Were you always planning for these poems to be set to music on an album?
It took me a while to figure out the right backdrop for the words. The first three songs that I'd written, I felt like I got into this groove where I didn't want it to be anything close to Our Lady Peace. It felt like I had to always keep the lyrics front and center. I didn't want anything to ever take away from that. It's just a bunch of interesting little textures, but really the words are always upfront. They never get drowned out.
When you're writing for Our Lady Peace, how is that different in your approach to songwriting? Is the writing a collaboration with other members of the band?
Yeah, I think we try for that, even if I bring in an idea. I don't usually demo stuff too much. I would just play it on acoustic and we would all get in the studio and jam it up and tape stuff. And kind of piece it together that way. So it's much more collaborative, everyone gets to have their say and put their stamp on it, which is important. After 12 years of doing this as a band - that's what makes it a band. Otherwise, I don't think we'd still be together if it was just, 'Oh guys, play it like this.' It's gotta be somewhat democratic. That way everyone feels like they're getting their creative side out.
You produced the last Our Lady Peace album.
Yeah, I think we kind of followed the [route] I did with my solo record. I own my facility and it was really liberating. That feels like kind of a cliché, but that’s the way it was. The way I made my solo record, I think we just kind of applied that to how we did our OLP record. Where it's just us in a studio, we tried to record it really quickly. We had an idea and tried to record it that day and not be too precious about stuff. When you’re in with big producers in big studios and budgets, you tend to get really precious. The stakes are so high. It's obviously very important, but I think with the creative thing, you have to let the cycle happen.
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