Our Lady Peace's Raine Maida says 'O Canada' moment in Edmonton gave him 'chills'

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Our Lady Peace frontman Raine Maida isn’t the kind of musician that likes to dwell on the past.

But fresh off his induction into Canada’s Walk of Fame last month — alongside bandmates Duncan Coutts (bass), Steve Mazur (guitar) and Jason Pierce (drums) — reflecting on his band’s 30-year reign on Canadian rock radio has been something Maida’s been unable to avoid.

“It still feels like a dream to be honest,” Maida, 54, says of the honour. “When you start a rock ‘n’ roll band, early on you have to allow yourself to dream. You dream about hearing your song on the radio for the first time or getting a record deal or selling out a club, but the idea of getting a star on the Walk of Fame never, ever made it in that bucket list of dreams.”

In addition to OLP, eight other influential names were inducted into the Walk of Fame, including golfer Mike Weir and filmmaker Shawn Levy.

Coinciding with their star, OLP is also in the midst of a 30th anniversary tour that touches down with a homecoming show at Toronto’s Budweiser Stage on July 24.

“I’m not one to look back and bask in whatever we’ve achieved. I’m more focused on what’s next,” Maida says in a video call. “But the idea was for us to pay homage to the career that we sketched out for ourselves.”

Currently playing stateside alongside fellow ’90s rockers Collective Soul and Live, the trek has already taken the foursome right across Canada and Maida says there’s a unique energy that comes from singing in front of a homegrown audience.

One show in Edmonton back in February found them playing on the same night as Canada’s Four Nations Face-Off win.

“It’s almost like a heritage moment,” the Toronto native recalls. “We finished Superman’s Dead and someone threw me a (Connor) McDavid jersey after he scored the winning goal and I held it up and the arena just erupted into ‘O Canada.'”

Maida says hearing the national anthem being belted out by the crowd inside Rogers Place gave him “chills.”

“It was this spontaneous Canadian moment. Every show after that felt more united. I felt like all the garbage with the politics and talk of the 51st state … that washed away. It was an incredible feeling. A lot of it had to do with that moment, to be honest,” the singer-songwriter says.

Since their formation with 1994’s Naveed, OLP has sold over 5 million albums worldwide and racked up more than 360 million streams. Their trophy cabinet includes four Junos and 10 MuchMusic Video Awards.

Recently, the band released OLP30, a trio of self-titled albums that collected fan-favourite hits like Clumsy, Starseed, and Somewhere Out There, alongside new songs like No Angels In This Town and Sound The Alarm. Looking ahead, Maida says “the path remains the same.”

“We are excited to finish a full album,” he says. “And keep going on the road.”

On a recent afternoon, Maida took a trip down memory lane, reflecting on OLP’s longevity and those heady early years.

You’ve already played across Canada and you’re in Toronto this month at Bud Stage. Has the OLP30 tour given you a new perspective on the band?

It’s been nice. For someone who doesn’t like to look back, I have really felt the kinship with the fans. We’ve built this friendship over a lot of years. That’s the most special thing. It was one of the biggest tours we’ve done across arenas in Canada, and the crowds were incredible and it was different. It wasn’t, ‘We’re going to see OLP.’ It was this communal gratitude, which was really, really profound, to be honest.

The band emerged in the early ’90s. What was the goal for you back then in those early years?

The dreams you have at the beginning are really small. For us, we were working at a studio near Weston and the 401 just making an album. I went to a college music festival in New York and handed some CDs around and got some calls. A bunch of labels came in to see us — Interscope, Geffen — and a few labels from Canada. But Sony Music in Canada said to us, ‘Hey, we love what you’re doing. We just want you to keep doing it.’ The allure of going with someone like Interscope was massive, but it felt like they were going to take control over things, so we went with Sony. They gave us a little bit of money and said, ‘Call us when it’s done’ … And it grew from there. You know, we (weren’t an) overnight success. We toured Naveed through the U.S. and we put 450,000 miles on a tiny school bus … It took about a year-and-a-half before anything started to catch fire in the U.S. and Canada, but we worked hard.

Was there an artist or musical act that you wanted to try and emulate?

At the time, we were post-grunge. We came up after Pearl Jam and Nirvana and Soundgarden and Alice in Chains, and even though we didn’t sound like those bands, the fact that they were doing what they wanted and it didn’t cater to anything that they didn’t love themselves and their fans, I felt that type of authenticity was something we tried to hold onto.

When you were starting out, did you feel like you were a part of this new wave of Canadian music?

It’s easier to see now … At the time, though, there were so many great bands doing cool things. It just felt like (Canadian) music was so vibrant back then. Even with small indie bands like the Gandharvas. I don’t know what happened with them, but they were sick. For a moment, there was so much going on. When we first came to L.A., we did a big show for KROQ and Rusty was on the show, and they were this band from Hamilton. So things were really popping back then. Looking back it was an amazing moment in Canadian music.

Thirty years of doing anything isn’t easy. What was the secret to your success?

It’s not easy no matter what you’re doing. I think at the end of the day, you get better at communicating … sometimes you find a much more balanced place in terms of what’s important and what everyone’s expectations are. But I think at the end of the day what kept OLP going was it was always about the song first. It’s always about being inspired to write songs and go into the studio and record music and go play it live … and that hasn’t diminished at all … The songs we recorded for those OLP30 albums we did in Nashville … it felt like those old days … where it’s not about money, and it’s just about that feeling in a studio and that feeling of having the hair on the back of your neck stand up. We’ve always tried to keep those moments at the forefront.

Is there a Canadian artist that had a big impact on you guys?

There’s so many from Joni Mitchell to Rush to Neil Young to the (Tragically) Hip. But Leonard Cohen has always been this elder statesman of Canada. I started in music more as a poet. I was writing during math class. That was my vehicle to getting the thoughts I had in my head out. So, I always felt a strong connection to Leonard Cohen.

You’ve been playing shows in Toronto for over 30 years. Is there a show you can pinpoint as a highlight?

We did a show before we announced this OLP30 Tour at Lee’s Palace. It was amazing walking back into that place. The smell of that bad draft beer. It was exactly the same. Thank God, nothing has changed about that venue. We’ve played CBGB in New York back in the day and now it’s a fancy clothing store and the Viper Room is still here in L.A., but who knows how long that will last. The fact that Lee’s is still there, smelling the same way … The show was phenomenal. That was a big highlight. It made it fun to remember. There were days that I played there on a Tuesday night and there was six people in the room. So to come full circle was pretty special.

Our Lady Peace plays Budweiser Stage with special guests Collective Soul on July 24.

mdaniell@postmedia.com

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