Members of Our Lady Peace will keep an eye on the starry sky when they headline at the outdoor Alberta’s Own Independent Music Festival in Lacombe next week.
The size of the Western moon so impressed OLP musicians while driving between Manitoba and the Rockies during one of their cross-country tours that the group’s bassist, Duncan Coutts, said it inspired a song — Paper Moon, off the last group’s album, Burn Burn.
“The Canadian mid-West has these great big moons and this expanse of stars,” recalled Coutts, who performs with the alternative band Saturday evening, July 16, at Michener Park.
The tune Paper Moon is about getting worn down by life. It includes frontman Raine Maida singing: “If you know a way out, then I’d like to go with you. And we can burn out like candles under that paper moon.”
Remarkably, Our Lady Peace hasn’t burned out after nearly 20 years of touring.
And Coutts believes this has a lot to do with a conscious decision not to try remaking the group’s early hits.
“I don’t think we’re a band that intentionally likes to repeat itself,” said the bassist. “We try to grow with each new record” — even if that sometimes leaves critics and fans complaining about the group becoming too different, too mainstream, too unlike it was in its heyday in the late 1990s, when OLP yielded its biggest hits, Superman’s Dead and Clumsy.
Where is Maida’s falsetto, some music sites have queried. Where is the hard-driving sound of early albums like Naveed?
Coutts said he doesn’t really pay much attention to reviews anymore, realizing that “once you put your music out there it’s really no longer yours.”
But while everybody’s free to have an opinion, the thoughts he most values come from within the band.
“At the end of the day, we have to make music for us. Because if we’re not feeling it on stage,” Coutts said the audience will soon realize they’re just going through the motions. “We wouldn’t be able to break down the barrier that sometimes exists between the band and the audience.”
Burn Burn was purposely recorded without a producer in 2009 in an attempt to reignite the original creative spark between band members. “We needed to rediscover each other in the studio,” said Coutts, who believes that record, which produced such beautiful, contemplative songs as Dreamland, “was successful on a lot of levels.”
Our Lady Peace’s still unnamed new album, however, uses the talents of producer Jason Lader, who has worked with Elvis Costello, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, and bands including Noah and the Whale.
Coutts believes it was time to reintroduce an outside perspective.
“The problem with producing yourself is that you’re not as critical as you could be with each other. And you’re not pushed as hard.”
He believes the next album, due out later this year or early in 2011, will be more experimental and “adventurous” than previous ones. “Certain sounds are heavier, but there are also certain softer sounds.
“It’ll be more of an arty record” that doesn’t always operate within the confines of rock ‘n’ roll.
“It doesn’t necessarily start with an electric guitar,” said Coutts, who started playing the guitar, before switching to the bass when it was more in demand by various high school rock bands.
He also plays the piano, keyboards, drums and (although he’s seriously out of practice on it now) the cello. “I just play well enough that I’m a danger to myself on most of the instruments,” jokes Coutts, who spends his time away from the band producing the music of other artists, including Frankie Whyte and the Dead Idols and country singer Katie Snider.
He believes these kind of solo projects help keep everyone in OLP fresh whenever they reassemble as a band. “You bring something new back to the table . . .
“I look at music as a learning process,” added Coutts. “If I ever sound like I think I’m getting towards a place of mastery, someone needs to shake me — because it’s not true.”
Weekend passes to July 14 are $115 (an extra $30 for camping). Day passes are $30 for Friday, $60 for Saturday and $40 for Sunday. For more information on the outdoor festival that features 30 bands over three days, visit www.abown.com.
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com