It may be the first time in history that the phrase "barenaked ladies" can be regularly uttered in the midst of polite conversation. When you hear it, however, you’ve probably walked in on the middle of a conversation about the lively quintet known as the Barenaked Ladies. The band, by the way, commonly known as BNL to their fans, aren’t ladies at all. They’re actually five guys from Scarborough — All members of Toronto Musicians’ Association Local 149.
If you’re a regular listener of either Pop or Alternative radio, you probably already know that the Barenaked Ladies’ music has an unmistakable sound — a[n] upbeat blend of Pop, Rock and jazz laced with Hip-Hop and Ska influences, paired with smartly crafted lyrics that are often riddled with pop culture references, wry puns, and witty double entendres. It’s the kind of music you catch yourself singing along with in the car — even when you didn’t realize you knew the lyrics. Their songs could easily be dubbed "the thinking person’s Pop music," provided, of course, that the thinking person in question also has a healthy sense of humor.
BNL formed in 1988, with the team of singer Steven Page and guitarist Ed Robertson. They were soon joined by the brothers Creegan, Andy and Jim, a keyboardist and a bassist. Drummer Tyler Stewart rounded out the band in 1990. Their self-titled independent five-track release broke indie sales records in 1991, and was followed by their 1992 Sire debut ‘Gordon’. Kevin Hearn joined the band in 1995 after the departure of Andy Creegan. Though their following continued to build with the releases of two further studio recordings and one live album, it wasn’t until 1998’s ‘Stunt’ that BNL finally broke through, so to speak, with the single "One Week" earning a long-running spot on Billboard’s Top 10, as well as a place in the collective consciousness of the record-buying public. ‘Maroon’, released in September of this past year, was certified platinum by November.
Music and Laughter Are Good for the Soul
A large part of what has built the band’s impressive fan base is their creative and energetic brand of live performances — no two are ever quite the same. Their shows are improvisational, interactive, and frequently hysterical — bringing alive the band’s natural propensity for comedy as well as music.
BNL’s off-the-cuff antics, often dubbed "impromptu schtick" in the music press, are a phenomenon to watch — a little like eaves-dropping on a group of jocular frathouse boys pulling out all the stops to crack each other up. There’s no obvious rhyme or reason to it. In between "real" Barenaked Ladies’ tunes, audiences are treated to healthy doses of songs invented right on the spot, or extemporaneous vamps that draw from anything musical —from Grand funk Railroad to Britney Spears to Eminem to the theme from "Star Wars."
"We’ll just make up stuff," explains keyboardist Kevin Hearn. "Whether it’s about what Ed did that morning or someone throwing eggs at the bus — we’ll make a song about it. Or else it will be like when I started taking dance lessons. I’d only had one lesson at that point, but the guys took me up to the front of the stage and put the spotlight on me to show what moves I had learned. It’s that type of show — I just had to go for it. I think our audiences like that, and they’ve come to expect it."
Not only do the fans eat it up, but they give it back, too. From the beginning, BNL fans have cultivated certain concert "traditions," mirroring the spirit of the band’s own humor. Performances of the BNL classic "If I had a Million Dollars," bring to mind a screening of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," when the lyric "If I had a million dollars/We wouldn’t have to eat Kraft dinner (but we would)," triggers the release of a hail-storm of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese over the stage — boxed and otherwise. And the band’s quirky lyrics seem to open up new avenues of audience participation all the time.
"In our new single ‘Pinch Me,’ Ed sings the line, ‘I just made you say underwear,’ so we’re getting underwear thrown at us now, which is a bit softer at least," laughs Hearn.
Hearn says that while "cheese showers" can make a mess of the band and their instruments, he appreciates the spirit of it, and is glad for the rapport that they share with their audience, even now that the size of those audiences has grown exponentially.
"Part of our philosophy is that we’re there — just as everyone is there — to have fun and enjoy the songs. It is important for us to have improv as a part of our show. We just run with it... we go out on a limb every night. So sometimes we fall on our asses, and sometimes we’ll end up having a really good laugh. I think it’s crucial; it’s just a part of the band’s personality."
What really makes it work, however, is that BNL’s stage show is no gimmick. it’s more or less just five thoroughly irrepressible guys being themselves. "The whole band just kind of fits together perfectly like that," says Hearn. "Steve and Ed are always riffing off of each other in the dressing room, and Ed’s as much of a storyteller offstage as he is onstage. I’ve always played with comedians. I used to do improv nights with comedians where I would play piano and go off on tangents — wherever they wanted to go. But it’s not like any of us went to comedy school or anything; it just comes pretty natural for all of us."
Beyond the Laughter
The band’s reputation as jokesters may have served them well with audiences, but it has made it all to easy for critics to shrug them off as somewhat less than serious.
"We often felt that we were being written off," says Hearn. "People came to shows and saw us joking around and were either turned off or just didn’t want to dig any deeper. But I think we’ve always felt that without something to back us up — the actual practice of good musicianship and good songwriting — we couldn’t really get away with the things that we do."
But the recent release of ‘Maroon’ seems to have affected a shift in even the critics’ perspectives, finally addressing the band’s music — as well as Page and Robertson’s songwriting abilities — with a hard-won degree of respect.
"I think we’re a lot happier now," says Hearn. "We don’t seem to be [in] that place any more, of being written off. With ‘Maroon,’ we’re quite pleased about the fact that the album is being taken more seriously. We don’t have something to prove as much at this point. We can do our thing and feel more confident about it."
And these are indeed serious musicians. Much of the band’s work is a marriage of art, intelligence, emotion, and wit — often evoking a raw edge of the human condition, then softening it by waxing humorous or philosophical. Maroon’s first single "Pinch Me" dips inside the mind of a young man questioning the emptiness and direction of his life.
‘On an evening such as this/ It’s hard to tell if I exist/ If I pack the car and leave this town/Who’ll notice that I’m not around?’
Couplets of quivering angst set to rhyme, layered over a foot-tapping, feel-good melody that sounds, well... happy. It’s the form of unsettling juxtaposition that the Barenaked Ladies do best — blending pure pop harmonies with irony-laden lyrics, continuously mixing soft with sharp, bitter with sweet.
Big Time
In the last 12 years, BNL has gone from a band on the fringe to a band in demand. They recently recorded "Green Christmas" for the soundtrack of "The Grinch that Stole Christmas" and have appeared on TV’s "Charmed," "Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place," as well as "Saturday Night Live," the usual round of late night talk shows, and CBS’s "This Morning." Solidifying the place of BNL in the realm of pop culture, a portion of the lyrics of "One Week" have even landed on the Jeopardy game show board. And though some portion of mainstream audiences were still saying "Barenaked what?" before the release of ‘Stunt’ the success of this talented group of Canadians is far from any Cinderella story.
"We were working really hard all along," says Hearn. "So I guess the saying that ‘hard work pays off’ is true. this feels right to us, it doesn’t feel like we flew down and don’t deserve it. But we definitely weren’t expecting the song ‘One Week’ to take off the way it did. When it went to #1, we were all ecstatic and surprised."
Success has also afforded them the opportunity to put their notoriety to good use — upholding the rights of all hard-working musicians. The band has lent its name — and support — to the Artists Against Piracy (AAP) campaign. AAP is the collective effort of label-backed musicians to discourage fans from using Napster and similar music services. Signatures of band members appeared in a full page ad under the headline "If a song means a lot to you, imagine what it means to us," alongside the names of fellow artists such as Alanis Morissette, Garth Brooks, Sarah McLachlan, and many others. BNL members believe strongly in the rights of artists to choose how their work is distributed.
"We always compare it to a shopping mall," explains Hearn, "you can’t just go into a clothing store and take a pair of pants because you have a computer. It would be wonderful if musicians could just make wonderful music all of the time and not worry about making a living; but that’s just not the way it is."
As a creative solution to finding a balance between the demands of fans and the rights of the band, BNL choose to release MP3s of several tracks on Maroon for download by Napster users — but with a few minor alterations.
"We figured our stuff was going to end up on Napster somehow so we tried to beat them to the punch," says Hearn. "We put it on Napster with little segments of advertisements for our new record every few seconds of the song. It’s kind of promoting our record while trying to deal with all the implications of Napster."
Whether or not unauthorized MP3s later went into circulation, it doesn’t appear to have slowed the band’s momentum. With the ‘Maroon’ tour underway, the first single in heavy rotation on the radio, and album sales still healthy through the winter, the Barenaked Ladies stride confidently into the new millennium. Their playful, yet intelligent brand of music is a bright spot in the sometimes homogeneous world of pop charts. It’s rare to find five young musicians so genuinely unaffected by the matching of Pop music stardom. Apparently, they know how to take their own advice: "Come on now, now/ Enjoy the Humour of the Situation."