Our Lady Peace has been one busy band in the brief 14 months between the release of Happiness Is Not A Fish That You Can Catch and their new disc, Spiritual Machines. In that short period OLP kicked off two national tours of Canada; played extensive U.S. and European gigs; made appearances at events including the MuchMusic Video Awards and the Junos; participated in webchats with fans; worked on various side projects and - perhaps most importantly - found time for a little extracurricular reading. In fact, the array of events and experiences the guys packed in go a long way in explaining the creative spark that fuels Spiritual Machines.

The album title is taken from Ray Kurzweil's book, The Age of Spiritual Machines When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence. While on the road, Mike stumbled upon the piece and quickly became inspired by Kurzweils potent words. The book describes a world where the line between humanity and technology fades, and the computer ultimately becomes our teacher, companion and lover in a blur of man meets machine.

The energy Mike derived from reading Ray Kurzweils work led to Raine s eventual investigation of the book. Since then, both Jeremy and Duncan have been absorbing Kurzweils ideas through their bandmates fascination with the book. Kurzweils impact is not only evident in the title of Our Lady Peaces new album, but also with the bands work itself.

"Lyrically, this album is about finding the spirituality within ourselves," explains Raine. The lyrics he brought to this new record draw upon many of Ray Kurzweils theories and hint at the blurring distinction between humans and computers. "The lyrics for the track In Repair focus upon how people tend to treat each other as machines in our day-to-day life. We really need to take stock and focus our energy towards those in our lives that matter. Sometimes it seems as if we need an oil change," concedes Raine.

Mike explains his initial interest in Kurzweil "set the mental framework among us as a band for the recording of this album." To even further this Kurzweil connection, the band personally contacted Ray and a correspondence developed. After these initial communications, Kurzweil agreed to appear on the album to contribute some of his own readings.

Listening to Spiritual Machines, its obvious that Ray Kurzweils ideas lit a creative spark within Our Lady Peace. This album is the unmistakable product of a band on fire. The passion and ideas behind this album will take fans from Happiness..., into the future and beyond.