The four members of Juno-winning Our Lady Peace couldn't help but notice a major parallel between last month's European tour, opening for fellow Canadian Avril Lavigne, and a tour performing with a young phenom named Alanis Morissette.

"We toured with Alanis, back in '95," bassist Duncan Coutts told the Sun in a telephone interview from Toronto yesterday.

"I would say there was the same sort of hysteria involved, from watching the tour. Inside and outside the venue, the same sort of emulation was going on."

This time though, the pint-sized fans were wearing Avril-inspired ties and wristbands.

Coutts says OLP has no ego about opening for the likes of a young Morissette or Lavigne, whose blockbuster debuts somehow trump a 10-year, five-album career when it comes to filling concert seats.

'HANDS OVER THEIR EARS'

"It went really well, opening up for Avril. We weren't sure what to expect. Quite often there were little girls in the front row with their hands over their ears by the end of the show ... sometimes by the end they were cheering and sometimes they still had their hands over their ears," said Coutts.

"We don't have a big crowd over there and this is a way to get to them."

OLP's charismatic frontman Raine Maida, drummer Jeremy Taggart, guitarist Steve Mazur and Coutts will head to the capital Saturday for Juno weekend.

They are slated to perform early during Sunday's Juno telecast and the three-time Juno winners are also up for three awards, including group of the year.

Last year's Gravity is nominated for album of the year, while Somewhere Out There has earned a single of the year nod.

The Junos also gave a nod to producer Bob Rock for two songs on the album. OLP credits their first experience with Rock, who has worked with Metallica, for some of the renewed zest on Gravity.

The experience was so successful the band met with Rock six weeks ago and has already recorded three songs for their next album.

After the Junos they'll do some more writing, and by mid-May, the group will head to Rock's Plantation Studios in Maui to finish recording, said Coutts.

Coutts says the band is determined the entire album will be recorded live in studio. It's a personal trend they started with songs off Gravity like Bring Back the Sun, which Maida hadn't even finished the lyrics for before the group hit the studio.

STRIVE FOR REALISTIC SOUND

Recording live goes against popular methods which involve layering and refining in the studio digitally. But, to OLP, doing it live works to create a more realistic set of sounds, "a vibe" reminiscent of Led Zeppelin or old David Bowie, mistakes and all, says Coutts.

"Digital is great, using it as a tool is great, but at the same time it can suck the life out of a recording. To me it's too pristine," he says. "It's not going to sound like a Linkin Park record, not that I have anything against Linkin Park but that's the end of the extreme."

There is no release date yet set for that CD. But if Gravity's 10-week recording time is any indication, it won't be too long.

OLP plans to release a live CD in June, though members are still waiting to hear how many of the 20-25 songs normally played in concert will make it on it.

LIVE-CONCERT DVD

And members are still going over notes for a live-concert DVD to follow. It will be edited with on- and offstage footage shot in Calgary, Edmonton and during their last performance in Ottawa, at the Civic Centre in February, earlier this year.

But first, there are the Junos to attend this weekend and with them, the possibility of picking up a few more Canadian awards to add to their collection.

"You don't validate your music by the amount of nominations you get, whether it's Junos or video awards or what have you," says Coutts.

"But it's always flattering."