Our Lady Peace (Raine Maida)

Part 1

0:00How are you? I'm good. How are you, dude? I'm good. Good. Where are you up to? I'm just making a record right now. Are you really? Yeah. With you? Yourself? No, this girl named Billy the Kid from Toronto. Oh, nice. Down in Los Angeles or up in Toronto? Yeah. No, in Los Angeles right now. Yeah. A little harp. A little harp. A little harp. Not mouth harp. Like actual string harp? No. Mouth harp. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I would. Hey, man, I'm the producer. How's the weather down there? It's terrible, like, tornadoes and downpours and shit like that. It's about to hit. Yeah. It's like everyone. Good Lord. How do you feel about last night Obama big victory? This country fell down here.

0:54I think either way the Democrats are going to be in the GOP, like people aren't even coming out to vote. What if McCain gets the nomination though? Then it'll be pretty close. I guess, you know, it's funny. The way politics works down here. It's because there's so much time to kind of, you saw what happened to McCain in like, over the 2000s, you know, when he was running against Bush, just to be slaughtered. Yeah. And have stuff turned up. But I actually heard a rumor yesterday that if Clinton wants to be the nominee, some guy in McCain's camp or just on the GOP has a list of women, obviously because Clinton says a woman, a list of women that will come forward over the last like eight years and just say this is what a scumbag he is and this is how ambitious Hillary is and this is all farce and illusion, the whole thing.

1:43You're hearing that. I think Obama's probably the best bet. Probably because of the cleanest. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Are you a citizen? Can you vote? I can't vote. No. No, I'm kidding. Yeah. I'm not giving that up ever. No. Good. Good call. Do you wish you could vote though? Could you even do the do? Can your kids vote? Were they born there? My kids will be able to vote. Yeah. I mean, only because I think, you know, obviously what America's agenda is, the facts of the world, and the planet, so much these days. So, I mean, that's why you feel like you're a part of it. Everyone feels a part of it no matter how to do it in there. I'm a guy that's in power in the US. I totally agree. Yeah.

2:28We're talking about politics in a bit, but the reason you're calling, you got a show here in town March 13th. I do. And I'm wondering, is it going to be the same as last year when you opened for your wife? Is it going to be just you or is she coming out with you? What's the deal? Oh, nice. I think Shout-Pel might come out on the road. I'm not sure yet. But, yeah, the live thing for this record to evolve now. Who's in the band? She just got off the road with... Oh, no. And Dave Stewart, yeah, is German called Randy. He's just badass. Oh, yeah. I saw him playing with Ringo on a couple of his late night shows. Yeah, he's not cool. Yeah, that's him. So, he's going to come out on the E-Play-Glamour record.

3:14And I'm not, you know, I haven't exactly defined how it's going to be. Probably cello. Nice. I think that kind of... There's a lot of cello on the record. So, I brought mine from Toronto and came across as well. Yeah, that'd be nice. You get to bring the kids on the road too. No, not this time. No, it's not in school yet. How old are you? Oh, man, they got to pick in school. In the States too. And you talk about... Actually, you know what, I'll save that for a little bit. I want to talk about the new record in a bit. You're in town the same night as Avril Lavigne. Do you know that? No. Yeah, so maybe you just... I know you wrote for her record and things like that? Yeah. Someone you get together with or is that just kind of like you're in town the same night? No, I'm in town the same night. And I know you want people to choose some tunes for you to play.

4:01I read that on your blog. You're looking for what covers should we have? Two many responses. So I think it's funny because you never know what people think of this. I think hardcore LP fans might not really get my solo stuff, but it's fine. But it's really interesting. A lot of people, they kind of see the genre that this stuff is trying to kind of tap into. I appreciate that, which is cool. And then you get people that want to hear two star seed and... Only acoustic. That'd be nice. Nice rocker on the acoustic. That'd be good. Yeah, right. You know what? I do want to play a song, an OLP tune to get things started.

4:47It's something that I think would fit nice into the acoustic set. I'll give you a choice. Innocent or thief? You know, I've been doing... Innocent is like a one song that I actually do. Well, it's a great song and a great story behind it too, right? Yeah, totally. Absolutely. I love it.

8:49I think it's fantastic. Oh, cool. And I love the EP when it came out a year and a bit ago now. So way before the record. Now, was the plan the whole time to make a record out of it or was it just like, let's put it out in EP, see what happens? No, I was making the record and those songs weren't even finished. But... Yeah, they sounded re-recorded for the record. Yeah, and Chantal was going out on the road and we were just trying to think of, I was going to play bass in a band. So I did that and I was like, well, I should open probably, you know, let me try some of the stuff out live. And then I figured, okay, I have enough. You know, these are close enough that like, they sound okay. Let's... One of them is press some copies up. You know, I own this thing which is probably music. Oh, yeah, sure.

9:34Now, I wonder, do you think that should be the new business bottle for the music industry? You get any EP of songs that you think are pretty cool? Get them out to the world and then, you know, say, okay, here's the beginning. I'll get you a record in a little bit. Obviously, there's no rules right now. It's funny for me, I got into the whole iTunes thing. I want the CDs again. I want a hard copy of something. I kind of freaked out just having a hard drive full of stuff, you know, makes me sound old.

10:25But for whatever reason, I'm really proud of the box that I want that shit. I want that. I want the thing in my hand. I want to be able to touch music again. I got, like I said, I just got freaked out looking at my computer phone music and all of a sudden they had no meaning for some reason. It's different. It's a whole, especially the way the kids, I mean, even your kids will grow up a completely different system. Well, maybe not in your house because you're both musicians, but the kids they go to school with, you know, they want to know. I mean, I know a bunch of, you know, I have a younger sister that's like, she's 13. Oh, you know, CD really is like, especially just once, you know, get specific through iTunes. Yeah, it's funny, man. They're going to run the world. So, yeah, let's talk about one second chance.

11:12I know, at least in my mind, it's your most preachy on the new record, but I love the lyrics. And in the first verse you say, punk rock and blues music keep dying. We keep buying. You think that's true? I think it is. I mean, you know, I can say that about most music, you know, from my band and as well. You look at the band that is still relevant today. There's something more pure about it. It just feels like a lot of the stuff is just retread and gets so watered down now. Yeah, I mean, it's no kidding. People are, you know, I find a lot of kids like guitar hero, you know, kids going back to learning band, and stuff on songs and ACDC and fans. And that's why it's classic because it's standing the test of time.

12:03It's really. Yeah, definitely man. Let's play one second chance because that's a great song. I saw Abby Hoffman's ghost in the distance. We got saw Williams keeping up the resistance. And punk rock and blues music keep dying. We keep buying. Max Stone and Trey Parker have taken over the mission. Cause I apologize, you say don't have a position. Who's to blame for this shallow existence? Our existence.

12:48We tried that this was too high. But we lost conscience. Constrained in with and I said it all out of. But they just dropped shipping and nothing better. And I'm showing on the shawm scheme of glowing all the top sleeve in intelligentsia. We'll catch Steven. She got out of here in Mississippi. It's overpriced in candy-coated life.

13:33We'll fit you. We'll choke. When you're jammin' in the studio, usually gravitate to the piano or guitar.

15:22I'm actually taking piano lessons right now. I'm trying to hold that. I've never tried playing piano. I play guitar. But I've heard it's very similar because it's easier from what I've heard. It's more linear. Yeah, I just, honestly God, I just started taking lessons a month ago. Oh, right. Yeah, and it's it's it's totally linear. It makes way more sense. I'm looking at a fretboard. It's like, you know, it's almost Chinese. So yeah, piano is really simple. Is the wife teaching you? I'd say that to a great penis because it's often, you know, it's a very tough instrument to map. No, of course. But when making fun of Chantal, you know, you could say that. It is.

16:08I do that all the time. Careful what you wish for. I love the line, oh boy, what a big mess even Mickey's on acid. Yeah, but maybe he's... I'm pretty much where I live right now. I've been one of my time with places. Pretty much a hellhole. L.A., you don't like it? I don't like it, no. And you talk about that alone on the record. I'm careful what you wish for and even the new single, Sex Love and Honey. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's kind of a mean to an M for us. We came out here. We packed up all our stuff like eight years ago. Just wanted to get out of Toronto, wanted to get a wound up, made a bit of a life here and that's great. And you know, our kids are born here and they're going to school here now. But I really can't envision them growing up here. They need to grow.

16:53You know, our time is definitely limited here. It's good for the business, though. Ray got this publishing thing going on now. It's just, you know, for me, it's a great place to be creative. I've learned so much. Even engineering, while it's just making records, there's a lot of great records being made. And I'm not to say this is the only place there is. But, you know, you know, working with like guys that work with McRuevin and Brendan and Brian and really produces a really speck even man. Like we're cats, you just, even throughout the most it's like you. I totally agree. Yeah, I've dug it for that reason. Nice. Let's play Sex Love and Honey. I love that tune. I gotta save it, save it, you say.

18:14But it's funny. Busting documentary.

21:36You did the video for Yellow Brick Road? Yeah. Amazing. Now I heard there was a documentary coming out with that as well. Or did it just get cut down for the video? No, I mean, the whole thing was I was supposed to go to Congo and I just couldn't get my V-in order and time to make the trip before it's out. So I think we're planning other, I mean, in the summer because they've already started building that school which is amazing. Oh, nice. Good. Yeah. So I mean, if the plan is to go down and just help and finish it and document that and show people that five months later, it is. It can happen. Yeah. You guys paid for it. It's real. All you gotta do is throw in five bucks. It's amazing. It is really amazing. I was so inspired by Toronto and you know, I got donations online from all over the place.

22:25Oh, yeah. But it's just a thing. You get to talk to the fans and stuff. I wonder what was the most requested song. I'm sure people walked up to say, play clumsy, play shoot man's head. What did you hear the most? I think people, you know, not to tell like an idiot but people were just happy that I was out there playing all day and you know, a lot of people just follow me around and I pretty much I played my whole record probably 50 times. Oh, right. Yeah, definitely threw in the little thief and innocent and threw in a few buckly covers and just had fun and I, you know, it's funny. I became a. Oh, really? Oh, it's all right. It's very wrong. I just had a new rant and found respect for busking in a sense that you really, you know, you're trying to get people to tension. You know, when you, if it's about buying a cop, you're finding that money to find somewhere

23:13to sleep that night, you know, the stakes are pretty high and you got to, you got to grab people to tension and be good and. Really? Yeah. Rusty. Yeah, it was bad. Did the genesis of this record, you were just mentioning War Child, did it all start with the help of the day in the life CD? With that song with Levo's River? No, I'd already started making the record before that. Oh, okay. Around that record, George, Stonewall, opposite of the day on the end. It's like a open fire. I mean, like, this is the right thing because it sounds nothing like I'll let you piece. And, you know, I never wanted to make when people first heard I was doing a solo record they'd had.

23:59I thought it'd be like OLP Lite, basically, you know. And I just, it took a while to kind of formulate and get 40 songs. So I have another record pretty much done. Nice. Can we expect to hear that at some point or is it just kind of like, we'll see what happens? No, I mean, I, you know, I just, it's, it's now it's the balance between this thing and OLP's been making a record over the last year as well. So we're probably more than halfway done that. So that's cool. Yeah, it's just trying to keep that balance. I've heard that. Now I'm wondering if the record comes out before the election in November. Are you going to feel inclined to write political lyrics? I don't know. You know, there's something to be said for this record really helped me explore a lot of things that sometimes I, you know, you don't want to take a liberties when it's

24:47a band like OLP and we're all friends and it's not just about me. You know, so I take that into account when I'm running lyrics and I just lullabies very, but it's just it is because it's me, you know, I'm not trying to, and that's it. And that's pretty, I think the OLP might be a little bit more, you know, to the way that OLP stuff is. And I think it would get any heavier than that smile. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Let's play a rocker. I want to play an old school rocker. Starseed or Naveed? Oh, Naveed. How come? You know, OLP show me.

25:34I'm playing that. Just four of those songs, man. Nice.

31:29I want to talk about Our Ladypiece for a minute. More specifically spiritual machines because that concept has blown my mind. I just recently learned about what the record was about and all that stuff. Oh, really? Yeah. It's nuts. Was it you that brought it to the band or was it Mike? You know, Mike was reading that book just to eat, I don't know how he found that book and about this now. That's crazy.

32:35Much like the movie I Robod. They kind of stole his idea. Pretty much. Pretty close. We hope we got paid. Yeah, me too. You think you write about his stuff again? I know he's written more books since. Mine's probably a little off. You know, I think by this point, he's telling you we're going to be able to live together. I mean, we met him and he met one of our shows and bought. Oh, really? Exactly. Probably not going to happen either. But, you know, I think it's some point, definitely. Cool. One more question about Our Ladypiece just on that front. You ever going to make music with Mike Turner again?

33:22Probably not. Yeah. But you know, I have no feelings toward him. I think he's a great guy. He's a really intelligent guy. And I just one of those things where he's just grew a different way. You know, he's been just took off in a different direction. Fair enough? Yeah. Let's play life. I like that tune. You mentioned that. And it's also off that same record. It works out very well. There you go. There's a little tie in there. How many times have you been pushed around? Does anybody live? Does anybody care? How many times have you been pushed around? Does anybody live? Does anybody live?

34:20How many times have you been pushed around? How many times have you been pushed around? How many times have you been pushed around?

35:59War Child is a poll in our website right now.

37:57It says Canada spends 0.28% of gross national income on international development. Most other countries committed to 0.7% of what you Canada do. Only 57% of people said commit to 0.7%. What do you think that is? How would you possibly disagree with that? Yeah, I don't know. That's a great question to pose for the country. I mean, I think Canada and Canada has become very innocent. Like being a kind of union with the world. Think of that.

38:51When I hear that guy, I read his quotes in the paper or see him speak. No, not at all. But I think that's made the country going on in our country right now at the time. One of these days, we just got to change our government around a little bit. Yeah, that's going to happen. Do you think we'll have an election this spring? Do you even follow it now, now that you're not living up here? Yeah, absolutely. I think it'll probably happen. I don't know if the timing is right in terms of a change for this country. I think our birth thinks he's pretty much got to lock on some things for a while.

39:36Yeah, well he wants a majority, right? Yeah, exactly. I don't think that'll happen. The young is like the guy who's taking control of this country. Yeah, George loves him though. He doesn't want to show every too much. I know, you know what, and for people that I know that really know him and work with him, I think he is a smart guy. And obviously, you know, his environmental planning, I think he gets it. But, you know, politics, look at his like Obama seems like, you know, the new JFK for a reason. He's got his, he seems speaking. You are kind of transfects by, even if it's just ideals. I don't even, I don't hear that from Dion, you know, it's he's a little bit more of a old school politician. Fair enough.

40:21Yeah. I read a quote from you saying, everyone talks about, everyone on the left anyway, talks about how much they hate Bush. It's so easy to go against the war and all this stuff, but they're really just talking among their friends on the internet, maybe watching Bill Maher. But no one's really doing anything. It's like we're all in such a bubble that we feel like we're expressing ourselves when really just expressing ourselves to the believers already. How do we go about expressing ourselves to other people? I have a chance to see how many people are coming out to vote, a lot of young people coming out to vote. Yeah, from Paris down here, which is, that's pretty inspiring. So I think it's the same thing again. And like the youth can't stop them from apathy.

41:07They got to get off their ass and. Yeah. And I think George will show his help in too. I mean, he's educating the kids. The kids are watching the news now. And he's right. I think George is, yeah, he's a very powerful tool for Canada and the other people that need to kind of get involved. Because it, you know, it's, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I know where it's safe to play. It shouldn't play we, you know, for eight hours a day as well. But there's these three. Yeah. I totally agree with you. Education is the key, my man. Yeah. Now every band that comes on the show, I ask five questions too.

41:52I ask them to your wife when she was on the show back in February. Yep. And if you know what, she was a great interview. I'd love to talk to her and you're a lucky man, my friend. I know. Five questions. One word answers. Yeah. iPod or CDs. London or McCartney. London. Alcohol or marijuana. That's song I've written you're most proud of. Oh, yeah, it's one of the new ones. Cool. And one word, Rainmeida. Nice. Yeah. Good word choice. Thank you. Have a great day. Yeah, you too.

42:38Enjoy the day and I'll see you in March when you come out here. Thanks. No, definitely. We're young, we're young and we talk for hours. We were young, we thought we had superpowers. We kissed the sky, expanding our minds, thought we could fly. We were dreamers and we never die. We were young punks when we showed potential. It was us against the world. We weren't sentimental. We were not problems. Our age of our paychecks. And we weren't taking anybody shit. If I do that I would love a better night. Feels slow, basement, this underground was bersitters and we embraced it

43:57Magic pills, fairytales, sit there to ghost Oh we all got on that spaceship, we measured our lives in coffee spoons And those Friday nights quickly turning to Sunday afternoons We were our money, our muscles were our regrets We were having a dear life experience If I, know that I will end the night But again, we talked for hours

44:53We were young, we thought we had superpowers We were not problems, our age, or our paychecks And we weren't taking anybody shit If I, know that I will end the night

Part 2

0:00There you go. That's all good. Don't worry about it. All right. Rain, you're on with Matt. Thanks so much, Steve. Hey, Matt. Hey, Rain, how you doing? Hey, man, I'm sorry about the other day. I had no idea we got an interview schedule. Oh, it's all good. I had a good chat with Stephen Jeremy, but it was during my research that I found the solo record. And I was like, Oh, I wanted to chat with him about that. So it was like, yeah, I don't know what happened. I mean, we had, I get the truck. We had a tour manager doing either front of house guys kind of doing double duty for the last three weeks. So now it's what threw in. But I had to, oh, it's all good. No, no, no, I talked to the said the whale guys. It's fine. Don't worry about it. And now we get to chat. So it's all good. Give me one second.

0:45Just hop in my car to when you were right now. Yeah, I'm sure it sounds shitty. Yeah, yeah, sounds nice. Okay, cool. So, so we'll talk about curving a bit. But I want to talk about the solo disc because there's two of them now that came out of nowhere, at least for me. And they're cool. They're different than the last one. They're different than hunters lullaby. So how does, how did making this one differ from the first? It's the evolution of what's going on here as it really is in

1:32any. There's no, there's no real drums really. There's real element. But anything that's that's real in terms of percussion is me just playing it. So I just, you know, I've been programming a lot of stuff and having fun doing that and, you know, making sounds. And yeah, I don't know, I guess the program stuff is just kind of, I did, I definitely did it on the last record, but a lot of times over top of the beat. So it's kind of just programming, which is kind of cool. Did you play the kit? Do you play drums? Because last time we talked, we spoke like, I don't know, five years ago, whenever the last solo just came out, we did a phone or when I was doing radio, yeah, yeah, and you were telling me you had just

2:19learned to pit that you were just starting to play piano. Is that, is that, is that, I mean, yeah, I grew up kind of, I grew up playing piano. I haven't, I would never, you know, I live with sons with my wife. So she's a classically trained piano. So I'd never, ever call myself a penis. But, you know, in far, in terms of drums, no, but I do, I love playing percussion and I love improvising on top of program stuff. I think for me, what I, what I love about the programming aspect and not having another layered, real organic kit on it. Is this a space that allows the track and a lot of these songs to me stuff like, sweet and different vibe like that. It just, it leaves this space. As soon as, you know, the more elements you add on to the track, the, obviously, the less

3:05space you leave. And so I just really like how these things are a little colder and drier sounding in that sense. Yeah, do you write on piano or guitar more often? Where's the song usually start for you? Or programming the time? No, well, I mean, it's so much stuff to me. What's interesting is that it starts more with a beat, you know, it starts more with rhythms. And that's what I, you know, that's, I guess in my head, that's how I differentiate between OLP and stuff, you know, in terms of writing. OLP, definitely the songs that I write more are just born out of a, you know, a coffee in the morning and acoustic guitar. You know, this stuff is, is definitely coffee involved, but it's more of a sitting in, you

3:50know, sitting in programming stuff. Coffee is your, is your fuel for writing? Yeah, you know, I never drank coffee most of my life in the last three or four years, I started to really enjoy it. I think I'm scared of affictions, you know, I know people get addicted to always always put coffee into that same monitor. But yeah, I love it. The record is different in the sense, sorry, I kind of jump all over the place. The record's different in the sense that I don't remember Chantal being on the last one. If maybe she was a little bit, but was she or not? Am I wrong in this?

4:37Yeah, no, you're right. And she was, but it only in the sense of like people saying, wow, you know, I didn't know you could think like that. People thinking of myself, so I don't know stuff. And I think on this one, I definitely made a point to just have her, you know, she's not as involved before she was involved in the sense of I'd always have her in and get her opinion on stuff. And she played on a lot of things, you know, she played a lot of piano. This time, I don't really have come sing on this. So once you guys, when she does come and sing on it, it's like I'm quite that's nice to be her. Right. Is it kind of because you know, Luke Dusse, you must know Luke a little bit because him and him and his wife just put out a record together called White Horse. And I wonder if the idea has ever popped into your minds together now that you know, you

5:24have you have successful careers on your own, but have you ever thought about collaborating on that record? We've talked about it for years. And and about eight years ago, we almost started doing that. And I don't know, I think there's something really unique about being able to have a career. And you know, we just played two nights at this winery called Jackson's Drake in Ontario, just up North and Ag on the lake. And and she did the first night and I had one the second night, but we played together both nights. And we, you know, and we, you know, she sings on a song called a mess. That feels like we're making music together. I don't

6:11know if it really has to be in my head anymore, an official rain and shut down solo or something that we can do when it feels right. And I would hate to do that. That's what we're doing here. It's almost like forcing it to happen. You know, I think, I think the way we're going about it now, it's very. Yeah, well, it helps fans too. I mean, it's a nice surprise for the fans when they hear Oh, hey, there's her voice or there's his voice or whatever producing or whatever on her records. But yeah, I mean, you know, it's yeah, and it only happens a few times here and there. Yeah. Well, you met you mentioned the song a mess. So let's talk about that because that's got the

6:57boxing theme again. In it. You talk about boxing or being a cut man or something. And obviously, curve is a is a very boxing heavy record or fighting. I know you're big into to crowd McGaugh and you have seen all this stuff. So so was that so written during the batch of curve? Or was it just an idea that I wanted to keep flushing out? Okay. Yeah, it literally I literally I wrote and recorded that song in a day. Like the day before we were we all he just finished like a northeastern US run, you know, from like, you know, Boston and New York and Philly and the DC. And I wanted to get another three songs up to my left. So I yeah, I

7:43just that was a song that just kind of poured out of me, poured it right away. And, you know, I think for me with the boxing in the martial arts system in the day of, you know, when I'm at home, you know, like in two hours, I'm spending three hours at my kids and they do they do an hour of jiu-jitsu and then you know, if I if I get bored, two blocks down the street is is problem. So I'll jump over there for a time. And it's just kind of it's funny. It's all the fighting thing is just always and just being around those people, you know, it's inspiring, you know, it's just the level of dedication. And I

8:30think that's what I really love about it. Obviously, the fitness part of it's pretty cool. But, you know, the intent to be in the dedication is just like, I think my kids do it. Are they doing music too? Or they just sticking with you on the fighting side of stuff? Kids? Yeah, they music a little. We have we have a friend of ours comes in on the weekends and just does like a very open and they can choose whatever they want to do. And if things are on the two half hour jump, they've been doing that for the last few years and you know, they can

9:16they can all kind of they can jam, you know, it's funny to produce a friend of mine was like, of course, my son role I'm playing drums. I'm like, Oh my God, I'm ridiculous. You know, most of the time I don't even know where they are. How they're progressing into music, you know, because we try to be, you know, stand out, not stand off. But I, you know, I don't want to be the person that I take it or whatever, you

10:06know, you should put him on the next on the next EP when it comes out. Do you know what? Hey, if you can, you know, if I don't have the hireds or any more, I can just bring him out of that so what is the plan, I guess, because we have two EPs that came out, I guess if people don't follow you on Twitter or know the band and the fan clubs, I don't know if people would have known the records were out. So how come you decided to just kind of, I don't know, let's just let's just put them out there and see what happens. I just love that idea and I love the freedom of it, you know, like we're talking about with the mess like I record, you know, I think of the musician and artist, it's what we wanted to be able to do, you know, is to record a song, you know, I think that's why I was so drawn to spoken word, you know, eight or

10:52nine years ago, in the sense of, you know, the friends that I know that do it, it's like they can write something in an afternoon and then met at that night, you know, being the little coffee shop or club and performing it. And if it was so relevant to me, you know, and that was in the day when I, you know, you think about a record and I like to have it take three months to make and then, you know, you only got a single so no one really hears it, the rest of the records are another six months and it's like, it's just seemed like this really archaic way of the way art is consumed. So for me, it's like, well, I'm at that point now, I can write a song in a day and just put it up. And so, you know, they go with that. I have another three or four songs kind of almost ready to go off. I'd want to show off all P this week and I'll come back and finish those and probably, you know, September put another

11:39three. And then, yeah, maybe, I don't know, I've talked about making, you know, a CD or record, you know, like eight or nine songs to put out around Christmas, but maybe package it with these nine songs as well. You know, I'm not sure. But it's just a very interesting time. And what it also does is I love that it keeps me very, keeps me, he's not motivated. I don't really need the motivation but it keeps me creative in the sense that I feel like I'm always working on something. And it's a great feeling knowing that people are going to hear it. You know, I can just put it out there. Because definitely in the old music paradigm, it's like, shit, you know, sometimes I didn't want to write on the road because I knew I'd never had a chance to get to it for like eight to one. You don't want to have something sitting around knowing that you just get sick of

12:25it and think it's crap, whether it is or not, just by virtue of the fact you've had it and known it for so long. So there's something we said about having that, you know, spontaneity, the instantaneousness of the enamel record something. Absolutely. He says something with the new music industry paradigm that got me thinking about, and I think I asked Jeremy this the other day too, about social media. Because when you guys started, obviously, social media wasn't around. And I was just talking to sheepdogs about this this afternoon about how Zeppelin, you wouldn't have the mystique of rock and roll that you would have had in the 70s had their bin Twitter and Facebook because you need to connect all the time. So are you do you have a preference towards the new way how you have to be connected? Or do you like the old mystique? No, like my space I tried. I know my space kind of developed. I tried

13:13that and it was just too much. It was too much for me in the sense of. It was all it was. Yeah, it was considered Twitter is cool, because it's very simple. Instagrams and these even better it's like, you know, pictures worth 1000 words sometimes. Hello, I'm not calling what the link in park would I suppose I could. What is that? You hear that too? Yeah. Sorry, what's that? Do you hear that too? Someone else is talking? Yeah, yeah, crazy. Lincoln Park or something. Yeah. Yeah, I wonder if it's waxman on the other one. It doesn't matter. Okay. I'll be on the office for all. It's crazy. I gotta record this right. This works. I'll be watching. Yeah.

14:01One more question about the record. Then we'll talk about curve a little bit dead flowers. You know, sometimes there's a lyric that just sticks with you. And for some reason, the more we learn, the less we know really stuck with me. So what did you mean by that? Talking about my song, I said, but dead flowers, the more we learn the less we know. Yeah. So is this I don't know. You can just be in the internet. I think I think we're just living in a time now. It's just we're just so bombarded with information, but our wheels are just swimming and it's just, it can feel that so often when it's all it takes. Even the charitable section, you know, the technical section now is everything's not even open. It's used. You know, you think with information, you'd be able to do

14:48things and simplify stuff like that. Shit, it's getting much more difficult for them because they're just a lot of hard with so much stuff. And it's amazing. Yeah, it's a lot. There's a lot going. I can barely hear you, by the way. It's fine. Yeah. Yeah. That's all good. So let's go to curve and did did because you've talked about it a lot. And I don't want to ask you the same questions about 10 years to write blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, but it interests me because you guys chose to play two of your records on the road before creating this record. So how much, at least for you as a

15:35songwriter, did playing those old records influence chord changes or influence themes or lyrics when thinking about making this new record. There's a machine is a big for sure. And not so much of the song writing or the way I went about writing songs or or even the, you know, the instrumentation, just in terms of like the mindset. We're in a really, I mean, probably, you know, not not where our record company is concerned, but as artists, we're in a really great place for me that record. We kind of just said screw everything. You know, we, his book was the actual, the fact we get right first while to talk, you know, and give his little excerpts of the book on the record. And it just felt, you know, we had Elton Jones plant, they just had so many

16:22great things happen on that record. And it just felt like we were in a really great creative place that playing that record reminded us of that space, you know, and and experimentation and and just, you know, kind of where we like to exist. And so that, you know, that energy, I think we were able to tap into that in the studio. And that was pretty, it was pretty profound. I think the fact that we chose that record. Do you still speak to me at all? Can you ever talk to him? I haven't, you know, I've been meaning, I've been meaning to because I'm so I've seen some clips on him. And you know, I've that latest movie that came out a couple of years ago, Transcend there. You know, I'm just a fan of his and his thinking, you know, I think he's such a genius and such an innovator. But, you know, he's gotten a pretty high profile. So I, you know, what, we just

17:12played boss and I should have should have reached out to him. That's life sometimes. That's all good. I've got up. Yeah. I read something about you saying that clumsy is the song that breaks the barrier between audience and band every night. So how do you choose where in a set list that sits? Do you try and keep it earlier to break that barrier earlier? Or do you like holding out and waiting? And I think, you know, it's, I don't know, it seems like there's so many, I think we've learned especially in this tour for whatever reason. That barrier's been broken really quickly. And even with songs, like the last, this last tour, we started opening up with a song called Rabbit, which is off a curve. Which maybe even the last one of the people in London, you know, like track eight or nine or 10 or 11 on curve. It's one of the

17:59later songs. But for some reason, that song really connects and does that as well. I'm not sure why, but it's been pretty, pretty amazing to watch it happen. So, yeah, you know, I think, you know, I mean, clumsy definitely does that because there's parts of people saying, but you know, it's like, there's so many songs and I don't know that the cloud can kind of just sing on their own. And I don't, I guess, I just, it's such a fortunate thing, you know. How do you choose a set list? How does that happen? Because obviously there's almost too many hit songs now that like you can't play them all in a night. And we don't. I think, you know, this is the first time on this campaign, you know, since we put up curve, we've really made an effort and make sure that it's not just, you know, tuned around or,

18:50you know, inserting one or two new songs. It's like changing it up so half the set is different. And I think, you know, I think we in part did that because we have a lot of fans, you know, like on the East Coast trip in the US, you know, we'll have like a bunch of fans who will travel into like five or six shows in a row, you know, you know, somewhat for them. And then somewhat for us and kind of, you know, good fresh. And, you know, sometimes the set was doesn't go as well, like the flow is on its great. I don't know if the audience really knows that, but it's just an interesting thing to, to make sound check exciting. It helps down check as well. And you know, you're trying to learn or just kind of brush up on songs. And here we haven't played in a couple of weeks. You know, it definitely makes it, I would

19:39never say that work. But you know, you've got to be kind of on your songs as musicians. Sure. It's kind of cool that way. I remember I was watching guys check at blues fest and auto and you ran back to the board at one point. Are you doing that a lot? Are you are you like mixing the live stuff to a little bit? But like telling the sound guy, Hey, I know suggestions or not. Yeah, I'm a control freak. It's not what I was asking when I'll take that shirt. Amazing. You know what? It's like, yeah, I want to know, especially two nose bigger shows, you know, in a, you know, we're in a theater where we've been playing a lot lately. It's like, you know, it's going to sound in a certain way. But in a festival that is one to make sure, I think I did some tweaks to the kick drum when I went back there and all that. I just, I'm actually

20:28being so involved in the engine of these records, you know, in the production of them. You know, there's just, you know, just get to that level where there's certain things that, you know, I am so involved with that, you know, like fun and house guy, Tim, like I love and he's a great mix engineer. But, you know, he didn't spend the time you're killing that kick on, you know, fire in the head house or any else. And I just know, there's just got to be a way that he get as close to these records as possible. And that's just another cool challenge for us is to make sure that, you know, we're representing the records properly as well. Yeah, it sounded amazing for what I recall. So you do cool. Yeah. We do something called five questions, five quick questions, one word answers. We did this last time, but that was for radio

21:14and this is for MSN. So I got to print it anyway. Rode, Roder studio, Leonard McCartney. When you hear a song, what usually hits you first, lyrics, melody or rhythm. Song you've written your most proud of. I love it as fast as you can. And I love depth flowers. Cool. And in one word, our lady piece, one word, one word, verge, verge. That's a good one. There's a precursor

22:02on the, you know, on the verge. Yes, on the verge of what? What do you, what are you? Let's close it up with that one on the verge of what? What do you hope is next? What what can there possibly be to still hope for a band that you're laughing? I mean, I think, you know, what the hope is, is I think we're slowly and meticulously becoming, and I know that can sound, I think in our hearts, you know, it's like, we're the effort in the evolving and the time that we're putting into this thing, you know, you want it to matter, you know, it's not this isn't about money for us. This isn't about the business of this is about making great records and any mistakes we've made past and directions

22:49that we've taken that we don't like. It's about making sure that whatever we, we leave people with in terms of the next 10 years, you know, is, is important in the scope of music. And I think, um, curve was like a really, absolutely. Thank you very much. Thank you, Rain. It was a great chat with you. It always and I'll see you soon. Take care. Take it.

Part 3

0:00Hey, I'm Rainmader, you're watching MSN Exclusives. That's the right look, yeah. I love it. So we're here at the Worship Tavern, the legendary Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto. Yes. What are some memories that you have this place? I've seen so many bands here. I've only actually ever played here once, which is strange.

0:47When was that? And it wasn't even under our lady piece, it was under, we wanted to do like a secret show before a record. Which record was this? I think it was spiritual machines. And so we went under Belly Flop, Communist. That's a name, I like it. Right, yeah. Should have kept that name. But yeah, so it was an amazing show, but I'm surprised we haven't played here more. I'd like to play it again. You know what's crazy is that the more bands I interview, the more people are taking Ray Kurzweil into songwriting. Like I'm seeing a lot of records, like Rawa Riott's new record, is kind of influenced by his writings. Is it really? So many people are doing it, and you guys were like the first. It's really cool that... No, we started it all. And he's become more popular over the years too. He's, I don't know if he saw the last documentary on the transcendent man.

1:36Is that what it's called? Yeah. I mean, it's amazing. And so I think that kind of caught on more in the mainstream, but it's made its way through social media. People have been each other to it. So he's an incredible man. It's certainly what happened. What you guys were writing about 15 years ago with that record. It is. Starting a little bit. Well, even you with the phone in your pocket, you can talk to it. So you got a record, a very horny cinematic record. I know horny is not the right word. I just wanted to use it because there's horns all over the place. There is, yeah. Yeah. I like the word cinematic to me is big because it was, especially the song Montreal, it was written like four years ago, kind of sat around. I wasn't sold on it until I finally put that horn line on it. And it reminded me of a huge Enyomoricom fan,

2:24who does all this, I mean, his famous Italian composer and film score guru. He did all the spaghetti westerns back in the day. And I hated westerns, but there was something about the music I liked. And I think what it was, it always made you, it's like this landscapey kind of, it took you away. It was real escapism through some of his kind of muted horn lines and stuff that you used. So when I finally got the idea to try a horn line in kind of the Enyomorvane, it like I was sold. I was like, okay, I'm happy with this song. Are you playing the horns on keyboards or whatnot? Or do you have a horn section coming? Yeah, no. I had a horn guy. Okay. Because when we spoke, I wrote an article about Rain last summer, I guess when you put out the EP. I was telling you that I do everything myself. You're saying that basically everything starts to grow from a program.

3:12Beats and you kind of improvise over it. Yeah. I mean, on those tracks that we were talking about, the Pachamami EP's, yeah. Those were more, you know, they're done a little bit quicker and the majority of the stuff is on me. On these songs, I really kind of sent stuff out to different people to get, yeah, just to kind of get their, well, this one horn guy in LA, he's just a mad man. And his whole, he prefers to work on his own without you kind of directing him. You know? And I love that because he's just crazy. And he sent me, I think for, for much, 40 tracks of horns. And I'm like, what? Like that's funny. That's funny. Yeah. So I had to go, it took literally two days just to go through everything

3:58and pick the things that I like. But, and then another song rising tidy did the same thing. And it's like, there was so much brilliance, but, you know, it had to write three other songs to use it all. And I just, I kind of let stuff like that go. It was exciting to get, I felt like, you know, a little kid at Christmas when you know, it sent me to files and I download them and all of a sudden it's like, because it has the ability to really transform a song. Sure. Yeah. It was so exciting. So how did these songs come about? You're saying it was kind of different than the EPs from last year. So were they not done at the same time? Some of them were. I think the EPs for me was a good way of like cleansing, you know, getting rid of stuff that I thought, okay, I wanted, we all get lighter to have this kind of somewhat lyrical theme. You know, some of the sonically there's different things going on. But so that helps, you know, and I think over the course of the four years making this,

4:48that's what, you know, and it started, all started from this inscription that John Jonah, incredible beat poet, we performed together one night at the spoken word event and hung out backstage afterwards. He signed my book and he said everyone gets lighter. And it's a poem that he wrote. But in talking to him and hanging out, he was an older man, you know, it's like the history, all the stories he would tell me about. He was best friends with like William Burroughs and I just felt like, okay, this guy's had, you know, he has that unique ability to look back on his, on a full life, you know, and, and in the day what happens is we kind of all turn to dust and we leave this planet and so that really set the tone for this record. It comes down to, you know, you spend so much time looking for the meaning of life

5:36and I'm kind of an analytical person by nature, but you kind of miss out on living if you do that too much. So yeah, so I thought, you know, you didn't say that, but I just felt like that's what the message was telling me, you know, I felt like that's what this man with all this wisdom was saying. It's like, man, you got to go fast, you all live in a moment. There's a few things he said in there that I don't want to touch on, but doesn't he have a story about burying Ginsburg with some stuff? Then I told me a great story about, he buried, you know, no, not Ginsburg, William Burroughs. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, which was his one of his closest friends and he said, so he promised Burroughs that he buried him with a huge, like, you know, 45, big silver shiny, 45 on his chest and a big joint sitting in his pocket because he was scared, you know, you know, he didn't know which way he was going and thought he might have to be armed

6:24for one. Or high, for some reason. Yeah, I want Burroughs. So yeah, very good behind. It's amazing. We all get later. So you're kind of saying every word on the record is influenced by how responsible and neither of our family makes me feel. So what you said in the bio. Yeah. So are you sitting there over analyzing words to be like, no, this gets away from that theme? Or is that just something that you thought maybe kind of sums up the way you felt? Yeah, it's more just an approach, you know, it's like, I wasn't going to force anything. So these songs end up being really vital to like, in my life force and in that, you know, when I'm in my studio, in my house, like, it's all surrounded by family. So it really, it's just you're pulling from those kinds of experiences, you know, constantly.

7:10So as long as it felt like it was coming from that authentic place, then it kind of, you know, that's why it led to me saying that it's that responsibility. I love it, you know, and it really drives me as an artist. It's Chantal Singh in all over the records this time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, those were, it was an interest. I mean, it's kind of, you know, I'm a huge Leonard Coer fan. So if you listen to these records, you can kind of bust me on a lot of places for, for boring from some of his arrangement ideas. But I just, I really loved how he would use female vocals instead of like strings or a keyboard line or something. So, you know, a lot of her vocals are actually, you know, you know, we're making a chord out of her, out of her voice with the harmonies and stuff, which, yeah, it's interesting. And it, and it leaves a different, you know, something else having to do that would take

7:59up more space where vocal can exist in different frequency and it's very pleasing to the ears. So, and it almost gives you, you know, when you listen to a voice sing these lines, such as Chantal's, there's an emotional thing equated to it, you know, where just if it was just a keyboard or something, it doesn't have that same emotional value, a voice, the timbre of your voice, the fact that it's not perfect. That's, to me, it's very, there's just something so musical about it. Going back to the mixing thing from before, you have a 60s neeb desk. Dave Grohl just put out this documentary on the neeb board. I've worked on that. I've worked on it. Okay. So, so how different is your, I mean, that board has now become famous again. I mean, the thing about that console, that, that girl bod, it's, it's one of the few neves, the, the mixing side of it, the, the direct outs are, you know, I have friends that have just,

8:47you've been sitting in the studio, recording a band, and then you can kind of do a mix through this one, the, the mixing set, the section, and the, the, that section sounds so good that they just, they would think it would be a rough mix. Like, okay, well, just something to take home over the weekend and listen to, and then they go to another studio someday and try to mix it properly, like, spend the time, all the gear in the world, everything, and you can't beat what that sounded like, so they end up using those other records. My board's not like that. No, you know what, it's not that big. It's, mine's a 20 channel old broadcast console, but, you know, there's just something about, you know, I don't know, all that old gear just sounds so good. You know, I, I'm a fan of the digital domain and I love what you can do digitally and you can really,

9:32you can express yourself through that, through that medium as well, but to put a mic on a vocal, to go through a neve or record an acoustic guitar, there's just, you can't beat it, you know, like, I said, it makes me sound like a great engineer. I don't have to do anything. So it's really out of, laziness. How are the drums in this record? There's last time we talked, you were talking about programming. Yeah, they all started the program. There's a, there's a, they're live drums because one of them tracks certainly sounds like live drums. There's Montreal was all programmed up until I put the horn line on and once the horns gave this really organic quality and it seemed to be fighting. So I had a friend of mine just come over one afternoon and, and kind of played it a programming stuff. And then I just took them out at the end of the day, you know, I think, you know, you got to let the song be what it wants to be sometimes and I felt

10:22like I was a little bit of a square peg round hall with, with the programming, but there's, you know, on some other tracks, I love the programming, you know, and I, That's what a song started for this stuff too. Yeah, I'll do. Yeah, they all kind of start with the, basically vocal melody and some, you know, I just program a rough beat and then add an acoustic guitar and see if it speaks to me, you know, and I have probably 30 or 40 of those songs still hanging around that just, you know, maybe some of them will end up working, but I just love that format. There's something I love my voice acoustic and a beat like a program beat and, you know, it's what I add after the fact, you know, is like an experiment. But as long as it crux of it works like that, I'm happy. Why Montreal out of all the cities in the world? I wrote, like I said, I wrote that song a long time ago. It was, it was, we were coming in from, our lady piece was on tour,

11:11we were on our bus and I had my computer with me. I was sitting, I just woken up, we were pulling into Montreal and my computer died and, like, died and I had everything out of all my songs and all my ideas and lyrics and stuff and I was like, oh my God. So they just dropped me off at the max door in Montreal and I was sitting there waiting, freezing and I take it in and the guy says, you know, this is serious. You're going to take me like four or five hours to fix. Can you come back? I was like, sure. So I ended up walking around Montreal for like four or five hours. It's a beautiful sunny day but it was freezing cold and, you know, I ended up in old Montreal and like it's so beautiful there but then that wind and like there's such, it's such a great juxtaposition,

11:56you know, and I just, I've always romanticized about that city because we kind of started there and we used to, our lady piece, yeah, our lady piece used to go there. This is why we didn't play the horse. We used to go to Montreal every weekend and play shows. A friend of ours worked for promoter there, Donald K. Donald. So he would book us in like these crappy little places but it was a, you know, we could play. We could do like, you know, play Friday, Saturday, Sunday and and not be at home asking our friends to come on every time. So yeah, we kind of feel like that's a second home to us and yeah, I just love that city. Is there going to be a, there must be a real video coming soon? Yeah. Yeah. Max is directed. I'm supposed to get a cut a couple days. So we'll see. Cool. So the video and then I assume some tour dates will be now shortly. Yeah, we also, so we did the video a couple weekends ago here in Toronto.

12:44But the day before we shot basically a live, we recorded live recorders shot a live performance at Victoria Chapel at U of T. So it's amazing. I already have like a live record and a live performance. I haven't even played the, I haven't even toured yet. Yeah, it's cool. Are you going to tour with the horn section? You almost need to tour with like a horn player or something. I think so. I mean, I've been performing, you know, I don't get so tied to, maybe because it's my, you know, I don't have to answer anybody else, but you know, I've been doing some stuff acoustically over the last couple of days and a friend of mine, Karen Graves, has been playing violin and we could do much wrong. She does it on the violin. So it's, you know, I think, you know, I think they can kind of morph that way. And I like doing that. I'm kind of in the, doesn't need to sound like the record to me.

13:30Right. I mean, fans might hate me for it, but that's too damn bad. It's the Bob Dylan school. I just do what I want on stage. You will like it. I just turn around. Yeah. Back to the, I saw him. Yeah. I actually went. Did you? Yeah. Very annoying. God. So when, when are you going to tour? Do you have an idea of when we'll see you? I don't. I mean, we're talking about May. So we're just looking at stuff. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Cool. Awesome. Before I let you go, five quick questions. One more answers. Roto Studio. We've done this before. We'll do it again. Hmm. It's a tough road. Landon and McCartney. Landon. When you hear song, it usually hits you first. Lyric's Melody or Rhythm? Probably, probably rhythms these days for sure. Cool. Song you've written your most proud of. How to kill them in? The opening track on the record. Is that why it opens up?

14:18Yeah. It's going to stay up. Listen. Yeah. In one word. I like this. In one word. Yeah. Rain made up. Contradiction.