Barenaked Ladies (from left) Steven Page, Jim Creeggan, Ed Robertson, Kevin Hearn and Tyler Stewart

It’s a busy time to be a Barenaked Lady.

Barenaked Ladies keyboardist Kevin Hearn is currently dividing his time between four major things: an independent record label that he co-owns, a solo album he is recording, a variety show he and his bandmates are developing for Fox and a tour that comes to Akron’s Civic Center Wednesday.

Oh, and did I mention that the tour is in support of the band’s new holiday album, Barenaked for the Holidays?

The 20-track disc is chock full of Christmas and Hanukkah songs both new and old, including duets with Sarah McLachlan and Michael Buble and schmaltzy instrumental takes on “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime.”

Hearn said the band has been waiting a long time to make a full-fledged holiday record, having contributed Christmas tunes to several compilations . It is also the first release on the Barenaked Ladies’ new Nettwerk Records-affiliated label, Desperation, a nod to the desperate state of the music industry. Not that the band didn’t consider other names as well.

“We were thinking of calling it Diarrhea Records,” joked Hearn, who has been with the band since 1996. “But that idea was sorta shot down by those around us.”

Hearn is otherwise quite content with being a co-labelhead, after BNL parted ways with Reprise following the release of last year’s Everything to Everyone.

“We’re kinda lucky,” Hearn said. “We’re in a spot where we can afford to make records and do other stuff on our own terms. It’s a liberating thing.”

As a result of his band’s newly independent status, Hearn is all the more free to make records with his side project, Thin Buckle, a band he started with Chris Gartner, Derek Orford and Bob Scott and released the album Night Light (Hyrbrid [Red]) in 2003.

Thin Buckle’s next album is already under way and will feature songs Hearn has co-written with fellow Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith.

“It’s pretty upbeat musically,” Hearn said of the new album. “The band is in fine form. We’re also working with (engineer) Jim Scott, who worked on a few of the BNL records with us and is really into getting a band’s live sound. I think it’s gonna be awesome. I’m excited.”

Hearn also will be instrumental in the Barenaked Ladies’ new series for Fox, which is tentatively scheduled to begin production in January. At the time of this phone interview, the band was about to meet with a pair of writers to flesh out story ideas for the show Hearn calls a cross between I Love Lucy and Fear Factor.

“There will be elements of a variety show,” Hearn said, “but based on sort of a comedy show with us as the main characters. We have so many stories as a band over the years; I think (the writers) just wanna pick our brains and get some ideas.”

One place the writers are likely to draw from is the Barenaked Ladies’ live show, a notorious mix of juvenile humor, improv and pop medleys. The tour formula will be slightly modified to feature many of the songs on Barenaked for the Holidays, but Hearn promised to play plenty of fan favorites as well.

Does that mean they’ll tweak BNL classics to be more Christmas-y, you might ask? Like, “If I Had A Million Reindeer” or “It’s been/One week since we trimmed the tree”?

“You’re really pushing it,” Hearn said to this reporter after being asked that very question. He added with a laugh, “But I’ll take it to the board meeting.”

Another question Hearn was happy to answer was just how much the Barenaked Ladies lived up to their name. It’s a well-known fact amongst BNL enthusiasts that the band records one song per album naked.

“We never tell,” Hearn said mischievously. “It’s usually the song that’s the most frantic. I’ll let you figure it out.” (Hint: listen to “Deck the Stills” or “Sleigh Ride” for possible franticness.)

Naked or not, Hearn has a lot to be thankful for this holiday season, having been diagnosed with leukemia in 1998, just as the band reached its commercial breakthrough with Stunt. Although quickly treated via a tissue transplant from his brother Shawn, Hearn doesn’t seem to take life for granted.

“I thank God I’m alive,” Hearn said, “and for my beautiful family, my daughter.”

But Hearn, ever the jokester, also had one more holiday staple he’s quite grateful for.

“I like building a giant block of ice to cut through the traffic jam,” he joked.

Contact pop arts editor Andrew Hampp at ahampp@kent.edu