Nickelback: Pushing boundaries

Who actually likes Nickelback?

No one - or at least very few - actually admit to it but the fact is the figures (and they're big ones) are there.

Fifty million in album sales worldwide - and counting - and sold out concerts in arenas around the globe.

"I've kind of come around to a new way of thinking," says bassist Mike Kroeger, brother of frontman Chad Kroeger.

"People have told us all these statistics, you know, 50 million records sold around the world and 30-odd No 1 singles on the radio and hit videos on TV - and, I think, someone's lyin' [laughs].

"I think someone is lying because, you know, are you not one of the 50 million or are you? You know what I mean? It would be interesting to find out how many of these detractors have been to our shows, and enjoyed them, and have our albums, and enjoyed them.

"Maybe they've changed their mind. Perhaps. But I think someone's lyin' [laughs]."

Love them or hate them, Nickelback's status as one of the most successful rock acts of the past decade cannot be denied.

A decade ago, Nickelback released their fifth album, All The Right Reasons, which spent 112 consecutive weeks in Billboard's Top 200 and sold more than 11 million copies worldwide.

Billboard ranks them as the most successful rock band of the past decade, while their biggest hit, How You Remind Me, is listed as the best selling rock single of that period.

In Australia alone, Nickelback's Australian sales have hit 14-times platinum and earned the band a spot in the ARIA Top 10 charts five times with How You Remind Me, Someday, Photograph, Far Away and Figured You Out. They touch down in Australia next month for a national tour, including their first show in Newcastle in nearly a decade.

Kroeger says the band's rise to success is the result of nothing but hard work - and a little bit of luck too.

The band was founded 20 years ago in the tiny town of Hanna, Alberta, in Canada, originally playing covers of Metallica and Led Zeppelin before the natural desire to write their own material began taking over.

Kroeger says the band - also comprising Ryan Peake (keyboards) and Daniel Adair (drums) - never chased the "rock'n'roll dream" as such.

"It was the sort of thing where we were young people and we liked to play music and we were big, big music fans. We went to lots of concerts," Kroeger says.

"I don't know if we were sitting in the audience at a Metallica concert or a Guns N' Roses concert and thinking 'Oh yeah, that's what we're gonna do'. There was never really that. It was more like a series of very, very small steps.

"You get together and you play some cover tunes and maybe you go play in the bar or something like that. Then inevitably someone decides 'Well, why should we play other people's music? Why don't we write our own?' and then you get on to that and then maybe it's time to go on tour or play a gig in your city and then so on.

"Little step by little step you push it further and further every effort and next thing you know you're travelling around the world. It's crazy. But it was all incremental. Many, many tiny little steps.

"You hear about these overnight sensations but the fact of the matter is most of them were five to 10 years in the making. It just doesn't really happen like that. It takes years of gruelling effort with no reward before something can break loose and you get a chance.

"That's a special thing. Actually getting a chance is nice."

That chance came when a scout from heavy rock label Roadrunner Records got a copy of the band's self-released debut album, liked it, and went along to see one of their shows in Vancouver.

A few months later, Nickelback had inked their first recording contract.

Fast forward 16 years later.

Kroeger is speaking from Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the band has just wrapped up the final show of the Canada and North America leg of its world tour in support of their eight studio album, No Fixed Address.

It is an album that has divided fans.

The band's signature heavy rock is still there but wedged among it are funk-inspired grooves, danceable beats and a rap verse from US hit-maker Flo Rida.

Yes, you read that right.

Even Kroeger admits he was sceptical when his brother presented the idea to the band.

"When it came to bringing Flo Rida onto the track Got Me Runnin' Round, that was all Chad's idea and, frankly, in the beginning, I didn't really feel like that was a great idea," Kroeger laughs. "Then when I heard the first parts that Flo had made in doing his rap thing over the top of our song, I really liked it. I really liked it and I didn't really expect to like it and the more judgmental side of me didn't really want to like it. But, when it came through, I did."

Another surprise on the album is the single She Keeps Me Up, which could easily pass for a track by pop-rock band Maroon Five. The video has the four-piece dressed in shiny suits performing on stage surrounded by mirror balls - Nickelback does disco.

Again, Kroeger says it is all about pushing the boundaries.

"It's kind of an interesting concept for a sort of a blue collar rock band to go up there and play a funk tune every night. It's pretty fun.

"I have a lot of different musical sources that I like to draw upon and one that we've never really touched on is that area where you get to play something just dead simple with a danceable groove on it.

"It's kind of unusual for us.

"It's always a risk to step outside the box you've created for yourself, for sure. But as an artist you have to try to test the boundaries, within reason I think, because we do have a certain amount of accountability to our fans to give them what they know from us.

"But we like to try some new things every once in a while and hey, some things are just like that. Love it or hate it. But at least it's a strong feeling one way or the other."

Nickelback perform at Newcastle Entertainment Centre on May 23. Bookings through Ticketek.