- 45 minutes ago
Nickelback is hitting harder than ever with their 11th studio album, 'Everything Under The Sun,' now available everywhere. The band recently joined Abe Kanan for an Audacy Check In to take us inside the project, the origins of some of the songs, and the special experience of mixing the album at Abbey Road Studios.
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00:00it's Abe Cannon this is very exciting you don't often get all four members of Nickelback Mike
00:04Ryan Chad and Daniel they're all here and it's a very exciting time because the new album
00:09is coming out everything under the sun October 30th I got to hear six songs and these are going
00:18to be some of the biggest songs in Nickelback history oh thanks that's some big that's some
00:29Wrestlemania right you put out the first song it bones for the crows this the album wasn't done
00:36does Triple H just call you guys and he's like hey man what do you got or how did that
00:40work that's
00:41pretty much it I think actually yeah yeah we have a relationship like our manager's got a really good
00:45relationship with the guys and so I think every time they need a song I think they make the rounds
00:50and they're like can someone please give us some material and so uh our manager fired over a song
00:58that was done and they're like we love it we're gonna we want to just use this right away and
01:03um
01:05we were like a little concerned about that and like well that's not the first single and we're not
01:11ready and yeah the rest of the record's not even done um and they're like well you know we're gonna
01:17promote the hell out of it so just like give us the give us the tune and um and then
01:21we decided we
01:22were ready yeah so that kind of happened and then so then Canada being our home nation
01:32radio stations start like a smattering of them start picking up the song and no one's working
01:37this thing like we we hadn't even we were still working through a record deal at that point we
01:41hadn't even we hadn't even signed a deal with the company we're with now we signed a deal signed a
01:45deal
01:45with virgin and um uh but they're like so i go well this is silly like we can't we can't
01:54uh have the
01:56the song just kind of get out there and so our lawyer who's been our lawyer for 30 years
02:04he says uh and we own he and i co-own you know 604 records together a local record company
02:11in
02:11vancouver he goes well i'll just get on the phone i'm just gonna start calling uh program directors
02:17across the country and i'm just gonna see if i can do something with this song and i'm like
02:21you're that seems weird like our lawyer so yeah he takes the baton and starts running with this thing
02:30and uh he's okay uh you're gonna be number 11 next week and it's like wow really and he's like
02:41yeah
02:41there's only like three or four stations that haven't jumped on board yet and so he calls all
02:45these and one of the program directors says i couldn't find the song anywhere i had to pay i
02:51had to pay to download it we'll give you your buck back you know and uh so uh we we
03:02just like well
03:03that's kind of nice like it's going to get a little bit of play it's going to do something
03:08and uh he he then he does he jumps on this group email and he says well just so you
03:14know
03:15you know following week you're going to be number one next week and we're like no way he's like yep
03:20i got you number i got you a number one on a song that nobody was even gonna work it
03:25wasn't even
03:25supposed to be a single we're just like dude that's insane and then the following week he goes uh
03:31back in the group chat well your lawyer just got you uh two weeks at number one he's insufferable
03:37if you can't tell like he's insufferable he's a really new tech what a guy no one to pay people
03:42no one waves his pom-poms harder than he does he just threatened to sue them all yeah that's how
03:46we got so you have to know this guy i can just imagine people taking the call they just see
03:50it
03:50says simpkin they're like oh god um we love to bash you you just mentioned this went on for weeks
03:59this went on for weeks though it went week after week after week he got tired of saying hey you
04:05just got three weeks at number one he's like i'm just gonna i'll show myself out he's like i'm not
04:09even gonna say that he's like now you guys are at four weeks at number one on a song that
04:13nobody was
04:13gonna work and we're just like are you kidding me that he just stopped doing it and i don't know
04:18how
04:18long i think the song the song's still top 10 in canada and it's like we don't even this isn't
04:24that
04:24song's never we're never gonna play it live uh but there you go it adds new pressure to the new
04:30team to perform as well as our lawyer did on the radio campaign so we'll see how that goes if
04:36if they
04:36don't match him we're never hearing the end of this one it was it was the perfect song to see
04:43like
04:44brock lesnar and opa femi and roman reigns and cm punk you guys just mentioned the nickelback group
04:49chat right do you guys get together often when you're not touring or recording music all four of
04:54you oh we live in a house together band house we have all our toothbrushes lined up in the bathroom
05:01and yeah no we everybody has their own towel you know everybody is usually like a we hit the ground
05:07right yeah sure everybody can i mean everybody's got their own things going on for sure mike's in la here
05:11we can like when management needs to get a hold of us they can barely track the band down you're
05:17impossible to get a hold of that's by design like and it says it says uh it's a satellite signal
05:26only
05:26and like he'll be in the bush camping like we were just trying to get a hold of you for
05:30a week straight
05:31i called your wife and like we couldn't get he could not be he's very clever you can't get a
05:36hold
05:40yes he's practicing out there i'm sure so so the new album everything under the sun so first song
05:47bones for the crows then you put out this super heavy rattle the cage which we play on 98 rock
05:52like
05:52all the time awesome second song everyone loves it that's the official first single i guess right
05:59for everything under the sun yes right that's the official first single is rattle the cage yeah
06:04yeah that was uh that was uh okay an old an old riff that we'd had kicking around that's that's
06:10actually one of the longest i don't know if it's the longest but you know you don't throw anything
06:14away so chad did this riff from years ago and it's the longest yeah that's been around i think
06:20finally something you tried everything's with it and finally found something that everybody was like
06:24this is this work well you can everybody can kind of tell like this works and it's here it is
06:28it's
06:29it's pretty great and i love that you guys came out with something so heavy because you're now and
06:35i'm going back and forth with the next two singles because i heard leave me behind i'm like this is
06:40awesome then i heard make me love you and i'm like make me love you is going to be a
06:46massive hit but
06:46then i'm going back and forth between leave me behind and make me love you and i do agree
06:52the number two single leave me behind this sounds like like the intro for like uh deadliest fetch or
06:59something that first riff and i think this is gonna be a massive hit for you guys oh thank you
07:04we just keep saying these things for the rest make it happen make it manifest this uh thank you
07:11that's amazing uh we had we had fun making this record because there was no like we have that
07:20luxury like there was no one like okay you you have to have this record done by such and such
07:25a date
07:25there's no hurry there's no pressure there's no it's like and then what happens is this is the first
07:31time we're gonna have more than 11 songs on a record traditionally we always just do
07:3811 tunes it's like this weird nickelback tradition it's just like no it's gotta be 11
07:43uh and we squeeze out the 11th at the last minute yeah 11th hour and then we yeah we're usually
07:49like
07:49hey we need another tune here guys leave me behind's awesome and then we have make me love you that'll
07:53be
07:53the third single i'm telling you make me love you leave me behind are gonna be two of the biggest
07:58nickelback songs ever that would be fantastic we we'll leave that up to the people but i'm glad i love
08:03your optimism thank you for the yelp review yeah that's kick ass five stars got a five star uber
08:09would eat here again man and this might be is it the biggest nickelback forever because you guys are
08:16playing raymond james stadium where the tampa bay buccaneers play how many football stadiums have you
08:21guys played in the past the last show we played our very the last the very last show of of
08:27uh 2025
08:29we played in uh phoenix um enough to make me think that i don't want an eagle ramp on those
08:36ones
08:36it's hard to get back to the microphone not just that when you get that far away it's like i
08:40gotta
08:40get back for my part if your ears aren't sealed directly you start to hear echoes and voices and
08:46create and you're just like you get you can get lost pretty easily the pitfalls of playing stadiums
08:50oh i know no one's gonna the heartache but anyway cry for us please it's a it's a it's a
08:57massive world
08:58tour you guys are doing over 70 shows the album comes out the day before halloween everything under
09:03the sun october 30th why not just put it on halloween guys it might have been awesome you'd have to
09:08talk
09:08to the label about that one we're just we're we're in charge of creating it uh that once we turn
09:13it over
09:13to a label uh they get to they get to put all that stuff they they slot that and so
09:19we just you know
09:20we just run with it well what it really is is that we made the deal with the devil so
09:24we have to put it
09:26out on devil's night devil's night you can figure out the rest so i have four ideas i know touring
09:34is
09:34expensive right i have four ideas for you guys that i think will make you an extra 20 million dollars
09:40on
09:40this tour do tell go on okay so the first one is the nickelback quesadilla that you sell at shows
09:50with a billy gibbon sticker on the quesadilla not bad right right yes yes it's on the whiteboard okay
09:57okay next put a pin in it so okay then so okay so polaroid just did a deal with pokemon
10:03right with the
10:04instant cameras why not have nickelback instant cameras when you play photograph and you'll sell
10:1010 000 per arena everyone pulls out their instant camera when you guys do photograph it's becoming
10:16a thing that's uh we're gonna do something very similar to that have you been reading our
10:20plan that's that's pretty good no um that's you're hired okay we do have something in the works
10:26that's that's it's very insightful brad he's gunning for your job okay
10:31yeah exactly he's like management just just off frame you're a mark just out of frame and they're
10:37like but before we have you killed can you tell us about the other two great ideas yeah
10:43yeah okay okay so affliction t-shirts a lot of nickelback fans used to wear affliction why not
10:49team up with affliction and sell a nickelback affliction t-shirt at the concert they're making a
10:54comeback are they making a comeback next idea yeah that's your number they used to uh you just
10:59assured your life is probably safe now they they uh he's got one more come on here they used to
11:05send
11:06us stuff all the time like in the early 2000s when they're really yeah when they're really big
11:10i think they send box not stuff to everybody yeah okay the last one and it is a stupid term
11:17a lot of
11:18people call nickelback dad rock right so yeah you go to certain concerts they have the baddie section
11:23why not have the single dead section and call them the single backs or the single dads and you
11:30have your own section of those dudes nickeldads we've been referred to as divorce dad rock so you
11:36know maybe there's something yeah yeah a little section for those dudes and then you can highlight
11:41those guys at each show just like you know most people bring in hot chicks and we know these are
11:45the
11:45baddies you have your single backs or your single dad we're just gonna have a single dad we're gonna have
11:51a pen of really pudgy guys yeah i don't know how we old dudes here i don't know how we
11:57monetize that
11:58but uh we'll chew on it thanks thanks for your input ape all right sorry i decided for i was
12:04thinking
12:04i'm like maybe you know a little extra cash for you guys thank you i do want to bring up
12:09just a few
12:09more i heard six songs on the album they were all awesome simple song part of it you guys recorded
12:15abbey road yep yeah um so we had uh two songs that were a beatles-esque and uh i said
12:26well if we're
12:27gonna have these why not go full full circle with it and just you know why not go over to
12:32abbey road
12:33and we'll mix these things that we've never been there and it i mean it goes without saying it's a
12:38legendary facility um beatles alone i got the t-shirt on um and uh so we went over there and
12:47and so we're mixing and as we're mixing there's this big gang vocal thing at the end of simple song
12:56and we go in the studio and we're there's there's like four or five of us all singing around this
13:01mic
13:01trying to get this part sounding bigger and bigger but it we're not i'm not just not getting
13:05like i kind of wanted that big huge sort of stadium sound like this massive and it just wasn't
13:10happening it just sounded like a classroom of people instead of you know the size i wanted
13:16and on the third day all of a sudden the hallways are just full of people like there's just so
13:22many
13:22people there and we could barely move and they all had the same t-shirt and everyone's rock they
13:28don't have the same t-shirt and i'm like it says rock choir yeah so i asked uh i asked
13:33our assistant
13:33at the studio i was like what's what's with all the like why why is it so busy today and
13:40they're
13:40like oh there's 160 person choir across the hall singing in studio three and uh everyone just looks
13:48at me studio one we were in was it three oh we were in three it was a studio one
13:51that's correct
13:52doesn't matter thank you studio one uh and studio one is where they did like all the like john
13:58williams did like all the star wars the superman e.t jaws radius of the lost ark all that the
14:07big
14:07all those big big big you know orchestral um you know when the symphony gets together and the room's
14:12massive it looks like a uh an airplane hanger and someone looks at me like should we ask him and
14:19i'm
14:19like no no we're not gonna ask him that feels weird i don't i don't want to put somebody in
14:25the position where they have to say no and shit's gonna get awkward i'm like no let's not do this
14:28yeah brad suggested it and then i look at him daniel yeah and i just you know a second later
14:34and i go
14:35is the universe just handing us a gift and i'm just like turning my back on it he's like yes
14:41what's the worst they're gonna say the worst they're gonna say is no and i'm like okay fine
14:44so the next thing you know we're over there in the room there's 160 of them and and uh they
14:50had
14:50a choir master and they're all part of a union like it's a big coordinated thing and then we get
14:56this huge orchestral sound so we're standing there and we had cameras with us because we're recording
15:01you know behind the scenes stuff of making the record and so they're filming everything and on the
15:07first pass the round of these big nanas i was like oh and i just got chills the whole way
15:13down my
15:13body and on their second round it was even more confident and even louder and i started welling
15:19up it was so powerful i turn around and uh i look at brad who's on our management team and
15:24brad's
15:25crying and i'm just like this is so impactful it's pretty cool it's just incredible you cried
15:31oh it was uh easy crier easy cry it was very cool it was very good of them to take
15:38time out they had
15:39stuff their own stuff going on to do that was like it's pretty amazing that was very certain
15:43sometimes you just yeah you just grab that opportunity right they acted like they were
15:46fans of our band too which was really that was also cherry on top
15:52you know what under the bridge john for shanti's mom her church choir sings that art where it's like
15:58under the bridge downtown that's her church yeah that's like that happens that's cool i just heard
16:04that too yeah that's pretty crazy yeah you just you find these opportunities you like you either
16:08grab them or just let them slip by you never know so one other song i got to hear which
16:14is great
16:14all that i'm telling you i heard six songs you're six for six i don't know about the rest of
16:18the
16:18album but the the six i heard are awesome so technicolor steamboat tell me about that song
16:23you got ryan reynolds on that one yeah um my girlfriend had been asking me for two years
16:31she's like will you write me a song that's just about like sort of tripping on mushrooms or something
16:36but you everything has to be like heavily metaphor laden and i said okay well just do you have a
16:42title
16:42or anything like and she says um technicolor steamboat i was like whoa that's pretty good
16:52and then i just spit out the chorus kind of all at one time i just grabbed an acoustic and
16:57and just played the the sort of just played the chorus right there on the spot and i was like
17:03and
17:03i couldn't get it out of my head and then after three days the song was written and it was
17:09really
17:09really strong and i said can i play this for the guys and uh she said yeah but um don't
17:20tell him i
17:20had anything to do with it i was like why she wait she had something to do with it there
17:25you go
17:26breaking news so band she wanted like a yoko oh no situation or so that's what those were the next
17:32words coming out of my mouth she's like well i just don't want him to think that i'm like some
17:35sort
17:35of yoko thing going on and i'm like no one a good song's a good song babe don't worry about
17:41it like
17:41so yeah the whole thing is because of her and then when i said we were going to mix it
17:46at abbey road
17:47she was like right away can i come like yes you can come and i you know to brad who's
17:52he's he's our
17:53day-to-day manager brad's like can i come yes yes you can come and the next thing you know
18:01everybody i didn't think that i didn't even think you guys would want to go across the pond to mix
18:05this and then you know speak to every one of the guys oh yeah they're like well we're we're going
18:09when i saw how expensive it was i'm like we gotta go i'm like yeah we're spending money
18:13dumb idea and then brad's like okay if everyone's going we got to get a camera crew then we're gonna
18:18film the whole thing and and it just turned into a bit your your wife showed up your kids show
18:23like
18:23everybody wanted to go to abbey road that's great and uh and do the thing like it's it's legendary
18:29and you know 30 years into our career i can't believe it took us that long to get there but
18:34so so the the tour uh february of 2027 the new album everything under the sun the 11th studio
18:40album october 30th it was such a pleasure talking to you guys thank you guys so much
18:43brother thank you so much great talking with you thank you for the kind words thanks for listening
18:46to the tunes and thanks for taking the time thanks for your great ideas
18:58you