New Album in 2012 - "Curve" April 3rd

Long Jonny · Post by **Long Jonny** » 8/4/2011, 6:45 pm

Great interview with Jeremy this morning:

Interesting discussion surrounding Mike's departure @ 00:28:30

Jeremy's been sober for 3 years @ 01:17:30

Heavy Alibi · Post by **Heavy Alibi** » 8/4/2011, 7:47 pm

Nice thanks for the link... what the hell is wrong with the audio? Why is half of it muted?

SummitUp · Post by **SummitUp** » 8/5/2011, 10:55 am

Felt like it was just getting really good at 29:30 and the audio cut out. Guess we'll never know. Interesting that the DJ would say, "Off the record what happened?" When it is on the radio isn't it always "On the record?"

OK.
Noticed at 29:45 and 1:19 the DJ reaches over and cuts the audio. Something he neglected to do when Jer was talking about the early days and then cutting Mike from the band. DJ screwed up and the 28:00 - 29:45 wasn't supposed to be recorded. Great find on this!

Any time the DJ has the headphones off, they aren't live and you shouldn't be hearing audio.

SummitUp · Post by **SummitUp** » 8/5/2011, 11:03 am

Any lip readers in the house???

johnpeterson · Post by **johnpeterson** » 8/5/2011, 1:35 pm

i love how jeremy treats mike just like he was any old useless guitar player that they decided to kick out, he was even laughing about it.... mike FOUNDED our lady peace for christ sake.

todddowney · Post by **todddowney** » 8/5/2011, 2:37 pm

johnpeterson wrote:i love how jeremy treats mike just like he was any old useless guitar player that they decided to kick out, he was even laughing about it.... mike FOUNDED our lady peace for christ sake.

Hmm

RileyLewis · Post by **RileyLewis** » 8/6/2011, 12:31 am

Yeah, kind of dirty considering he is the one who carried OLP for so long. Hard to deny he really made their sound what it was.

Nothing against Steve or Raine or anyone else, but compare the what, 7 guitar tracks on If You Believe to anything they are doing now...it doesn't compare. They used to have atmosphere, now all they try for are hooks.

Post by **xjsb125** » 8/6/2011, 9:28 am

Atmosphere on Happiness and SM = Jamie Edwards. There was never ever enough credit given where it was due when it came to the sonic presence on those two albums.

Rhythm guitar on Innocent = Mike.

In just a few months, Steve will have been in OLP longer than Mike. Mike is talented, no doubt. However, he has recycled the same guitar sounds over and over and over on every piece of recorded music he's performed on since leaving the OLP. Same palm mute all the time. Fair Ground, all the same sounding guitar and recycled stuff from OLP days. Crash Karma is terrible, but on the few listens I gave them, again, nothing new from him. Therein is where the division comes in. Not wanting to try something new, be it simplified, or a new sound.

OLPManiac · Post by **OLPManiac** » 8/6/2011, 10:34 am

Matt what are the other song that Mike wrote on Gravity? If i'm not wrong they are All For You, Bring Back the Sun and A Story About A Girl...and i also read that Steve didn't write nothing on Gravity...who made the other song? Sorry for the noob question!

P.S I agree with you Crash Karma are terrible! I don't like any songs from their

Post by **faninor** » 8/6/2011, 2:24 pm

Jamie Edwards played most of the guitar on Gravity, most of the album was recorded while the band was still looking for a new guitarist and they only brought Steve in towards the end and recorded a few parts with him.

For whatever it's worth, the 3 you mentioned were all that Mike received writing credit on... but writing credits can be slightly arbitrary. Some OLP albums have all members credited for all songs, others have Raine or Raine and the producer for most songs, and all band members credited for 2 or 3, but I think each member usually contributes something to the final recording even if they don't receive credit.

Illusion · Post by **Illusion** » 8/7/2011, 1:15 am

Mike's contributions to the band went way beyond anything that he contributed as a guitarist.

He added a collaborative piece to the song writing process that sharpened Raine's own abilities to create music. The end result were five artisitcally creative albums that had the ability to attract incredible popularity.

I think we, as fans, make the mistake of grouping Gravity with the most recent two albums. I think even despite the style change, Gravity has more in common with Clumsy then it does with HIPT. I think this because I believe Mike's contributions to the band were considerably more important then were Lanni's.

Make no mistake, Mike may not have played much guitar on Gravity but I believe that he was heavily involved in most of the song-writing process. I also believe this role was part of what had Mike expelled from the band. I suspect Mike played the part of the devil's advocate during studio sessions, a role that pushed the band to go that one step further and re-think the vital creative elements that can make or break a song. There may have been some kind of power struggle between Raine and Mike and I think it was exactly this struggle that created music that had potential for commercial success.

The simple facts are that OLP has been declining in popularity since Mike's departure. This clearly put a lot of strain on the band since they were no longer able to write the kind of music they could write while Mike was still there. This strain might have contributed to the band's issues with Bob Rock, the loss of recognition from Sony, and the increasingly long development timelines for new albums.

Now I'm not saying that Mike is some kind of musical god (I agree that his new stuff is not great). He simply added a piece to the puzzle that was necessary for OLP's commercial success. I think OLP can still get some of that back, but they need to bring in a personality who can make the same contribution that Mike made (maybe through a producer or some kind of musical consultant). The problem is that the band still thinks that eliminating the conflict with Mike has somehow made the music better. This is the opposite of the truth and the band needs to realize that this conflict (no matter how fustrating it is) is necessary for them to create popular music (and, thus, survive as a band).

If they can see past the bitterness and accept this, I don't think it would be hard for the band to find somebody who can do what Mike did while still being accepting of the band's more "poppy" sound.

Post by **xjsb125** » 8/7/2011, 7:58 am

I'm pretty sure they've stated in the past that the band wanted to go in one direction with the music, and Mike wanted to do use the same ideas over and over. What Mike did well, was create that initial bond with the fans. I agree that he added a creative element, but nothing new past Happiness, excluding the idea for Spiritual Machines (the least commercially successful album released on Columbia).

In regards to loss of recognition from Sony, not a fault of the band. The executive that pushed them was taken out of his position.

Making the music better, with or without Mike, is subjective. It boils down to 3 of them were no longer happy making music with him, and vice versa. Now, all 4 make music with people they really enjoy playing with, which is more important than our expert musical opinions and critiques.

OLPManiac · Post by **OLPManiac** » 8/7/2011, 9:39 am

Finally another version of The Wolf:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG2MGjOYFq4

For me it's a little bit less raw than the live debut...but maybe i'm wrong....the falsetto scream that we heard on the soundcheck in Niagara Falls it's not there...then we don't know if this will be in the final version of the song...

Thanks to all for the answers on Mike!!

FireGX · Post by **FireGX** » 8/7/2011, 11:38 am

I think the guitar part sound is lacking a little punch (different distortion?)

I like raine's part though, though I still like the bridge part from the first live show the most.

Then again I think it could just be the recording.. in general it seems a little "muffled" sounding

Illusion · Post by **Illusion** » 8/7/2011, 11:57 am

xjsb125 wrote:I'm pretty sure they've stated in the past that the band wanted to go in one direction with the music, and Mike wanted to do use the same ideas over and over. What Mike did well, was create that initial bond with the fans. I agree that he added a creative element, but nothing new past Happiness, excluding the idea for Spiritual Machines (the least commercially successful album released on Columbia).

In regards to loss of recognition from Sony, not a fault of the band. The executive that pushed them was taken out of his position.

Making the music better, with or without Mike, is subjective. It boils down to 3 of them were no longer happy making music with him, and vice versa. Now, all 4 make music with people they really enjoy playing with, which is more important than our expert musical opinions and critiques.

What I took from OLP saying that Mike was holding the band back from changing and progressing was that Mike wanted to continue down the stylistic path of SM/Happiness, while the band was interested in creating the ballad's/anthems that we hear on Gravity. This is completely reasonable on the band's part as SM and Happiness were marketing duds (I blame this on the band falling behind the times instead of actually having issues writing commercially successful music... both SM and Happiness created very strong cult followings among select fans that HIPT and Burn Burn have not done).

To be fair to the band, I think Gravity was a necessary change for the band to remain successful and I actually thought the album was very good and comparable to their earlier work in terms quality.

I also understand Mike's resistance to change (especially out of respect for the fans of Happiness and SM).

The point I want to drive home is that the band's commercial success issues on their last two albums have nothing to do with the style change on gravity but everything to do with Mike leaving. I believe Mike's contributions were very subtle and that it was more the power struggle that existed between Mike and Raine that was important to the collaborative process then Mike himself.

I don't know if you're a Star Wars fan but I think the same issue that is affecting OLP now are what made the new Star Wars films so unsuccessful. The old movies were creative masterpieces that were ravishly successful. The creativity, however, came from many, many people working as a team and collaborating (a necessary component of creative thinking). George Lucas wrongly took a large share of the credit for these movies success and took full authoritarian control when it came to making the new films. You can see from the special features that the artists feared this guy and that Lucas didn't collaborate with anybody on the important issues. Nobody was willing to challenge his views and so collaboration didn't happen and the movies were some of the biggest let-downs in pop culture history.

As for the label, I think losing their supporters from within Sony was a symptom but not the root cause of the issue. I don't believe Sony would throw OLP on the back burner if they thought OLP was capable of another album like Gravity/Clumsy. A canadian band that can produce a diamond album is a golden goose for a music label and if Sony wasn't interested then another label would be knocking on their door. I think the label's over-involvement in the creation of HIPT was a sign of a greater concern that the label had about Mike's departure. The label probably decided that the band's change in membership would make the chances of another successful album unlikely in the long-term future.

I also want to emphasize that I'm using the words "commercial success" instead of "good". I still like their new music and will always be a fan, but if the band can't turn the current trend around I doubt we will be getting another album after #8. I think it can be done, but the band member's need to lose the ego and recognize the value that the creative conflict and challenging of Raine's authority has on their music.

DG · Post by DG » 8/7/2011, 3:58 pm

I don't mean to be rude saying this, but it's gonna sound rude anyway.

That was the most mind boggling thing I've read in the last few weeks.

You make it sound like everything that happened to the band revolved around Mike.

Mike did not, nor does, affect the band to that great of a degree. Ever.

Egos? I've never witnessed this.

There will be another album after 8 if they want to continue to make music together. Why? Because being in the band is not something they need to do. Every single one of them has done other work during OLP, or During there off time. They make this music because they want to.

Waiting to Exist · Post by **Waiting to Exist** » 8/7/2011, 7:41 pm

Oh, I don't know that he was saying Mike in particular was the key part of OLP that made it OLP, DG. Illusion, correct me if I'm misrepresenting your point, but it seemed to me that the post was emphasizing more Mike's role in the relationship than Mike as a person or guitarist. He was, in Illusion's theory of OLP, the guy who pushed back against Raine's ideas and, in doing so, forced him to come up with even better material. I don't know if that's the case -- I don't think any of us do -- but it seems like that's less something that Mike alone could do, a point which I think is supported when Illusion goes on to suggest that other, current band members could fill that role.

Anyway, I was enjoying the respectful but probing tone of the conversation up until "largest pile of shit I've read." I think this is one of the better discussions of OLP's changes I've ever read, and I'm learning new things from both sides of the argument.

DG · Post by DG » 8/7/2011, 8:10 pm

I would like to retract that statement, 'cause it was a little harsh.

And if I missed the point of the post, I'll reread it later.

Illusion · Post by **Illusion** » 8/7/2011, 9:06 pm

Waiting to Exist wrote:Oh, I don't know that he was saying Mike in particular was the key part of OLP that made it OLP, DG. Illusion, correct me if I'm misrepresenting your point, but it seemed to me that the post was emphasizing more Mike's role in the relationship than Mike as a person or guitarist. He was, in Illusion's theory of OLP, the guy who pushed back against Raine's ideas and, in doing so, forced him to come up with even better material. I don't know if that's the case -- I don't think any of us do -- but it seems like that's less something that Mike alone could do, a point which I think is supported when Illusion goes on to suggest that other, current band members could fill that role.

Anyway, I was enjoying the respectful but probing tone of the conversation up until "largest pile of shit I've read." I think this is one of the better discussions of OLP's changes I've ever read, and I'm learning new things from both sides of the argument.

You caught what I was trying to get at there, Waiting. This really doesn't have much to do with Mike as a guitarist or a person. It was the creative bond that existed between Mike and Raine that took "good music" and made into "good music that gets on the radio". I think this creative bond took the form of a constructive conflict that gave a "sober second thought" to OLP's writing sessions that I think the band has been searching for over the last few albums. I have no doubt that this conflict seemed like a "nuissance" to Raine during Clumsy and Happiness and it probably soured even more after SM didn't sell well (it was Mike's idea to make it about computers and it's pretty clear to me that Raine was never sold on the idea). Gravity was probably just the final straw and I don't blame the band or Mike for what ensued here. I do believe it's wrong, however, to demonize everything that Mike brought to the band... some of that conflict was very good and even vital to OLP's success.

I know the band realizes that there is an issue since Mike left. They have been bringing in outside talent after Burn Burn to help with their music (I think even Burn Burn had some outside help with their first single) but I think it would be much easier if they looked towards the past instead of trying to re-invent the wheel. These guys know exactly what type of personality they need to create commercially successful hits, but they're going to have to first get past this whole dismissing Mike as irrelevent issue before it will be apparent to them. They have to stop addressing symptoms and get to the core of the problem, but this will probably first involve them having to get past some negative emotions on their end.

neoncrossing · Post by **neoncrossing** » 8/8/2011, 5:50 am

unfortunately, if they didnt split with mike when they did, they likely would have split forever, long before burn burn...i love mike as a guitarist and a person, but obviously he and the band were not on the same page

as for current OLP, i think everyone has missed one important thing. They are NOT trying to make music that is commercially successful. They are trying to make quality music that they are proud of and will enjoy forever. They have said it a thousand times. They have stopped trying to write a hit single.