Healthy in Paranoid Times - Background and Writing

Background and Writing

The members of Our Lady Peace began writing new material together soon after the Gravity tour began. In October 2002 they returned briefly to Bob Rock's Maui studio to record two unfinished songs from Gravity that were planned to be released on a soundtrack, which never happened. "Working with him on that soundtrack song was just another reaffirmation for us how well we work together," Maida stated in an October interview. "With the way this band has grown, and the way we've come to trust Bob, it would be ridiculous for us to look for another producer now. When we're all together, we feel like we can do anything. We have to go at least one more round with him. I think we just scratched the surface of what we can do together." By the end of 2002, the band was eager to re-enter the studio in Maui to begin laying down demos with Rock. Two new songs, "Not Afraid" and "Talk is Cheap" were premiered in March 2003 while touring in Europe with Avril Lavigne.

They began working more quickly on material then they ever had. "We write songs in like five minutes now," Maida said at the time, "The energy's there." For the first time, Mazur was included in the songwriting process, having not been in the band yet while Gravity was being written. "On this record we really tried to write together," Maida says. "It’s easy for me to come in with a song, say here it is, lets go record it and it’ll be done in a couple of days. But when you have to sit in your rehearsal hall and you wait for that magic to happen, well, it doesn’t always happen right away, but that was the M.O. for this record and it worked."