Author: Emma Loggins
Date: 2008-01-15


Interview:
The five-member OneRepublic was formed in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 2003. Tedder, who produced a couple of songs on the album, largely produced by Greg Wells (Deftones, Mika, Pink), boasts writing, producing and/or singing credits for Paul Oakenfold's Grammy nominated A Lively Mind, Jennifer Lopez, Leona Lewis, Ashley Tisdale, Natasha Bedingfield, Baby Bash, 2Pac, Chris Cornell, Blake Lewis.

How did OneRepublic get started and what's the story behind the name?

We were originally Republic, but our old management warned us that we might get sued over it, so we decided to change it. And it sounded cool and just made sense to us.

We thought maybe One Soul or One Original, and they we finally came to OneRepublic.

Was there an album that you heard growing up that really changed your life and convinced you that music was your future?

Wow, um... I would say Siamese Dream by Smashing Pumpkins, The Bends by Radiohead, and A Northern Soul by The Verb. Those would be the main ones.

Is there a song that you guys have written that you feel is the most personal or most powerful out of everything you all have done thus far?

'Say (All I Need)' would be it for me. I was going through relationship issues at the time, and it felt like Ryan was singing it to me when we were playing it. I have a beautiful girlfriend now though, and I couldn't be happier.

Is there a piece of recording equipment that you view as the cornerstone of your sound?

I don't know if I could pick just one piece of equipment, I will say that Ryan is amazing on the keyboard. He came up with the melody for 'Say' and we were just like man... we got to write something around this, let's do this! And one night we just came and Brent started playing it and we wrote 'Say'.

Ryan can come up with lyrics in 30 seconds, it's amazing how he does that… mind blowing, but for me, I just play the drums. [Laughs] I just listen for sounds.