If you hear some unexplained sounds on the new Our Lady Peace album, don't blame the band.

If you believe drummer Jeremy Taggart, they were made by spirits hanging around producer Bob Rock's Maui recording studio, which is located on a hill overlooking an ancient burial ground.

"You can kind of feel a presence on the album. It's the way the songs run into each other and the vibe of the album. You can feel an energy. Eighty per cent of the people are going to think that's bullcrap, but I was there and I saw them," he says.

"The burial ground is very active in the spiritual world and I had the pleasure of seeing some good ones, some people that weren't still alive. The other guys could feel stuff, definitely, but I'm the only one that saw them."

The Toronto band -- Taggart, vocalist Raine Maida, bassist Duncan Coutts and guitarist Steve Mazur -- decided to work with Rock instead of their regular producer Arnold Lanni because they liked his work with artists such as Metallica and American Hi-Fi.

"He saw us as a rock band as soon as we got there, and the way we recorded it was live off the floor as a rock band as opposed to layering things," he says. "He was a great leader who got the best out of us immediately."

If otherworldly spirits and working with the ueber-producer weren't enough, the group also had to break in new guitarist Mazur, the replacement for founding member Mike Turner, who left the band after their last record, Spiritual Machines, a concept album based on Ray Kurzweil's book The Age of Spiritual Machines.

Mazur, a Detroit native, was chosen over thousands of guitarists from all over the world who sent audition tapes to the band after Turner's departure.

"He's one of the best guitarists I've ever seen, never mind played with. He's definitely bringing the band up to a different level. We play at least 70% better. Once he joined we got tighter -- a lot tighter on stage and as friends," Taggart says.

The addition of a new guitarist hasn't seemed to alienate any of the group's fans. Gravity has sold over 150,000 copies in Canada and more than 50,000 in the United States, where the group has been focusing their efforts since the record was released last June.

Our Lady Peace is completing a cross-country arena tour in support of their fifth album with South African group Seether, fellow Canadians Finger Eleven and the Trailer Park Boys, who aren't a band, but the stars of the cult Showcase television series of the same name. The actors who play Bubbles, Julian and Ricky (Mike Smith, John Paul Tremblay and Robb Wells) will act out scenes from the show in front of a video screen.

"The three of them are going to be on our bus, so it's going to be one for the books," Taggart laughs.

After their Canadian dates -- which includes the recording of a live album and DVD at shows in Calgary and Edmonton -- Our Lady Peace will head to Europe in March as the opening act for current It Girl Avril Lavigne on her first tour.

"She's going to be playing to 4,000 to 5,000 people a night who have no idea who we are, so that's a way to reach some potential new fans. That's probably the best tour I can think of on earth," Taggart says.