Welcome to my soapbox. Grab a seat and let me force my views upon you. The first thing I'm going to do is take this opportunity to thank Mike for bringing me aboard OurLadyPeace.net. Next I'd like to thank everyone for the support, comments and yes, even the criticisms we've gotten over the last few months. This site is here for you guy so tell us how we can make it better for you. If anyone would like to hear my views on a particular topic just let me know and I'll see what I can come up with.

For my first column, I've chosen to talk about the overall ideas about Our Lady Peace, not just one topic. I'm going to jump around a bit.

On almost a weekly basis I am forced to answer the same question through e-mail. Is Raine Maida dating Chantal Kreviazuk? My standard reply to this is:

"Both Raine and Chantal have decided not to discuss the relationship that they *may or may not* have so I've decided to honour their decision in my own small way by not adding to the gossip."

Now maybe its just me, but I don't see what Raine's love life has to do with the music Our Lady Peace creates. Perhaps this is a measure of the "true fan of the music" compared to the fans who love OLP just for the looks of any one member. There is no biggest fan, nor is any one fan better than another, they're all important, but when someone finds this kind of information more important than the music it does make you wonder.

My take on the whole matter has always been that you buy your ticket for their show and for that time on the stage, those four musicians are yours. You've paid to be entertained, and so they are under an obligation to do so. Anything beyond that, such as signing autographs and hanging out with fans before and after the show, is gravy for us. That is their personal time. They don't do it because they're paid to do it, they do it because they want to. It bothers me when I hear, "They wouldn't come out of the bus to sign something for me! They're so miserable. "

What everyone needs to remind themselves of is that these guys are ONLY HUMAN. They have bad days that I'm sure they would rather stay in bed than get up and face another show. The difference between them and us is that they cannot just call in sick for a day. Rain or shine, Migraines, Poison Ivy pulled muscles, wipe outs be damned, the show must go on.

Then there's this gem:

"Come on, how hard can it be? They play music for a living for Christ's sakes!"

While I'll admit that playing music and making good money is a sweet deal, there's also a down side to it. Can you imagine having to deal with people wanting to know every detail of your life? Where you eat, when you sleep, your friends, who you're seeing? It seems pretty claustrophobic to me. A friend of mine put it best:

"If Raine started endorsing drug use, imagine what the teenies would do. They'd tie off their vein and cook up a shot, that's what they'd do. The kind of influence a band like OLP has can be fucking scary..."
            ~Katerin

You can say that it was their choice, they decided to do this as a career and this was part of it. In our society that's true, but it doesn't mean that you have to subscribe to that way of thinking. The media tends to idolize people and put them up on very high and unstable pedestals. The higher it gets the easier it is to knock down and when an "idol" falls they fall hard.

I'm as much of an information hound as anyone, but there are things that I've learned about the band in my travels that, out of respect for their privacy, I do not share. They do have great jobs. They're have fun on stage, get adoring fans and to top it all off they get paid for it. But the trade off it that for this they always have to appear perfect. If they have 1 off day in a year everyone will hear about that, not about the 364 good days they had.

The next time you're at a show and you don't get a chance to say 'Hi' to the band, or maybe one of them has to cut their time with you a little short because they have to get to a sound check or some other commitment, give them a bit of a break.

I don't want to end this by sounding all moral, but ask yourself one thing:

How would you like to be treated?
 
 

 
 
 

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