Interview with Raine Maida of OLP
Our Lady Peace Singer on His Solo Album The Hunters Lullaby and Tour
Exclusive Interview with Raine Maida as he hits the "Yellow Brick Road" on his first Canadian tour to support his solo album The Hunters Lullaby on Nettwerk Records.
Although Raine Maida has six albums, six million records sold, four Canadian Juno Awards and 16 years in the music business notched up, it’s taken only one solo album for the Our Lady Peace vocalist to be comfortable in his own skin.
Solo Album The Hunters Lullaby
Four months’ following the release of The Hunters Lullaby and one night into his first solo tour, Raine Maida sits down in Vancouver with Suite101 to discuss life, art, activism and the importance of being genuine. As important as being genuine now is to Maida, it’s not a word one would have previously associated with the rock pin-up who, at the apex of his career, seemed a bit removed, sarky, even ill-at-ease.
“It was all my own doing,” he says, describing himself as a bit of an “introvert” and “terrorized” by the spotlight in the past. “Letting other people choose your words for you because I didn’t want to say things or was a little sly in my ways, well, it was very daring and usually didn’t work out for me very well. There’s always the question of trying to balance between being a complete *sshole and being earnest. It’s tough. But at the end of the day it’s really about how my kids are going to judge me.”
War Child, Make Poverty History and Other Charity Work
Maida will likely be fine in that respect. He and wife/musician Chantal Kreviazuk have a third son on the way in June, and activism plays a big part in the family. He does regular work with War Child, Make Poverty History and in 2004 spent 11 days in Darfur, Sudan on a War Child fact-finding mission. In May, he hopes to travel to the Congo where he’s helping to build a school.
“There’s much more synergy between arts and social causes,” he says. “Sometimes it’s fabricated and it’s almost like you need to have this as part of your brand [these days] but it’s not contrived with us and hopefully people don’t think it is. What I think will survive is that genuineness. If you see an artist marching or involved, travelling somewhere or speaking about a cause and you can tell it’s real, that’s what affects you.”
On Our Lady Peace, and Poetry
What is also affecting him is the warm response he’s so far received to The Hunters Lullaby. Though precious in parts, it’s a simple, searching and poetic album, a profound change from the last OLP disc Healthy in Paranoid Times, which took, he says, “three years and a million dollars on prog rock.” But don't mistake this for complaining - Maida is thankful and gracious for his time with OLP, and is in the midst of writing and recording a new album with them.
Still, he says, “there was always a distance with OLP because there was a barrage of notes, drums and guitars. But with this, it’s words just coming out, and I find people are more engaged. That’s really attractive to me. Not that I like one better than the other, but right now it’s amazing to see people following along with the stories. These are really poems put to music and I’m just taking comfort in that,” he says, smiling.
But wouldn’t a solo tour add increasing pressures to an artist’s Atlas-like shoulders? Nope. Maida’s feeling light and burden-free.
“I just want to go out there and take those expectations off and have them vaporize. And I’m hopeful that they stay in the thin air. I went out today and did press all day by myself. I carry my guitar, and I was in a great mood. It’s just a different time.”
A different time to be sure. During his headlining show later, Maida (accompanied by Kreviazuk, a cellist and a drummer) seems touched by the small crowd’s affections. “I honestly thought nobody would give a sh*t about this album,” he says to an adoring, youngish audience. “But, I am sincerely overwhelmed and will remember this night for a long time”.
It would be easy to dismiss this as pandering, but Raine Maida is, in fact, being quite genuine.
Raine Maida's Canadian tour continues March 18 to March 31 and is being presented by Live Nation.
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