Before he started drumming with Barenaked Ladies 25 years ago, Tyler Stewart found his rhythm in a drum and bugle corps - just like legions of Eastern Iowa youths who marched with the now-silenced Emerald Knights in Cedar Rapids.

Stewart, 47, says his years with The Ambassadors corps in his native Canada provided fertile training ground for his career.

"It taught me so much," he says by phone from the Toronto home he shares with his wife and three daughters. He was relaxing in "the calm before the storm" of a summer tour that will stop at the McGrath Amphitheatre in Cedar Rapids on June 8 for a triple-treat with the Violent Femmes and Colin Hay.

Stewart joined the drum corps in eighth grade, and the lessons he learned then still resonate.

"First of all, it was my first time on tour on the road - a lot of time spent on school buses and sleeping on gym floors or random places, seeing the countryside out the window of a bus. That certainly prepared me a bit for the rigors of a rock 'n' roll life," he says.

"Also, knowing you have to perform, and you could be hot or tired or wearing a polyester uniform and a leather shako (hat), but you still gotta get out there and really give 'er, so that drum corps was huge," he says. "From the technical point of view, I certainly developed some good chops from marching around all those years, playing rudimentary music. I still am thankful today for that."

He especially loves when his drum corps instructor, Doug Darwin, comes to a Barenaked Ladies concert.

"I'll be playing a song and I'll throw in some silly drum line lick just for Doug," Stewart says. "I always catch his eye, and he laughs.

"The drums corps culture was so intense but it was also so fun, like the camaraderie. I'm just gonna put it out there: Perhaps some of my formative romantic experiences also occurred in the darkened seats of a drum corps bus, and everyone who's ever been in drum corps knows what I'm talking about."

Stewart is back on the road this week, as Barenaked Ladies tours in support of "Silverball," released Tuesday (6/7). It's the ensemble's 14th studio album, and Stewart says the record "certainly sounds like a band that's very confident."

"It's our 27th year. We really know how to play together, and when we get right down to it, we make great music." he says. "It's a good band. ... You don't take it for granted. We still try to push each other and push ourselves into some new territory.

"In the new record, you'll hear the sound of a very confident and established rock band, and we couldn't be happier with that, because your late 40s aren't a time for self-doubt. You should believe in what you're doing. If you don't believe in what you're doing now, it's time so stop. So we're very happy and we're fully committed to each other, and to the band, and to the music."

Stewart's foodie side comes out when he describes the Ladies' alt-rock sound:

"Imagine the tastiest omelet you've ever tried," he says. "There's the fluffy and light eggs, there's the creamy yet sharp cheese, and let's say you added something exciting into it. Let's just say, for some reason, this time around you added a couple of jalapeno peppers just to keep things spicy. You've got that smooth, familiar omelet taste, but it's got a bit of a bite to it. I would say that's Barenaked Ladies."

The Grammy-nominated musicians cut their teeth in Toronto's hot music scene. They hit it big in the United States in 1998, topping the charts with "One Week," and while several of their songs have spun into theme songs for television shows, their theme for "The Big Bang Theory" can still be heard virtually every day in Eastern Iowa cable TV markets.

Stewart describes those early days in Toronto as "very inspiring," with bands collaborating and feeding off each other's energy.

"I've been privy to a couple of different scenes," he says. "In the early '90s we were part of an independent music explosion where it became cool to be an independent artist and not on a major record label. For a while there, when record stores were in existence, we ended up selling as many independent cassettes as Michael Jackson, Madonna and U2 in Toronto. We were selling the same amount as they were, which was crazy. It was really cool to like indie bands," he says.

"There was a whole scene here in Toronto that was percolating and bubbling, and it was really an exciting time. We all ended up playing on each other's records and going on cross-Canada tours with each other.

"There was a second wave of that with The Broken Social Scene gang, and all of their musical friends from Metric and Stars and Feist ended up playing on each other's records and exploding. There's always been a cross-pollination kind of thing going in Toronto, and that's really exciting," he says.

"That kind of applies to us nowadays, too, because we ended up working with a producer, Gavin Brown, who was in several Toronto bands. ... He's also this indie veteran from way back. He was in a band called Flag Camp which was one of first alternative punk-rock bands to come out of Toronto, and they toured endlessly in their late teens, sleeping on floors across North America, and Gavin has become a really respected music producer. We worked with him on our last two records, and he has a real ethic where he makes bands perform incredibly well in the studio. He just has a real energy about him, and he sets up a comfortable and creative environment, and bands just go in there and record some of their best stuff. He's a really inspiring dude to work with."

Stewart has another life out of the rock 'n' roll spotlight, as the father of daughters, two in their teens and one much younger.

That's quite the adventure.

"I thought I was a diva, being in a rock band all these years. I have nothing on teenage girls," he says. "The cavalcade of hormones is quite exciting. Now the worry intensifies that if I don't respond the right way to their everyday dramatic needs, perhaps there's a tow-truck driver waiting to speed them away from my front door."

Woe to their suitors.

"I just make sure that know them. I look them in the eye. If they're gonna see my daughters," he warns, they need to know, " 'You may not like me, but you're going to meet me, and we're going to speak with our eyes when I stare you down intently.'

"The main thing is, especially with girls, you have to talk, and it's tough with teenagers, because they never want to tell you anything. They think you've never seen anything, never been through a night like that. Honey, I'm in a rock band and I've been in one for 25 years. I've seen a few things. ...

"I remember what it was like - there's a lot going on. It's a confusing time, but it's also an awesome time."

He wants them to experience the fun while they have time for that - to play hockey with their girlfriends, take pictures, make YouTube clips, gather those moments and memories - because "one day you're going to be so tired because you're working and there might be kids hanging off your belt and demanding your time."

"School isn't everything. It's important, make sure you get it done, but there's way more to life, and get out there and enjoy it," he says.

"That's the ethic of Barenaked Ladies, as well. There's a lot of s*** things happening, and we'll tell you about some of them in our songs, but we'll also tell you how you can enjoy yourself and why you should enjoy yourself. At our concerts, let's forget about all the crap and let's have a laugh, sing along and have a great time."

GET OUT

WHAT: Barenaked Ladies, with Violent Femmes and Collin Hay

WHEN: 7 p.m. June 8

WHERE: McGrath Amphitheatre, 475 First St. SW, Cedar Rapids

TICKETS: $39.50 general admission lawn (bring seating), $65 reserved seats, $128 Silver VIP package, $202 Gold VIP package

EXTRAS: No outside food and beverage, no umbrellas