Raine Maida has never been artistically challenged. Despite falling in the grouping of bands like 3 Doors Down, Nickelback, Saliva, and Lifehouse, Raine and Our Lady Peace never really belonged in that grouping. That’s not necessarily a bad group to be bundled in… but do you really think that Our Lady Peace belongs with those bands? Our Lady Peace songs can be successful as singles but that’s not the main intention. The intention is of an artistic nature. On the band’s newest record, due out in 2012, you can expect this album to be unlike any Our Lady Peace album before it. The band’s second independent album had them stretching out artistically like never before.
“Owning this record and doing it independently on our own, there’s a lot of freedom and liberty that you’re granted there,” said Our Leady Peace lead vocalist Raine Maida in a recent interview with Alternative Addiction. “Not that we ever felt like the record company was dictating what we were doing. But with success, we had a couple of really big records that sold a lot worldwide, after that you do feel pressure to do that again in a sense. We were never that band that wanted to write “Clumsy,” “Superman’s Dead,” “Innocent,” or “Somewhere Out There…” but at the same time it’s not until you’re completely free that you understand the influence being in the music business had on us. Now it feels like we’re not so much in the music business anymore. It feels like we’re artists again and it’s a great place to be.”
Feeling like artists again for most bands would mean doing things back to how they did them when they first started. But for a band like Our Lady Peace, a band that made one true ‘commercial’ record. Doing things artistically again means pushing your sound to new places. That’s what made this new album so exciting to make for Maida.
“There’s a lot of times when you write something really quickly it sounds great, feels great, and in your head it’s amazing,” stated Maida regarding the initial reaction after writing a song. “But it’s about looking at it in different angles. ‘Can the rhythms be different in this?’; ‘Can they be more challenging?’ All the way down to the lyrics… ‘Is that just an okay lyric or is it great? So when you start looking at all the different parts, it takes work. By this time in our career as musicians we can get a song to a certain point very quickly. It’s how far past that point do you want to get it to really making sure that it’s interesting and challenging because there’s a lot of times that I look back and I can say we didn’t take it to the next level. Even if it was a hit song it doesn’t matter. Now it’s about you know what? We need to make sure that when we walk out of that room and say the song’s finished, that we’ve pushed it as far as we could with what’s in our realm.”
If you need a strong example of what this album is going to sound like once you get your hands on it and wrap your head around it, a great first example is the single “Heavyweight” that Our Lady Peace released just before the end of last year.
“It’s pretty manic,” said Maida regarding the new album’s first single. “If you just look at the rhythm and the kick drums patterns and stuff like that it is. It was just really about challenging ourselves on every level. I think a lot of the stuff we really tried to start from guitar movements or guitar riffs. Then chorally we really wanted to challenge ourselves in some of the places, using a lot of inversions and interesting chord progressions.”
“Then on top of that it was really challenging harmonies and harmonics and how different notes work over different chords. There was a lot of thought to that. That song like other songs on the album, we just made it a real effort after we thought a song was written to go back and go over it again to make sure it harmonically could be as interesting as it is. That’s the difference between this record and a lot of other stuff that we’ve done. Taking that extra second, third, or sometimes fourth look at something to make sure that it’s challenging.”
As for when this album is coming out, Raine and Our Lady Peace are in the phase of “figuring that out.” There will be a tour announcement close to or to go along with the album release date. Right now Maida is working on putting the finishing touches on the record and anticipating the public’s reaction.
“It’s about half-mixed there are about five songs that still need to be mixed and I’ve still got a little bit of singing to do on the last couple of songs,” updated Maida on the album’s process. “We know what the record is. We know how it sounds. We know how it feels. We definitely have a strong identity on this record and that’s what we were going for. To say it’s important to other people is ridiculous but to us it’s an important record. It really sets us up for the next ten years in terms of where this band could go and what we’re all about. I’m thinking that if people think we’re just this modern rock band, I’m thinking this might surprise them a bit. I think that whatever fans think of us and whatever we think of us this is going to challenge it. As much as we think we challenged ourselves, this is going to challenge perception as well.”
For updates on all things Our Lady Peace and to download their Occupy Wall Street inspired song “Fight the Good Fight” for free, go to http://www.facebook.com/ourladypeace
