Of course, even the “most hated band” on the planet has friends. For example on many radio stations. The Canadian group is not only one of the most ridiculed, but also one with many catchy tunes. Quick reminder: “How You Remind Me,” her approach to Nirvana, was the most played number on American radio from 2001 to 2009. That’s why two members came from Nickelback recently flew especially to Munich for the “Radiodays Europe” at the trade fair. Guitarist Ryan Peake and bassist Mike Kroeger, brother of Chad Kroeger, perhaps the most derided rock star in the world, call it “maintaining relationships.”
They know who they owe their enormous success for around 25 years now. With their conservative rock, they are more of a late child of the era of FM stations, not so much the Internet. But didn’t the mockery that was posted millions of times make their reputation grow and their songs even more present? After all, the dictionary term “Nickelbacking” means forcing someone to listen to a Nickelback number using a telephone or YouTube trick. In an interview with the two musicians in a conference room at the trade fair, you don’t have to be careful about talking about it; they themselves address the “800-pound gorilla in the room.” So the “hate” that they often experience.
It even made it into the title of their film documentary: “Love To Hate: Nickelback”. In addition to their European tour, which begins in Glasgow in mid-May and ends on June 8th in the Munich Olympic Hall, they are also currently promoting this film. Finally, it will soon be coming to selected cinemas on two days, on March 27th and 30th, also in Munich. “It started out as a band biography, but then things got a little different,” says Peake. They had “no studio, no boss,” but “did everything themselves,” “everything for the fans.” They don’t have that many video recordings of their years before their great fame. Because they hadn’t expected it at all, because they saw no reason at all to film themselves, because who would care? And yet – “a happy coincidence” – they have such a legendary moment on tape: “We were all sitting in this room in Miami and Chad brought this song and we played it and produced it and arranged it and so on. ” The birth of “How You Remind Me.” And they don’t even know who was holding the camera back then.
Of course, doing something like that would quickly end up in self-congratulation, he knows that. But he thinks they hired the right filmmakers: Ben Jones (an old radio friend) and Leigh Brooks. “We probably would have kept it at the level of ‘hey, everything’s going great’, but the two of them kept pestering us and pushing us further,” says the guitarist. They opened up like never before (“That was never our thing on social media”) and even talked about the stroke of their bassist Mike Kroeger, after which they had to cancel an entire European tour. “It’s not something you tweet about quickly,” says Kroeger, but in the film they were able to talk about how it touched them.
And also how the hate affects them. “Just when it started, it hurt,” says Kroeger. “Anti-Fandom” on the Internet has long been almost a cynical art form in its own right. Many Internet users know more jokes about the band than songs, such as the call “Can this pickle get more fans than Nickelback?” Or the petition to cancel a concert at the Detroit Lions Thanksgiving football game. Or the many memes. For example, the image jokes that made Chad Kroeger’s somewhat self-absorbed still image with a photo held up in the video for “Photograph” (2005). The most prominent was the meme of Donald Trump, which retouched Joe and Hunter Biden and Ukrainian gas businessmen in the picture frames held.
They had a fun Twitter duel with Arnold Schwarzenegger
“We’ve obviously been used a lot as clickbait,” says Peake, “but now we’re taking the memification of the band into our own hands – and we’re doing it with humor.” For example, when Arnold Schwarzenegger once put her on the same level as herpes, they had a pretty funny Twitter duel. Now we like each other. You shouldn’t overlook the fact that Nickelback has celebrity friends, from Metallica to Billy Corgan from the Smashing Pumpkinswho says nice things in the film.
Of course, the most important thing would be the music, which its critics out there perceive as rather old-fashioned, always the same, broad-legged macho rock. Nickelback, who will be inducted into the Canadian Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2023, have presented themselves more broadly than ever before on their current album “Get Rollin'”: a metal core-inspired intro in “San Quentin”, cozy rock, even a a little country and a pop melody in “Tidal Wave”, where metal fan Mike Kroeger initially thought: “Oh, that doesn’t sound like Nickelback anymore.” Of course, they stayed true enough to their brand sound so as not to alienate their most important friends, the fans.
Nickelback, Saturday, June 8th, Munich, Olympiahalle; “Love To Hate: Nickelback”, the film will be shown on March 27th at 8:30 p.m. and March 30th at 3 p.m. in the Astor Film Lounge