Brian Byrne knows how rumours get started. For his first series of interviews as I Mother Earth's new lead singer, he and guitarist Jag Tanna have brought along some grist for the mill.

"My joining I Mother Earth was sort of a fluke," Byrne says over coffee at a downtown hotel where they have come to discuss the Toronto quartet's third album, Blue Green Orange.

"Actually, I was cleaning Jag's windshield one day," Byrne says.

"That's right, he was a squeegee kid," Tanna adds, cracking a smile. "He gave me a demo tape."

Untrue, of course. Except the last bit about the demo.

Given all the gossip floating around since the departure of original frontman Edwin in 1997, it's not surprising the band have developed a sense of humour about it.

The split with their former singer had all the acrimony of classic cases -- like Van Halen vs. David Lee Roth or Sammy Hagar.

After five years and two hit albums, Edwin quit, or was fired, depending on whom you believe. There were accusations in interviews, and feelings were hurt.

Then I Mother Earth broke with record company Sony and signed to Universal, picking up a new manager on the way.

Strangely, it started out diplomatically, with Edwin completing a farewell summer tour before embarking on a solo career.

"At that point Ed knew he was out of the band," says Tanna, who's kept mum on the breakup issue until now. And he still prefers to reserve comment on his feelings about his ex-bandmate's debut album, Another Spin Around The Sun.

"We'd stated that we weren't continuing with him, but obviously it sounded more positive for him to say, 'I left.' We let it go at that. We had already gotten over any worries about what to do next."

I Mother Earth had already recruited Byrne to be Edwin's replacement.

"Even on our last tour with Ed -- at Edgefest two years ago -- Brian was basically in the band," Tanna says.

"We were looking at our watches going, 'C'mon, we're ready to go.' "

So it is that Byrne, a friendly and polite 24-year-old from Cornerbrook, Nfld., takes over vocal duties for Blue Green Orange.

"And he's hanging on for dear life," says Tanna, laughing.

I Mother Earth hooked up with Byrne 21/2 years back when a mutual friend passed them a demo that featured the fledgling singer.

"We rejected it immediately because of the picture," Tanna remembers. "It was some sort of Sears passport photo."

The guitarist eventually did put the tape on, and was taken aback by "this bizarre metal music with Brian singing really sweet over top of it.

"I thought, 'This guy doesn't fit in,' " he says. "But he had a lot of aggression and was covering a lot of bases, which is what we tend to do.

"We struck up a friendship on the phone. I couldn't think of anyone I'd talked to on the phone for an hour, ever, and that was a good sign. I would call him from the road on Edgefest. I had a good feeling about this guy."

Byrne, meanwhile, was already an I Mother Earth fan. He was moshing in the crowd when the band played MuchMusic's SnowJob fest in Cornerbrook several years ago. He also knew that replacing Edwin, something of a Can-rock pin-up, would be a tall order.

After Byrne auditioned with songs by Van Morrison, Jeff Buckley and Bjork -- "He picked stuff that had weird time and off-kilter singing and he nailed it," Tanna says -- the band held out for a time before telling him he had the job.

"He wasn't sleeping," laughs Tanna. "He was having chest pains. We had to let him off the hook."

Says Byrne: "I started to cry. I was exhausted."

He got his baptism of fire when he fronted the band for the first time on Our Lady Peace's Summersault Tour last year.

"It was actually quite overwhelming for me," Byrne says. "I was wondering what fans would think, but the band had absolute confidence in me and what we were doing."

"Oh, the doubts were there," Tanna interjects, chuckling. "But once you get rolling you tend to forget about those things. We were shocked by the response from our fans on the last tour. It felt like we'd already made two records with Brian."

Adds Byrne: "I hate to sound hokey, but it's like it was meant to happen."

According to Tanna, Byrne brought a new dynamic into the band. I Mother Earth's previous albums, 1993's Dig and 1996's Scenery And Fish, were strictly written by the guitarist and his drummer-lyricist brother, Christian.

Blue Green Orange marks a loosening up of songwriting rules. The group's trademark rock jams are still there, rounded out by bassist Bruce Gordon, but Byrne is often put at the centre of I Mother Earth's more pop-sounding tunes.

"We've already basically defined the I Mother Earth sound," says Tanna. "With Brian coming in, the difference in his voice stopped me from writing music that was really crowded with stuff all the time. Just to play a couple of chords and let a guy sing over it was a real joy for us.

"That wasn't really our style before, but the whole atmosphere of our band is happier.

"Everybody's more open to everyone else's idea. It doesn't mean everything will get used. I'm a real jerk in the studio. I'm still directing the music. But it's okay for Bruce or Brian or Chris to make suggestions."

He adds: "This change has actually been a great experience. Frustrating, yeah, because of the stuff that flies around in the press. From Ed's side of things, things got pretty negative, he was trying to position himself, and that's fine, that's business and we can take it.

"It's hard to bite your tongue, but we had to downplay it. The music will do the talking, and now that it's out, we feel great.

"We've made a record and, in a cheesy way, that's our statement."