NICKELBACK

Celebrates 15 Years of All The Right Reasons

An Interview With Mike Kroeger

Nickelback was a hallmark of the Canadian music scene in the early 2000s and 2010s. The band, formed in 1995, has seen decades of success: an unprecedented accomplishment within the music industry, both in Canada and across the world.

Their post-grunge rock albums, including Silver Side Up, All The Right Reasons, and Dark Horse, would become anthems within small-town Canadian communities, a fitting prescription for a band formed in the small town of Hanna, Alberta. On a global scale, they’d be named the band of the decade by Billboard Magazine for the 2010s.

Faces sat down with bassist Mike Kroeger to discuss the 15 years since All The Right Reasons was released.

Mike shares his memories of recording the album, his favourite track, and his best advice for the rockstars of tomorrow.

All The Right Reasons turned fifteen in 2020.

When you were recording the album, did you realize that it would become such a successful and historic body of work?

I’d like to say yes, but at that point, we were on a little bit of a downswing. Prior to All The Right Reasons, we released an album called The Long Road, which, in relation to the album before it, was kind of perceived as a failure (laughs). We did Silver Side Up and that was a big deal, and then we put out The Long Road and you know, everyone kind of gave us the cry on the shoulder talk about how “you only get to climb the mountain one time” and “it’s ok, it’s natural to have a decline in your career after you have such a big record like Silver Side Up”. So when we went in to make All The Right Reasons, all bets were off. We didn’t care anymore, we were just going to do what we wanted to do.

You can never go in thinking you’re going to make a half a** album. You can also never go in thinking you’re going to make an album that’s going to go diamond either. You just do your best work, and that’s what we did: our best work. We left it all on the table (laughs). It went really well, and we were lucky that people reacted to it.

Thinking back to who you were as a person and who the band was in 2005, what do you think is one profound difference in how you approach music and your career then vs now?

Well, one thing that was still kind of a new idea for us back then was that we were playing music for a living. That it was our job, you know? Music careers are generally measured in weeks, and we had gone through years and it was looking like we were going to be able to do this for a while. It was a different idea for us, to not really be in a panic or a hurry. We knew we had to go in there and we couldn’t come out until it was the best it could be. During the making of that record was when we truly realized that this is what we do now, this is our life. We do music for a living.

I know you’ve said that there were some tough recording sessions for the album: some sessions came easily while others didn’t, and yet the work had to get done. How did you as a band handle the stress of it all?

After a while, it becomes more important what you don’t do rather than what you do. In the beginning, you want to grab on and explore every opportunity you can get, anything you can get your hands on. And you do that and then after a while, you realize you have to be a little bit more concerned about what you do, because you start getting more opportunities.

If you had to choose one track on that album that had personal significance, what would it be? Photograph was sort of a reflection of our childhood, Chad and I. I think that means a lot. It’s essentially an autobiography of the way we were living at that time, and some of the things Chad was getting up to... it’s a snapshot of living in a small town.

What would you say is a trait of yours that is truly Canadian that you have taken with you throughout your career?

I think I realized fairly early on, after I left the small town and got out into the world, that the small town bluecollar work ethic is a real thing, and it’s a real gift to have that installed in your DNA. It’s the idea that the harder you dig the more you get. We all grew up in that world and so we have learned a really well-developed work ethic. That real grit you see in small towns. I think that really has served us well.

What do you miss most about being on tour?

I’m down here in Los Angeles with my family and we’re all just riding it out.

You know, it’s really simple: the thing I miss the most is being out there and being able to play music every night for people. It’s the feeling of being inside with a crowd of Nickelback fans. That’s about as simple an answer as you can imagine, but it’s the truth. I really miss being able to just to go out and play music for people. And that’s all I want to do.

NIC I can’t not ask you about All The Right Reasons’ track Rockstar. I know you’ve said that all of the things touched on in the song are rooted in fact - that they are part of the rockstar life or things that rockstars laugh at. Do you think that song is still relevant today, but maybe even more so as on there is real. It’s really important to remember that when you look at that and you watch those videos, that you just remember; this is not reality, this has been edited, this is what somebody wants you to see. Their real-life is far more boring than this… sadly. There are a million of them, and I should probably write a book because I think there’s some good stuff I’ve gotten over the years that I’d like to share. But I think the most important thing is to give it a real hard thought about what you want, and make sure that whatever you’re doing, that at the end of that race we see such a different You’ve probably had a bit there is what you want. KEL world with social media, and everyone trying to live out their celebrity aspirations? Isn’t it kind of funny that the lyrics of Rockstar turned into today’s YouTube or Instagram star? I didn’t know it at the time, but we were sort of developing an archetype for what famous people would become. I think it’s already starting to fade. I think people are already starting to figure of spare time these past few months. What are your hobbies? Well, I’m trying to play music still as much as I can, so I’m having a good time. I’m getting in the studio. The real gift of this pandemic has been that I get to live with and see my family. This has been the longest I’ve been with my family since my kids were born. Typically I would Is that ending where you want to be and are you willing to give everything you have to get there? That’s really the question, because you’re going to have to give up everything. What’s next for Nickelback? Right now there’s no real sign of getting let out of the house anytime soon, so we are cooking up some ideas out that it’s all fake. That have been on the road for for the next few months. BACK that isn’t actually that guy’s private jet, and that that guy doesn’t own that Lamborghini... and I think kids have realized the falsehood of it all and I think that’s really good. It’s really important for people to understand that when you look at your smartphone, nothing months this year. So it’s been a special gift to get to live a normal home life with my wife and children. What’s the greatest piece of advice that you’ve received in your career, and your best advice for the aspiring stars of tomorrow? There’s no album done yet, we’re still just sort of picking through ideas and seeing what we have and what we can do. @michaeljkruger