OLP interview in Extreme Magazine
Issue 16, Spring 1997
HOW LONG DID IT TAKE TO RECORD 'CLUMSY'?
"Seven months. After the basis of the song is down we just sit around and try to take it other places.
First, we push the boundaries until you finally settle on something and it takes a lot of time, which is
why I think this record came out later than it should have. It's been two and a half years since 'Naveed'
but the result is that you're happy with every song. There's so many possibilities when you're talking
about gear and stuff that you almost have to put a deadline like whatever is the best by this time we're
gonna have to go with it. And with Arn everything is secondary to the song. I don't think you can make a
bad song become a good song by making it sound good. You're still going to have a crappy song that just
sounds good. I can see why U2 takes a year to record a record. When you're experimenting you could be
in there for years."
WAS CLUMSY A HARD ALBUM TO MAKE?
"Yes, initially we were putting pressure on each other to do something better than 'Naveed'. During
preproduction we had written about four or five songs and our producer just came out to rehearsal to
hear the progress we had made and he could just sense that we weren't happy doing it where we were. We
ended up renting a little cottage north of Toronto and isolating ourselves there for six weeks and that's
where we wrote the record. It was much more positive. You're sleeping in a cottage together with
instruments everywhere. If someone wakes up at four in the morning there's an acoustic right beside you.
It was really healthy that way. We wanted to instill the spirit of 'Naveed' on this record as well where the
best idea wins. No egos, no record company pressure, we're not watching MTV or Much Music or
listening to radio even. It was just about four guys trying to write twelve songs."
IS ARNOLD LANNI LIKE THE FIFTH MEMBER OF THIS BAND?
"Completely. He's a brilliant man. The whole thing that precipitated this relationship in the first place on
the first record was that we'd be sitting in rehearsals doing arrangements and the relationship just got so
close that he'd just give up an idea in those sessions. We were sitting there going, 'That's a really good
idea, let's use it.' We love the guy as a friend and as a producer and we had the upmost respect for him so
we had no problem of letting him be a part of the band so it's worked well. It's a very unique relationship
and we hope it continues for a long time. It works the opposite way now too in that he let us have our
way on some of the productions. He's just like that, whatever's best is what we chose to do."
THERE'S A HAUNTING PRODUCTION TO 'CLUMSY'.
"On this record we wanted each song to have it's own vibe. With 'Carnival' we had the weird carnival
noises. With 'Clumsy' it orginally started off acoustically and it didn't have as much impact as we wanted
it to. It didn't set enough of a mood. So that piano was just recorded regular and Arn has this fancy
maching that he twirls. We were all sitting on the couch putting the piano through all these different
effects thinking what could we do and then Arn started turning this one wheel and that was it."
RAINE, WHY DON'T YOU LIKE TALKING ABOUT YOUR LYRICS?
"It's not that I don't want to talk about it but whatever I'm speaking about I don't think the problems are
that unique. I'd rather leave people to put their own perception on the song. Everytime you really connect
with a song it's because you feel it's about you or something that's involved in your life so I'd rather not
jade people as to what I'm really speaking about."
BREAK THE RULE FOR US AND EXPLAIN THE LINE IN 'CLUMSY', "I'LL BE WAVING MY
HAND, WATCHING YOU DROWN".
"It's like I said before, it's just about perspective. At different times of the day you see the same things
differently. It's just about standing back sometimes trying to really see what's happening and get to the
heart of whatever it may be. It's important to be analytical about things. i think sometimes people are a
little temperamental or judgemental. Sometimes the energy you have stored up in your body comes out
the wrong way and you have to be aware of the things you say to people and the way you view your
problems. That's the whole 'watching' thing. You can see someone and they might appear to be waving
you good-bye and you can walk away and they'll end up drowning, or you an see it from a different
perspective and see that they are drowning and they need your help and you need to jump in and save
them."
HOW DIFFICULT IS IT FOR YOU TO WRITE LYRICS?
"It's hard for me. Initially ideas come, but to express stuff and tell a story and have something that's going
to connect in three minutes is hard. To try and get my lyrics to level that I can be proud of, I'm not there
yet, but it's a craft and you have to work at it. it's easier to write lyrics when I'm down for some reason as
you're more emotional. It's those dark moments when you look at things in a different light you tend to
delve into things more. I think these songs are less dark and more optimistic than 'Naveed'. 'Clumsy' is
something that's supposed to be forgivable rather than a detriment. If you call someone clumsy then it's
like it's ok. In that aspect i think it's more optimistic."
WERE THERE ANY EXTRA SONGS RECORDED THAT WEREN'T USED?
"There's a song that we were playing on the Alanis tour called 'Trapeze' that a lot of people are asking us
about and it's just one of those songs that just didn't fit into the whole tone about what 'Clumsy' was
supposed to be. We're all really happy with the song so I think we'll release it on a B-side, and there are a
couple more kinds of songs that we have lying around. We're talking about doing an extensive CD-Rom
and throwing those tracks on."
DO YOU FEEL ANY PRESSURE BEING THE NUMBER ONE ROCK BAND IN CANADA?
"If you start pinning your hopes on those types of things then I think you're just setting yourself up for a
pretty big let down. You always have to make music so that if no one decided to buy this record it's
something that we can have in our CD collection and we'll always be proud of. If you look at it in that
aspect then at the end of the session and recording you'll have something that you can defend and that's
important. We'll deal with pressures as they come. There's four members so that if any egos pop up
there's three guys knocking it down right away. And we're so involved in the small picture that there's no
time to worry about the big picture. We're worried about making it to the next gig, if there's a
soundcheck or not and getting our guitars on the airplane tonight. I'm worried about trying to sing well
every night, not record sales or videos. Actually, when we look back at the last two years we think,
'Wow, we played with Led Zeppelin, that's pretty cool.' When you're going through it you don't realize it
until you get a little perspective."
HOW HAS THE TOURING BEEN GOING ON THIS ALBUM?
"Right now we're in the middle of the Edgefest tour across Canada, I think there's nine shows, and we
just finished a six week tour of the States in June playing clubs and radio sponsored shows. We haven't
been to Europe yet but we've been in Spain for two days and there was a really positive reaction. The UK
kind of sets the pace over there and the labels in Germany and France have come on board and really like
the record so it's nice to see that it's genuine."
