Our Lady Peace

Formed in Toronto in 1992 around singer Raine Maida and guitarist Mike Turner, Our Lady Peace established itself in Canadian alternative rock with taut songwriting, grunge-influenced guitars and a highly distinctive voice, often pitched in falsetto on the early records. The band first drew attention with Naveed (1994) and refined its approach on Clumsy (1997), Happiness... Is Not a Fish That You Can Catch (1999) and Spiritual Machines (2000), a concept album inspired by the work of Ray Kurzweil. In that initial period Our Lady Peace was a regular on the North American rock scene, played Woodstock 1999 and launched the touring Canadian festival Summersault. A change of direction followed Mike Turner’s departure in 2001 and Steve Mazur’s arrival: Gravity (2002) and Healthy in Paranoid Times (2005) adopted a more direct style, between melodic alternative rock and post-grunge. After a relative hiatus the band continued with Burn Burn (2009), Curve (2012), Somethingness (2018) and Spiritual Machines 2 (2021), which extends the universe of the 2000 album. The current lineup—Raine Maida, Duncan Coutts, Steve Mazur and Jason Pierce—still alternates tense tracks, more expansive choruses and rock textures with atmospheric touches.