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The Gospel According To The Barenaked Ladies
Spank! magazine
By Carly Milne
Spank! chats with Barenaked Ladies' drummer Tyler Stewart about the road, lovin' your job, and the pursuit of a good spanking.
In an industry saturated with textbook music acts, the Barenaked Ladies are easily one of Canada's stand out bands. With a new release, Born on a Pirate Ship, and a new bandmate, the Ladies are on the road once again. But first, Tyler Stewart took a minute to talk to Spank!
"Spank?" he asks. "The magazine is called Spank!?" It's not what you think it is, I say. "There's nothing wrong with a good spanking to put things in perspective." Really? I'm intrigued. "I'm surprised at how many people enjoy spanking." Are you one of them? "Um, no actually. I'm not one for receiving pain."
Formed in 1988, the Barenaked Ladies included singer Steven Page, singer/guitarist Ed Robertson, bassist Jim Creeggan, pianist Andy Creegan and drummer Tyler Stewart. The band toured Canada and England, releasing an independent tape in 1991 called Barenaked Lunch. The first release off the tape, Be My Yoko Ono, became a hit single, and helped Lunch become the first Canadian indie release to go gold.
Soon after, the Ladies signed with a major label and recorded Gordon. History repeated itself as the disc reached Canadian platinum status shortly after it's release. Gordon made it's home at number one on charts for eight weeks, stayed in the top ten for over a year, and earned the Barenaked Ladies Group Of The
Year at Canada's Juno Awards.
After an extensive touring schedule across North America and Europe, the Ladies headed to the studio to record their second release, Maybe You Should Drive, with a new producer and new attitudes. Drive went double platinum and yielded two hit singles, Jane and Alternative Girlfriend . This sent the Ladies on another successful road tour until the spring of `95, when they headed into production on their third release.
And now, present day. Born on a Pirate Ship is at your local store, and the Ladies are exhaustively touring once again. One wonders if they ever sit still. "Some people like it," he says. What, spanking? "Yeah - a lot of girls I know like it. Guys? I don't know about guys. Maybe it's like one of those kinds of things like when you were younger and got spanked for doing something wrong. "It's the old pain and pleasure thing, you know?"
Born On A Pirate Ship is boasting a back-to-basics approach. This time around, the Ladies chose to reteam with producer Michael Phillip Wojewoda, who helped make Gordon a success. The result sounds more like a Barenaked Ladies' recording should be - fun and energetic. "Working with (producer) Ben Mink was an experience," says Stewart. "We respect him immensely for the work he has done with k.d. lang, but he took us in a different musical approach with Drive. We were happy with the outcome, and it still went double platinum, but this time we wanted to have some fun."
This time around, recording was done in Toronto at a warehouse called the Gas Station. Steven Page and Ed Robertson got together and wrote new material for the first time in two years. Shoe Box, Ship's lead off single, appeared on the Friends soundtrack last fall. "We sent in a song. The writers liked our sound and the way we played, so we got on the disc," says Stewart. "But I don't watch the show."
And what about life on the road? "Touring can be a long, lonely painful process, but it can be a lot of fun as well. It depends on how you approach it," says Stewart. "If you've got a nicely organized, successful tourwhere you're playing to people who want to see you, and you're not too exhausted from doing too much press or playing crummy gigs and doing too much traveling, it's great. If you're not sure it's what you want to do, it can be tough." And yes, the title is in reference to your friends getting you to stick your fingers in your mouth and say 'ship' so it sounds like you're swearing. "Of course," Stewart exclaims. "We all came up with that one." "I don't know of many of my male friends who'd like to be spanked." What about the other band members, I ask. Do you think they'd like to be spanked? He thinks for a moment. "I think Steve Page would like to be spanked. Yeah. He's got that kind of . . . uh . . ."That `I wanna be spanked' look on his face, I offer. "Yeah. He likes a little discipline now and again." He thinks a moment more. "Jim wouldn't like to be spanked."
Since the release of Maybe You Should Drive, the Barenaked Ladies have been through somewhat of an upheaval. One of the sources was parting with long time management company Nigel Best, to team up with Nettwerk, the label responsible for Sarah McLachlan's meteoric rise to fame.
"We didn't feel that Nigel was doing his job," says Stewart, tiptoeing. "Nettwerk is really good, and they have our interests in mind. We want to break into the States." There were also some problems during the recording of Drive. Producer Ben Mink and Andrew Creeggan clashed on ideas, three months away from home recording in Vancouver was hard for the newly married Steven Page, and Jim Creeggan was making noises about leaving the band. And then there was the departure of keyboardist Andrew Creeggan. "Andy wanted to do his own thing. He wasn't having fun anymore," Stewart explains. "He wasn't into being in a touring pop band - he's more into classical, jazz, different styles of improvisational stuff. He's the youngest guy in the band. I think to a certain extent he wanted to find out more about life and himself outside the confines of a touring rock act."
Stewart's still deciding on spanking candidates. "Ed just became a father, so he's probably developing his spanking chops. I'm not saying he's going to spank his young daughter, Hannah, but as a dad I think you have to be sure of where you stand as a spanker or a spankee." "Let's see," he says, "the new guy? Kevin Hearn? He's such a swell guy. I think you could spank him, but I think the spanker would feel bad about it." Why? "Because he's such a sweetheart." Have you initiated him into the band yet? "Well, we haven't had any spanking ritual, no." He pauses. "I've got to get off this topic."
The new guy - a term feared by all. Kevin Hearn was brought in to replace Andrew Creeggan. "We've been treating him like a dog," says Stewart. "Usually we have him hang all the lights and stuff like that, so not only does he have to be the new keyboard player, he's gotta run the lighting rig. He's got an extra hard job." No worries about whether or not Hearn will be a true Barenaked Lady. Says Stewart, "He's fit in so well. He's really really great."
Carly Milne interviewed Tyler Stewart from the new Spank! branch office in Toronto. Her cat Pasha is proofreader. |
