Barenaked Ladies

After more than three decades as the lead singer and guitarist for Barenaked Ladies, Ed Robertson has a routine when it comes time to start writing songs for a new album. “I tend to get ideas while I’m driving up to my lake house,” he says. “I record voice memos along the way, and then I listen back and try to make sense of them and mix and match the various ideas I’ve come up with. On a typical drive, I’m happy if I get six or seven — eight ideas would be a good drive. The results mark a new chapter for a band that’s sold more than 15 million albums, earned Grammy nominations and won multiple Juno Awards, and in 2018, were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. In Flight, BNL’s eighteenth studio album, retains the dry wit and keen observation we expect from Robertson, bassist Jim Creeggan, keyboardist/guitarist Kevin Hearn and drummer Tyler Stewart, but adds a strong sense of maturing and lessons learned. Barenaked Ladies have become an institution, with a passionately dedicated audience (enough for them to headline their own cruises and have an ice cream flavor named after them) and a constant flow of new fans (plenty of whom discover the band through their theme song to the endlessly popular The Big Bang Theory).