Talk to the hand 'cause it's green!

After nearly 20 years, The Barenaked Ladies are still making us laugh and getting us to dance. But members Steven Page, Ed Robertson, Jim Creeggan, Kevin Hearn, and Tyler Stewart have also devoted a lot of time and energy being green.
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Shelagh McNally of Green Living Online spoke with lead vocalist Steve Page about the challenges of producing green music for their Talk to the Hand DVD and the upcoming SNACKTIME children's CD.Green Living Online: Have you tried the organic Mac n’ Cheese that’s out on the market?Steve Page: Of course, I’ve tried some of it. Some of it’s decent, but I still think the idea of powdered cheese mix pretty vile. It’s not that hard to make your own. You just take some cheese and some milk and some butter, and some flour.You guys are fairly green at home. You’ve done so much I don't think you could be accused of jumping on the green bandwagon.Well, no. We’ve been since the late 80s, since the early days of Earth Day. A lot of our early gigs we were doing environmental benefits. We did Earth Day celebrations. We did stuff with the World Wildlife Fund. I’m on the board of WWF in Canada. It’s a part of who we are as people, as parents, you know, and you try to have an impact on the industry you’re in and do your business with a clear conscience.What made you want to do the DVD, Talk to the Hand, Live in Michigan, fully green? We started by using FSC certified paper for the Barenaked Ladies Are Men CD. None of the printers that we had used for making CD packaging had ever used FSC paper. But we introduced that kind of paper to the printers who now could offer it to their other clients. With the DVD, we realized a big part of the package is that plastic tray. So, we found this potato starch tray instead, which at least is biodegradable. Obviously, the greenest option is to download it, but if you’re going to buy a physical product, you want it as green as possible.How long did it take you to find everything and pull it all together?It took a fair amount of time. One of the singers from the band GUSTER, -- who is a good friend of ours -- started a group called REVERB to help musicians green their businesses, initially with their touring plans, setting off with bio-diesel and biodegradable cups and plates. When we came to REVERB saying we wanted to change our packaging for our CDs and DVDs, they were amazing at sourcing that stuff out.
Seeing the world with new eyes
The Environmental Timeline: 1990-2007
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Earth Day quotesWhat was the worst part? What was the best part? Well, obviously, the worst part of it was the cost of a lot of the stuff, and people saying ’no,’ a lot of time as their first reaction. But you keep it working, reminding them that you're willing to pay for the product. The good thing is, seeing them change their tune when they realize that there are other customers out there. The printers and packagers aren’t the enemy. If they don’t feel there’s any demand for the product, they won’t stock it. But when they actually see that there’s a demand for it and then other artists see that it’s available, then we can become quite popular, and that’s the reward.And so do you see the green element as helping your sales? I can’t imagine it makes too much of a difference to our sales. It certainly doesn’t hinder our sales. In certain ways some of our costs did go up with some of the stuff, but we know that as early adopters hopefully costs will eventually go down. A few people might buy it out of curiosity, but people want music for music’s sake.Was there an interest in the other formats you offered, downloads and flash sticks? We released the last couple of records on the flash drives. And at the live shows you could buy that night’s show on the drive and walk home with it. We haven't been able to start offering video on it yet. But, it’s a nice idea. The other thing about that is it’s re-usable, too.You know, retail has not shown a huge interest in that kind of thing, which is pretty frustrating for us. I would have thought the Future Shops and Best Buys of the world who specialize in electronic goods as well as the software would eat that up, but, they don’t seem to know how to rack it -- where to put it.