One of the most recent musical success stories is the comeback of the band Nickelback. In 2001, they achieved major success with their album, Silver Side Up, with 10 million copies sold worldwide. In 2005, Nickelback released All The Right Reasons, which recently reached eight million in worldwide sales. VOA's Larry London talked with Nickelback lead singer Chad Koreger about the band's latest tour and next album.
With nine Juno awards (Canada's top music award), an MTV Video Music Award, World Music Award for World's Best-Selling Rock Artist, and three Billboard Music Awards, Nickelback is now enjoying the success of their most-popular album. All the Right Reasons was re-released on July 10 with additional live tracks. It is their fifth album, with work on a sixth already underway.
Band member, Chad Kroeger, said, "Yeah, we are tossing around some ideas. I hope we never stop coming up with ideas. I do not know when we will be releasing that [sixth album]. They kind of shape themselves.
"It is really funny," he continued. "You really think you have a clear picture as to how you think that next [album] … or any song for that matter is going to sound. Once you start putting the meat on the bones [writing and recording] and putting the icing on the cake [finishing your album], it really starts to shape itself."
Chad wrote most of the songs for All The Right Reasons on a tour bus between cities. At the time, he was going through a difficult relationship.
"I try to draw from personal experiences for a lot of stuff on the Nickelback albums," he explained. "It is so much easier than talking about something you have no clue about. 'Rockstar' for instance. I was on the back of my [tour] bus, and I had a guitar. I was trying to think, because we meet a lot of people just traveling on the road. We meet actors and we meet sports stars and NASCAR [racing] drivers. It is so funny that all of them lean into you at one point in time, and go, 'I would love to switch jobs with you, even for a week.' That is amazing. I do not want to switch jobs with anybody."
Chad's brother and fellow band member, bass guitarist Mike Kroeger. actually came up with the group's name.
"At the coffee shop where my brother was working, everything [cost} $1.95, $2.95, $3.95, $4.95 or whatever it was. So all day long, it was, 'Here is your nickel back.' [ed. note - A nickel equals $.05.] Mike called me up and asked, 'What do you think of the name Nickelback?' And I am like, 'What does it mean?', and he said 'It does not mean anything!' It was perfect!” Chad said.
Nickelback's career boasts over 25 million records sold around the world, making them the third best-selling Canadian band in music history, behind Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive. Chad describes the band's highlight.
"We were just in Toronto, and we were inducted to the Canadian Walk of Fame, which is like getting the star on Hollywood Boulevard [California landmark], but it's the Canadian version. It was really, really special," he said. "When we went up after they showed a lot of footage of the band and us doing everything we have done, then we went up to accept the award. I was choking back tears so hard. They showed a clip of my mother, and I did not actually see the show, but she was just bawling [crying,] and I am like so choked up and trying not to cry. It was such an honor."
Nickelback is donating the revenue from digital sales of their song "If Everyone Cared" to charity. "Where do you go? Where do you focus when you can help? Where do you send some money or help out in any way? We sat down for a long time and thought between [band member] Ryan [Peake] wife's charity, International Children's Awareness, it would be great to sort of go "halfers" [50 percent], and allow Amnesty International to take half the proceeds."
So far the song has been downloaded more than 600,000 times. Nickelback has been on tour for two years. Chad says he loves making a connection with their international fans.
"We were just in Quebec, and we played to our largest crowd ever. I think it was 100,000 people. The whole time I was thinking, in the seventh grade I took French but why didn't I pay just a little more attention because this would be so much cooler. If I could just scream a couple more phrases."
For now, Nickelback continues to tour and write songs for their next album.
