Nickelback Is Not Trendy, According To Chad Kroeger
NEW YORK — Nickelback has had a number of Top 40 hits over the years, and although today's pop scene is dominated by dance music, the band doesn't plan to shift gears to attain past radio success.
"We don't look at what all the popular artists are doing. We're not chasing Lady Gaga or Katy Perry or any of those guys. They're doing fabulous doing what they're doing, and we're just doing what we do, and that's it," lead singer Chad Kroeger said.
"Obviously, there isn't a person in the world that would say, `You know Nickelback is so trendy.' And we're not. We don't care. We really just don't care."
The Canada-based act – which includes Kroeger's brother, Mike, on bass, guitarist Ryan Peake and drummer Daniel Adair – was named group of the decade by Billboard magazine and their 2001 breakthrough hit "How You Remind Me" was the decade's top rock song. Their best-selling album is 2005's "All the Right Reasons," which has sold 8 million copies in the U.S.
Peake pokes fun at the state of contemporary pop music: "Unless some famous DJ wants to make a huge, Euro-pop smash remix of our song! Call our label."
Nickelback's seventh release, "Here and Now," recently debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart. Chad Kroeger says the key to their success – or any band's success – is the love among its group members.
"Look around at your band members and make sure that you really like those people," he said. "We can all name 1,000 bands, amazing bands, that haven't stood the test of time because they just couldn't get along."
Though happy with his band's career, Kroeger does have one regret.
"When I see the video for `How You Remind Me,' I just want to go back and beat myself up," the 37-year-old Kroeger said. "My hair was like super long and I had this big goatee, and I shot that video when I was super young, but I looked like I was like 40 years old in the video ... I really wish I could go back and snip, give a little trim."
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Mesfin Fekadu covers entertainment for The Associated Press. Follow him on Twitter at . http://twitter.com/musicmesfin
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MESFIN FEKADU 01/ 5/12 02:10 PM ET Associated Press