File photo from Woodstock '99 in Rome, N.Y.
by Geoff Herbert | gherbert@syracuse.com
Our Lady Peace is kicking off a new tour in Upstate New York this week to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their breakthrough album, "Clumsy," which still resonates with fans today.
Lead singer Raine Maida tells syracuse.com that "Superman's Dead," the album's 1997 single that introduced most U.S. fans to the Canadian rock band, is just as relevant as it was then. The angsty track lamented changes to his favorite superhero, media trends, and impossible beauty standards for women ("an ordinary girl an ordinary waist").
"[It's still] true to life," he said in a phone interview. "With social media and everything we're just bombarded with mundane... you try and escape it, how unhealthy it is -- especially when you're young, affecting your brain development, which is scary. Pop culture has become the norm and it's really scary. They've been sensationalized and become unrealistic."
Maida says he grew up with a black-and-white Man of Steel, a far cry from Zack Snyder's DC movies like "Batman v Superman" (which literally ends with Superman dead) and the upcoming "Justice League." Modern superhero films are more about branding and selling then storytelling these days, he added.
"How many Spider-Man movies have there been in the last 10 years? Diluted is the best word – anytime you take a brand like that, they've become so commercialized," he said.
"Superman's Dead" helped "Clumsy" go platinum in the U.S. and diamond (10 million copies sold) in Canada. In live shows, crowds often sing the outro, repeating the line "Doesn't anybody every know that the world's a subway?" -- which rings even more true today.
"It was a very raw feeling about how things are happening so fast," Maida explained. "It's hard to keep up. Since that song was written, now it's impossible to keep up. Literally. You can't check your Instagram or Twitter enough to keep up. Everything happens so quickly now."
Columbia Records
'Clumsy,' by Our Lady Peace, sold more than one million copies in the U.S. and another 10 million in their home country of Canada. The 1997 album featured singles 'Superman's Dead,' 'Automatic Flowers,' 'Carnival,' 'Clumsy' and '4am.'
Our Lady Peace will play the entire "Clumsy" album on the tour, which starts Friday, Oct. 20, at the Upstate Concert Hall in Clifton Park, and comes to The Vine casino in Waterloo on Saturday, Oct. 21. Maida says the band, which no longer includes original guitarist Mike Turner and drummer Jeremy Taggart, will also perform other fan favorites, possibly including "Starseed" (which appeared on the "Armageddon" movie soundtrack), "One Man Army" and the anthemic "Somewhere Out There."
"I think it's going to be the longest [shows] we've played in a while," Maida said, already worrying about maintaining his voice's wide range while looking at the set list.
He also promised to play some new material from the band's EP "Somethingness," released in August with four tracks; Vol. 2 will follow in early 2018. Maida says the band continues to experiment and apply "conceptual artistic elements" to their records, like with the Ray Kurzweil-inspired "Spiritual Machines" in 2000, and will showcase a theme in four new music videos.
"Each video is different stories that happen in real life. It could be anywhere. It's in Toronto, but it could just as well be in Syracuse, it could be in New York," Maida said. (He should know: Our Lady Peace previously performed in Central New York at K-Rockathon, twice, and at Woodstock '99 in Rome, N.Y.)
File photo by Jim Commentucci
Lead singer Raine Maida performs with Our Lady Peace at the Landmark Theatre in 2001.
Maida admits there's a lot of pain in his lyrics on "Clumsy," such as his ode to his father ("4am," representing his father's initials: Arnold Maida) or a devastating tale of suicide ("Car Crash"). Even the title track's chorus refers to "watching you drown, watching you scream, quiet or loud."
But 20 years removed, there's more hope than angst in Our Lady Peace's discography as a whole. "Clumsy" includes the lines "As clumsy as you've been, there's no one laughing, you will be safe in here" and "Life," a top 20 alternative rock hit in the U.S. in 2001, admits life is "all messed up, but we'll survive."
"It's honest to the fans," Maida said. "I'm a bit of a cynic, I try to heal from that, and I think the songs are part of that healing. There's a realism and... I definitely think that's what makes a lot of those songs staples. [But] if they didn't have that hope it'd probably make them difficult to sing every night."
For ticket information and more tour dates, visit www.ourladypeace.com. For the band's new EP, "Somethingness," visit pledgemusic.com/projects/ourladypeace.
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