'Still the same guys': Steven Page on Barenaked Ladies' exhibit at National Music Centre

Despite baggage and a lot of time apart, former Barenaked Ladies co-frontman Steven Page says reconnecting as the group's Canadian Music Hall of Fame exhibit opens at the National Music Centrehas been rewarding on a number of levels.

"It feels great," Page told The Homestretch on Thursday.

"To come here and put the plaque on the wall and see all the other names and realize it's a pretty select group of amazing musicians it feels very strange and exciting to be a part of that."

The iconic Canadian band reunited with Page for the first time in nearly a decadeat this year's Juno Awards for the group's induction just a few weeks ago. They came together again to add their plaque at Studio Bell.

"Not as weird as I thought it might be. That's the greatest relief, I think, for all of us. There's definitely baggage and stuff, too," Page said.

"When we first got back together in Vancouver in March, we kind of picked up where we left off. We had some catching up to do, but musically, super easy."

Exhibit sparksmemories

Since Page went his own way about nine years ago, he's developed a solo career, travelled around the world, worked with the Stratford Festival and even dabbled in television for a bit. But he says seeing the Hall of Fame exhibit sparked a lot of good memories.

"There is a bunch of stuff that I didn't remember. I remembered the event, but I didn't remember the artifact, and that was the fun part for me," Page said.

"There are things like rejection letters from record companies and publishers."

Page and his former bandmates still have a connection, he said.

"You are still the same guys, the same people that you made all that music with and had all those great times and hard times," the 47-year-old said.

"Nobody has any plans right now to do anything else together but the door is a lot less closed than it once was."

Page will be working with emerging artists in coming days at Studio Bell and hopes to, in part, share advice like he received from R.E.M.'s Peter Buck back in the day.

"Buy a house with this," Buck told the group, Page said. "Don't think of this as a given, that it's always going to be like this. Now you have the security of having a house and now just make music and anticipate it's going to be up and down."

Page's next solo album, Heal Thyself, Pt 2: Discipline, will be out in the summer.

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With files from The Homestretch and CBC's Ellis Choe