Mike Turner (musician)

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Mike Turner
Mike-Sept.10-2001 (cropped).jpg
Turner in September 2001
Background information
Birth nameMichael A. Turner
Also known asEmtee
Born (1963-06-05) June 5, 1963 (age 60)
Bradford, England
Origin Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Genres Alternative rock
Occupation(s) Musician, songwriter, record producer
Instrument(s) Guitar, vocals
Years active1992–present

Michael A. Turner (born June 5, 1963), also known as Emtee, is an English-born Canadian musician and producer. He is best known as the former lead guitarist and founding member of the band Our Lady Peace [1] and current member of alternative rock supergroup Crash Karma. [2]

Contents

Life and career

Born on June 5, 1963, in Bradford, England, Turner grew up heavily influenced by punk rock. His first guitar was a gift from his mother on his seventeenth birthday. He played in a variety of bands during the 1980s.

Turner moved to Ontario, Canada at the age of eighteen. He studied English literature at the University of Western Ontario. He lived in Saugeen-Maitland Hall at the University of Western Ontario along with fellow Our Lady Peace band member Duncan Coutts. [3]

Our Lady Peace

1991–2001

In late 1991, Turner placed an ad in Toronto-based Now newspaper in search of musicians. Michael Maida, a criminology student at the University of Toronto, [4] was the first to reply. The two formed a band called As If, inviting Jim Newell as drummer and a friend of Turner's, Paul Martin, to play bass. After they played a number of gigs in Oshawa with sets containing a mix of original and cover material, Martin departed soon after, and the band placed an ad for a replacement bassist. Chris Eacrett, a business student at Ryerson University, replied and was accepted after an audition. During that time, Turner and Maida attended a music seminar where they met songwriter and producer Arnold Lanni, the owner of Arnyard Studios. The band, with Lanni, commenced writing new material and recorded some material under the As If name.

Soon thereafter, the band's name was changed to Our Lady Peace, with Maida changing his first name to Raine to avoid confusion, after a Mark Van Doren poem of the same name. It took the band eventually a year and half of constant back and forth talks with Sony to secure a record deal. With encouragement from their producer Lanni and his management team, the band performed some gigs in Eastern Ontario and Montreal in conjunction with The Tea Party eventually supporting acts. It was not until Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin heard a song of OLP on the radio that he asked them to be a support on his tour. [5] and Alanis Morissette. [1]

Turner left Our Lady Peace in late 2001, citing musical and creative differences. [6]

2021–present

In the summer of 2021, Our Lady Peace frontman Raine Maida announced that Mike Turner was involved with the production of their tenth studio album, Spiritual Machines 2 . [7] [8] [9] Maida stated that it wouldn't "be right" to make a sequel to Spiritual Machines without Turner. [8] The first Spiritual Machines album, released in 2000, was the last Our Lady Peace studio album Turner had been fully involved with prior to his original 2001 departure from the band.

Turner was also a featured special guest during Our Lady Peace's 2022 cross-country "The Wonderful Future Theatrical Experience" live tour, where he appeared in holographic form as well as performed live on stage at select venues. [10] [11] It was Turner's first time playing live with the band in over 20 years.

Crash Karma, other projects

After his 2001 departure from Our Lady Peace, he began producing music and played guitar in the Canadian band Fair Ground, with Harem Scarem guitarist Pete Lesperance. Turner was approached by Amir Epstein of Zygote and Edwin of I Mother Earth about forming a band after they met while recording in Turner's Toronto based studio. With the addition of Jeff Burrows of The Tea Party, Crash Karma released their first single "Awake" in 2009 followed by a debut album in March 2010. [12] [13]

Inspired by his work with producers Arnold Lanni [14] and Bob Rock, [15] he became very interested in the production side of music, and decided to produce and write full-time.

He experimented with live recordings, using a small mobile recording rig of his own design. He also built a private recording studio in his home, taking on projects for labels like Capitol, EMI and Sony. Turner then opened a public recording studio in Toronto called The Pocket with a few partners from the music industry. The partnership has since dissolved although Turner remains active at the studio hosting diverse artists including Alert the Medic, Shaye, Luke Doucet, Hawksley Workman, Sloan, and Feist. Recordings from The Pocket, with Turner producing have won two Canadian Broadcast awards, one in 2009 for "Afflicted" by Age of Days [16] and again in 2011 for Crash Karma as Rock Group of the Year. [17]

Contributions and awards

Discography

Our Lady Peace

Fair Ground

  • Down In It (2006)

Crash Karma

Award wins and nominations

AwardYearNominated workCategoryResult
JUNO Awards 1995 Naveed with Our Lady Peace Best Alternative Album Nominated
1995 Naveed with Our Lady Peace Best Album Design Won
1998 Clumsy with Our Lady Peace Best Selling Album (Foreign or Domestic) Nominated
1998 Clumsy with Our Lady Peace Album of the Year Nominated
1998 Clumsy with Our Lady Peace Single of the Year Nominated
1998 Clumsy with Our Lady Peace Group of the Year Won
1998 Clumsy with Our Lady Peace Blockbuster Rock Album of the Year Won
2000 Happiness...Is Not A Fish That You Can Catch with Our Lady Peace Best Group Nominated
2000 Happiness...Is Not A Fish That You Can Catch with Our Lady Peace Best Rock Album Nominated
2001 Happiness...Is Not A Fish That You Can Catch with Our Lady Peace Best Album Nominated
2001 Thief with Our Lady Peace Best Video Nominated
MuchMusic Video Awards 1997 Superman's Dead with Our Lady Peace Favourite Video Won
1997 Superman's Dead with Our Lady Peace Favourite Group Won
1998 4 AM with Our Lady Peace Favourite Group Won
2000 One Man Army with Our Lady Peace Favourite Group Won
2000 One Man Army with Our Lady Peace Favourite Video Won
2001 In Repair with Our Lady Peace [18] Best Video Won
CASBY Awards 1995 Naveed with Our Lady Peace Favourite New Album Won
1995 Naveed with Our Lady Peace Favourite New Song Won
1995 Naveed with Our Lady Peace Favourite New Artist Won
CRMA Awards 2009 Afflicted with Age of Days [16] Best New Group Won
Independent Music Awards 2011 Crash Karma with Crash Karma [17] Rock Group of the Year Won

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Our Lady Peace</span> Canadian rock band

Our Lady Peace is a Canadian rock band formed in Toronto, Ontario in 1992. Led by lead vocalist Raine Maida since its formation, the band currently also features Duncan Coutts on bass, Steve Mazur on guitars, and Jason Pierce on drums. The band has sold several million albums worldwide, won four Juno Awards, and won ten MuchMusic Video Awards—the most MMVAs ever awarded to a band. Nineteen of their singles have reached the Top 10 on one of Canada's singles charts. Between 1996 and 2016, Our Lady Peace was the third best-selling Canadian band and the ninth best-selling Canadian artist overall in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raine Maida</span> Canadian musician

Raine Maida is a Canadian musician best known as being the lead vocalist and primary songwriter of the alternative rock band Our Lady Peace. He has come to be known for his unique countertenor nasal falsetto singing voice, as well as his cryptic and poetry-influenced song lyrics. He occasionally plays certain instruments, such as the acoustic guitar, while performing with Our Lady Peace. Following guitarist Mike Turner's departure from Our Lady Peace in 2001, Maida is the only remaining original member of the band.

<i>Spiritual Machines</i> 2000 studio album by Our Lady Peace

Spiritual Machines is the fourth studio album by the Canadian alternative rock band Our Lady Peace, released by Columbia Records in December 2000. Although not initially intended, the project evolved into a conceptual interpretation of futurist and inventor Raymond Kurzweil's 1999 book The Age of Spiritual Machines. Short tracks of spoken dialog from Kurzweil himself are interspersed among the actual songs on the album. The Kurzweil K250 keyboard, one of his inventions, was utilized throughout the recording of the album.

<i>Clumsy</i> (Our Lady Peace album) 1997 studio album by Our Lady Peace

Clumsy is the second studio album by the Canadian rock band Our Lady Peace, released on January 23, 1997, by Columbia Records. The album is the band's most successful to date, achieving diamond status in Canada and strong sales in other countries, including platinum status in the U.S. for another 1 million sales. In 2007, it ranked No. 76 on "The Top 100 Canadian Albums" by Bob Mersereau and No. 33 on The Top 102 New Rock Albums of All Time by 102.1 The Edge. The album features five hit singles: "Superman's Dead", "Automatic Flowers", "Clumsy", "4am" and "Carnival". Each single except "Carnival" has a music video.

<i>Happiness... Is Not a Fish That You Can Catch</i> 1999 studio album by Our Lady Peace

Happiness... Is Not a Fish That You Can Catch is the third studio album by Canadian alternative rock band Our Lady Peace. It was released on September 21, 1999, by Columbia Records. The album was very successful in Canada, debuting at #1 on the Canadian Albums Chart. The album was certified 3× Platinum in July 2001. Hit singles from the album include "One Man Army", "Annie", "Is Anybody Home?", and "Thief". The final track on the CD, "Stealing Babies", features Elvin Jones, a prominent post-bop jazz drummer. The photo shoot for this album took place around Staten Island in New York State.

<i>Gravity</i> (Our Lady Peace album) 2002 studio album by Our Lady Peace

Gravity is the fifth studio album by the Canadian rock band Our Lady Peace. It was released on June 18, 2002 by Columbia Records in North America. The album became a worldwide success, charting highly both in Canada and the United States with the hit singles "Somewhere Out There" and "Innocent".

<i>Healthy in Paranoid Times</i> 2005 studio album by Our Lady Peace

Healthy in Paranoid Times is the sixth studio album by Canadian rock band Our Lady Peace, released on August 30, 2005, by Columbia Records. The disc was released on a standard CD as well as a DualDisc, with the reverse side containing a documentary on the making of the album. The album fared well in both Canada and the U.S., but didn't match up to the success of its 2002 predecessor, Gravity. The first single was "Where Are You", released in Canada during June 2005 and released in the United States a month later. The second and third singles were "Angels/Losing/Sleep" and "Will the Future Blame Us", respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Superman's Dead</span> 1997 single by Our Lady Peace

"Superman's Dead" is a song by Canadian alternative rock group Our Lady Peace. It was released in January 1997 as the lead single from their second album Clumsy. This has become one of Our Lady Peace's most popular songs in both Canada and the U.S., as well as many other parts of the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Somewhere Out There (Our Lady Peace song)</span> 2002 single by Our Lady Peace

"Somewhere Out There" is a song by Canadian alternative rock group Our Lady Peace. It was released on April 1, 2002, as the lead single from their fifth studio album, Gravity. It was the most successful single from the album, reaching number 44 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and peaking inside the top 40 on five other Billboard charts. "Somewhere Out There" was the ninth-most played song on radio in Canada in 2002.

<i>Naveed</i> (album) 1994 studio album by Our Lady Peace

Naveed is the debut studio album by Canadian rock band Our Lady Peace. It was produced by Arnold Lanni, and was released on March 22, 1994, by Sony Music Canada. Naveed became a success in Canada, being certified 4× Platinum in the country. There were six singles released for the album, including "The Birdman", "Starseed" and "Naveed". This is the only album to feature bass player Chris Eacrett, who was replaced by Duncan Coutts in 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Innocent (Our Lady Peace song)</span> 2002 single by Our Lady Peace

"Innocent" is a song by Canadian alternative rock band Our Lady Peace. Written by lead vocalist Raine Maida, it was released in August 2002 as the second single from the band's fifth studio album, Gravity. It reached the top 40 on two US Billboard rock charts, as well as on the New Zealand Singles Chart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">In Repair</span> 2000 song by Our Lady Peace

"In Repair" is a song by Canadian alternative rock group Our Lady Peace. It was released in November 2000 as the lead single from their fourth studio album Spiritual Machines.

<i>Burn Burn</i> (album) 2009 studio album by Our Lady Peace

Burn Burn is the seventh studio album by Canadian alternative rock band Our Lady Peace, released in North America on July 21, 2009. The album's title is based on a quote by Jack Kerouac from his 1957 novel On the Road.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Automatic Flowers</span> 1997 single by Our Lady Peace

"Automatic Flowers" is a song by Canadian alternative rock group Our Lady Peace. It was released in July 1997 as the third single from their second studio album, Clumsy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Life (Our Lady Peace song)</span> 2000 single by Our Lady Peace

"Life" is a song by Canadian rock group Our Lady Peace. It was released in December 2000 as the second single from their fourth studio album, Spiritual Machines and the most successful from that album. The song was nominated for "Best Single" at the 2002 Juno Awards, losing to Nickelback's "How You Remind Me". A sample can be heard in the Trailer Park Boys episode "Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys". It can also be heard in the show's 2006 film adaptation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Right Behind You (Mafia)</span> 2001 single by Our Lady Peace

"Right Behind You (Mafia)" is a song by Canadian alternative rock group Our Lady Peace. It was released in July 2001 as the third and final single from their fourth studio album, Spiritual Machines. The single underperformed, ultimately causing its release as well as that of its music video to be aborted. It was also their last single released with founding guitarist Mike Turner in the band. Matt Cameron of Pearl Jam performed the drums on this song while Our Lady Peace's own drummer, Jeremy Taggart, was recovering from injury.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alert the Medic</span> Canadian rock band

Alert The Medic is an independent Canadian rock band formed in 2006 and based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The group consists of vocalist and guitarist Ryan MacDonald, bassist Matt Campbell, guitarist Troy Arseneault and drummer Dale Wilson. Their fourth album Let Them Have Their Fun was released through Cadence Music Group and Fontana North on September 8, 2017.

<i>Curve</i> (album) 2012 studio album by Our Lady Peace

Curve is the eighth studio album by Canadian alternative rock band Our Lady Peace (OLP), released on April 3, 2012. The album was recorded from 2010 through 2012 at vocalist Raine Maida's home recording studio. Curve's first single, "Heavyweight", was released on December 20, 2011. The music from Curve has been touted by lead singer Maida as being "more experimental and ambitious" than the band's 2000 concept album Spiritual Machines. The album's cover features Canadian heavyweight boxer George Chuvalo, whose vocal excerpts are featured in the album's tenth and final track "Mettle".

<i>Somethingness</i> 2017 studio album by Our Lady Peace

Somethingness is the ninth studio album by Canadian alternative rock band Our Lady Peace (OLP). Produced under Warner Music Records label by Jason Lader, who also produced their preceding album Curve, this is the band's first studio album in nearly six years and it was promoted using the PledgeMusic platform, a website which facilitates musicians reaching out to their fans to market and distribute music.

<i>Spiritual Machines 2</i> 2021 studio album by Our Lady Peace

Spiritual Machines 2 is the tenth studio album from Canadian alternative rock band Our Lady Peace, a sequel to their 2000 art rock concept album Spiritual Machines. The album was produced by Dave Sitek, and released through BMG's Shelter Music Group in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT) on October 29, 2021. All 500 NFTs were reported sold out in January 2022. A traditional release of the album was planned for 2022, and a multi-media tour was scheduled to begin in June 2022.

References

  1. 1 2 Billboard - Our Lady Peace Bio , Retrieved from Billboard.com on 2016-06-05
  2. Sound of Music - Our Lady Peace Bio Archived 2016-08-04 at the Wayback Machine , Retrieved from Sound of Music.ca on 2016-06-05
  3. "CANOE -- JAM! Music - Artists - Our Lady Peace : Serious rock with Our Lady Peace". Archive.today. Archived from the original on 15 January 2013. Retrieved 5 September 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  4. "Biography". NME. Retrieved September 17, 2009.
  5. Serious Rock With Our Lady Peace Archived 2016-08-08 at the Wayback Machine , Retrieved from jam.canoe.com on 2016-06-05
  6. Guitar World - Our Lady Peace , Retrieved from Guitar World.com on 2016-06-05
  7. @ourladypeace (July 30, 2021). ".@rainemaida is doing a live AMA right now. Head to https://redd.it/ouooq6 to ask your questions!" (Tweet) via Twitter.
  8. 1 2 Maida, Raine (July 30, 2021). "I'm Raine Maida, lead singer for Our Lady Peace and Chief Product Officer & EVP @ S!NG app here to answer all your questions. AMA". Reddit.com. Retrieved July 30, 2021. Did you mean Mike Turner . Yes we speak and Spiritual Machines 2 would've [ sic ] be right without Mike involved.
  9. Bell, Kaelen (July 30, 2021). "Our Lady Peace Detail 'Spiritual Machines 2'". Exclaim.ca. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
  10. Devlin, Mike (June 2, 2022). "Our Lady Peace breaks new technological ground with tour that opens Monday in Victoria". Times Colonist. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
  11. "10 captures of Our Lady Peace's unique hologram performance in Victoria". Victoria Buzz. June 7, 2022. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
  12. Crash Karma lands on its feet , Windsor Star, Retrieved from windsorstar.com, 2013-09-20
  13. Sterdan, Darryl (March 10, 2010). "Q&A with Edwin". Toronto Sun. Retrieved 17 July 2011.
  14. The Art of Songwriting With Arnold Lanni , Retrieved from CMW.net on 2016-06-05
  15. OLP Are Putty In Producer Bob Rocks Hands , Retrieved from MTV News on 2016-06-05
  16. 1 2 2009 Canadian Radio Music Awards Winners , Retrieved from CMW.net on 2016-06-05
  17. 1 2 2011 Indies Nominees/Winners , Retrieved from Indies.ca on 2016-06-05
  18. A History of Video of the Year Winners at the MMVAs Archived 2015-06-25 at the Wayback Machine , Retrieved from MuchMusic.com on 2016-06-03
Preceded by
Original
Our Lady Peace guitarist
1992–2001
Succeeded by