Our Lady Peace first stormed their way into Canada’s alternative scene in 1994 with the release of their debut album Naveed. Twenty-four years later, and with a few line up changes, they’re still kicking it, and just released their new album Somethingness in February.
The Toronto alt-rockers are set to begin a cross-Canada tour with Matthew Good with a stop in Ottawa on March 8 at the TD Place Arena. Drummer Jason Pierce talked to The Charlatan about what’s new with the band.
The Charlatan (TC): Can you tell us about how you became a member of Our Lady Peace?
Jason Pierce (JP): It all started about 12 years ago when I was out on tour opening for Our Lady Peace. I played drums in a band called Neverending White Lights, who was on the same management team, Coalition, and we kind of just became friends. Then, move on a decade later and with [Jeremy] Taggart’s departure, I got a call and met up with Duncan [Coutts], the bassist, had coffee, jammed with them, and the rest is history.
TC: I’m looking at some of the other touring experiences you’ve had with Carly Rae Jepsen, Justin Bieber, Paramore, Dallas Green. What have those experiences been like?
JP: They were awesome. Every last one of them led to something else. I went through a period of my life where I was a touring drummer, so I wasn’t attached to a band, but I was hired by bands. So that’s how I ended up having a larger list of artists that I was lucky enough to tour with in that period. Compare it to Our Lady Peace, it was a completely different beast, maybe because being a member compared to being a touring member there’s a lot more invested. I’m actually involved in writing and things like that, so it’s a completely different thing.
TC: What are some of the highlights of those tours that you’ve done?
JP: Back in the Paramore days, we did a lot of overseas touring, so a lot of really big shows in Europe and Asia, and stuff like that. Carly Rae, I ended up working with her straight out of Canadian Idol, so before the “Call Me Maybe” days I was with her. When “Call Me Maybe” came out, I went back out with her again, so that stuff was mostly U.S. touring, like radio, festivals, and stuff like that. And then Bieber, I ended up doing Live @ Much and stuff with him through Dan Kanter, his guitarist, who was a Toronto guy as well, who’s one of my best friends.
TC: Tell us about what it was like to make [Somethingness].
JP: I believe we started working on the record almost two years ago. We were recording down at Jackson Browne’s studio in Santa Monica, and we recorded “Drop Me in the Water” and “Falling Into Place” . . . But yeah, that was about two years ago and we got together a handful of times after that and ended up in different studios working on it. So, we ended up releasing the record in two different parts . . . The first half of it was released in August, when we were just about to go out with Guns N’ Roses. So, we were trying to basically release an EP at that point to be able to tour on the theme of those four songs, and then release the rest of the record when it was ready down the road.
TC: What do you think of the way people have responded to the new record so far?
JP: Really, really great, to be honest. This is my first album cycle with the band, so I’m not really comparing it to anything . . . But, from what I’ve heard from the other guys and I’ve seen from the crowds, the response is ridiculous, especially “Drop Me in the Water.” That song, specifically, from what Duncan and Raine [Maida] always say, gets as much a great response as any of the hits off Clumsy, which is amazing to see years down the road.
TC: I understand [“Ballad of a Poet”] is a tribute to Gord Downie. Can you tell us a little bit more about that one?
JP: That’s song’s actually written about the first time Raine saw Gord sing. He was at the Toronto Music Awards back before he even knew who The Tragically Hip were. He came into this award show, watched this band, and they forged what he saw as what he could do for his career. What he thought as an artist in Gord, he thought he could portray for himself too, so it really kind of forged a road of where he wanted to go down as an artist.
TC: You guys toured with Guns N’ Roses. What’s it like to tour with those legendary bands?
JP: Guns N’ Roses was a tour on a scale I have never seen in my life. I don’t think it gets any bigger than that. Getting to tour with a band that I looked up to my whole life, you can’t put it into words. It’s an honour beyond words. I had a couple run-ins with Slash and Duff [McKagan], and let’s say I was a little nervous around them.
TC: Did you get to hang out with them or talk to them a lot?
JP: I talked to them a bit, but most of my sentences were jumbled words because I was nervous (laughs). I don’t usually fan boy in front of people, but you know, it’s Slash.
TC: What were some of the fun backstage or highlight moments of that tour with Guns N’ Roses?
JP: Honestly, there wasn’t a lot of like inter-band mingling. They were kind of set up on the other side of the stadium on their own wing of dressing rooms and we were on the other side. The funniest situation that happened was that big boxing match going on [Floyd Mayweather Jr. versus Conor McGregor]. We were in Regina and our busses were all parked at the hotel, Axl [Rose]’s bus was parked next to ours. And for some reason, our bus was the only one that would get the signal to the fight. So, we ended up buying the fight, watching on our bus, we had to keep the window open so Axl could watch from his bus, next to ours.
TC: He didn’t want to come over?
JP: I guess not, I guess not.
TC: Tell us about [the upcoming tour].
JP: We start on [March 1] in Newfoundland with Matt Good, then we’re working our way across Canada through March . . . We’re really looking forward to that. We did a show with Matt out in Sylvan Lake a couple years ago, it was a festival show, and it just fell in our laps that it could actually worked and we could tour across Canada together. We’re all looking forward to it. Matt is super stoked about it too. It’s going to be a great run.
TC: How would you describe the typical Our Lady Peace fan?
JP: They’re die-hard, honestly. Like, more than I’ve seen with a lot of other acts. If they’re an Our Lady Peace fan, they’ve been here for a long time and they’ve followed the band for a long time, they’re just really support everything the band does. It’s awesome!
TC: What are some of the stories you hear from some of those die-hards?
JP: Less stories, more just actual concert counts. Some of these people have seen the band over a hundred times, which is astronomical. I’ve never seen a band that many times, I can’t even imagine that, it’s amazing.
TC: Do you guys get to meet your fans very often?
JP: Yeah, we’re really proactive with giving meet and greets, so we usually end up offering VIP packages whenever we tour. So, we’ll meet between like 30 or 40 fans before the show every night, and then after the show, there’s always people around the bus . . . We meet a lot of the fans, especially the die-hards. We know a lot of the die-hards by name because they’re always around.
TC: What are some of your favourite Ottawa memories?
JP: Not the last time we played Ottawa, but the time before, we played at the TD Place Arena, and that was on that I Mother Earth tour. That ended up being the best show of the whole tour. There was something about the energy of the crowd that night and just the room and everything, the way we all just actually communicated. It was incredible, and it’s had to talk when you have a show like that, especially when it’s in the middle of a tour because you set a bar for yourself and it’s hard to live up to.
TC: Looking forward to going back there?
JP: Absolutely, I love playing there. We played the stadium outside there this summer with Guns N’ Roses, which was amazing too. Which is actually kind of funny, because I remember looking at that stadium when we played the arena, and I saw that AC/DC were coming through, and I couldn’t even imagine being on a bill at that stadium. So, it was amazing to get to come back and do that a year later.
Photo by Ashley Osborn
