During a hellish year in which Barenaked Ladies [ tickets ] singer Steven Page was busted for cocaine possession and fellow vocalist/guitarist Ed Robertson survived a plane crash, the band tried its hardest to keep its collective chin up.

"I think [I was able to stay positive] by being supportive of my bandmates and their trials and tribulations and trying to look at who we are as a band and look at who the guys are as people and try to re-evaluate," drummer Tyler Stewart said via telephone from New York City, where Barenaked Ladies had just wrapped a recent guest appearance on "Regis and Kelly."

"It's 20 years this year for Barenaked Ladies. We had a bunch of tumultuous stuff happen. You can't control anything, right? You can't control people and you can't control events. But you can do your best to facilitate success and to facilitate the things happening."

After "some bad things" happened, Barenaked Ladies tried to facilitate good things, he explained.

"People spent time with their families," Stewart said. "People worked hard with themselves to improve their life and try not to make mistakes that jeopardize not only their lives and families but the whole band.

"We could have easily had a band member in jail for a number of years and we could have easily had a dead band member. We escaped both of those bullets. We feel very fortunate because of that. We also would like that to lead to a renewed sense of commitment to the band."

As part of that commitment, band members--who also include bassist Jim Creeggan and keyboardist Kevin Hearn--have begun writing new material for the follow-up to the children's album "Snacktime" and the group's most recent adult release, "Barenaked Ladies Are Men."

"There are some songs trickling out of that, certainly," Stewart said. "We haven't sat down as a band in earnest. But I know several members of the band have been writing for the last little while. That's kind of the goal--to get a record out as soon as possible and celebrate the fact that we're still going."

The year 2008 wasn't all negative for Barenaked Ladies. Avid hockey fans, the group was able to put its touch on a new rendition of the "Hockey Night in Canada" theme.

"That was really cool. That was really fun," said Stewart, his voice picking up with excitement. "What a nice opportunity to record such an iconic song. It's Canada's second national anthem, I guess. To add a little Barenakedness, if you will, was really great. Sometimes, too, the pressure's off when the song's already written and you just have to interpret it. So we just brought our love of hockey and our musicianship together on the same project."

Besides working on a new album, Barenaked Ladies will spend the early part of 2009 on its annual Ships and Dip cruise through Miami to Cozumel to Great Stirrup Cay (Feb. 1-6). The excursion will also feature performances from The Weakerthans, Sloan, Butterfly Boucher, The Mountain Goats, Luke Doucet and Kids in the Hall veterans. A new DVD, available at BNL's website, captures a previous year's event.

"It's totally fun," Stewart said of the cruise. "We really look forward to it. When we first thought about doing the cruise, it was our manager's idea. We thought, 'Well, I don't know. It's going to be a bit weird being cooped up with thousands of people on a boat. What if we want to get out?'

"It turned out that we didn't really need to escape from anybody because everybody was having such a great time. It was a real kind of love-in, [and] the fact that a lot of our friends are on the bill makes it a good hang."

Also a "good hang" have been Barenaked Ladies' shows in Detroit, which is why the Canadian popsters chose the city for its annual New Year's Eve event.

"I think we really wanted to celebrate the end of this year and move on and enter 2009 on a feel-good note," Stewart said. "We thought there was a good place to do it."