Steven Page

Steven Jay Page (born June 22, 1970) is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer.

He was a founding member, lead singer, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the music group Barenaked Ladies.

They were both counsellors at the Scarborough Schools Music Camp in the summer of 1988, where some of their early collaborations in music were born.

Page wrote songs with his friend Geoff Pounsett and made tapes of those songs.

Robertson had obtained a tape the two had made, and knew some of Page's songs.

Ed Robertson invited Page to perform with him at a charity show under the name Barenaked Ladies in 1988, and ultimately, the show led the pair to full-time careers in the band.

Page attended York University in the English program, with a minor in theory and choral studies, but dropped out to focus on the band's rising success.

Page was a main songwriter from the band's inception.

A majority of the group's material came either from him alone or was co-written with Robertson.

Page also played acoustic and electric guitar (and occasionally other instruments) for Barenaked Ladies, both in the studio and live.

Page was ultimately invited to co-write with Duffy in the early 1990s, and several co-written songs subsequently appeared on Barenaked Ladies albums, starting with Maybe You Should Drive.

He recorded the song "He's a Really Useful Engine" for the soundtrack of the 2000 children's film Thomas and the Magic Railroad.

In 2002, Page won an International Achievement Award at the SOCAN Awards in Toronto for the song "Pinch Me", which he co-wrote with Robertson.

By 2004, Page was having reservations about his contributions to Barenaked Ladies.

He has indicated that he participated in the recordings of Barenaked for the Holidays and Snacktime! despite being opposed to them.

Concerning Snacktime!, Page stated, "[i]t was a lot of fun to do, but it wasn't my idea. I was along for the ride."

In June 2005, Page and Duffy released a self-titled album under the name The Vanity Project.

Page left the band in February 2009 to pursue a solo career.

Page was born in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough, in Ontario.

After skipping grade one, he was enrolled in Scarborough's gifted program at Churchill Heights Public School.

Page's father, Victor, was a drummer, as is his brother, Matthew.

As a child, Page would attempt to play songs on the piano, while his dad would keep the beat on the drums.

Page took ten years of piano lessons (though claimed he did not learn to play).

He also was a member of the Toronto Mendelssohn Youth Choir.

During childhood, Page had his best friend "stolen" by a schoolmate, Ed Robertson, and resented Robertson for some time.

The two went to high school at Woburn Collegiate Institute but steered clear of each other until Page spotted Robertson at a Harvey's restaurant after a Peter Gabriel concert and was surprised to find that Robertson was also a fan.

This led to Page and Robertson talking, becoming friends, and ultimately, forming Barenaked Ladies.

On February 24, 2009, it was announced that Page would be leaving the group to pursue other opportunities, including solo projects and theatre work, and that the remainder of the band would continue in his absence.

The decision had been made about a week and a half before the public announcement, with one reason being the rest of the band's desire to record a new album and Page's reluctance to do so.

Page believes that his much-publicized drug arrest in Syracuse, New York hastened his already imminent split with the band.

Following his departure from Barenaked Ladies, Page's first major project was to complete writing music for the first production of Bartholomew Fair: A Comedy at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in 2009.

During that summer, he embarked on a tour of music festivals, accompanied by Kevin Fox on cello.

The singer commented in August 2011 that around the time of his arrest, "the band was no longer the joyous place that it once was, but it hadn't been joyous for a long time before that. It wasn't that we didn't put on good shows, we still had a great time onstage every night," he added.

"But it became a place where work was just about the stress and not the end product. And (the arrest and band tension) made me gather the strength to go out and do what I always wanted to do."

In September 2015, TMZ discovered court documents filed by Page over "The Big Bang Theory Theme".

He alleged that he was promised 20% of the proceeds from the song, which included revenue generated from the Barenaked Ladies greatest hits album, and claimed that former bandmate Robertson has kept that money entirely for himself.

On March 25, 2018, Page performed with Barenaked Ladies for the first time in nine years at the Juno Awards in Vancouver, in celebration of the band's induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

Though there were reportedly no plans to make the reunion permanent, neither side had necessarily ruled it out.

As a young man, Page was a fan of British singer-songwriter Stephen Duffy, a founding member of Duran Duran and the frontman for the group The Lilac Time.

Page began corresponding with Duffy after the latter replied to his fan letter.