Feb 20, 20208 min read

Steven Page

From Lovable Pop-Rocker – To Rebel – To Social Justice Warrior

Chris

February 20, 2020

One would be hard-pressed to find a Canadian who doesn’t know the Barenaked Ladies, the five-man band that released songs like If I Had $1,000,000, One Week, and the theme song to the hit TV show Big Bang Theory. This Canadian iconic band has been making music for over thirty years despite losing one of its influential members in 2009. What exactly happened during that time to break up the singing/songwriting duo of Robertson and Page? Who is Steven Page and how has his artistic output changed over the years?

You wouldn’t know from the comedy-rock mood of his early work with BNL that Page is classically trained. Dissect one of their more serious tracks or listen to Page pull an operatic high note out of thin air and his talent will weaken your knees. Steven Page is “one of the most recognizable voices in Canadian music." Born in Scarborough in 1970, his father and brother both played drums; Page himself can play multiple instruments, most notably guitar and the instrument of his voice, first showcased in his high school choir.

As the former co-frontman of BNL with Ed Robertson, Page had an immense influence on the direction of the band in its early years. Page wrote many of the early songs (many co-written with Robertson) and thus performed lead vocals on most of the top hits, as Robertson and Page both tended to write for their own voices.

BNL sold out venues like Madison Square Garden and Royal Albert Hall, a testament to their success that their fanbase reached beyond the borders of Canada. They sold somewhere in the realm of fifteen million albums, won two Gemini awards for their work on television, were nominated for two Grammy awards, and won numerous Juno awards. It was at the Juno awards in 2018 that they would celebrate their induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

While their pop-rock genre with comedic lyrics didn’t fit with the rest of the albums my dad displayed in his man cave, Barenaked Ladies debut studio album Gordon was one of the prominent albums in my childhood because it was fun and whimsical, perfect for the ten-year-old raiding her dad's CD collection.

This album has so many gems on it and each one being right for a different kind of mood. As a child, I related to songs like Enid (a song that reached number two on the Canadian Music Chart) as well as Grade 9. The latter of which is one of many examples of songs that resonate with Canadians of all ages. Songs about high school, dating, and Kraft Dinner might be one reason why their influence reached many demographics. Another could be the quick-paced, instrument-dominant songs that almost mask the perfect pitch and musicality of the vocals, making these early songs not only catchy but also layered with vocal harmony, upbeat percussion and a jazzy touch of the stand-up bass.

It is in these bouncy, catchy tunes that Page takes on the role of the band clown, dancing around and making silly faces like he refuses to take it the whole thing seriously. The character we see on this and other early albums is not the real Steven Page. It would be some years later before this finally took its toll on the artist, and in the meantime, it would be tracks like Brian Wilson and What a Good Boy that reveal the softer side of Page.

A wonderful counterbalance to the silliness, is the romanticism in Page’s delivery, a more genuine depiction of his real self. He appears to wear his heart on his sleeve, in a way that gives fans a glimpse of a broken heart. The lyrics are both poetic and conversational drawing you into more of what he has to say. It is in these more serious songs that the vocals are in the forefront, and Page pours his entire breath into the climax of the song.

The culmination of the artistic contributions of Robertson and Page are reprised in If I Had $1,000,000 with the call and answer of the memorable and clever lyrics.

Even as an audio-only recording, it plays like a performance with dimensions of musicality and the banter between Robertson and Page. There is no doubt that Page is the vocal genius of the group having the diversity of performing both the comical songs with embellishment and wit and the sentimental songs with power and emotion.

They say all good things must come to an end. In early 2009, it was announced that Steven Page would be leaving the band, who would continue to record and perform as a quartet without him or a replacement. The public relations approved story was that Page left the band amicably to pursue other opportunities including solo projects and theatrical performances. However, many Canadians also heard rumours about substance abuse and criminal charges. So, what really happened leading up to the split in 2009?

Publications like today.com, CityNews, and National Post ran stories from July to October 2008 describing the events that led to Steven Page’s arrest in Syracuse, NY. According to these outlets, Page was visiting his girlfriend and had consumed a substance believed to be cocaine when law enforcement arrived to inquire about a vehicle parked across the sidewalk. Page was arrested, along with his girlfriend and her roommate, and charged with ‘fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance’ a charge that can lead to five and a half years in prison.

Page and both women were given the opportunity to avoid jail time if they all sought substance abuse treatment and stayed clean for six months, which they did successfully. Because these conditions were met, the charges for all three were dropped.

One would think that because of the time proximity of the arrest in July 2008 to the break-up of BNL in February 2009, that these two events are connected. It was especially cringy that Page’s arrest took place parallel to the release of their children’s album, Snacktime, a collection of over twenty original children’s songs. However, bandmate Robertson was quoted in a CP24 article that, “certainly, that was a huge event in all our lives. It would be ridiculous to say it didn’t have a huge effect. I’m just saying this split isn’t about that.”

Mike Ross of Gigcity.ca reported that the band and Page were estranged creatively prior to the legal troubles and had already been traveling separately on tour. Did Page start to act out as a result of feeling trapped in a character he no longer could relate to?

In a TEDxToronto event in October 2012, Page tells his audience, “singers are master manipulators, they can change the mood by being actors – I’ll be honest – they are liars.” This is especially telling as it suggests Page had to keep his lie, perhaps for twenty years, in order to maintain the character he played in Barenaked Ladies. He said sometimes he needs to fool himself into feeling the emotions of a song.

If the events of 2008 were a result of Page trying to break out of that lie, then who is the real Steven Page? Page was raised in a social justice warrior household and believes “social justice” is a fundamental Canadian value. Within the bio on his website adds, “And I’ve watched how the term [social justice] has been twisted and perverted by the Right over the last several years in an effort to diminish the voices of reason.” Rather than engage in arguments on social media, Page would rather inspire change by talking about it in his music. His most recent solo album, Discipline: Heal Thyself, Pt. II has been reviewed as “politically conscious” and incorporates “activism” from the perspective of a Canadian citizen, of Jewish decent, living in the US.

In a September 2018 interview conducted by the Globe and Mail, Page suggests, “Canadians have this superiority complex with the United States. We feel we’re better informed and more reasonable and more humane and better educated – all these myths about the Canadian experience.” In response to The Globe’s fueling question about how it feels “leaving Trump’s America for Ford’s Ontario,” Page seems to suggest that Ontarians will have to live with the choice of voting for this Premier as if they didn’t know enough themselves why they voted for Doug Ford en masse.

I would argue that someone who has been living in the United States for years may not be in tune with what Canadians or Ontarians want. I also believe that Page relates to a Torontonian mentality, one which is far from the viewpoints of rural Ontarians. Although I do agree with Page that Canadians need to be better informed and get educated, I think that education should start with who is leading the establishment parties, how our tax dollars are being spent, and which rights are at risk. I do not believe that Steven Page has the authority, information, and reasonability to educate anyone in the arena of politics. I should also add that Page is unable to vote in either the United States or Canada.

Listen to his latest album's first single, White Noise and you will be infiltrated with anger for US President Trump in lyrics that may be more fantastical than those he wrote with Robertson.

“That’s one of the great things about making music is I don’t have to have answers, but it's important for me to have the discussion,” Page says about using his music to reflect on his position as a recluse in America. This is a very unreasonable way of looking at the political divide in our country or the US. Nothing will ever be accomplished if more problems are simply piled on. Solutions are essential and if you aren't offering solutions, you have no business complaining.

Gone are the days of singing about teenage woes and cruel green dresses. If you are a Steven Page fan, you will need to accept his social justice agenda melted into his musical talents from here on out. Rumoured to be involved in World Wildlife Fund, as well as a co-op that owns wind turbines in Downtown Toronto, Page appears to be one of the “privileged classes” he urges listeners to resist against. He has been described as an NDP enthusiast and was honoured to sing Hallelujah at the funeral service of the late Jack Layton, former leader of the federal New Democratic Party.

It’s not uncommon for class-clown comedy types to break out of their own personal incarceration. We’re just lucky that this manifested itself in criminal behaviour and a change in creative output over something worse, like suicide. Like many performers, Steven Page admitted mental health struggles years after the 2008/2009 charades and has remained an outspoken advocate for mental health awareness ever since. This is perhaps what Steven Page’s calling is, rather than political activism.

I can’t speak for all BNL fans out there, but this Canadian was a little disappointed to be faced with Steven Page’s post-BNL personality. Will Page ever re-join the Barenaked Ladies in a onetime event or compilation? The band and Page say it is not outside the realm of possibility. But Steven Page in 2020 is not the same artist that created the band with Robertson in 1988. His character has morphed, and he may seem out of place more so than when the band was fighting creative cohesion in the last years of writing and performing together.

Page is not a pioneer for using his soapbox to start pushing his own political beliefs. The lines between entertainment and politics has all been blurred at best and annihilated at worst. It is almost original to not have a political opinion in Hollywood or the music industry; Taylor Swift and Dixie Chicks being some of the most prominent figures to get political. Fans are lost when artists incorporate politics into their art, and I fear this as a significant reason why many Canadians couldn’t name even one of Steven Page’s six solo albums.

The silver lining for fangirls like me, who don’t agree with his SJW motivated art, when faced with his activism, let it encourage you to be more active, ambitious, and engaged yourself in the matters that are important to you, particularly if your viewpoints differ. Be grateful that those original songs on that first studio album in 1992 will never age, change their whimsy, and will continue to inspire Canadians to never give up Kraft Dinner.