visit Our Lady Peace's official website
Originally comprising Raine Maida (b. Michael Raine Maida, 18 February 1970, Weston, Ontario, Canada; vocals/guitar), Mike Turner (b. 5 June 1963, Bradford, West Riding Of Yorkshire, England; guitar), Chris Eacrett (bass) and Jim Newell (drums), Our Lady Peace formed in Toronto, Canada, in 1992. The band took their unusual name from a 1943 poem by American poet Mark Van Doren. The unusual, eclectic nature of the band's music is as much a result of their varied experiences as their musical influences. Maida was a former criminology student at the University of Toronto, while English graduate Turner grew up in Bradford, England during the punk explosion. Eacrett was studying marketing at Ryerson University in Toronto when he made initial contact with founding members Maida and Turner, who then recruited the 17 year old Jeremy Taggart (b. 7 April 1975, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) to replace original drummer Newell.
After meeting local producer Arnold Lanni the quartet set about recording their first demos, which immediately attracted the attention of Sony Music Canada. Our Lady Peace's 1994 debut album, Naveed, took its title from "the ancient Middle Eastern name for bearer of good news", and featured the popular radio hit "Starseed". The songwriting, which was undertaken before their stage debut, evolved out of a communal musical approach, with Maida supplying lyrics. Duncan Coutts (b. Robert Duncan Coutts, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada) replaced Eacrett shortly after the release of the album. Clumsy was a strong follow-up, showcasing a more mature songwriting approach which was rewarded with worldwide sales of over two million. A remixed version of "Starseed" was featured on the following year's Armageddon soundtrack. The band's third album, Happiness ... Is Not A Fish That You Can Catch, was recorded with Lanni at Toronto's Arnyard Studios. Their excellent fourth outing, which drew inspiration from Ray Kurzweil's book about artificial intelligence, revealed a new creative maturity.
Steve Mazur (b. Steven Theodore Mazur, 21 December 1977, Port Huron, Michigan, USA) replaced Turner for the recording of 2002's Gravity, a lesser collection that nevertheless spawned the notable hit singles "Somewhere Out There" and "Innocent". The North American tour to support the album was subsequently documented on the Live From Calgary And Edmonton album and video. The band then spent the next two years working on their new studio album, Healthy In Paranoid Times.
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