‘If anyone’s interested in hearing this record because they love OLP, and they’re looking for something to maybe bridge the gap to the next OLP record, then they’re probably not going to dig this’ — Raine Maida goes solo on The Hunters Lullaby
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Now that modern technology has enabled musicians to produce, release and promote their own material, it should be no big shock that Raine Maida has decided to take matters into his own hands on his first solo record. Still, having spent the better part of his music career on a major label with its own list of priorities and expectations, declaring his independence for The Hunters Lullaby felt like a massive shift away from the norm.
In his 15-plus years as front man for Canadian alternative rock staple Our Lady Peace (OLP), Maida has filled stadiums, sold millions of records and had plenty of radio play — fulfilling all the expectations of a major-label signee. When Maida started recording material by himself at his home studio, though, going through the same old routine just wasn’t going to cut it. Maida says that the decision to own the music from The Hunters Lullaby and release the disc on independent label Nettwerk not only gave him breathing room, it strengthened his resolve and kept himself inspired.
“Even though I thought (OLP was) this kind of band that did our own thing,” Maida says, “in your subconscious, there’s always that major-label thing — knowing that there’s going to have to be a single or a video shoot, and all the stuff that goes along with it. Once I didn’t have that, it really felt like those chains kind of pulled away.… I was like a little kid.”
Drawing inspiration from his “semi-obsession” with spoken word and beat poetry, Maida took poems and passages that had been accumulating in his notebooks and on his hard drive and began extracting rhythms by programming beats around them. He then traded the cold electronic sound for a minimal organic arrangement consisting mostly of acoustic guitar and piano, creating a unique cross-pollination of folk and hip hop with Maida’s lyrics as the centrepiece. Suffice to say, it’s not exactly Our Lady Peace at half volume.
“If anyone’s interested in hearing this record because they love OLP, and they’re looking for something to maybe bridge the gap to the next OLP record, then they’re probably not going to dig this,” he says. “If they’re just open-minded and want to hear something different, then those are the people I think I’m going to attract to this music.”
Maida says his break from tradition has re-opened his eyes to a more personal, DIY approach he hasn’t experienced since before Our Lady Peace’s first album. It affects everything he does now, from developing material with tour-mate Billy the Kid (of Vancouver’s Billy and the Lost Boys) to reconvening with his band for a batch of new songs. Still, Maida doesn’t want to give the impression that he’s proud of his new outlook. That’s just how it is.
“Because of the way it was made, because it was so on my own, it didn’t feel like taking chances,” he says. “It felt like this was something I had to do. When you’re inspired like that, you don’t feel courageous, like you’re taking a chance. You just feel inspired.”
