ON STAGE
What: Raine Maida and Chantal Kreviazuk
Where: Charlie White Theatre, 2243 Beacon Ave., Sidney
When: Thursday, Nov. 18, 7:30 p.m.
Tickets: $113.40 from tickets.marywinspear.ca or 250-656-0275
With individual careers that stretch back several decades, there’s a range of songs up for consideration at concerts by Chantal Kreviazuk and Raine Maida. In addition to playing music from their project, Moon vs. Sun, the real-life couple can also draw on material from Kreviazuk’s solo career, or that of Maida’s other band, Our Lady Peace.
Kreviazuk offered few hints as for what fans will hear tonight [Thursday] at the Mary Winspear Centre in Sidney, their first joint show on Vancouver Island since April 2019. She promised only domestic drama.
“We plan to air our grievances of the day,” Kreviazuk said, with a generous heaping of laughter directed at her husband, who was within earshot. “Raine isn’t laughing, but I know he’s with me on this.”
The Canadian-born couple, who split time between residences in Los Angeles and Toronto, put their music and marriage on display — and up for examination — during the 2019 documentary, I’m Going to Break Your Heart, which chronicled the making of their debut album as Moon vs. Sun.
The film primarily explored their efforts to repair their 19-year marriage, but it also shone a spotlight on their creative process. The music they create together is unlike that which they make apart from each other, which gives a freshness to the project. Now, with a Canadian tour on the books, the parents of three children both say they were grateful for having done the documentary.
“We’re just like everyone else. We’re working at it, and we’re not perfect,” Kreviazuk said. “We get it wrong, and we get it right. These concerts are encouraging and also affirming. They are designed to create a community that might be a little deeper than anything my husband and I have done separately.”
Kreviazuk is interested in the science of relationships, and has enjoyed the experience of balancing her at-home life with Maida and their at-work experiences.
“What’s so wonderful is that it doesn’t stop between Raine and I. It doesn’t stop at home — it begins at home. That’s our energy force. And then we go to work. We go out into the public, and have this identity unto ourselves.”
Theirs is a unique union. Most real-life duos — Johnny Cash and June Carter, George Jones and Tammy Wynette, Sonny and Cher — share a similar musical mindset. While Maida’s work with Our Lady Peace falls under the rock banner, and Kreviazuk is more of a traditional singer-songwriter, Moon vs. Sun finds a happy medium between the two forms. They weren’t interested in going down a path of musical collaboration, and all the stress that involves, without wanting to create something special, Kreviazuk said.
“We wanted to find something that has equity. It’s not about one or the other, it’s about both of us. The balance, the harmony.”
It isn’t always easy in Moon vs. Sun — as the moniker suggests — but it’s rewarding, she added. “There’s no denying that most of us exist in the realm of challenge. There’not a whole lot of perfect out there, from what I can tell.”
Maida compares their to-and-fro creative process to jazz, from its improvisation to its unpredictability. “This thing is so crazy different from night to night. And it’s so fulfilling, no matter which way it goes. We have so much baggage but we’re okay talking about it. There’s a normalization that goes on with us on stage that you never expect at a concert. That makes the music even better. We’re vulnerable up there as people, so when the audience hears these songs and listens to the lyrics, they realize we really mean it. We didn’t write this to be a hit. This our life.”
mdevlin@timescolonist.com
