Nickelback has tasted the hater-ade from the band’s zealous detractors — and is elevating a toast to them.
Within the new documentary Hate to Love: Nickelback, the Hanna, Alta., hitmakers take a step again from their massively profitable profession to wrestle with their difficult legacy.
On one hand, they’ve delivered quite a few hit singles and top-selling albums over their three-decade profession, and on the opposite, they’re usually referred to as one of many most-hated rock acts of all time.
“It appears to be an actual a part of our historical past,” acknowledged guitarist Ryan Peake on Friday on the Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant the place the movie had its world premiere.
“We’ve bought to speak about it as a result of it’s bizarre if you happen to don’t.”
Nickelback band members, left to proper, Michael Kroeger, Chad Kroeger, Daniel Adair and Ryan Peake pose for {a photograph} on the purple carpet for the film “Hate to Love: Nickelback” on the Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant in Toronto, Friday, Sept. 8, 2023.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Lahodynskyj
Sitting alongside bassist Mike Kroeger — brother of frontman Chad Kroeger — the bandmates appear extra snug than ever assessing the way it feels to be the butt of an internet joke or the goal of a music critic.
They’re on a quick pause from their ongoing North American tour with the prospect of worldwide dates on the horizon.
For years, Nickelback appeared to wince on the jabs. These days they’ve welcomed these so-called haters — if not with open arms, at the least a pat on the again.
“It’s a part of the story, whether or not anyone likes it or not,” agrees Kroeger.
“And you understand, it seems negativity sells. So, we’re going to experience that sucker all the best way.”
Hate to Love: Nickelback is directed by British documentarian Leigh Brooks, who was initially employed to seize behind-the-scenes moments and promotional interviews for the band’s 2017 album “Feed the Machine.”
When Peake noticed early footage of the Vancouver shoot, he stated he began occupied with the lacking items of Nickelback’s story.
“We hadn’t performed any sort of historical past of the band, (even) for ourselves ? for our households, however I wasn’t pondering bigger,”‘ he stated.
And but like many issues Nickelback, what began as a small concept took on sizable ambitions.
After he satisfied his bandmates that making a documentary was a good suggestion, the cameras started rolling on their lives, first for a few days after which for just a few months.
“No person desires a digicam of their face the entire time, however in the identical breath, I used to be like, `Simply shoot all the things,’” Peake stated.
“It’s a bizarre feeling,” he added.
“We’re not the Kardashians.”
Six years later, they’d a film that fleshed out Nickelback’s story in their very own phrases.
Utilizing interviews with family and friends, the documentary veers by the band’s historical past, making transient stops at memorable popular culture moments, corresponding to Chad’s marriage to pop-punk singer Avril Lavigne and the inescapable success of How You Remind Me and Rockstar.
Extra time is devoted to shocking new revelations, together with the day Chad and Mike realized they’d totally different fathers.
Additionally they invite their former drummer Ryan Vikedal to debate his ouster from the band.
Some candid footage offers a clearer sense of how hostility in the direction of Nickelback has personally affected Chad Kroeger.
Whereas he doesn’t entertain the topic a lot himself, Chad’s mom is among the many individuals who supply perception into how he offers with it.
By the shut of its 90-minute runtime, the manufacturing appears like a delicate reset on how Nickelback desires to be seen: much less as opponents to their place in music historical past and extra as dudes with a way of humour and a small-town spirit.
Peake insists the intention wasn’t “about controlling any sort of narrative.”
“Nevertheless it’s like, ‘Do you wish to hear our aspect? You wish to hear the way it’s been for us?’” he posed.
It additionally suggests Nickelback is at a turning level of their careers the place what lies forward is anyone’s guess.
Late within the movie, it’s revealed that Mike Kroeger suffered a stroke through the recording of Feed the Machine, a element the band by no means publicly disclosed. The 51-year-old’s restoration slowed their lives down and will’ve ended the band.
Kroeger acknowledged that something may very well be across the nook, even the likelihood that after this present tour Nickelback could also be completed.
“I personally really feel like I’m into bonus time, properly into bonus time,” he stated.
“There’s no query that we’ve had run and experience. We are going to simply see what we’re able to subsequent.”
Hate to Love: Nickelback can even display screen at TIFF on Saturday and Sept. 15.
© 2023 The Canadian Press
