Our Lady Peace Bio
Raine
Maida Bio
Duncan
Coutts Bio
Mike
Turner Bio
Jeremy
Taggart Bio
WAY back in 1992,
bout 9 years ago from right now, Our Lady Peace from came
together. Raine Maida, the lead vocalist, was a crimonology
student at the University of Toronto when he saw an ad for a
musician, placed by punk guitarist Mike Turner. Eventually, the
duo met up with producer/songwriter Arnold Lanni and they made a
demo tape, which had the song "Starseed" on it. The
demo tape was recorded at Arnyard Studios, and immediatly sparked
interest in several record labels, both in Canada and the U.S.
Representitives from many different labels were sent to audition
for the final two spots in Our Lady Peace. Drummer Jeremy Taggert
was chosen while he was still in high school (he was 17), and so
was Duncan Coutts, the bassist, who had been a friend of Raine's.
Shortly after that, Jeremy left to further his education and new
drummer Chris Eacrett was brought in.
Being a shockingly demanding band for a new band, Our Lady Peace
told all labels intrested in them to come to a recording of
theirs if they were serious. Only one label came, Sony Canadian,
and even brought President Rick Camereli with them. Sony loved
what they heard, and offered Our Lady Peace a deal. In another
demanding move, Our Lady Peace told them they would only sign if
they had full creative control over the music, album art, and
marketing. Also, they wanted to develop at their own pace, since
they were still a new band. Sony agreed to these terms, and Our
Lady Peace had their first record deal, still in tact today. A
small American label, Relativity, also signed Our Lady Peace on
the same terms. All this happened way back in '93.
The band waited for Jeremy to finish high school, and rented a
place in Mississauga, Ontario to record into a cheap cassette
player. When they were satisfied, they went back to Arnyard
Studios and recorded their first alubm, Naveed, which I'm
listening to right now. In May of 1994, Naveed was released and
sold over half a million copies world wide, to date. Because of
the success of the album, Our Lady Peace started opening for such
bands and artists like: Page/Plant, Van Halen, the Rolling
Stones, I Mother Earth, The Ramones, Sponge, Letters To Cleo,
Alanis Morissette, Bush, Elastica, and Better Then Ezra. Through
all of this, they played about 400 gigs, about 6 of week, while
before the recording of Naveed, they had only played 7.
Sadly though, because of a "spiritual and philosophical
difference" was growing between bassist Chris Eacrett and
the band, Eacrett decided to leave the band and Duncan Coutts was
welcomed back with opened arms. 
With the whole group now jointally working together again, Our
Lady Peace started on the making of their new album in May of
1996, titled Clumsy. Which, by the way, is my favourite album. To
be more focused on just writing, the band rented a cottage up in
northern Toronto for six weeks. This let them just wake up beside
a guitar and paper and start writing. When they're heads were
sick of all that writing at the end of the day, they went out and
played a hockey game (they are Canadian, eh). After the six
weeks, they went back to Arnold Lanni and Arnyard Studios to
cheaply put together the album. There, they experimented with
different sounds, and since Duncan Coutts could sing and play
keyboard, they were given more options. Heck, they even had some
cello involved in the process, but it "didn't seem to
fit". Because of all this tinkering, Clumsy took much longer
to release then expected. Originally, it was slated for a
September of '96 release, but wasn't released til January of '97.
This didn't bother the band or Sony though, because remember Sony
let them have full creative control, and Our Lady Peace was happy
with every song.
Just recently, Clumsy received a Diamond label for selling 1
million albums in Canada. Only two bands EVER in Canada has done
this, the other being The Barenaked Ladies.
In the summer of 1997, Our Lady Peace was asked to headline the
Canadian festival, Edgefest. Of course, they accepted, who
wouldn't??
On Thursday, September 18th, 1997, the Much Music Video awards
took place in Toronto. Our Lady Peace won 2 out of the 4 awards
that they were nominated for, one being the People's Choice for
best group. Though awards don't mean much to the band, the ones
voted on by the fans are higher up there, because "that's
what it's all about". They also performed 'Superman's Dead'
later that night.
The summer of 1998 was definitely a highlight in Our Lady Peace's
careers, as they finally were able to put on their own festival.
'Summersault' had been talked about for a while, and was put on
in a few eastern Canadian cities. It showcased a wide variety of
talent, including the Crystal Method, Sloan, Moist, Garbage, I
Mother Earth, and numerous up and coming bands. All of these
bands were connected to OLP in some way, whom they were either
friends with or fans of.
On September 21,
1999, Happiness...Is Not a Fish You Can Catch was released in
Canada. The CD was Our Lady Peace's 3rd album, but seemed to
stray away from everything in Clumsy and Naveed. It contained
more a well rounded sound, almost popish though. Although being
told they sold out, their next album proved they had not. One
good thing did come out of this album though, the two songs
"Is Anybody home" and "Thief". Both we're
nominated for various awards, and currently "Thief" is
nominated for best video at the Juno awards.
December 12, 2000 marked the released date for Our Lady Peace's
4th album, Spirtual Machines. The CD goes back to Our Lady
PEace's roots, says Raine Maida, and has more of Naveed's sound.
Personally, I think it's Naveed and Happiness...mix, which kind
of upset me, because Clumsy is my favourite album. The big single
from this album, in Canada at least, was "In Repair",
but for Americans, the first single released was
"Life". Little side note for this album; Jeremy Taggert
was mugged and beat out by some "punk kids" inside
Toronto, and was unable to preform two songs on the album. So
guess who Our Lady Peace brought in?? Mark Cameron, of Pearl Jam
fame, who recorded the songs "In Repair" and "Are
You Sad" with the band.
Spiritual Machines was influenced by the book 'The Age of
Spiritual Machines When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence' by
Ray Kurzweil. The book was first discovered by Mike Turner, who
got Raine hooked on the book. The book is basically about how
robots convince humans in the future that they are human. Might
seem weird, but in the book, it sounds pretty convincing. On the
album, Ray Kurzweil is featured on tracks 1, 3, 8, 10, 12, and
hidden at the end of track 15. On the album pages, I'll write
down, and hopefully have sound clips, off what he says.
From the words of Raine Maida: "Lyrically, this album is
about finding the spirituality within ourselves"..."The
lyrics for the track In Repair focus upon how people tend to
treat each other as machines in our day to day life. We really
need to take stock and focus our energy towards those in our
lives that matter. Sometimes it seems as if we need an oil
change"
Currently, In Repair and Life are eating up the charts in Canada,
but still doing nothing in the U.S., which is greatly
disappointing.
Michael Raine Maida:
Born Feb 18th 1970 in Weston, Ontario, Canada, he is the vocalist
and lyricist of the band. He also plays guitar, especially for
writing, but prefers to leave most of that to Mike. The first
song he ever learned to play was 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' by U2.
After three knee surgeries and chronic back problems, Raine
started practicing yoga, and meditation to relieve the strain. He
also plays more guitar live now to keep himself from going too
crazy on stage. His lyrics are personal, yet very interpretable
and cryptic. Raine is an avid reader, (songs Starseed and Hello
Oskar are derived from books he's read) and a self proclaimed
media junkie. His parents are divorced, his dad owns a
construction business and he has a brother, Adam, who is 18 years
younger. He also has a tattoo (a cross with vines covering it) on
the right side of his back.Before Our Lady Peace Raine was
studying criminology at the University of Toronto, and was only a
four month semester, 2 1/2 credits away from his degree. His
influences are mainly female singers, notably Sinead O'Connor,
because they are more acrobatic, they "get much more naked
vocally when they sing", and because of their lack of ego
and machismo. He also likes middle eastern sounds, and artists
like Jeff Buckley. Raine goes by his middle name to avoid
confusion between him and Mike Turner.
Duncan Coutts: Born Feb
4th (or 5th), 1970, and an only child. He was with the band
originally, but then left to continue studying film at Toronto's
Ryerson University, before re-joining Our Lady Peace in 1995.
Duncan (whose real name is Bob) used his melodic bass style in
many Toronto bar bands. One of his pre-band jobs was a taxi
driver in Whistler B.C., and he also worked as a set dresser on
Due South. Along with bass he plays keyboards and cello, and
occasionally sings back up. This is also just pure speculation,
but I believe his brother is also a roadie for the band. If
you've ever been so fortunate to get close enough to the stage at
a show, the person tuning Duncan's basses bares a striking
resemblence to him. I've asked OLP about this, but still no reply
back.
Mike Turner: Born June
5, 1962 (or 1963???), he plays guitar, and does back-up vocals in
the band. Mike a degree in English from the University of Western
Ontario, and worked as a welder in amachine shop. He had to stop
changing his hair around because it confused too many people. He
was born and raised with three sisters, in Bradford, England
during the punk explosion of the late '70s, which is where his
style is derived from. Mike names the Sex Pistols as one of his
big influences. On his 17th birthday, Mike got his first guitar
as gift from his parents. The first song he ever learned to play
on the guitar was 'Day Tripper' by the Beatles. After moving to
Oshawa, Ontario, and forming Our Lady Peace, he realized that
wanted to take some more lessons, and focus more on the technique
of playing, rather than just power chords.
Jeremy Taggart: Born
April 7, 1975. Jeremy (5'10") was playing in the band before
he even finished high school (and got the band in trouble in bars
for being underage), but they waited for him to graduate before
recording Naveed. His drumming has always been very jazz
influenced, playing with complicated time signatures and so on.
Jeremy has three siblings (I've read both one brother and two
sisters, and one sister and two brothers). The other guys joke
around saying that he has the worst personal hygiene of all of
them (his 'magic socks' seem to show up at every show) and sleeps
the most too. He is also allergic to almost
everything...including chocolate, weiners and alcohol. Poor guy.
Actually kind of looks like he's showing his disgruntledness in
this photo.
This
is not the official Our Lady Peace site. To access that site,
please visit www.ourladypeace.com
Do not reproduce or use any part of this site without written
consent of Raine Daniels.
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