Raine Maida ( ; born Michael Anthony Maida; February 18, 1970) – Ourladypeace.cc. Retrieved April 30, 2010. is a Canadian musician best known as being the lead vocalist and primary songwriter of the alternative rock band

Our Lady Peace Our Lady Peace (sometimes shortened to OLP) is a Canadian alternative rock band formed in Toronto, Ontario in 1992. Led by lead vocalist Raine Maida since its formation, the band currently also features Duncan Coutts on bass, Steve Mazur on guit ...

. He has come to be known for his unique

countertenor A countertenor (also contra tenor) is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of the female contralto or mezzo-soprano voice types, generally extending from around G3 to D5 or E5, although a sopranist (a ...

nasal

falsetto Falsetto ( , ; Italian language, Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ...

singing voice, as well as his cryptic and poetry-influenced song lyrics. He occasionally plays certain instruments, such as the acoustic guitar, while performing with Our Lady Peace. Following guitarist Mike Turner's departure from Our Lady Peace in 2001, Maida is the only remaining original member of the band. Maida began a solo career in 2006, releasing his first solo album '' The Hunters Lullaby'' in 2007. He also self-produced Our Lady Peace's seventh studio album, '' Burn Burn'', in 2009. Maida has been married to Canadian singer

Chantal Kreviazuk Chantal Jennifer Kreviazuk ( ; born May 18, 1974) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, composer, and pianist. Born in Winnipeg, she played music from a young age before signing with Columbia Records in the 1990s. Her debut studio album, ''Under The ...

since 1999, and together they have three sons. Maida has been intimately involved with War Child and other charities since 2003, and was an outspoken critic of the

Iraq War The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...

and former U.S. president

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

Early life

Michael Anthony Maida was born in

Weston Weston may refer to: Places Australia * Weston, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra * Weston, New South Wales * Weston Creek, a residential district of Canberra * Weston Park, Canberra, a park Canada * Weston, Nova Scotia * W ...

, Ontario, in 1970. His parents split up when he was very young. Before pursuing a musical career, Maida studied

criminology Criminology (from Latin , 'accusation', and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'', 'word, reason') is the interdisciplinary study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is a multidisciplinary field in both the behaviou ...

at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

, and prior to that attended

Ridley College Ridley College may refer to * Ridley College (Melbourne), Victoria, Australia * Ridley College (Ontario), Canada See also * Ridley Hall, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK * * Ridley (disambiguation) {{schooldis ...

St. Catharines St. Catharines is the most populous city in Canada's Niagara Region, the eighth largest urban area in the province of Ontario. As of 2021, St. Catharines has an area of and 136,803 residents. It lies in Southern Ontario, south of Toronto ac ...

although he did not graduate. Around late 1991, Maida changed his given name from "Michael" to "Raine".

Career

Our Lady Peace

Raine Maida is the vocalist and a founding member of the Canadian rock band Our Lady Peace. Maida started the band with guitarist

Mike Turner Michael Ray Turner (born January 11, 1960) is an American politician serving as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative from since 2013. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he was previous ...

in 1992. Especially on the albums prior to ''

Gravity In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force b ...

'', he often sang in a high, nasal voice. This singing style, along with Maida's cryptic lyrics, became one of the features of Our Lady Peace's music. After working with producer

Bob Rock Robert Jens Rock (born April 19, 1954) is a Canadian record producer, recording engineer and musician. In 1976, Rock joined Little Mountain Sound Studios, starting out as a recording engineer and sound mixer. During his time there, he coll ...

on the album ''Gravity'', his voice became less nasal, and his tone became slightly deeper. His lyrics were also less Delphic, although these attributes have been abandoned and his older singing style and lyrical work has returned to a certain degree on the band's 2012 album, ''Curve''. Maida has released seven albums with Our Lady Peace, plus a

live album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track or cassette), or digital. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th centur ...

and two greatest hits collections, namely '' A Decade'' and '' The Very Best of Our Lady Peace''. Raine Maida CASBY Awards

Solo work

Maida released a four song EP called ''Love Hope Hero'' on November 14, 2006. The EP contains the songs "One Second Chance", "Earthless", "Sex Love and Honey", and "Careful What You Wish For". The EP was sold on tours with Chantal Kreviazuk, on his website, and on

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

. His full-length solo album, '' The Hunters Lullaby'', was released on November 13, 2007, by independent label Kingnoise Records. The album was recorded in Maida's own studio using mostly acoustic instruments, and is described by Maida as "a collection of poems put to music". Kreviazuk is featured on several tracks, singing and playing piano. Before releasing his second solo album, it was stated that songs from the album would be released starting August 24, 2010, with the song "Bury Me with a Gun", and from then on a new song would be released every few weeks until the release of the completed album in early 2011. Maida's website was then updated with the possible album title of ''Pachamama'' with a release date of February 20, 2012. However, a few days after this date had passed, the date was replaced with "Coming Soon". On June 22, 2012, Maida announced the release of the free EP ''Pachamama'' available for download on Maida's official website, featuring three new tracks and cover artwork. On February 8, 2013,

CBC Music CBC Music (formerly known as CBC FM, CBC Stereo and CBC Radio 2) is a Canadian FM radio network operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It used to concentrate on classical and jazz. In 2007 and 2008, the network transitioned towards a ...

debuted the official lyric video for the album's official first single "Montreal". On May 14, 2013, '' We All Get Lighter'' was released. The album did not include the originally intended single "Bury Me with a Gun".

Producing and writing

Maida has also been producing music since 1999, when he co-produced Our Lady Peace's albums '' Happiness...Is Not a Fish That You Can Catch'' and '' Spiritual Machines''. He has developed numerous indie bands, including Texas-based Sleepway, Lightbreak and Billy the Kid. He produced four songs on the dance punk band Men, Women & Children's self-titled debut for

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (known as Warner Bros. Records Inc. until 2019) is an American record label. A subsidiary of Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division ...

. He co-wrote and produced five tracks on

Avril Lavigne Avril Ramona Lavigne ( ; ; born September 27, 1984) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. She is a key musician in popularizing pop-punk music, as she paved the way for female-driven, punk-influenced pop music in the early 2000s. List of awa ...

's second album '' Under My Skin'', released in 2004. Maida and Chantal Kreviazuk contributed to

Kelly Clarkson Kelly Brianne (born Kelly Brianne Clarkson, April 24, 1982), known professionally as Kelly Clarkson, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. Rising to fame after winning the American Idol season 1, first season of ''Ameri ...

's song "Where Is Your Heart?"; Kreviazuk co-wrote it, while Maida produced and played the guitar. Maida and Kreviazuk also helped write the international hit " Walk Away", another song on Clarkson's album, '' Breakaway''. They also co-wrote "One Minute" for Clarkson's third album, ''

My December ''My December'' is the third studio album by American pop singer Kelly Clarkson. The album was released on June 22, 2007, through RCA Records. Clarkson confirmed the name of the album in her journal on her fanclub website on February 27, 2007. ...

''.

Maida and Kreviazuk contributed to

The Veronicas The Veronicas are an Australian pop music, pop duo from Brisbane. The group was formed in 2004 by identical twin sisters Lisa Origliasso, Lisa and Jessica Origliasso. In 2005, the Veronicas released their debut studio album, titled ''The Secr ...

' first album '' The Secret Life Of...''; they wrote and produced the song "Revolution". Maida and Kreviazuk also co-wrote "Outside of You" with Pink but the song ended up on

Hilary Duff Hilary Erhard Duff (born September 28, 1987) is an American actress, singer, author and businesswoman. She is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Hilary Duff, various accolades, including a World Music Awards, World Mus ...

's 2007 release, ''

Dignity Dignity is a human's contentment attained by satisfying physiological needs and a need in development. The content of contemporary dignity is derived in the new natural law theory as a distinct human good. As an extension of the Enlightenment- ...

''. The two wrote and produced both the first single and theme for Cheyenne Kimball's

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

reality show and album '' The Day Has Come''. They wrote "Meant to Fly" for Eva Avila, the winner of the fourth season of ''

Canadian Idol ''Canadian Idol'' is a Canadian reality television competition show which aired on CTV, based on the British show '' Pop Idol''. The show was a competition to find the most talented young singer in Canada, and was hosted by Ben Mulroney. Jon Do ...

'', and wrote the first single of Rex Goudie's second album ''Look Closer'', called "You Got to Me". Most recently, they co-wrote the song "Permanent" with American Idol winner

David Cook David Cook may refer to: Entertainment * David Cook (game designer) (active since 1980s), American game designer for TSR * David Cook (singer) (born 1982), winner of the seventh season of ''American Idol'' ** ''David Cook'' (album) (released 2008) ...

. Maida also collaborated with Cook on the songs "Heroes", "Mr. Sensitive", and "I Did It for You", on the self-titled album, ''David Cook''. Maida has also been co-writing with the

pop punk Pop-punk (also punk-pop, alternatively spelled without the hyphen) is a rock music fusion genre that combines elements of punk rock with power pop or pop music, pop. It is defined by its fast-paced, energetic tempos, and emphasis on classic pop s ...

band

Hawk Nelson Hawk Nelson was a Canadian Christian pop-punk band from Peterborough, Ontario. Formed in 2000, the band has released eight studio albums. Bassist/backing vocalist Daniel Biro was the band's only founding member to remain throughout their entire ...

for the 2008 released album

Hawk Nelson Is My Friend ''Hawk Nelson...Is My Friend!'' is the third full-length studio album from Christian rock band Hawk Nelson. It was released on April 1, 2008, debuting at No. 34 on the ''Billboard'' 200. In the first week of its release the album sold a little ...

. Maida has co-writes on numerous releases including Alternative rock bands

Uncle Kracker Matthew Shafer (born June 6, 1974), also known by his stage name Uncle Kracker, is an American singer and musician. He was previously a turntablist for Kid Rock's backing group Twisted Brown Trucker; since 1999, he has recorded as a solo artis ...

, Green River Ordinance,

Marianas Trench The Mariana Trench is an oceanic trench located in the western Pacific Ocean, about east of the Mariana Islands; it is the deepest oceanic trench on Earth. It is crescent-shaped and measures about in length and in width. The maximum known ...

and Toronto-based

Die Mannequin Die Mannequin was a Canadian alternative rock band from Toronto, founded by guitar player and singer Care Failure (born Caroline Slezak Kawa) in 2005. The band toured across Canada several times, opening for Buckcherry, Guns N' Roses, Marilyn ...

. Maida also co-wrote a song, "Unapologize" for

Carrie Underwood Carrie Marie Underwood (born March 10, 1983) is an American singer and songwriter. She rose to prominence after winning the fourth season of ''American Idol'' in 2005, returning as a judge beginning with the twenty-third season. Underwood's f ...

's 2009 album '' Play On''.

LOOP/POOL

Maida is a cofounder and director at LOOP/POOL, a Canadian artist-focused and social-forward cannabis brand. LOOP/POOL has committed a minimum of five percent of proceeds towards POOL/FUND, a philanthropic organization to support independent Canadian artists who have been underserved or unable to access funding from existing grant programs, and further struggling during the pandemic. “I am thrilled to be part of LOOP/POOL’s journey to bring licensed cannabis products to market in support of emerging Canadian talent,” said Minhas. “Cannabis is an exciting industry that can be shaped by new innovative and creative partnerships. The natural fit between Inner Spirit’s Spiritleaf retail brand and LOOP/POOL will allow us to build on the opportunities to expand the industry and benefit artists.”

S!NG

Maida signed on with the S!NG team as their Chief Product Officer, a developer of tools that allow creators to control distribution and monetize their work. It launched in March 2021 with the world’s first free mobile application designed to instantly mint NFTs to sell or license online. NFTs, or

non-fungible token A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique digital identifier that is recorded on a blockchain and is used to certify ownership and authenticity. It cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided. The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the blockchai ...

s, allow artists to create verifiably-unique originals of their work, while protecting intellectual property. “S!NG is the safest and easiest platform for creators to mint NFTs,” says Maida. “There is no better time to be an artist than right now, because we are on the precipice of an artistic revolution where control belongs to the artist. This is an industry game changer.” Maida said in an interview the app will help artists protect their work and connect with fans in a more efficient way. “The ability to sell directly to your fans and monetize that in ways that we never really thought of before, it’s a tectonic shift that’s happening,” he said, explaining that artists who make their work available as an NFT are in charge of the ownership of that content. “When you see artists who don’t have a huge following selling completed works ndwhen there isn’t that middle-man, fans will engage and participate,” Maida said. “It goes back to the day of when we were starting out playing in clubs and you’d put out a signup sheet at the merch table to get emails from fans, why did we want that? Because I wanted to talk to them directly. And socials, Twitter, Instagram, I think it helped for a minute, but it does dilute that relationship.”

Other work

Maida had a small role in a Canadian movie released in 2001, '' Century Hotel''. He played the character Damon Riley. In 2005, Maida contributed ''Liar'' to '' Act 1: Goodbye Friends of the Heavenly Bodies'' from

Neverending White Lights Daniel Victor (born September 20, 1979) is a Canadian recording artist and producer from Windsor, Ontario, best known for the collaborative music project Neverending White Lights, which features instrumentation performed mostly by Victor, with ...

. Maida received special thanks on People in Planes album ''Beyond The Horizon''. Maida and Kreviazuk wrote an original song for the HBO documentary '' Ithuteng'', and composed music for the restored version of Helen Gardner's 1912 silent film version of

Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was ...

. Both Maida and Kreviazuk are strong advocates of the organization War Child having traveled and filmed documentaries in Iraq, Darfur, and Ethiopia. Maida produced a War Child Canada benefit album entitled '' Help!: A Day in the Life''. His efforts have led to a number of distinctions, including the Tiffany Mark Award, WarChild's "Philanthropist of the Year", the Allan Slaight Humanitarian Award and the prestigious Alan Waters Humanitarian Award from the

Juno Award The Juno Awards (stylized as JUNOS), or simply known as the Junos, are awards presented by Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievements in Canada's mu ...

s. Maida and Kreviazuk both also co-hosted a 2006

Mothers Against Drunk Driving Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is a non-profit organization in the United States, Canada ( MADD Canada) and Brazil that seeks to stop driving with any amount of alcohol in the bloodstream, support those affected by drunk driving, prevent un ...

video. Maida is also known for his advocacy work with The David Suzuki Foundation,

The Hospital for Sick Children ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

and Apathy Is Boring. He recently founded Harmony House, a music therapy retreat for war veterans. Raine has also expressed support for the

Green Party of Canada The Green Party of Canada () is a federal political party in Canada, founded in 1983 with a focus on green politics. The Green Party is currently the fifth largest party in the House of Commons by seat count. It elected its first member of ...

. In December 2014 Maida was appointed a member of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

along with Kreviazuk by

Governor General Governor-general (plural governors-general), or governor general (plural governors general), is the title of an official, most prominently associated with the British Empire. In the context of the governors-general and former British colonies, ...

David Johnston David Johnston or Dave Johnston may refer to: Politics *David Johnston (governor general) David Lloyd Johnston (born June 28, 1941) is a Canadian academic, author, and statesman who served as the 28th governor general of Canada from 2010 to ...

for their charitable and humanitarian work.

Personal life

Maida met Canadian singer-songwriter

at a

Pearl Jam Pearl Jam is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. One of the key bands in the grunge, grunge movement of the early 1990s, Pearl Jam has outsold and outlasted many of its contemporaries from the early 1990s, ...

concert in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

in 1996. They married in December 1999 in Toronto, and have three sons together. In honour of their tenth wedding anniversary, Maida and Kreviazuk renewed their wedding vows in

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

in November 2009. From 2016 to 2017, the couple went on tour for their new side project titled ''Moon Vs. Sun''. Kreviazuk and Maida appeared in the 2019 documentary film '' I'm Going to Break Your Heart'', which detailed both their collaboration on the album ''Moon vs. Sun'' and the conflicts and tensions that had arisen in their marriage after 19 years.

Discography

Solo

*2006: ''Love Hope Hero EP'' (all four tracks are included in '' The Hunters Lullaby'') *2007: '' The Hunters Lullaby'' (includes all 4 tracks from ''Love Hope Hero'') *2010: "Bury Me with a Gun" (Single) *2012: ''Pachamama EP I'' *2012: ''Pachamama EP II'' *2013: '' We All Get Lighter''

Our Lady Peace

*1994: '' Naveed'' *1997: '' Clumsy'' *1999: '' Happiness... Is Not a Fish That You Can Catch'' *2000: '' Spiritual Machines'' *2002: ''

'' *2003: ''

Live Live may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Live!'' (2007 film), 2007 American film * ''Live'' (2014 film), a 2014 Japanese film * ''Live'' (2023 film), a Malayalam-language film *'' Live: Phát Trực Tiếp'', a Vietnamese-langua ...

'' *2005: ''

Healthy in Paranoid Times ''Healthy in Paranoid Times'' is the sixth studio album by Canadian rock band Our Lady Peace, released on August 30, 2005, by Columbia Records. The disc was released on a standard CD as well as a DualDisc, with the reverse side containing a docum ...

'' *2006: '' A Decade'' *2009: '' The Very Best of Our Lady Peace'' *2009: '' Burn Burn'' *2012: ''

Curve In mathematics, a curve (also called a curved line in older texts) is an object similar to a line, but that does not have to be straight. Intuitively, a curve may be thought of as the trace left by a moving point. This is the definition that ...

'' *2018: '' Somethingness'' *2021: ''

Spiritual Machines II ''Spiritual Machines 2'' is the tenth studio album from Canadian alternative rock band Our Lady Peace, a sequel to their 2000 art rock concept album ''Spiritual Machines''. The album was produced by Dave Sitek, and released through BMG's Shelter M ...

Singles

* "Lebo's River" (with

, Lebo Kgasapane, and Archie Khambula) from '' Help!: A Day in the Life'' * "Yellow Brick Road" premiere single from '' The Hunters Lullaby'' * "Montreal" the first single from his second solo album ''We All Get Lighter''

References

External links

Raine Maida's official websiteRaine Maida on TwitterRaine Maida on FacebookRaine Maida on YouTube
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maida, Raine 1970 births Living people Canadian people of English descent Canadian people of Irish descent Canadian people of Italian descent Canadian people of Northern Ireland descent Canadian people of Ulster-Scottish descent Canadian rock singers Canadian record producers Canadian male songwriters Members of the Order of Canada Singers from Toronto Writers from Toronto Canadian rock guitarists Canadian male guitarists University of Toronto alumni Canadian alternative rock musicians People from Weston, Toronto 20th-century Canadian male singers Our Lady Peace members Ridley College alumni 21st-century Canadian guitarists 21st-century Canadian male singers 21st-century Canadian singers