Our Lady Peace and The Tea Party

In 1992 vocalist Raine Maida along with British guitarist Mike Turner formed the band ‘As If’, and later enlisted the help of bassist Chris Eacrett and drummer Jeremy Taggard. Shortly after the band changed their name to Our Lady Peace as a result of a Mark Van Doren poem. In 1995 Our Lady Peace released their debut album “Naveed” on Sony Records Canada, the album spawned the instant hit “Starseed” and led to touring with Canadian singer Alanis Morissette that summer.

The success of their follow-up album could not possibly have been expected. “Clumsy” which arrived in 1997, featured Maida’s unique falsetto vocals and Duncan Coutts replacing Eacrett on bass. The album went platinum in the U.S. and a surprising diamond certification in Canada. Our Lady Peace’s two subsequent albums “Happiness Is Not a Fish That You Can Catch” in 1999 and “Spiritual Machines” in 2011 presented lighter and more positive themes, after which guitarist Mike Turner departed with Steve Mazur taking tenure.

Our Lady Peace, despite their perceived over-saturation on Canadian radio, released a mainstream sounding fifth album “Gravity” in 2002. “Gravity” featured none of the falsetto vocals fans were used to and all highly-polished commercial tracks that proved successful internationally. With unrest blossoming with the band’s sound, Our Lady Peace released “Healthy in Paranoid Times” in August 2005 which despite being their least successful album still achieved platinum status in Canada.

Since then Our Lady Peace has released the more experimental “Burn Burn” in July 2009 and “Curve” in April 2012, as well as the hugely popular greatest hits compilation “A Decade” in 2006. The compilation saw the band hit the upper echelons of the charts once again and earned a diamond certification.

Back in 1990, Jeff Martin, Stuart Chatwood and Jeff Burrows all knew each other and had played together in the close-knit Windsor, Ontario Rock scene. The trio had a marathon jam session in Toronto’s Cherry Beach Rehearsal Studios and decided to keep playing together afterwards.

Once they decided on the name (named for Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs’ legendary has sessions and not that little thing that happened in Boston a couple of hundred years back), they self-released their debut album the year after they formed. Only 3’500 copies of the album were ever made but it was enough to get them a deal with EMI Music Canada, which they signed in 1993.

The album went platinum in its home country the year after its release but it was also their breakthrough hit in Australia, a country where they continue to be very popular to this day. It was with their debut major label album, called “Splendor Solis” that they began experimenting with their trademark Indian music influences.

The band wrote and recorded a lot of the music utilising open tunings and goblet drums to achieve the sound, while still mixing it with their psychedelic blues backing. However, it wasn’t until their third album “The Edges Of Twilight” and specifically the single “Sister Awake” that they truly realized their potential. “The Edges Of Twilight” would be their most commercially succesful album, going double platinum in their home country.

The band would go on releasing albums to great success until 2005, when the band abruptly split due to creative differences. The members would drift into solo careers but they came back together in 2011 for a set of live shows and a new album, 2011’s “The Ocean At The End”. This is a rare act with talent, vision and a desire to create what’s never been heard before, we’re lucky to have them, and they’re a live act to be seen as soon as possible.