Happiness ... Is Not A Fish That You Can Catch is the oddball title of the new Our Lady Peace album -- but spend some time with an OLP member and it's clear the record could just as easily be called Happiness ... Is An Album That You Can Make.

"With this record, we've found our sound," boasts drummer Jeremy Taggart. "This is the album we've been trying to make, the album that we've been hearing in our heads for the last three (years). To us, it sounds a lot fresher."

Happiness ... is OLP's third album and followup to the Toronto quartet's 1997 hit, Clumsy, which has sold more than two million copies. Trying to match the success of Clumsy would throw some bands into a tizzy, Taggart admits, but not OLP, which doesn't worry about "trying to please everybody.

"The bottom line is for us to be happy with what we're doing," he says. "Usually, when all four of us are agreeing on something, there's a pretty good chance that everybody else will enjoy it. We can't concern ourselves with every single person out there. We're not entertainers, we're just trying to make music."

Formed in 1993, Our Lady Peace released its first album, Naveed, in 1995. It featured the top 10 single Starseed, a song later remixed for the Armageddon soundtrack. With '97's Clumsy, OLP avoided the sophomore jinx, selling a truckload of records while winning two 1998 Junos and a pair of MuchMusic video honors.

During that time, the band played nearly 1,000 concerts, an experience that helped the foursome "gel" on Happiness ... , Taggart says.

"We've matured greatly over the last six, seven years," says the 24-year-old percussionist. "We're a little bit better musicians now and we're a little bit better at understanding the studio. We're more comfortable and we enjoyed the process a lot more."

The new album, a collection of tunes on the theme of "human obsession," captures the best of OLP's previous recordings, he says. Bolstering the sound are guest appearances by Boston's Jamie Edwards -- "he can play every instrument imaginable," Taggart gushes -- and 73-year-old jazz legend Elvin Jones.

"Elvin was a dream come true on my part," adds Taggart, who lists Jones as one of his musical heroes and approached him about performing on Happiness ... "It was a fluke chance that became something really special."

OLP, which kicks off the U.S. leg of its North American tour tomorrow in North Carolina, expects to visit Winnipeg early in the new year.