Our Lady Peace

Our Lady Peace Biography

Our Lady Peace, often abbreviated OLP, is a Canadian alternative rock band consisting of Raine Maida (vocals, guitar), Duncan Coutts (bass), Jeremy Taggart (drums), and Steve Mazur (guitar). Until 2001, guitarist and founding member Mike Turner was a member of the band. During their career they have sold over 5 million albums worldwide, won four Juno Awards out of twenty nominations, and won ten MuchMusic Video Awards, including the People's Choice Award in 1997, 1998 and 2000. They have the most awards won by any artist or group at the MMVA's. The band has finished its 'Paranoid Times Tour', which saw them stopping in several North American cities between April and May of 2006. With them was a fifth stage member, Joel Shearer (of the band Pedestrian). Mike Turner placed a "musicians wanted" ad in Toronto-based Now Magazine in 1992. Michael Maida, a criminology student at the University of Toronto, was the first to reply. The two formed a band called As If with Jim Newell playing drums and a friend of Mike Turner's, Paul Martin, playing bass. Having played a number of gigs in Oshawa with sets containing a mix of original and cover material, Mike's friend departed and the band placed a "musicians wanted" ad for a replacement bass player. Chris Eacrett, a business student at Ryerson University, replied and was accepted after the audition. During that time, Mike and Michael attended a music seminar where they met songwriter/producer Arnold Lanni, the owner of Arnyard Studios. The band, with Arnold, commenced writing new material and recorded some material under the As If name. To better reflect the new musical direction, the name of the band was changed to Our Lady Peace, and with encouragement from Arnold and his management team, they performed some gigs in Eastern Ontario and Montreal with the assistance of D.J. Williams (a Ridley College alumnus and classmate of Michael Maida, also a Ridley College alumnus), in conjunction with The Tea Party. During this time, Michael included 'Raine' to reduce the confusion of having two Mikes. An independent video of the song "Out of Here" was also created during this time period by Sam Siciliano) a Ryerson University film student and friend of Mike Turner, who produced, edited, and directed the video. The video was aired on MuchMusic on their Indie show.