Our Lady Peace: From Burning Out to Burning Bright

When you go to a record store and pick up a CD, do you often wonder how it came to be? All blood, sweat and tears aside, making their 2005 record almost pushed the guys of Our Lady Peace to the brink of breaking up. “The whole process was difficult,” explains lead singer Raine Maida in a recent phone interview. “The last record we made, Healthy in Paranoid Times, was a challenging record to make. It put a lot of stress on the band and personal relationships, which put a strain on creativity and musicality. We ended up writing way too many songs and kind of lost focus.”

That being said, the Toronto-based rock group took a four-year hiatus before coming back and working on their latest album Burn Burn, scheduled to be released on July 21st.

“Basically, I did a solo record and everyone did their own thing at this time,” says Maida about the break. “I think when we came back to this record, we had a different attitude on what we did. It was amazing and so much easier this time around. Intentionally, we didn’t use another producer or an outside producer for Burn Burn, so we went and did it in my home studio where I did my solo record. It was a great way to make music without having the pressure of being in someone else’s studio with the producer and risking to compromise songs. It felt pretty empowering really. And, every time we’ve made a record since the first, we’ve never lived together. It was always like everyone goes home after the studio and does their own thing. There’s something to be said about this brotherhood of being in the same place and waking up and eating and breathing music, that in fact everything happens for a reason, and probably the reason we went through hell to make [Healthy in Paranoid Times] was to get to this point. Our relationship is much stronger and it really invigorated this band and what it means to us.”

Having such career highlights as opening for the Rolling Stones, performing at Woodstock and sharing the stage with acts such as The Goo Goo Dolls, No Doubt and the Barenaked Ladies, Our Lady Peace has but humble expectations for their latest work. “Our expectation was to make a record that we really truly felt like something we would want to play live, and not something that was someway or another compromised so much in the studio that we’d never want to play them,” says Maida. “That was our challenge, and I think I can honestly say this record didn’t have any of those songs. I know it sounds like a silly expectations but that was really it. All wanted to get was to make a great record that we wanted to play live and I think we did it.”

With their anticipated summer release, it’s safe to say that after the burn out, Our Lady Peace’s future is burning brighter than ever.

Our Lady Peace will be performing at Edfest in Edmonton on Friday, July 24th, 2009. They will then play this year’s Virgin Festival at Deer Lake Park in Burnaby, BC on July 25th.