"Mix of two forces": Our Lady Peace brings together human and machines for new Wonderful Future tour
One of Canada’s most successful modern rock bands, Our Lady Peace (OLP), is bringing a much-anticipated and unique Wonderful Future tour to venues across Canada, including Winspear Centre in Edmonton on June 13.
Featuring special guests appearing in hologram form onstage during and between songs, the Wonderful Future tour promises to incorporate “themes of technological advance and the possible hybrid-ness of humans and machines, a theme that is central to both Spiritual Machines albums,” lead guitarist, Steve Mazur tells Daily Hive.
Our Lady Peace (Lindsey Blane/Live Nation)
The inspiration behind this tour is “a mix of two forces,” Mazur continues. The first is their desire to give their album Spiritual Machines “a proper tribute as it turned 20 years old and contrast it with where we are at in our lives/career/development with our new album, Spiritual Machines II.”
Mazur says that the band also wants to challenge their fans with something that’s fresh and unexpected.
“We feel that’s our duty to them, especially since our dedicated fans turn up over and over again to see us.”
The two-part show with intermission “will lean a little on the Spiritual Machines I and II albums” in addition to “the big songs” from the band’s catalogue. “Essentially the setlist features many of the well-known OLP songs, but since it’s a longer show than usual, we have added more songs from the Spiritual Machines albums as a bonus,” Mazur says.
Audiences can expect hologram technology featuring special guests. “We’ve really put a lot of time and effort into delivering a very different visual experience to these shows, and we hope everyone enjoys it and is moved by its combination with our live musical performance. I know I am,” Mazur adds.
Our Lady Peace (Lindsey Blane/Live Nation)
The band is excited to get back on the road and to experience the “great and addictive energy” that comes with live performances, says Mazur. “When the whole venue, band, and audience are vibrating together, that’s an experience that cannot be duplicated in any other way.”
With Spiritual Machines II, the band “went a new direction” and Mazur thanks their fans for coming with them on the journey.
“We have had the good fortune to not have been subjected much to outside pressure to sound this way or that, so we’ve been given the rare gift of going wherever we are feeling musically at the time. Part of that is due to our dedicated fanbase — we know they will give a listen to pretty much anything we do, so that gives us a nice foundation from which to create in a fertile place,” he says.
Mazur puts OLP’s success down to “luck and catching lightning in a bottle.” He believes their enduringness is fuelled by the fact they share “a fierce love of music and [a] feeling that each person has a well inside that keeps giving the other person freshwater that still tastes delicious and is nourishing, even though you have changed and grown internally.”
Our Lady Peace (Lindsey Blane/Live Nation)
Looking ahead at the shows to come, Mazur had the following to say.
“If you have any interest, please come see this show of ours. Especially after the past couple of years, I’m trying not to take things for granted. Maybe I won’t be here two years from now, maybe none of us will. So, I say let’s have some experiences while we can.”
Our Lady Peace Edmonton Concert
When: June 13
Time: 7:30 pm
Where: Winspear Centre, 4 Sir Winston Churchill Square, Edmonton
Tickets: Starting at $38.77 — Available here