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PAGE 20 . WATENDO WM. “new“. DECEMBER la, 1w o-eel-io-ee-o-r-S-f-..-'--". r--'--- jusia smidgen less silly By Deborah Crandall rhevie grown up a bit. Had to. Non can't spend 18 gruelmg months on the road, tourmg Canada, the U S, and the U.K., and still get excited about ‘10”)th along the way for hamburgers. “Nth such a demanding schedule, as next to Imposmble ’0 “1va up and down in a restaurant parking lot shrieking accolak tot frief loud, " members oi the mega popular ( anadlan quintet Barenaked Ladies confessed to doing when the whole tour experience was still qwte new. Now It’s a more aensuble approach, explains the group's gwtaresVvocafist Ed Robertson. Stir fry - low in fat, lots of veggies - now there's something to rave about. Success has come so quncklv and so untensely to the forontrrhased band, It’s not wrpnsmg that some, but not too much, of ts childlike enthusiasm diminished. "For the hrs! year of what was real success Ior us, It was hard to sort out the kmd of buarre (hange oi lifestyles and new thnngs we were now raced with But we got through t" Robertson Sdys. eir' became an absolute necésny to eat well and steep lots." Robertson says "(Xherwnse we'd all be sick all the Mme _ r"""--""""-"'"- xixigzxxi>taigg bémuse vie were still really havmg a . “(balm is still pan at us, and we still play those songs rier University following high school, andsince her 95111 “me And u was cool that more mtg was mm it." live. The live shown, still fun and wat ky." Robertson says. ttatt-to-trio) [he Barmaked Ladies had beanie a Canadian house, (Ctmt'nuerdortpaqe22) qeeeqeeeeqeeeqqeeeeeeeeeeeeqeeeeeqqqeeqqqqqqee. ‘l Md a mall» gnod, Solid gnyup ml treads growth}; up, 'le l a p, new” the bug man Irs C')'; m Jme All ot d sudden k"Gi A.“ .sere" bung _,creamm, at "L r. {new night by ravenous fans. - ' - , . W Add mat to all the suuess, ‘ml the shear Illeswle ot success, I mean. l had a small room m the back ot my mom and dad's house. and when I mow-d nut, we had an esght hm platinum album. It came redlh LN, and It really spun my head around." -rhe su/cess may Gs 'spun me Barenaked Ladies' heads, but It sure didnt swell them. In fact, if " had never hap- pened, they likely wouldn't have pushed the matter - wouldn't have persevered ior years wondermg when the my, break was gong to come. They never took themselves that seriously, Barenaked Ladies "We were the land of band that wouldn't have struggled lot years and years If at hadnt happened ior us, because we wwe really lust domg it for fun," Robertson says. "And I rhrnk that helped when the success came. We felt that It Acts a good thing because we were still really having a good nme And It was cool that more peqsle were into it." h with 96.7 CHYM FM's new morning show, featuring Wee, @ (qpil George Michaels and Valerie Cole, Monday to Friday from 5:30 to 9 am. Tuesday and Thursdax mornings at 8:22, Waterloo Chronicle reporter Deborah Crandall ioins George cg Vigor a look at local entertainment. "iitri,ii,, CliRtikk '%) .lftilill a, "giiigiglisiviclis!i " 31,44 EeoWF:: G ‘ . " . - _ >50.ch ' a P" 2i. . u , . . - Mg tm2"tfA'ijr.-ae hold name before they signer) their first record deal. The band's 1990 independent debut EP, featuring the hit single 80 My Yoko Ono, made history as the first independent release in Canada to go gold. A year later, the band signed With Sire Records, and the release oi Gordon in 1992 thrust the band - Steven Page, lim and Andrew Creegan. Tyler Stewart and Robertson -- into stardom. Within a week the album had reached platinum status and would go on to reach oduple platinum status. It would remain at number one on the album charts for eight con- sci utive weeks, and In Top Ten listings for close to a year. th the release of _ You Should Drive last August, the group has mnquercd the soptmxxe jinx, ptovung itself to he not just a tad, tlash In the pan, novelty act, or one-hut wnnder, the the album hasn't bounded out of the start- mg gate the way Godan did, it Is prod of genuine song- , writing talent and musicianship, Maybe It will just take a while for fans to f v catch on to the band’s more LT _ L _ mature approach. Cl " "All or a sudden, we were In the pop world - we were =CCCr3KC.='.L== part of pop culture, and n became something we didn't want to wme about anymore. So the wnung became a little more soul searching, which IS what we were going through. The songs from Gordon were wntlen up to four years below we actually recorded the album, and the songs from Maybe You Should Drive were wnlten in the four months pnor to making It, so it's a much clearer reilec. tion of where the band is at the time, And I think that's what albums should he I don’t like them to be perceived as the New Testament According to Barenaked Ladies. In fad, we want to get In and do another album really soon." Robertson says the biggest criticism Barenaked Ladies have received since releasing the new album is that they've lost their sense of humor. But that's just not true. Case in pount: the Barnes Exhibit controversy. Now that was funny. Robertson describes Cor. don as an outsider's point of view, looking at on fame. The new album is the result of Ge musicians who know through experience exactly how pop culture affects everyday lives. "Maybe You Should Drive was a real natural progres- sion for the fve of us, really," Robertson says. 7W '%-i'2"s'rsr 171"" "’,‘f» . "Ag . Local soptano Stephanie Kramer has never enter- tamed thoughts of alternative careers. She wants to sing, and that's tha), ' . . _ . ' . Kramer (who will be a featured soloist dmthe Mennonite Mass Choies presentation this of Handel’s Messiah) is doing what she's always wanted to do. "i come from a large family - four btoihers and two sisters - and we always sang together as a family," Kramer says. "So singing has been a part of my life forasfarbackaslcantemerT6sr.8utlguesslwasin high school when I started thinking that singing was Ming I'd like to pursue Other." .. While a student at Rockway Mennonite Collegiate, Kramer was inspired by the school's strong vocal music program. It was there that her singing dainty was "nurtured and encouraged." . "l did a short Christmas tiiera in high school at Rockway, and it was sort of my frrst taste of staging with singing" Kramer recalls. "And that was it for me. I thought, 'I have to do this'. And that was pretty much it." Kramer studied vocal performance at Wilfrid bar rier University following high school, and since her (W on me 23) Kramer sings for the-love of music