Nickelback is a Canadian rock band from Hanna,
Alberta. Since 1995 the band has included guitarist and lead
vocalist Chad Kroeger, guitarist and back-up vocalist Ryan Peake
and bassist Mike Kroeger.. The band's current drummer and
percussionist is Daniel Adair who has been with the band
since 2005. Nickelback's music is classed as hard
rock and alternative metal. Nickelback is one of
the most commercially successful Canadian groups, having sold almost
50 million albums worldwide, ranking as the 11th best selling
music act of the 2000s, and is the 2nd best selling foreign act in
the U.S. behind The Beatles for the 2000's.
The band is based in Vancouver, Canada.
The band's original domestic signing was with EMI Canada. They
subsequently obtained an American deal with global distribution
via Roadrunner Records. For the release of their seventh album,
the band parted from EMI Canada and signed a new Canadian domestic
distribution deal with Universal Music Canada.
Nickelback was formed in 1995 by Chad Kroeger, Ryan Peake, Mike
Kroeger, and Brandon Kroeger. Its name originates from the nickel in
change that band member Mike Kroeger gave customers at his job
at Starbucks; he would frequently say, "Here's your nickel
back." Nickelback's first release was a
seven-track EP called Hesher in 1996. In
the same year, they also recorded their first full-length album Curb.
"Fly" was included on bothHesher and Curb and
was the first single produced by Nickelback. In 1997, Brandon Kroeger
left the band and the band searched for a new drummer. Later that
year Mitch Guindon join the band, but he decided to leave in 1998
because he started working in a Car Company. In Summer 1998, Ryan
Vikedal joined the band.
Roadrunner A&R Ron Burman told HitQuarters that
one of his West Coast scouts sent him the self-released
album and, suitably impressed, he travelled to Vancouver to see them
perform live. Although an unknown property in the industry at the
time, the venue was packed out. In Burman's words: "I
immediately got the chills! I thought their song "Leader of Men"
was a smash hit." Off the stage he was impressed by
their industry and initiative in managing their career: Despite this
it still took Burman three months for him to convince his label
bosses' to approve the signing, a decision that would mark
Roadrunner's first move into mainstream rock. Nickelback
signed a record deal with EMI and Roadrunner Records. In late 1998,
the band fired their managers and started managing themselves. Mike
Kroeger handled all the distribution, Chad – all the radio
tracking, and Ryan Vikedal – all the bookings. In 1999, Roadrunner
Records signed Nickelback because the band sold more than 10,000
copies of Hesher and their first album Curb as an
independent label.
The State, was released by Nickelback in
2000 by Roadrunner Records and EMI Canada. The
State, was released in Europe in 2001. It spawned 4 singles , Old
Enough, Worthy To Say, and the hits "Leader of Men" and
"Breathe" which were Top 10 rock hits and resulted in the
album being certificated gold in the United States in late 2001. It
reached Platinum status in 2008, after the success of three
consecutive multi-platinum efforts.[10] Nickelback toured with
other bands such as Creed, SevenDust, and 3 Doors Down in their State
tour. Nickelback won a Juno Award in 2001, for best new group. The
State has sold over one million copies worldwide. The album entered
the Billboard 200 albums charts in position number 130; it also
entered the Billboard Top Heatseekers albums charts in number 3 in
2000. The band spent the year on the road playing approximately 200
shows and reaching mainstream audience.
Around 2001 Chad Kroeger started "studying
every piece, everything sonically, everything lyrically, everything
musically, chord structure. I would dissect every single song that I
would hear on the radio or every song that had ever done well on a
chart and I would say, 'Why did this do well?'" Nickelback's
single "How You Remind Me," Kroeger told Bliss, sold so
well because it was about romantic relationships, a universal
subject, and contained memorable hooks.
To record their third album Silver
Side Up, Nickelback worked with producer Rick Parashar. The
album was written before the release The State and was
recorded at the same studio. The disc was released on
Tuesday, September 11, 2001. The single "How You Remind Me"
was a number one single on the Mainstream and Modern rock charts, as
well as the pop chart. It also peaked at number two on Adult Top
40 and became the Billboard Hot 100 number one single
of the year for 2001. The next single was "Too Bad", which
also reached number one on the Mainstream Rock Chart and had a small
amount of success on the pop chart. The final single from the album
was "Never Again", another number one hit on Mainstream
Rock.
In 2002, Chad Kroeger collaborated with Josey Scott on
the Spider-Man theme song, "Hero". This recording
also featured Tyler Connolly, Mike Kroeger, Matt Cameron,
and Jeremy Taggart. In 2002, Nickelback released their first
DVD Live at Home. In 2002 they re-released their first album
Curb, with RoadRunner Records. Silver Side Up has sold over 10
million copies worldwide.
In 2003,
Nickelback released The Long Road. The album was certified 3x
Platinum by the RIAA in March 2005 and it had sold
3,591,000 copies as of April 2011. It has sold over 5
million copies worldwide and in 2003 only the album sold 2 million
copies worldwide. It debuted at #6 on the Billboard
200.
It was ranked
#157 on Billboard's 200 Albums of the Decade. It
spawned five singles. The lead single was "Someday". The band also released "Feelin' Way Too Damn Good"
as a single, which peaked at number 3 on the Mainstream Rock Charts.
"Figured You Out" was also released as a single and topped
the Mainstream Rock Charts for 13 consecutive weeks.
Between albums, in 2005, drummer Ryan Vikedal left the band. He
claimed the rest of the band had pushed him out because he was not
the type of drummer they wanted. 3 Doors Down's drummer Daniel Adair
joined Nickelback. "We are totally thrilled to have Daniel in
the band," Chad said. "The creativity that went on with him
in the studio was really inspiring. He’s a totally amazing
player." The group was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in
2007. Nickelback's fifth studio album, All the Right
Reasons (2005), produced five U.S. Hot 100 top 20 singles:
"Photograph", "Savin' Me", "Far Away",
"If Everyone Cared" and "Rockstar". Three of
these became U.S. Hot 100 top 10 singles. It included
appearances by Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, who played a guitar solo on
the song "Follow You Home" and sang backing vocals on "Rock
Star"—and a posthumously sampled appearance by Chad Kroeger's
friend Dimebag Darrell from Pantera, culled from guitar outtakes. The
band also used more acoustic sound on some songs. "Savin' Me,"
for instance, included strings and piano as well as guitars. "We
were a little scared of using piano," Chad Kroeger said in a
biography on the band's website. "We just didn't think
it was very rock and roll." But once they heard the result, he
added, they liked it. All the Right Reasons had sold
7,357,944 copies in the US to June 19, 2010. In total, All
the Right Reasons has sold more than 11 million copies worldwide
since its 2005 release. Aside from all the success of All the
Right Reasons, lead singer Kroeger began his own label named 604
Records in 2005 and holds the position of executive producer.
In November 2005, Nickelback asked that Vikedal and his production
company Ladekiv Music, Inc., give all financial interest in future
royalties for the songs, featuring Vikedal as drummer and return any
public performance royalties earned since January 2005.
Nickelback spent much of 2006 touring. Chad Kroeger was arrested in
the Surrey, British Columbia in June and charged with
drunken driving. His attorney entered a plea of not guilty on his
behalf at a court hearing in August. In November of 2006, Nickelback
won an American Music Award for best pop/rock album, surprising the
band itself. "We just kinda showed up because we were supposed
to give one of these away tonight," Chad Kroeger said after
receiving the award. Kroeger added he had thought the Red Hot Chili
Peppers would win the award.
After taking much of 2007 off, the band
started recording new album in earnest. In July 2008, the band signed
with Live Nation for three touring and album cycles, with
an option for a fourth. The contract includes recordings, touring,
merchandise and other rights.
On September 4, 2008, Roadrunner Records announced that the first
single from the upcoming album would be "If Today Was Your Last
Day", to be released on September 30, 2008. However, the song
was replaced by "Gotta Be Somebody". The new
album, produced by Mutt Lange and titled Dark Horse,
was released on November 18, 2008. "Something in Your
Mouth" was released as the second single to rock radio only on
15 December, where it reached number one. "If Today Was Your
Last Day" was released as the third single. Four more singles
were released, "I'd Come for You", "Burn It to the
Ground" (which would become the theme for WWE RAW) and
"Never Gonna Be Alone" released in September and "Shakin'
Hands" as the seventh single on 16 November. Its eighth
single, "This Afternoon", was released on March 23,
2010. Dark Horse was certified platinum by
the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on
December 9, 2008, only three weeks after its North American release.
The album also remained in the top 20 on the Billboard 200 for weeks
after its release. The album was certified two times
platinum in April 2009, and had by April 2010 sold over 3 million
copies in the U.S. Burn it to the Ground was also
nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance at the 52nd Grammy
Awards but lost to AC/DC's "War Machine". The
album won numerous accolades at the 2009 Juno Awards, winning
three out of five of its nominated awards including "Rock Album
of the Year". However, critical reception of the album has been
mostly mixed to negative.
On February 28, 2010, Nickelback gave a
performance at the beginning of the concert portion of the 2010
Winter Olympics closing ceremony, performing "Burn It to the
Ground". On October 2010 Nickelback finished their Dark
Horse Tour.
Chad Kroeger
said in an interview with Billboard.com in September 2010 that
songwriting for the next Nickelback album was planned to commence as
early as February 2011 with "about four tunes" already in
mind. Adair mentioned that the band wanted to go back to the
musical style of All The Right Reasons, which he described as
"more organic."
Nickelback
announced their new album, Here and Now, on September 8, 2011,
along with its two lead singles, "Bottoms Up" and "When
We Stand Together". Kroeger said "We’re four people who love
making music, the way we like to make it. We entered the studio this
year with a vision, and it all came together. We’re extremely happy
with the results, and can’t wait to share them with our fans.”
The album will be released on November 21, 2011, with the band
calling it Nickelback Monday, while the two singles will be released
to radio stations on September 26, and September 27 for purchase
on iTunes. Nickelback will be touring in support of the
album in 2012, however they haven’t released any announcement
yet.
Nickelback has received widespread negative reviews from various
sources. Review aggregator Metacritic reports that three of
their six most recent studio albums since becoming a mainstream
act,The Long Road, All the Right Reasons and Dark
Horse, have scores of 62%, 41% and 49%
respectively.[32][33][34] Criticism tends to focus on the band's
overused themes of "strippers, sex, prostitutes, drugs, sex,
drinking and sex", for being derivative in the music
they create, as well as too often sticking to formula instead of
innovating.
Despite a barrage of criticism Nickelback has still managed to please
some reviewers with each of their mainstream albums. Allmusic
reviewer Liana Jones complimented Nickelback after their commercial
breakthrough, Silver Side Up; "what gives the group an
upper hand over its peers is intensity and raw passion... Nickelback
ups the ante by offering realistic storytelling that listeners can
relate to." Following their 2008 album, Dark
Horse, ChartAttack credited the band's success to knowing
their target audience: "Chad Kroeger is a genius because he
knows exactly what people want and precisely how far he can go. He
turned out an extremely racy album that's loaded with songs about
gettin' drunk and doin' it all without breaking any taboos, and with
enough love and moral authority to grease its passage into the
mainstream. Rejoice, North America. This is your
world." Billboard gave praise to the band: "The
bulletproof Nickelback provides affordable fun that promises good
returns in hard times." Also various fellow musicians
like Chris Martin of Coldplay as well as R&B
singer Timbaland support the band.
