For Barenaked Lady Ed Robertson, playing live is a party.

But writing songs is a serious, solitary and sarcastic business.

Nowhere is that more obvious on their latest album, the cheeky Everything To Everyone, than on the lead single Celebrity.

"I certainly don't wish I wasn't famous," says Robertson. "If you don't handle it right, too much of it is devastating. Four years ago, when we were really on top of the world, I found it difficult. It was absolutely dizzying and disconnecting to the point where you wonder if you are who you think you are, or what everyone else thinks you are."

Robertson got both feet back on the ground through his family and by writing it out of his system.

"As a writer, I have to write about my experiences, if only to put it into perspective," says the 33-year-old father of three. "We can't write any more songs about being 18 and partying all night. We worked hard to get that song right. It's not about celebrity but about loneliness and that disconnection."

The album, released last year, came while the band, which includes Kevin Hearns, Steve Page, Jim Creegan and Tyler Stewart, was at a crossroads, wondering if its brand of pop-politics was still relevant.

'Industry confusion'

"Everything To Everyone sprung out of the industry confusion," said Robertson. "As we were writing these songs, we thought, 'Is there a place for BNL?' Nobody's buying music with our kind of social commentary anymore."

Everything To Everyone has been hailed by critics as the band's "post 9/11 album," meaning the most serious and mature of the six studio albums they've produced. It is a claim that makes Robertson's eyes roll.

"We've heard that every single time," he says, sounding a little pissed off. "People are surprised that there's another side to the band. The singles are wacky and we ham it up on television, but there's always been a serious side to the band. We like to experiment. If we got more serious on every one of our six studio albums, we'd be Edgar Allan Poe."

"Pop is supposed to be catchy, not forgettable," he adds. "We want to make music people enjoy listening to for a long time like the Beatles and XTC, that makes them feel something."

He calls their Everything To Everyone tour, which comes to the Corel Centre Tuesday, "the most monumental concert experience ever known," proving that even at his most serious, this Barenaked Lady is a partner -- along with lead singer Page -- in one of rock's funniest one-two punches.

It's fitting that the band, which made its U.S. network television debut on Conan O'Brien's late-night show in 1993 and has played the show seven times since, was O'Brien's final guest during his visit to Toronto, the band's home town. "It was a huge moment for us," Robertson said. "We totally identify with the humour. He helped to make us in the States. We'll help Conan in Canada."

They also play the Junos on April 4 in Edmonton.

The Barenaked Ladies formed in 1989 after Robertson and Page met at a summer music camp. Their debut release, a self-produced cassette tape, charted top-20 in 1991, leading to a global contract with Sire in 1992. The band made the transition from campus underground favourites to mainstream with hits If I Had a Million Dollars, Yoko Ono and 1996's monster single Brian Wilson.