Our Lady Peace
Our Lady Peace is a Canadian alternative rock band formed in Toronto, Ontario in 1992. Led by lead vocalist Raine Maida since its formation, the band currently also features Duncan Coutts on bass, Steve Mazur on guitars, and Jason Pierce on drums. The band has sold several million albums worldwide, won four Juno Awards, and won ten MuchMusic Video Awards—the most MMVAs ever awarded to a band. Nineteen of their singles have reached the Top Ten on one of Canada's singles charts. Between 1996 and 2016, Our Lady Peace was the third best-selling Canadian band and the ninth best-selling Canadian artist overall in Canada.
Our Lady Peace has released ten studio albums, one live album, and two compilation albums, with their debut album, 1994's Naveed, having reached quadruple platinum in Canada. Naveed contains their breakthrough single, "Starseed", which peaked in the Top Ten on both the US Mainstream and Alternative Rock Tracks charts, and the title track, which reached No. 4 on Canada's Alternative Rock Chart. Their 1997 album, Clumsy, which reached No. 1 in Canada, is considered their signature and most widely recognized work. Clumsy was certified as Diamond in sales in Canada with its title track reaching No. 1 on Canada's Singles Chart and its lead single, "Superman's Dead", reaching No. 2 on Canada's Alternative Rock Chart. The album was certified platinum in sales in the US with the title track peaking at No. 5 on the US Alternative Rock chart. OLP's 1999 album, Happiness... Is Not a Fish That You Can Catch, also reached No. 1 in Canada and was certified triple platinum there. Its singles "One Man Army" and "Is Anybody Home?" reached Nos. 1 and 2 on Canada's Alternative Rock Chart. The band's first four albums are often praised for their unique sound and style, with singer Maida being called "erratic" and "truly unrivaled" as a vocalist.
Their fifth album, Gravity, is considered to be a "radical departure" from OLP's distinctive style. Maida has confirmed the change, calling Gravity "vastly different" from their previous records. Gravity reached No. 2 in Canada, where it became the group's fifth straight double platinum seller, with its "Somewhere Out There" and "Innocent" songs reaching No. 1 and 2, respectively, on Canada's Singles Chart. Gravity was their highest charting album in the United States, reaching No. 9 on the strength of "Somewhere Out There" being their most successful single on the US Hot 100 and reaching No. 7 on the US Alternative Rock Chart. Their 2005 album Healthy in Paranoid Times also peaked at No. 2 in Canada and went platinum in sales.
Having released three studio albums with only moderate success between 2009 and 2018, their sequel album Spiritual Machines 2 was released in 2021. The album's first single, "Stop Making Stupid People Famous", was released in June 2021.
History
Formative years (1991–1993)
In late 1991, guitarist Mike Turner placed an ad in Toronto-based Now newspaper in search of musicians. Michael Maida, a criminology student at the University of Toronto, was the first to reply. The two formed a band called As If, inviting Jim Newell as drummer and a friend of Turner's, Paul Martin, to play bass. After they played a number of gigs in Oshawa with sets containing a mix of original and cover material, Martin departed, and the band placed an ad for a replacement bassist. Chris Eacrett, a business student at Ryerson University, replied and was accepted after an audition. During that time, Turner and Maida attended a music seminar where they met songwriter and producer Arnold Lanni, the owner of Arnyard Studios. The band, with Lanni, commenced writing new material and recorded some material under the As If name.Soon after, the band's name was changed to Our Lady Peace, after a Mark Van Doren poem of the same name. With encouragement from Lanni and his management team, the band performed some gigs in Eastern Ontario and Montreal in conjunction with The Tea Party. It was during this time that Maida began using the stage name "Raine" instead of "Mike".
An independent music video of the band's debut song "Out of Here" was created in February 1992 by Sam Siciliano, a film student and friend of Turner's, who produced, edited, and directed the video. The video was aired on the MuchMusic Indie show. After returning to Arnyard Studios to continue writing and recording material, drummer Jim Newell departed the band. Writing and recording continued with session drummer John Bouvette.
With managers Rob Lanni and Eric Lawrence of Coalition Entertainment representing the band, short showcases were arranged with Warner Music Canada, EMI Canada, and Sony Music Canada. Sony Music Canada head of A&R Richard Zuckerman liked what he heard, and saw the potential of the band, its producer, and management. The band signed a record and publishing deal with Sony Music Canada in April 1993, and commenced writing for their debut album. Around the same time, then-17-year-old Jeremy Taggart joined the band as permanent drummer.
Early success (1994–2000)
After writing and recording over the next year or so, OLP released its debut album, Naveed, in Canada in March 1994, through Sony Music Canada. The first single from the album, "The Birdman, was released in January 1994 but did not obtain enough airplay to chart on the Canadian RPM Top 100 Singles Chart. Maida would later say "The Birdman" was chosen as the lead single because its non-commercial sound would likely appeal to university campus radio on which OLP hoped to develop "a buzz", and that waiting a few months to release a more commercial song gave them time to tour with other bands in order to improve their live show. Following the release of the album, the band toured Canada, supporting acts I Mother Earth and 54-40. The second single was "Starseed" which almost made the Top 40 on the RPM Top 100 Chart; there was no national rock and alternative song chart at that time, but "Starseed" was ranked at No. 25 on the Top Songs of the 1990s according to 102.1 The Edge, Toronto's most popular alternative/modern rock station. The third and fourth singles released in Canada were "Hope" and "Supersatellite" with each receiving moderate airplay, but it was the fifth single, the title track which drove sales of the album, as the track it went to No. 4 on the new RPM Rock/Alternative Singles Chart and was later ranked as the No. 50 alternative rock song of the 1990s by 102.1 The Edge. Naveed rose to No. 12 on the Canadian RPM Album Chart and was certified 4× Platinum for sales of 400,000 copies in Canada.Naveed picked up and released in the United States in March 1995 by a Sony Music indie label, Relativity Records, after which the band toured as the opening act for Van Halen's Balance summer tour as well as opening shows for Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. "Starseed" was a significant hit in United States reaching Nos. 7 and 11 on the Billboard Modern and Mainstream Rock Charts, respectively. Touring behind the album resumed in 1996 with time spent opening for Alanis Morissette. A remix of "Starseed" would later be added to the Armageddon film soundtrack. In early 1997, Our Lady Peace was offered an American signing with Columbia Records, expanding their horizons within Sony Music. After touring for the album Naveed concluded, the band began work on their second studio album. As the writing process ensued, bassist Chris Eacrett left the band due to musical differences. Duncan Coutts, a Ridley College alumnus and former classmate of Raine Maida, joined the band during the recording of that second album. Coincidentally, Duncan Coutts and Mike Turner both studied at the University of Western Ontario and lived in Saugeen–Maitland Hall.
Our Lady Peace's second album, Clumsy, was released in January 1997. The album cover is based on an abandoned song called "Trapeze", which was initially intended to be the title of the album. The albums's lead single, the guitar-driven "Superman's Dead", quickly rose to No. 2 for five weeks on Canada's Alternative Rock Songs chart pushing the album to debut at No. 1 on the Canadian Album Chart. The second single, "Clumsy", was just as successful, topping the Canadian RPM Singles chart while also reaching No. 2 on the Alternative Rock Chart. Subsequent singles "Automatic Flowers" and "4 AM", the band's first ballad released as a single, also made the Top 10 on the Alternative Rock chart establishing Our Lady Peace as a leading band in the Canadian rock scene. The most-listened to alternative rock station in Canada, Toronto's CFNY, listed Clumsy as the No. 1 album for 1997, based on sales, listener requests for songs, and listener votes for the year's top album. In February 2001, Clumsy was certified Diamond in sales in Canada. Between 1996 and 2017, Clumsy was the best-selling album by a Canadian band in Canada and the eight best-selling album by a Canadian artist overall in Canada. In the US, both "Superman's Dead" and "Clumsy" made the Top 15 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, while peaking at No. 11 and No. 5, respectively, on the Alternative Rock Tracks Chart. Clumsy reached the Top 80 on the Billboard Album Chart and was certified Platinum for sales of 1 million units in the US.
In 1999, Our Lady Peace released their third album, titled Happiness... Is Not a Fish That You Can Catch. The album included such hits as "Thief", a song about a young girl the band met named Mina Kim, who had cancer, as well as "One Man Army" and "Is Anybody Home?". Legendary jazz drummer Elvin Jones was featured on the song "Stealing Babies". Multi-instrumentalist Jamie Edwards was brought in for the 1996 sessions for the album. Later that year, the band played an eleven-song set at Woodstock 1999.
In 2000, the band recorded and released Spiritual Machines, a concept album inspired by Ray Kurzweil's book The Age of Spiritual Machines. During the recording of the album, drummer Jeremy Taggart was sidelined with an ankle injury; Soundgarden and Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron, played drums on "Right Behind You " and "Are You Sad?" in his place. The album featured the singles "In Repair", "Life" and "Right Behind You ". "Life" was also featured in the soundtrack for the Canadian sports comedy film Men with Brooms. Spiritual Machines was less commercially successful than its predecessors.