Partners in life, music
Chantal Kreviazuk gets invaluable help from fiance Raine Maida on new CD

The worst-kept secret in Canadian rock music is out.

Chantal Kreviazuk and Our Lady Peace lead singer Raine Maida are tying the knot.

"We are getting married," Kreviazuk confirmed yesterday during a promotional visit to Calgary. "We are together and we're really happy and it's a very exciting time in our lives.

"But," she added, "I am not prepared to give away specific details about when our wedding is, or anything like that. But we are getting married."

Her revelation and reservation speaks volumes about the Toronto-based singer-songwriter-pianist.

She's someone who's willing, in interview and on record, to reveal a few personal details but, at the same time, hold back what's truly precious to her. Case in point: Her lovely, richly textured second album, Colour Moving and Still, which hits record shops on Tuesday.

It's obviously a deeply personal work; its 10 tracks addressing recurring themes of falling in love and, interestingly, coming to grips with death. While some lyrics are very direct and transparent, others seem purposely ambiguous, as if she needed to write about very intimate experiences but didn't want to lay down her life for all to see.

"You learn to protect things that are sacred to you," she explained. "I don't want to give everything away on every song."

The buoyant first single Before You and the atmospheric Until We Die, about the loneliness of a long-distance relationship, are obviously inspired by her partnership with Maida. The latter song -- "Heal in my arms as the night goes by/That's what we do/Can we do it until we die?" -- was written to be "an exclusive gift to him, but it turned out that everyone who has heard it relates to it."

Meanwhile, several other songs allude to the death of a child -- somewhat cryptically in Eve and Far Away, and quite directly in M, the album's standout track from which the album draws its title: "We're going to keep her alive with black and whites/Colour moving and still."

The song, Kreviazuk said, is based on a 12-year-old girl who had an inoperable brain tumour and how her parents coped with the last months of their daughter's life.

Is Kreviazuk, 26, related to the girl? "No. It was a child I got to meet through, um, I would say, I don't want to, you know (sigh)..."

Ya, we know.

But she isn't reluctant to admit she's "much more pleased with this album" than her debut, Under These Rocks and Stones, which sold more than 200,000 copies in Canada and spawned her first big hit, Surrounded.

"You're thrown into a studio with 10 men; you're the youngest person there; you're female; and you have to get out of these people what you need. I was 22. That was really difficult," she said about making her debut.

"The same thing happened again (with Colour). There were 10 men in my studio, but I was more ready to (take charge)."

It helped that Maida, who was recording the latest OLP album at roughly the same time, was able to spend some time in the studio during the three-week sessions. He helped produce one track and co-wrote two. Said Kreviazuk: "The album wouldn't be what it is without Raine.

"Raine said to me: 'You can't blame anybody. This is your gig.' That is why, a lot of times, even when I wanted him to make a decision for me, he'd say no.

"He was also someone I could go to and say: 'What do you think of this?' And instead of him going, 'It's great,' he would say: 'You need to do more with this.' He's extremely honest. I love showing him new things that I'm excited about. I respect him so much as a songwriter and so much as a person."

Although nothing is confirmed, Kreviazuk is expected to embark on a cross-Canada tour in November, possibly accompanied with a back-up band.

By: Dave Veitch