, Curve, two decades of OLP, his passion for mixed martial arts and more.
Our Lady Peace formed in 1992 in Toronto, Canada and released their classic debut, Naveed, two years later. Maida has been so busy that he hasn't had time to look back on how far his band has come along since their days as struggling artists.
"I haven't had to think about that too heavily yet," the singer admits. "Everyone is so excited about this new record. We really went into the studio with [Curve] trying to redefine our sound a bit and I think that's such a big deal for a band. The shows that we've been doing and the feedback on the music have been so positive that I guess we haven't really looked back. It feels like we're still looking forward."
According to Maida, Curve is the Our Lady Peace album that his band has been striving to make for awhile now. Politics in the music business and various projects outside of OLP prevented them from doing so until now.
"I think there is something to be said for when you first start in a band, even if you're signed to a label, you don't know what that is - you don't know what the business is," explains Maida. "You're just like us, a bunch of musicians. All we cared about was sitting and writing songs, getting onstage and playing. And then with success comes all this other stuff that you have to deal with, like the music business and the labels kind of going south, and trying to figure out where we were as a band. The pressure of all that stuff didn't get to us for the first few records, but then it started to all of a sudden make its way into the music."
He continues: "With Curve, it's really about four guys trusting their instincts again musically. It was just us in a room with no management and no label. We just kind of went with our gut and we all feel rejuvenated because we did that. It was a big step to take but I'm glad we did it."
One particular Our Lady Peace album that always seemed to divide fans was 2002's Gravity. The record spawned one of their biggest hits in "Somewhere Out There" and introduced them to a new audience. However, some older fans and critics slammed Gravity for moving towards a more mainstream sound in their eyes. Maida says in hindsight that the band wouldn't have rushed as much on the album and would have been less influenced by producer Bob Rock.
"I think we would have taken our time a little bit more with that record," Maida admits. "I think there are some great moments on it but that was one of the trappings of going to work with Bob Rock in Maui [Hawaii]. Bob's a great guy, I love the man. He's a great person, great producer, but we succumbed to what Bob was rather than finding somewhere in the middle."
Maida elaborates: "With Bob, that was such a stripped down rock record compared to the record before that, which was [2000's] Spiritual Machines - a really, kind of artsy experimental record based on a book by Ray Kurzweil, who's like this genius inventor. They couldn't be more polar opposites and I think that was maybe too much of a left turn for us. We were influenced too much by Bob. We were kind of caught up in the moment and went with it. Some people will call us idiots because it was such a big selling record for us, but it's never really been about that. Now we've been kind of scratching and clawing to get back to that and finally on Curve it feels like we've been able to get back to what's most authentic about this band."
Listen to our whole interview with Raine Maida below, where we also talk about his humanitarian work with wife Chantal Kreviazuk, the original scrapped material from Curve, his love for MMA and more. Don't miss Our Lady Peace live, June 16 at Wingstock 2012 at Fifth Third Ballpark. Tickets are on sale at the venue box office and online by clicking here.