Exclusive Interview: OneRepublic "Wakes Up"!

You probably have heard the break-up anthem "Apologize" from the band OneRepublic's album "Dreaming Out Loud". It was number one in 16 countries. The tune chewed up the download world in 2007 and kick-started the heart-felt artists' careers. Now, the band launches "Waking Up" and the CD is full of personal ballads and beats guaranteed to please those who made "Apologize" a part of their personal listening arsenal.

Frontman Ryan Tedder is a Renaissance man. He plays a ton of instruments, writes award-winning tunes (he co-wrote Leona Lewis's Grammy-winner "Bleeding Love" and produces and writes for Rihanna, Beyonce, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Lopez and many others) and, in our interview, revealed that "Waking Up" may be his most personal CD yet. We enjoyed learning that OneRepublic tracks have saved lives! Ryan revealed that several young people have written that they decided to stay around rather than commit suicide after listening to one of the songs.

Ryan gives us advice on the need for young artists to also attend college and told TeenMusic about a very kinky and inappropriate fan encounter.....    

TeenMusic: On your new album "Waking Up", I love "Everybody Loves Me". Could this be how music artists feel when they are mega-successful? Does it sometimes feel just superficial?  What does that song mean to you?

Ryan: That meaning is two-fold.  It kind of got inspired from a trip to Las Vegas where I saw people that were friends of mine just completely loaded acting ridiculously.  Then the song evolved from there. But, it's about the second that you end up with the big hit, all of a sudden I went from nobody gives a rat's a** about me to any club in the world, any place I want.  We could walk into a restaurant that we couldn't get seats in for six months and we would get the corner booth.  It's just ridiculous.  I don't even do that anymore because I got so sick of it. (I thought), 'Man the second this song isn't in the top 10, we can't even get in the door'. The whole song is tongue in cheek like 'I'm the bomb.  I've got this fame.  I don't even need my health'. It's got crazy lines in it like 'I stare at the sun for kicks'. I had this crazy idea of somebody in Vegas, after a night loaded just laying out by the pool hung over and reveling in their own magnificence.  

TeenMusic: "Missing Persons" has an interesting verbal back-beat. Is that you and where did the idea for that come from?

Ryan: That's me doing the sounds.  If I can't create a sound with an instrument, then I always use my voice. I can do lots of sound effects and beat box and crazy stuff. I've been doing that since I was a kid. "Missing Persons" is one of my favorite songs on the album.

TeenMusic: Is it important that each song is personal and, which on the album is the most personal to you?

Ryan:  They're all personal and all written from my perspective and I try to keep them distinctly different from anything I do for anybody else; any other artist. I'd say "All This Time" is written about my wife. We got married and I had told her that I was giving up trying to be a recording artist and having that occupy all our time. We got married and then "Apologize" blew up and I disappeared for a year. So, "All This Time" is about my wife. That's probably the most personal. "Fear" is personal. Almost every song is me holding up a mirror.

TeenMusic: What do you actually mean by "Waking Up"? Waking up to the mess man has made on earth or something more personal like "wake up and smell the coffee in your own relationship?"

Ryan: It has a dual meaning. The song is talking about us touring in 27 countries last year and the hatred aimed at Americans was overwhelming, with Bush. So, I have lyrics in there like "We take tolls. We rake coals. We dig holes and we'll dig 'um right in your fields. We cut ties. We tell lies. We don't pause, we've got cause. Don't you know, we're all wizards, welcome to Oz".

TeenMusic: Wow, that really says a lot!

Ryan: The whole idea of that was seeing our meddling in foreign affairs with a cocky swagger, and it was brought to the forefront last year.  It made me sad.  I'm proud to be an American. My family has been here since 1560. I'm as American as it gets. But, in the chorus, "We're waking up.  We'll take these roads, we'll break them up".  I feel like America has come around in the last year. We've got to change and stop meddling in other people's affairs and that's what the song is about.  And our last album was kind of homogenous. I didn't produce it and the songs were three years old by the time we recorded it. We'd already toured on it so we're 'waking up' on that score too.  

TeenMusic: Your bio says, when you were a kid you were rewarded for practicing the piano with candy corn. What would you consider a comparable incentive as an adult?

Ryan: Incentive as an adult for working hard? The most rewarding thing, more than hits, more than money, is people physically leaving their homes and coming out to see a show. That is the hardest thing to get; real fans.  You can have hits for days but still not connect with a live audience. I get emotional when we sell out (a venue).  It's the pinnacle for me.

TeenMusic: You have a degree in Public Relations and Advertising.  Has that helped you publicize the band and would you encourage a high schooler, who wants to be a music artist, to also get a degree that might aid his or her career?

Ryan: I encourage everyone to get a degree because college isn't about what you learn, it's about the process of growing up and becoming an adult. It's about paying for your own crap. That is almost more important than the actual degree you get. It's helped on this album.  I thought "guys, on our last album, every single photo shoot we're wearing a different outfit. We look completely different. As a marketing concept, we have an "F"'.  So I said, 'this album we will be cohesive, every photo will look like us, with similar dress. We'll wear something similar to the video in public'. So, the advertising (background) did help in focusing and creating a brand. It does help and I also started interning at record labels when I was 18.

TeenMusic: Great advice. Who, in the group is the jokester and who is the "we've gotta get to work" guy?

Ryan: I would say the jokester in the group ... well it's me! I'm the biggest prankster in the group.  The "get back to work" would probably be Eddie (Fisher - drums).

TeenMusic: What is the most touching and then weirdest fan encounter you've had so far?

Ryan: We've had at least a half dozen fans or more write in who haven't committed suicide because of our songs. They've written us huge letters like 'my mom is a pill popper. She told me I'm worthless. This song or that song got me through it'. One girl had a gun. She wrote, 'I'm at my house, at my desk, holding a loaded gun. I was going to off myself and one of your songs came on the radio.  It started making my cry.  I got online, found the song and played it from midnight until about 5 A.M. and I unloaded the gun, put it back in my dad's cabinet and decided not to take my life'.  

TeenMusic: Wow!  That proves your songs are full of hope.

Ryan: Yeah.  That's what it does for us.

TeenMusic: And a weird fan encounter?

Ryan: I had a mom at a meet and greet walk up.  Her 14-year-old daughter was to her right and the mom grabbed my (butt) leaned over and said 'I want you to hook up with my daughter tonight.  It'll make her year'.

TeenMusic: Ewww, that is so inappropriate and, yes.... weird. Why do you think "Apologize" was such a huge download hit? What chord did it strike with music fans?

Ryan: I think it resonated because it's like the ultimate break-up song. When you've had enough, you draw a line in the sand. That's the song.  It was real to me. It was visceral and it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up every time I heard it so I knew it had to connect with other people too. It's real. A real, honest lyric put to a great melody, there will always be a place for it in modern music.

TeenMusic: Amen!