Section
1: About Barenaked Ladies - General
1.1 - What is Barenaked Ladies?
Barenaked Ladies is a pop/rock band from Canada.
The members of the band are five men, who are not typically
naked in public. Their name is not Bare Naked Ladies,
or The Barenaked Ladies. The band hails from the
Toronto area, but Ed, Steve, Andy and Jim are originally
from Scarborough, Tyler is from Newmarket, and Kevin is
from Grimsby (all in Ontario, Canada).
Their music began very acoustic/folky, but has grown to
be a merger of rock, rap, hip hop, jazz, and many other
styles. Humour is definitely a dominant element of the band.
1.2 - Who are the members of
BNL?
Barenaked Ladies consists of 5 members:
Steven Jay Page (AKA: Steve) - Lead vocalist, and part time
guitarist.
Lloyd Edward Elwyn Robertson (AKA: Ed) - Lead guitarist,
and recently co-lead vocals too.
James Raymond Creeggan (AKA: Jim) - Bassist.
Tyler Joseph Stewart (AKA: Ty) - Drummer.
Kevin Neal Hearn (AKA: Kev) - Keyboards, Guitars, Accordion.
Since 1995.
Andrew Burnett Creeggan (AKA: Andy) - Piano, Congas. No
longer in the band (see 1.6)
You can see pages like mysd.org
for extended bios on each member.
1.3 - What's with the name?
Many years ago, Steve and Ed were at a Bob Dylan concert.
Their seats were really bad and they were bored, so they
just started making up random silly names for bands. One
of them was Barenaked Lades. When Ed was was caught off
guard (see 1.5), this was the name he
gave for the band. It has stuck ever since.
The band was once banned from playing at Toronto City Hall
by certain city officials because they felt the name was
sexist. This ban has since been lifted. the name was not
intended to be sexist. The band's explanation is that it
is meant to be representative of childhood - as what a kid
might say if he say a naked lady - (though this is probably
an explanation thought of after they decided to keep the
name, since it was originally just a joke - they had no
intention of using the Dylan concert names for a band. This
is one of those questions the band has answered a million
times.
"When we started the band, we were so set in what we
thought the band was about: we wanted to remind people about
being little kids and the name, for us, really reflected
that. Right from the start if anybody misunderstood, we
just explained that that's what it means- it's supposed
to be a little kid's term." - Ed, I&I #1
"When we were teens Ed and I were at a Bob Dylan concert
bored out of our minds and we started making fun of bands
that did not exist. One was Barenaked Ladies. It made us
laugh and reminded us of when we were 8 years old, and would
look at the women’s underwear section of the Sears
catalog. When Ed got us our 1st gig he told them we were
called Barenaked Ladies, and after that there was no backing
out. Because if we changed our name how would the 7 people
that were there find us again? " -Steve, yahoo chat,
1999
"It was written on a cave when we were exploring as
youngsters" - Steve, I&I #1
"We're always the first ones into the cereal box and
it was written at the bottom" - Ed, I&I
#1
"I think we've answered that question [so many times]
now- people should phone in and ask stuff like how does
Jim's hat stays on his head" - Tyler, I&I #1
1.4 - What material has BNL
released?
BNL has released 9 albums to date.
Their 7studio albums are:
Gordon (1992), Maybe You Should Drive (1994),
Born On A Pirate Ship (1996), Stunt (1998),
Maroon (2000), Everything To Everyone (2003),
Barenaked For The Holidays (2004)
They have released a live record - Rock Spectacle
(1996) - which contains most of their singles from the first
3 albums, and a few live favourites.
They have also released their first greatest-hits record
- Disc One (2001) - which contains a version of all
of their singles since 1991.
The band has also released an EP, numerous singles, tracks
for compilations, etc. Sites such as mysd.org
have great discographies.
1.5 - How did BNL form?
Ed and Steve knew each other from school (since Ed was in
4th grade and Steve in 5th). One of Steve's friends was
in Ed's class and became good friends with Ed, "So
I hated Ed because of that," Steve explains. "I
basically hated him until I was in grade 13," When
he saw Ed in a Harvey's (Canadian burger chain) after a
Peter Gabriel concert. "Oh, cool, okay - Ed likes Peter
Gabriel". ("I thought it was more like 'oh cool,
Ed likes cheeseburgers'," Ed adds).
They became good friends while both were working at Scarborough
Schools music camp - Steve had just finished high school
and Ed was in his last year. Steve was flattered that Ed
actually knew some of the songs Steve had written with one
of his friends (which he'd recorded on homemade tapes and
Ed had heard a copy of), and that solidified a basis for
their friendship. There they goofed around singing together
and harmonizing and playing guitar.
In 1988, Ed was in another band. This band was booked to
play a benefit show for the Second Harvest Food Bank at
Nathan
Phillips Square. Soon after the booking, however, Ed's
band broke up. A few weeks later Ed got a call to confirm
the City Hall show. In a moment of spontaneity/surprise,
Ed told them 'yes, but we've changed the name of the band
to Barenaked Ladies.' - a name that popped into his head
from the Dylan Concert (see 1.3) that
he and Steve had recently attended. After he hung up, he
called Steve and asked him if he'd like to play the show.
This was the first BNL performance (10/01/88). Ed and Steve
set up three rehersal times and promptly missed them all.
The show being a battle of the bands, the guys didn't think
they'd be up to competing so they asked if they could just
play in the between time while bands setup for their performances.
"Because we only knew two or three songs, we just made
up the rest," Ed recalls.
Ed and Steve performed together as a duo to moderate success,
even touring Canada in support of comedy-musical group Corky
and the Juice Pigs. They continued the act until a Christmastime
show in December of '89 , when brothers Jim and Andy Creeggan
were invited to play with Ed and Steve. "From the first
note, Ed and I just looked at each other and I and said
'this is it - this is the band!"believe I have a quote
somewhere by Ed or Steve saying how great playing with the
bass sounded that they couldn't go back. BNL then became
a four-piece, with Jim on Bass, and Andy on Conga drums/Percussion.
Just half a year later, however, Andy decided to go to South
America to further his education with a high school exchange
program. During that summer, BNL were playing at a Buskers'
festival in Waterloo, Ontario. Tyler Stewart, who was playing
at the festival with a band called the Would Be Goods, talked
to the band after their set. Long story short, Tyler joined
the band on drums.
Andy returned in early '91. It's not entirely clear and
in the open, but as I understand it, he was somewhat discontent
at finding he'd been replaced on percussion and there was
a rift there for some time. This is when he moved towards
playing piano for the band, though he still played congas
for some songs. This is the band lineup as it was when Gordon
was recorded.
1.6 - What happened to Andy?
/ Where did Kevin come from?
In 1995, after BNL had released two albums, Andy decided
to leave the band to pursue academic interests. There is
a bit of conflicting information on the sublem. As I understand
it, his departure was not in anger or anything like that.
But there is opposing talk that ever since he'd returned
from South America to find Tyler in the band he'd felt uncomfortable
in the band. MYSD hadn't taken off as they expected and
the band hadn't broken at all in the US. By the time Pirate
Ship rolled around, most of the band was not what it once
was. Steve was extremely depressed and was drinking fairly
heavily. The band all seemed to have similar feelings -
Andy just decided that it was enough for him. It was a fairly
amicable break. There was a bit of resentment on the band's
part for Andy leaving, but as Ed later explains, he realized
that he didn't resent Andy giving up on the band but rather
resenting Andy's 'pointing out the ugliness that was there'.
The band went on to record Born On a Pirate Ship as a 4-piece,
with some help from some guest performers.
After the recording of BOAPS, the band decided they needed
someone to do keyboards for the tour. The older songs
needed keyboards, and even some of the BOAPS songs had keyboards
played by a guest, or some of the other band members themselves.
They turned to a friend of the band [notably Tyler], Kevin
Hearn, and asked him to help them out on tour. They gave
him about two weeks to learn the material. He had to borrow
his sister's copy of Gordon. Kevin has been in the band
ever since. Kevin's first music video appearance was Shoebox,
and he's in all the videos since.
1.7 - What is Don't Talk Dance?
Don't Talk Dance! is a group that was a side project of
Tyler's that also included Gordie Johnson and Chris Brown.
They had an self-titled album which included a guest (rapping)
appearance by Ed. Tyler does not have a current musical
side project.
"The recording was actually done almost two years
ago [relative to May 1995]. We formed a year and a half
before that at a New Year's Eve party at the Bourbons' place.
We were the only three people left standing by the end of
the party - well actually, I was sitting, I was playing
drums. We all really liked how it was sounding and decided
we should start a band. I was between the U.S. and Canadian
legs of the Gordon tour with the Ladies, so we got a DTD
gig at Ultrasound ... Angelo Moore of Fishbone was in the
house that night. He jumped on stage in a dress and started
shouting profanities at everyone."
Naturally, this caught the attention of a record company
person who suggested that the gig be recreated, recorded
and released. With three separate touring schedules to accommodate,
it was a good six months before a second Ultrasound gig
was arranged... "We recorded, and it was cool - but
then there was almost two years of legal haranguing for
all the rights to all the snippets of songs we used."
Songs like Prince's Erotic City, Cameo's Word Up and those
ever-popular themes from TV.
"We had this take on the Brady Bunch called the Beastie
Bunch, but then the movie came out and they wouldn't give
us the rights."
- Toronto Sun [Jamie Katsner], May 11, 1995 [Quotes
come from Tyler]
1.8 - What is Brothers Creeggan?
Brothers Creeggan is a group of Jim and Andy Creeggan (who
are brothers). Their music is pretty jazz-influenced. Their
style is jazz-influenced, and can be seen on BNL Creeggan
songs like I Love You, Spider In My Room, or In
The Drink. They have a few albums which you can get
more info about at their website.
1.9 - What is Thin Buckle?
Kevin Hearn has his own project as well. His band is called
[Kevin Hearn and] Thin Buckle. They have two albums now.
He also has his own solo album called Mothball Mint. Check
out their website
for more info.
1.10 - What is Boyce's Road?
Boyce's Road was a band whose connection to BNL is their
drummer, Matt Page, who is Steve's brother. They broke up
in 2004.
1.11 - Do Steve or Ed have
any side projects?
Until 2005, neither Steve nor Ed had a side project. The
obvious logical reason would be that Steve and Ed started
BNL, front BNL, sing most of BNL's material and outlet their
musical expressions to BNL, so there would not really be
much need for a side project (whereas BNL's music is less
of an outlet for Jim's, and Kevin's own musical expression,
though this was far truer prior to the writing on E2E).
Things changed somewhat in 2005 when Steve began a project
called The Vanity Project (TVP) which was a CD of songs
co-written by himself and Stephen Duffy of the band Lilac
Time (Also a founding member of Duran Duran).
The two first wrote together on a six week session prior
to the recording of MYSD (Jane is one of the early examples
of their collaboration). But this just seemed to foster
emotions that were already running high with the band's
failure to break into America with Gordon and an American
tour that had cost them most of their profits for that album.
"It hadn't struck me," says Steve, "that
it was going to mean something strange to the rest of the
guys in the band." As if it meant Steve thought Ed
wasn't good enough to write with, for example. While this
was a factor, Steve continued to write with Duffy through
Maroon. Powder Blue - widely considered the best B-Side
ever (from Maroon) was a Page/Duffy track as was the song
Baby Seat from that album. Every other track on Maroon was
Page/Robertson (Hidden track 'Hidden Sun' was penned by
Hearn) - though it should also be noted that the other b-sides
from the album are a track by Hearn and one by Jim Creeggan.
The reasons for the heavy Page/Robertson content on the
disc haven't really been discussed.
After Maroon was released it dawned on everyone that with
four talented writers in the band, there was no reason to
co-write outside the band (that is, material for BNL) simply
because of the idea brought up 10 years earlier with MYSD
- that in order to keep the band viable and whole, writing
had to remain internal so outside material wasn't vying
for a place on records.
This left Steve with a significant resource of Page/Duffy
songs that had either been left off of old BNL records,
not felt BNL enough to propose to the band, or songs written
after Maroon that would not be used for future BNL records.
Steve took this opportunity (and the opportunity afforded
him in having built his own new studio in his farmhouse)
to record the songs for a side project called The Vanity
Project. He has said that in the future he would like to
write with and perform with others on future incarnations
of the project and it won't specifically be a Page/Duffy
outlet. As for Ed, he seems to get all his musical agressions
out with BNL. His 'side project' seems to be more of a charitable
nature. He seems to enjoy simply helping other artists out,
be it writing with them (Ed has co-written songs with pop
legend Andy Kim, Canadian Jason Plumb, and Hanson for each
artists own projects) as well as producing them (including
the aformentioned Andy Kim track, and Jason Plumb's entire
album). He occasionally guests on tracks by other artists
vocally or on guitar, but there doesn't seem to be much
evidence of his desire to expand his music in a different
direction and start a side project. His one comment on the
subject is roundabout, but in discussing a song he wrote
with country artist John Berry, he mentioned how the rest
of BNL doesn't particularly appreciate songs that are 'too
country', so he was glad to be able to write the song for
John and never have the Ladies hear it. So who knows. Perhaps
some day Ed will have his own country jamboree. However,
Family seems to be an important part in Ed's life and starting
an additional project that would take significant time away
from his family seems like something Ed would be less inclined
to do unless strongly driven to do so.
1.12 - Is there a BNL fan club?
Yes there is. The Ladies Room fan club, which began around
1996 was a paid membeship club with various benefits until
2005. Currently membership is free and can be found at the
site http://fanclub.nettwerk.com/bnl
1.13 - Does BNL have an authorized
biography?
As a matter of fact, they do. Barenaked Ladies - Public
Stunts Private Stories (aka: PSPS) by Paul Myers (brother
of Mike Myers of SNL fame). A second US edition came out
recently and corrected a number of errors in the first.
The information in the book is circa approximatly 2001.
1.14 - What are the bands musical
influences?
"Everybody from Beatles to Beastie Boys to Johnny Cash
to Public Enemy. We love all kinds of music."
-Steve, yahoo chat, 1999
1.15 - Who is the guy on stage
dressed as God/Chef/Cowboy/Bald Guy with Glasses?
That is Tyler's drum tech - Rob "Tiny" Menegoni.
At some point, he was brought in to do additional percussion
on stage (which was pretty much tambourines). He would stand
beside Tyler near side-stage for songs that required him.
It seems to have just become ritual for him to be in costume
on stage. He performed tambourines on E2E, and this tour
has more percussion responsibility including a set of bongos
set up for him next to Tyler's drum set.
1.16 - How can I contact the
band?
You can contact the band's managment for more official issues
that would be appropriate for them, or otherwise contact
the band's Fan Club (The Ladies Room) for fan mail or fan
issues.
'Nettwerk Management or 'The Ladies Room'
1650 W. 2nd Avenue
Vancouver, B.C., V6J 4R3
Canada |
Management Tel: 1-604-654-2929
Management Fax: 1-604-654-1993
E-mail: ladiesroom@nettwerk.com |
The website
http://www.bnlblog.com
which is the band's official online journal has a Q&A
feature that sends messages to band members. However there
is no guarantee they will read that as they get a large volume
of messages and only check handuls of them at a time, if ever.
1.17 - What is the word on bootlegging
BNL?
In terms of audio 'bootlegging' (recording) live BNL shows,
the band doesn't seem to have a problem with it as long as
you are not doing it for sale/profit. Trade or free distribution
is fine by them. Management may have a policy against it,
however. I've never actually seen anything from them on this
topic. BNL's position is generally accepted in the fan community.
'Bootlegging' in terms of illegally copying/redistributing
commercially released material, however, is a no-no.
