Why does Raine Maida sing like he is asleep?

[govtschemes]

Why does Raine Maida sing like he would rather be lazing by the pool today?

I mean -.....did Bob Rock really mess up the band that much and tell Raine his singing was awful?

Bob Rock also ruined another one of my favourite singer and bands career. Gavin Rossdale and Bush.

Oh- and does anyone know why Our Lady Peace wanted to hire Bob Rock in the first place???

[olpgirl5]

Lol.

[Tinman]

Raine is in his 40's, his voice and tone have changed over the years. He has not worked under Bob in years.

Bob wanted to make an album that was marketable to the most amount of people. Raine's vocal techniques, while unique and loved by his fans, was not something that everyone could get into. By having Raine tone down his vocal style, and make his lyrics easier to relate to, Gravity was able to out sell any previous OLP album and climb the charts. Bob didn't tell Raine that his vocals were aweful, he told Raine to keep things simple. The more simple, the broader the audience.

Spiritual Machines was the worst selling of OLP's first 4 albums. The band felt like their musical direction was getting stale, and Arnold, their previous producer, recommended the band try a different producer for their next album to give them a fresh angle. It worked exactly how the band wanted it to for the time.

[xjsb125]

Raine and Gavin were held at gunpoint by Bob, who obviously wanted to destroy them. Lolz. I think the lazy vocals are probably a product of not having an independent push. Although not back to previous form, they are better on Curve as compared to Burn, Burn. I don't understand why they would have wanted to work with a producer who helped forge albums that had sold millions worldwide, had a studio in an amazing location, and was an accomplished musician himself. I saw Gavin Rossdale and the latest incarnation of Bush last year at a sold out show in Knoxville, and they were as awesome as they ever were.

[govtschemes]

Well I sometimes think Steve Mazur is the problem, because Raines solo album The Hunters Lullaby was great, and he used poetry style lyrics in it which I thought was really interesting.

His latest I don't like so much - but I really liked "Bury me with a gun" and he did his high pitched singing on there.

Bush maybe good live, but Sea of Memories and Gavins solo album was very wussy - and Love remains the same is a completely terrible song.

I think Spiritual Machines was the worst selling album, because the record company didn't want to promote something factual about Ray Kurzweils themes in the album. I thought it was a great album. The trouble with Our Lady Peace is getting out of Canada...but I always have followed them pretty much since they became popular since 1998.

I heard Raine singing in that new years gig in 2012, and he sung Clumsy and he sounded pretty good.

If you listen to him singing on Bury me with a gun - he sounds just like he did back on the happiness album.

Something weird is going on with this band.

[myownsatellite]

Well I sometimes think Steve Mazur is the problem

Seriously? Are you a braindead moron? Steve is an amazing guitarist and one of the best things ever to happen to the band. And I was skeptical at first too, but he's proven himself completely over the last many years he's been a member, and to call him out NOW, after EVERYTHING, well you are a giant jerk.

[xjsb125]

Steve is a much better musician, and Mike would admit it. SM didn't get over because the public on a whole didn't get it, and couldn't relate. It had songs that were radio friendly, but the public just didn't get the concept.

[govtschemes]

Steve Mazur is no where near Mike Turner. I have yet to hear a memorable guitar solo or lick from Steve Mazur.

His playing on Curve is stupid, its all this meandering pointless solos that go nowhere. Sorry - but Steve Mazur does not cut it with me. Bring back Mike Turner now.

One of the most important elements of Our Lady Peace is the guitar and its contribution to the songs and so far I haven't heard anything worthwhile.

[olpgirl5]

I'm getting a good laugh out of these posts.

Just an FYI, Steve is a fantastic musician. Not sure what your definition of "talent" is. Have you even listened to Curve? There's some good guitar in Find Our Way.

[govtschemes]

Curve is the worst album yet, give or take maybe a couple of songs.
Burn Burn was boring, Healthy in Paranoid Times at least was somewhat okay. Gravity was listenable but still crap.
"Story About a Girl" "Bring Back the Sun" "All for you" which were contributed and written by Mike Turner are the only songs I ever listen to from that record.

Nothing they have done even compares close to the first 4 albums. I think the record label just got annoyed with the band for releasing an album about Ray Kurzweil, that was too much for a major label to promoting.

To me Steve Mazur just doesn't seem that into it to me, you may think this is old news but I expected alot more from Burn Burn and Curve and they weren't an improvement on their past work at all.

[xjsb125]

Innocent was actually part of your Mike list too. Don't forget that one. I still don't understand how you can say Steve isn't that into it. Between albums he's constantly playing, be it with other bands around Hollywood/LA, on TV shows, or just writing in his own studio. He's not just creating demos for guitar either. He's doing drums, keys, and bass as well. What ultimately sold me on him being a talented musician was watching him perform the Spiritual Machines set a few years ago. He was out there playing both Mike and Jamie's parts flawlessly night after night. I think those shows made him, and sold a lot of older fans on him as well.

[Tinman]

Something else to keep in mind,
Spiritual machines, which was to many the peek of OLP's artistic capabilities, was mostly written by Raine, and mike had little to do with the song writting process.

[RileyLewis]

Most here would probably agree I'm one of the anti-current-OLP style people here. However, it's pretty silly to say that Steve has no skill. It's a very different skill than Mike (I do think Mike is better at creating moods in songs than Steve, whereas Steve is better at straight guitar playing in terms of physical ability). It's totally acceptable to like one over the other, however.

This new guy doesn't seem to understand the actual history of the band, either. Most of us can agree (even the band) that Bob Rock was overall a bad influence on the band, creatively. But he doesn't have any retaining influence at all, mainly since the band wants nothing to do with him! So I think this guy has his opinions on OLP's current style (which honestly I agree with, at least in part), but he is filling in the history with what he wants to believe, not the actual events. That's not entirely his fault since most fans don't know what goes on behind the scenes, but hopefully he takes the time to learn the actual history rather than guess at things.

[govtschemes]

I just think its weird, a band who would release an album on technology superseding human intelligence and on Ray Kurzweil would go to release such forgettable garbage, maybe they got death threats who knows.

To say Bob Rock doesn't have influence over Our Lady Peace is foolish, he does, because I have yet to see Our Lady Peace even return to their experimental style of music they were doing on the first 3 albums.

Spiritual Machines is a themed record and it doesn't have a natural sound flow to the first 3. You could tell on the first 3 they were experimenting and progressing the music all the time.

Happiness is not a fish, is still their best record cause its their most creative and definitely has the most creative songwriting on it and ideas.

But Spiritual Machines to me is an extension of that album, and you could tell they were toning down their sound to go into the Gravity album.

Great guitar playing doesn't cover up bad songwriting and most of the songs on the Curve album are bad. Thats why Mike Turner was so good, he was good at contributing to the sound of the band and songs, rather than scribbling all over them with fancy guitar parts. For me on the first 3-4 records, all the band members gelled very well, musically, but after that......well....

[xjsb125]

Can't say they gelled well between Naveed and Clumsy, because they booted Chris out on his ass between those albums. The man who created the bass line for their first major hit was a goner. I think they are a tighter unit now, because we are approaching the point where Steve has been in the band longer than Mike was. I won't de-value Mike's contributions. Raine, Duncan, and Jeremy wanted a stronger guitar piece in the music. Mike and Jamie together created the atmospheric sound around the bass, drums, and Raine's vocal style. And we all agree Raine's vocal change, be it intentional or for necessity, changed the overall sound as well. He's almost back to that form now, but you can tell as a tour comes to a close how hard it is on him vocally to keep the control that he had in his 20's.

[govtschemes]

Raine sounds good when he wants too. And he has a good normal singing voice anyway, without doing all those acrobatics that he did in the 90s with his voice.

However he just doesn't try and make the effort, he stays in low range.

Its like he is constantly thinking "2002......2002".....while he is singing in the studio.

[xjsb125]

Yes, most vocalists think back to a certain time period when singing...

[myownsatellite]

To me Steve Mazur just doesn't seem that into it to me, you may think this is old news but I expected alot more from Burn Burn and Curve and they weren't an improvement on their past work at all.

Have you ever been to a show or even seen a video on YouTube? I think your definition of "into it" is pretty warped.

[govtschemes]

He doesn't contribute anything unique to the band. People can criticize Mike Turner all they want, but what exactly was it that he was doing wrong? When they went to record Gravity? Nothing.

Steve Mazur does not contribute anything unique or new to the group. Say what you will about Mike Turner, at least he was unique - and thats almost an understatement to say "At least".

[faninor]

People can criticize Mike Turner all they want, but what exactly was it that he was doing wrong? When they went to record Gravity? Nothing.

When they went to record Gravity? What I heard was that he wanted to focus on different songs than the rest of the band (Angelina's Song and Stop Screaming, I think). So he literally went off and did his own thing trying to develop those songs instead of working on the songs that the other guys wanted to finish. Which is why Jamie had to pick up the slack and play most of the guitar that you hear on the album.