It's been a fast learning curve for Toronto's Our Lady Peace.
After all, OLP signed a major label deal after having written only four songs.
The foursome then recorded their first CD, Naveed, in 1993 and followed it up with three years of being road warriors.
By the time they got off the road,they had gone from playing half-full clubs to opening for the likes of Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, Van Halen and Alanis Morissette.
So far, so good and so fast.
OLP certainly seems to have learned the rock ropes on its latest album, Clumsy, a stronger collection of hard-edged tunes than Naveed.
"Playing live you really learn a lot about dynamics," says lead singer Raine Maida. "We took that to the studio. We wanted to have a lot more color and texture on this record and dynamics helps to do that."
The covers of the two albums reflect the change and growth of Our Lady Peace, which is appearing at Edgefest, the all-day rock fest which hits Race City Motorsport Park on Aug. 27.
The cover of Naveed shows a shirtless old man gazing into the distance while birds perch on his exposed flesh. It's intended to give an air of wisdom. However, it's more an image of purity if not naivete (or just another old guy looking wise for a hard-rock outfit).
Clumsy shows the same 77-year-old man, this time painted in makeup and hanging from a trapeze by his mouth. It's a metaphor for the hoops musicians must jump through in order to succeed in today's music business or, as Maida maintains, society in general.
"At the end of the day, Clumsy is based on seeing yourself for what you really are once you finally get some perspective," he explains.
"I wish kids could have that growing up, but it's virtually impossible these days. They're just inundated with image after image of what they should wear and eat and dress and talk like and ultimately be."
Maida says with some disdain that he has a nine-year-old brother who would rather stay up and watch Beavis and Butthead and play video games than play baseball or fish or do some "Norman Rockwell kind of thing" that he presumably took part in as a child.
Such sentiments, which pepper both of OLP's releases, have struck a chord with Canadian listeners. Clumsy has sold almost 500,000 copies in Canada alone -- almost equalling Naveed's world-wide sales.
This success has also gained the band the headlining spot at Edgefest, edging out major acts like Silverchair, Collective Soul and The Tea Party.
Which is fine by Maida. OLP has developed a taste for big stadium events, like when they opened for Alanis Morissette.
"It was fun. It was kind of like opening for the Beatles. It was crazy. It was so loud I couldn't stand in the stadium when she walked on stage."
Bigger gigs, of course, also mean the luxury of bigger wheels.
When OLP rolled into Calgary the first few times in '94, it was in a little yellow school bus.
"We had to retire that thing, we ended up putting about 150,000 miles on it," laments Maida
"It still kind of runs. There's some friends of ours who are just starting out in Toronto. We gave it to them. We had them open for us for a few shows and to see that thing coming to the gig . . .
"I think I had a semi-heart attack thinking about getting in there again and driving to Atlanta or something crazy."
The band now tours in a Greyhound-size bus.
Live, learn and earn your way onto bigger stages and into bigger vehicles -- not bad for a band whose first album hit stores only four years ago.
Edgefest runs all day at Race City Motorsport Park on Aug. 27.
The main stage features performances by the Philosopher Kings, Dodgy, Silverchair, I Mother Earth, Collective Soul, The Tea Party and Our Lady Peace.
The second stage features the music of Sara Craig, Finger Eleven, Glueleg, Age Of Electric, Econoline Crush and Redd Kross.