They recorded another three-song demo in March in hopes of compiling a full album, "but we ran out of money after three songs" noted guitarist Mike Turner.
[2] In September of that year, the band enlisted the help of Arnyard owner Arnold Lanni to oversee the recording of additional demo songs.
[4] Three of the tracks were shopped around to labels by the band's new management team, Coalition Entertainment (co-owned by Lanni's brother Robert).
By April 1993, after hearing feedback from labels such as Geffen and Interscope,[4] they had signed a record deal with Sony Music Canada.
[5] An offer by Sony's president Rick Camilleri "to make me a record that sounds like your demo", with no outside interference, appealed most to the band.
According to Raine, "We were signed on faith that we could come up with more material like the demos but there was so much emotion and adrenalin flowing amongst us, I think we had ten more songs written inside a couple of weeks.
They rented rehearsal space in Mississauga, Ontario and from that spring through summer the band held day-long jam sessions with a cassette recorder.
[8] Prior to this, they had only played seven or so live shows together and only recently hired 18-year-old drummer Jeremy Taggart, whose high school graduation briefly postponed the recording of the album.
Originally, they had planned to release their demo songs on an independent label and sell them at live shows but were instead rushed to the studio to record Naveed to capitalize on the positive vibe they felt playing together.
Prior to recording, the band embraced a more primitive punk style with very simple chords and had limited technical experience in the studio.
[3] For three months, the band lived together, recording at Arnyard Studios and laboring over song arrangements with minimal interference by Lanni, who would show up briefly to make suggestions.
[14] The song would subsequently be issued as a 7" single sent to radio stations to promote Naveed in the United States and would later be included as a bonus track on imports of the band's 1999 release, Happiness...Is Not a Fish That You Can Catch.
"[25] Upon its release in the United States one year later, Naveed was admired by critics and was received very well by fans who were aware of the song "Starseed".
"[29] Ken Wilson from The Cincinnati Post gave the album a B+, saying, "The impressive thing about this sassy debut effort is that Our Lady Peace members share equal parts in delivering this seductively hard and interesting set.
"[17] Jennifer Crocker from Pitch Weekly in Kansas City, Missouri, called the album "damn good" and that "the compelling sound produced by this four man faction of musical ingenuity will wind you so tight, you'll spin on to track eleven with nary a notion of what's going on around you.
One of the main characteristics of the band at this time was vocalist Raine Maida's extreme falsetto, and his ability to move relatively smoothly between high and low octaves with varying intensities.
According to Raine in the band's first press release, "Naveed is a constant quest to obtain knowledge, possessed with the desire to grow mentally and spiritually.
Naveed is a middle eastern name that stands for the bearer of good news, and a lot of the songs talk about strife and struggle, but it's more on a personal level for me.
Years later, Raine would suggest that in early mixes of these songs, the middle eastern vibe was even stronger but "we decided we had to pull back on it a bit.