Former Barenaked Ladies frontman Steven Page tours the UK for the first time in 10 years this month, with a Manchester gig set for the Deaf Institute.
Since leaving Barenaked Ladies in 2009, Steven Page has taken part in a diverse array of solo projects. And whilst he has composed theatrical scores for Canada’s Stratford Festival, collaborated and toured with Toronto’s Art of Time ensemble and tour North American as the host of TV’s The Illegal Eater, he has continued to write, release and perform his own original music.
He is now back on UK stages with new music. He released his latest album Heal Thyself, Pt I: Instinct in 2016, following it quickly with a two work residency at New York’s Cafe Carlyle.
Speaking of the album Steven Page commented “I’ve always had a sense of wonder about that era of Sixties and Seventies music, and probably always will,” he says. “I remember getting Paul McCartney’s second solo album for my 11th birthday, and there’s a picture in it of him standing in front of his 16-track machine in his home studio, with his kid tugging at him. I think from the moment I saw that photo, while listening to this strange album he’d made at his house, I decided I wanted to do the same thing.”
The new UK tour shows will see Steven return in trio form with long term musical mates Craig Northey and Kevin Fox on guitar and cello with new songs, renewed vigour and with his trademark Canadian satire at full steam: something Page has gained an entirely new perspective on since moving to the US several years ago. “I’ve always had a problem describing myself as an artist, and it got even harder after moving to the U.S. where that word has been devalued considerably,” Page says. “There was always a sense of guilt that I didn’t have a ‘real job,’ and that got channelled into some of these new songs, almost as a reaction to the mistrust and spitefulness that pervades so much of our current discourse in North America.”
Where and when does Steven Page perform in Manchester?
Barenaked Ladies founding member Steven Page headlines at Manchester’s Deaf Institute on 31 October 2017. The Manchester gig is one of nine UK dates he will perform.