March 18, 2007

Raine Maida: Rock Poet

Raine Maida has already achieved great success in his musical career as the lead singer of Canadian rock outfit Our Lady Peace. But as has happened many times before, sometimes an artist needs to mix things up. Raine's solo effort is just such an example of breaking down all the boundaries that previously defined someone and reinvigorating this act of genesis with unforgiving directness and composure.

Citing influences such as poets, painters, life, love, death, and music, and likening the quality of his music to a city street of rhymes, prose and haikus buoyed by beats and chords, all the while describing this endeavor as involved in an epic, although personal, battle of compassion and caring vs pretension and daring... put to music (all via MySpace), Raine thunders, roars, muses, questions, purges, and whispers through numbers like a warrior poet fighting off enemies both personal and universal, armed only with his guitar, voice, and sharp lyrics.

Head on over to Raine's official site and MySpace to get more of the lowdown on the man and the project and check out some tracks while you're there. Read the blog, check out the videos, and cruise Maida's links off his personal site for some sites you should know about.

The EP, "Love Hope Hero," is available now via iTunes, with full length on it's way. This kind of raw freshness and blunt attitude is becoming more rare in pop music it seems, and as such I am very much looking forward to this record.

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