BARENAKED LADIES

Canada’s lighthearted rockers get serious about cutting loose in the studio   

 Barenaked Ladies burst onto the scene with their 1998 chart-topper “One Week.” Now the band is heard by nearly 20 million people every week as performers of the opening theme from TV’s The Big Bang Theory. But as they’re well aware, that level of recognition has been known to backfire. “There will always be some casual fans or critics who choose to consume only those things and think of us as a novelty,” says drummer Tyler Stewart. “But there’s a sizable chunk of the audience that knows all our music. They’ve followed us throughout our career.”

The Ladies—Stewart, guitarist-vocalist Ed Robertson, bassist Jim Creeggan and keyboardist Kevin Hearn—have endured the kind of major personnel change that has derailed countless other acts. Their new album, Grinning Streak, is their second since the departure of co-founder Steven Page in 2009. After years of meticulous planning in the studio, this time the band concentrated on the emotion of the moment. “You can get into a staid pattern and a place of complacency,” Stewart says. “Knowing we’re a real cohesive unit allowed us to play with all the toys. We jammed more on this album, and it all happened more spontaneously and freely.”

Stewart credits the band’s extemporaneous spirit for their latest surge of energy. “With this album it was a matter of striving for and achieving that,” he says. “This is some of our most contemporary-sounding music. We incorporated the use of electronic sounds, but still stayed true to the roots of the group, which began as acoustic.” Adjustments to their routine were welcome as they approached the recording process. “We’re all in our 40s now and have established habits in our lives,” Stewart says. “Art is one way to get out of that.”

The group worked with a trio of producers—Howie Beck, Gavin Brown and Mark Endert—and Stewart describes the result as “reinvigorating.” Similarly, he praises chief songwriter Robertson for “conveying a lot of emotions” with his performance. “Ed has a certain sense of optimism and hope,” he says. “The challenge for any artist is to avoid that feeling of ‘been there, done that.’ He has a real knack for taking a regular message and putting a new twist on it.”

In the rapidly evolving realm of pop music, Barenaked Ladies has emerged with that rarest of achievements: career longevity. Their most important mission now is to leave a lasting impact. “I think young artists today live and die by one single,” Stewart says. “But when you’ve been doing this for 25 years, it’s tough to get away from the format of albums. The songs here fit together as a whole.”

–Blake Boldt