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Priests leave the cloth, soldiers go back to Civvy Street. Is it time for us to say that Steven Page has put his clothes back on?

The Barenaked Ladies made it official this week, that Page is leaving the merry pop-rock band from Scarborough, Ont., “by mutual consent.” The use of a phrase familiar from divorce agreements is probably no accident: Page and Ed Robertson, the band's other founding member, have been playing under the BNL banner for 20 years.

“A lot of people have been putting undue focus on the events of the past year,” Robertson said in a phone interview yesterday, alluding in part to Page's drug bust in New York State in July. “This genuinely is an amicable departure. It was a difficult decision that no one took lightly, and it required a lot of compassion from everyone. We've got too much positive history together, we've done too many great things together, to tarnish that now.”

It would have been interesting to be on the band's latest concert cruise, Ships and Dip V, which sailed from Miami through the Caribbean early this month. The photos from that adventure, including a snap of all five members lounging in identical bathrobes, show no sign that a divorce would be announced less than three weeks later.

Page's departure removes some of the band's most distinctive features: his nasal tenor, his wacky stage demeanour (especially in tandem with Robertson) and his role as one of the band's two main songwriters. It may seem implausible that BNL could continue without him, but several high-profile bands have survived and thrived for years after losing key members, including Pink Floyd, the Who and Evanescence.

“It's early days, but we're all excited about the future,” Robertson said, confirming that BNL still intends to start recording its next album in April. When asked what effect Page's departure may have on those sessions, Robertson said: “It would be great if I knew.”

But he added that Page's departure from the band would probably mean more room for the songwriting efforts of keyboardist Kevin Hearn and bassist Jim Creeggan, who have both contributed to recent band discs and have several albums outside the BNL tent between them. Songs formerly sung by Page may be sung in future performances by Hearn or drummer Tyler Stewart, Robertson said, adding that he co-wrote many BNL songs associated with Page.

“The band has never been the Steve and Ed show,” Robertson said. “It has always been a very collaborative effort and will continue to be so.”

A statement on Page's website said that he will have plenty to do with more solo projects (his album The Vanity Project, a solo disc co-written with Stephen Duffy, appeared in 2005), a small tour with the Toronto-based Art of Time Ensemble, and his work at the Stratford Festival, where his music for the Ben Jonson play Bartholomew Fair will be heard in a production that previews in May.

BNL has lost members before (drummer-turned-keyboardist Andy Creeggan left in the late nineties), and the band went through a low career period at about the same time. It rebounded after signing with powerhouse manager Terry McBride at Vancouver's Nettwerk Management, and gained a profile in the United States shortly thereafter, with the 1998 album Stunt.

A crisis soon followed, when Hearn was hospitalized with leukemia. But he recovered, the band shifted its recordings to Nettwerk, and within a week of the 2006 release Barenaked Ladies Are Me, McBride could boast that the band that made a hit out of If I Had $1,000,000 had grossed $1-million on sales of the album's music, including online sales, licensing fees and ring tones.