“I’m dreading it. I can’t wait. It’s gonna be so fun. It’s gonna be too long. It’s all of that.”
Videos by American Songwriter
That’s the not-so-decisive take on the upcoming Last Summer on Earth 2025 Tour by Barenaked Ladies, courtesy of their lead singer and guitarist, Ed Robertson. The long-running, legendary Canadian band keeps one of the busiest schedules around, playing plenty of one-off gigs between extended jaunts like the one upon which they’re about to embark.
BNL’s most recent studio work, including the 2023 album In Flight and its recently released acoustic companion EP, In Flight–Carry On, doesn’t hide from addressing the advancing years. In the song “What Do We Need?,” Robertson laments about the touring life: It’s a little bit harder now than it was / When I was half my age.
But the quartet, which also includes keyboardist Kevin Hearn, bassist Jim Creeggan, and drummer Tyler Stewart, isn’t showing any signs of slowing down, no matter what a stray lyric or two might say to the contrary. In a lengthy interview with American Songwriter, Robertson explains that their commercial heyday, when songs like “One Week” and “Pinch Me” were ubiquitous on pop radio, has earned them the opportunity to stretch their creative boundaries on their later albums.
“What frees us up is that we have had a bunch of hits over the years,” Robertson explains. “And we built up a fan base so that we can go out on a summer tour and sell 120,000 tickets or whatever. We’ve earned this career, and it allows us to pursue music without the expectations of that grind, without being beholden to that awards schedule and chart success. It’d be great. It’d be fun. But we’ve kind of been there, done that. It was exciting, but it was also really f’ing stressful.”
Flight Plan
The decision to reconfigure seven songs from In Flight into acoustic settings falls in line with the band’s history of whittling their material down to its essence. “It’s been a big part of our live shows since the beginning,” Robertson says. “For decades, we’ve reinvented songs from our catalog. For example, we played ‘One Week’ as a bluegrass song for many years just to change it up. Because when you have a big hit, you have to play it at every show. Sometimes, you need to reinvent it to keep it interesting for yourself and the fans.”
The EP also gave Robertson the chance to revisit an album of which he’s immensely proud, in part because of the focus the band put into it. “One of the things that was different about this record was that we really allowed ourselves the time to write it,” he says. “We blocked a whole bunch of time off, and for the first time in a nearly 40-year career, we called that time sacred. We didn’t accept any gigs, even big, lucrative offers that came in where we’d normally say, ‘Oh, we’re supposed to be writing now, but we can’t say no to this. It’s too easy to go do this one gig for big money.’
“We didn’t do it this time. I actually had two months to just sit at home and reflect on what I was going through and what I wanted to write about. I had this no-pressure, fully creative time. And I think it reflects in the writing.”
Robertson strives for excellence with all his originals, and he feels that most of his songs can stand up to an acoustic rebrand. “I’m a huge fan of the writing of Ed Robertson,” he jokes. “Honestly, this record really did feel like a milestone for me in many ways as a writer. I felt like I set out to do nothing but achieve quality songs. I wasn’t trying to write a single. I wasn’t trying to impress anybody. I just thought, ‘All I gotta do is write good songs.’ That’s what I’ve been trying to do for my whole career, but there’s always a layer of stress, scrutiny, or expectation, both external and self-applied.”
On top of that, Creeggan and Hearn helped out with a larger percentage of writing credits on In Flight than they had ever amassed on previous Barenaked Ladies’ albums. That’s further evidence of a transformation in development ever since Steven Page left the band in 2009, and Robertson is thrilled with it.
“It’s taken the pressure off me to write a whole record, which is really nice,” he says. “Also, I’m a huge fan of what Kevin and Jim write. When it comes time to make a record the past couple of years, we’ve just made a Dropbox folder titled BNL songs, and everybody just puts their songs into this shared folder. We listen to them, and we’re incredibly democratic when it comes to choosing the songs.
“The band works really well as an artist collective. I’m not there laying down the law stomping my foot, saying, ‘Well, the 14 songs that I wrote are the record, and Kev and Jim get one B-side each.’ I think our process makes for a much more interesting record, and it makes for a happier band when people are being heard, when they’re genuinely contributing, and when everybody is working to just make this thing better rather than fighting for real estate.”
Milestones and Moving Forward
Don’t count Robertson among the artists who dwell too much on their past successes, even when anniversaries start to pop up. This year marks 25 years since Barenaked Ladies released the album Maroon, a huge smash that solidified the U.S. breakthrough success that they’d enjoyed with Stunttwo years prior. But you won’t be hearing the entirety of the album on their upcoming tour, a la the practice of other bands.
“I don’t want to play all of Maroon,” Robertson says. “I want to move forward. I want to acknowledge those milestones because they are amazing. But we celebrated Maroon when we released Maroon. Currently, we’re celebrating this record. I don’t want to play all of Maroon because it means I would play less hits and less of In Flight. I always want to be where the band is and moving forward. Going back is interesting, but I don’t want it to be our focus.”
Robertson was willing to discuss the importance of the album, however. “I love that record. I’m proud of it, but it was f’ing stressful at the time,” he says. “Following up Stunt, all of a sudden, you’re selling out arenas; there are six buses and five trucks, your crew is 80 people instead of 25. You’re just aware of the machine more, and the machine must be fed following up a huge success. We made it, but then you have to sustain it in some way.”
The massive hit off that album remains a career highlight for Robertson. “I’m still quite proud of ‘Pinch Me,’” he says. “It’s quite a melancholy single. It’s got a lot of energy and it’s got some humor, but it’s also quite introspective and deep. I remember (producer) Don Was saying to me when we were making the demos for the record and rehearsing and playing through stuff, he took me aside and said, ‘Robertson, you’re a brave m’f’er. You’re writing about shit that guys don’t get to ‘til they’re in their fifties.’”
BNL Still TCB
The robust fan base of Barenaked Ladies has grown up with them since the days of quasi-novelty songs like “Brian Wilson” and “If I Had $1,000,000.” Yet even though In Flight basks in an autumnal glow at times, Roberston insists that he’s not trying to get in the headspace of his fans.
“I think it’s a mistake to consider your audience,” he insists. “I think it’s a dead end. That goes for every kind of creation, whether you’re a podcaster or an influencer, whatever, it’s like you have to think about your own voice. You have to think about what you want to say. It’s not what you want someone to hear. People didn’t know what they wanted to hear ‘til they heard it from you.”
You also don’t have to worry about these longtime jokesters getting too serious. The songs on In Flight still display that sharp wit and clever wordplay that characterizes their most famous tracks.
“It’s just how we relate to the world,” Robertson says of the band’s funny side. “It’s how we relate to each other. It’s how I talk to my friends and my family. There’s always humor and dark humor. It would be disingenuous for my music to be devoid of humor. And don’t think that it hasn’t been suggested by record companies and managers over the years, saying, ‘If you could just lay off the left turns, we’d maybe have a better chance with this single.’ It’s like, ‘Well, then it wouldn’t be me’.”
In fact, Barenaked Ladies’ ability to have fun has helped keep them afloat and going strong into their fifth decade of making music together, with this particular four-man unit being a part of the band for 30 years now. Robertson credits their irreverence as one of the main factors keeping BNL so vibrant.
“Every show is filled with improv and spontaneity,” he says. “We make up songs, and we talk about what we did that day, and sometimes it turns into songs, sometimes it’s just stories, whatever. We’ve always been a band that is not afraid to fail on stage, so that every show is a completely new experience. Sometimes the train wrecks in a hilarious way, and we go back to the dressing room, and we’ve got tears in our eyes laughing at how stupid something was in the show. I think of our band as what it’s supposed to be like. It’s fun. It’s a group of guys enjoying entertaining people. For some reason, other bands lose sight of that. But we never have.”
Tour dates below:
BARENAKED LADIES’ LAST SUMMER ON EARTH 2025 TOUR
JUNE
3 | Atlanta, GA – Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park *
4 | St. Augustine, FL – St. Augustine Amphitheatre *
6 | North Charleston, SC – North Charleston Coliseum *
7 | Charlotte, NC – Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre *
8 | Baltimore, MD – Pier Six Pavilion *
10 | Cincinnati, OH – PNC Pavilion *
11 | Chicago, IL – The Chicago Theater *
13 | Camdenton, MO – Ozarks Amphitheater *
14 | La Vista, NE – The Astro *
15 | Waite Park, MN – The Ledge Amphitheater *
17 | Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre *
18 | Salt Lake City, UT – VENUE TBA *
20 | San Diego, CA – Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre *
21 | Highland, CA – Yaamava’ Theater *
22 | Los Angeles, CA – Greek Theatre *
24 | Saratoga, CA – Mountain Winery *
26 | Troutdale, OR – McMenamins Edgefield *
27 | Seattle, WA – VENUE TBA *
28 | Bend, OR – Hayden Homes Amphitheater *
JULY
8 | Lenox, MA – Tanglewood #
9 | New York, NY – The Rooftop at Pier 17 #
11 | Boston, MA – Leader Bank Pavilion #
12 | Gilford, NH – BankNH Pavilion #
13 | Bridgeport, CT – Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater #
15 | Raleigh, NC – Red Hat Amphitheater #
16 | Vienna, VA – Wolf Trap #
18 | Goshen, IN – Elkhart County 4-H Fair #
19 | St. Ignace, MI – Kewadin Casinos – Outdoor on the Shores #
20 | Indianapolis, IN – Everwise Amphitheater at White River State Park #
22 | Philadelphia, PA – The Met Presented by Highmark #
23 | Syracuse, NY – Empower Federal Credit Union Amphitheater at Lakeview #
25 | Toronto, ON – Budweiser Stage #
26 | Buffalo, NY – Outer Harbor Live at Terminal B #
27 | Bethel, NY – Bethel Woods Center for the Arts #
29 | Louisville, KY – Iroquois Amphitheater #
30 | Toledo, OH – Toledo Zoo Amphitheatre #
AUGUST
1 | Cuyahoga Falls, OH – Blossom Music Center #
2 | Clarkston, MI – Pine Knob Music Theatre #
* With Guster
# With Sugar Ray
All dates include support from Fastball
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