Why is it that everything Bob Rock tends to touch, he turns to utter crud? I think at one point, the guy truly believed in making music that was good. Music of substance and heart. He truly cared about making something that people would invest in because he himself was investing a passion of his own into the things he helped people create. Then the era of digital production came in. Pro Tools. Mass production that led to mass appeal. And then the dollars began to flow in as the formula struck a chord.
So much of what he gets his hands into has this slick, over produced feeling to it. It’s really not hard for anyone to recreate that within recording music, it’s just a talent of knowing how to do it without making the last thing you produced sound the same. That’s left up to the band that actually creates the music. After the creative process is over with, in his mansion in Maui none the less, Mr. Rock goes to work adding finishing touches with whatever nifty digital effect that he finds to be to his liking at the moment. Layer some vocals here and there. Remix a drum loop here. Splice and paste the bass line. Bam! A top notch piece of crap that is sure to sugar up the airwaves, or what’s left of them, and keep Bob Rock in the business of polluting the mainstream, creating masterpieces for the masses in order to maximize any record labels profits.
Don’t think for a minute that just because a band has it’s “hit” played on the radio fifteen times an hour for six months straight means they are going to be rich. They hardly see a dime. A lot of that cash is back pay the label put into the band in the first place, fronting the bill to just have you walk through Bob Rock’s front door. He has to pay for that mansion of his somehow. After all, he lives on an island. I bet the cost of living is horrendous.
I only say this because I once loved and cherished Our Lady Peace. Once Bob Rock came into the picture, guitarist Mike Turner bailed and sought other avenues in his life. In fact, I understand that he’s somewhere around Toronto with his own studio now and dabbling in the world of producing himself. I don’t blame the guy. OLP has two albums since the break, and I can’t get myself to whole heartedly enjoy them. It means a lot to me when I can’t like an entire album. I have a few favorites on both, but other tracks just bother me. It just doesn’t have that same feeling that I fell for in the first place, but Raine Maida has vocal stylings that keep me coming back to check it out.