Gravity (Our Lady Peace Album) - Recording and Production

Recording and Production

For this album, Our Lady Peace sought a new producer rather than long-time collaborator Arnold Lanni to help with their search for a new sound. According to the band, it was Lanni's idea for them to pursue a new venue lest they regret not trying other producers later on. After visiting with several producers in Los Angeles including Josh Abraham, the band seized the opportunity to work with Bob Rock because they liked his work with artists such as Metallica and American Hi-Fi as well as his general passion for music. Raine was particularly convinced he wanted to work with Rock after watching A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica, the documentary about the making of the Black Album. In the studio, they would even record with the same guitars and amplifiers used by Metallica as well as Pete Townshend and The Cult. They first visited Rock's studio in September 2001 to meet him and even wrote and recorded a song while there.

They flew to Hawaii in November 2001 to Rock's studio in Maui after their last live show of the season at Music without Borders. They had initially booked ten days of studio time that month to record three tracks that would be included on a live album based on the Spiritual Machines tour. They began recording on the day of their arrival, laying down the initial tracks for "A Story About a Girl", which was written on the spot within 20 minutes after Raine heard Duncan and Jeremy tuning up in the next room. According to Taggart, the making of that song set the pace for the whole album. "He saw us as a rock band as soon as we got there, and the way we recorded it was live off the floor as a rock band as opposed to layering things," Maida stated. "He was a great leader who got the best out of us immediately.". Metallica was originally scheduled to begin work on a new album with Rock in the following months but this was postponed when front man James Hetfield checked himself into rehab for alcohol abuse. Rock then asked the band if they would like to work on an entire album, which they accepted.

Following preliminary recording sessions in Maui, Mike Turner left the band in December 2001 after recording rhythm guitar parts for several songs that would appear on the album. Band members in interviews said that he and the band weren't seeing eye to eye anymore but according to official press releases the split was amicable. Duncan Coutts said of the split, "We weren't allowing him to do what he really wanted to do, and he wasn't playing what we wanted to hear. ... This recording process magnified that, but it was a long time coming." The remaining band members then commenced a 2-month public search during which the band received thousands of demo tapes, videos and CDs from all over the world, including Australia and Japan. They chose Detroit native, Steve Mazur, who Coutts and Taggart knew through mutual friends in Los Angeles and who had already been filling in for Mike as a session guitarist. After his inception into the band was announced in April, Raine Maida noted: " felt like a cohesive unit...It just felt incredible. It felt like a new band, totally fresh."

During the band's holiday break from recording, Raine received a phone call from Rock on Christmas Eve, asking him if he had anymore song ideas to consider before they returned to the Maui studio in January. The call prompted him to write seven songs over the next ten days. Upon returning to the studio, lyrics from several of the songs would be combined to eventually form the hit song, "Somewhere Out There". Maida explained "It was like a last minute song done really quickly. I demoed a bunch of songs over Christmas, when we had a break for 10 days. I wrote, like, seven songs and brought them back. Bob listened to all seven songs and then listened to song number three halfway through and song number six halfway through and said, 'OK,' told the engineer to stop the CD, and got us to go put the verse from song three and the chorus from song six together and was like, 'That's the song.'"

For the ten weeks they were in Maui recording (spread over 4 months), the band lived together and would surf and ride mountain bikes in the mornings then work on the album in the evening, usually recording one song in one day and only for a couple of hours before and after dinner. "Leaving Toronto and holing up in a beach house in Maui was a very important step for us," explained Duncan Coutts. "We lived, ate, and breathed music together away from all distractions." The band recorded most of the album at Rock's Plantation Studio in Haiku, Hawaii and finished recording and mixing with Randy Staub at The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver, B.C. in March 2002.

The track "Made of Steel" was recorded three separate times during the sessions with the last take being used. "Do You Like It" was not recorded until after most of the mixing had been completed in Vancouver. According to Raine, "We had gone back to Maui to finish some small details on the last two songs to be mixed and 'lo and behold!' a new song was born and recorded."

The recording technique for this album began a trend of recording songs live in the studio together without overdubs that continues on their latest album, Burn Burn. According to the band, doing it live works to create a more realistic set of sounds, "a vibe" reminiscent of Led Zeppelin or early David Bowie, mistakes and all. In earlier albums, they would record each instrument separately and at different times. They began recording "Bring Back the Sun" before the lyrics were even finished. The final version as heard on the album is only the second take of the song, live to tape, with strings overdubbed.