- Thu, 2007-11-15 12:12
OneRepublic have been around a while and their lead singer Ryan has penned many hits, including Leona Lewis's latest number one - Bleeding Love. After being signed to Columbia the band made an impact on MySpace before their song Apologize becamee featured in remix form on Timbaland's 2007 release Shock Value. The song reached No.2 on Billboard Hot 100 chart and No.3 on the UK chart.
The group has recently finished recording their debut album entitled Dreaming Out Loud set for release on November 20, 2007.
We caught up with lead singer and songwriter, Ryan to talk about Apologize, working with Timbaland and Leona Lewis and writing quality tracks.
''I Like Music because.... it is the soundtrack to my life every day.'' Ryan, OneRepublic
ILM: How did the collaboration with Timbaland on the hit single, Apologize come about?
Ryan: Well I’ve known Tim for about six years. I used to be signed as a solo artist back in the day. So he just kept tabs on me as my career progressed and we used to be signed to Columbia records and we got dropped a little over a year ago, and right after we got dropped our band exploded on MySpace out of nowhere, so all these labels starting calling us. Timbaland was one of them and he offered us the most interesting situation. He told me Aplogize would’ve been a hit with or without me, as it was already a hit on the internet but what he did was speed up the process tremendously.
We’re number four in the UK, that would have been nine months from now or a year from now if he hadn’t been involved. He took it and sped up the process. He has his own label now so he’s used his current popularity to launch us and turn everyone’s attention towards us and is saying look these guys are a band and have a whole album, not just one song.
ILM: So, everything happens for a reason and at the time when you were dropped by Columbia you might have been feeling down but actually, had you remained with them, all of this might not have happened and you wouldn’t have had the artistic freedom you have now.
Ryan: Yeah, it’s funny, I’m so happy we got dropped, I couldn’t be happier.
ILM: On your debut album, out soon, which track did you enjoy laying down the most?
Ryan: My favourite song on the record is probably the first track, called Say. We’ve been careful not to post too much new material up on the web, just because it’s so easy to rip stuff off, so nobody’s really heard the song, except in our live shows. It’s been the most fulfilling. It’s just us trying to write the biggest song possible and it really connects with Apologize too, it’s like the sister song to Apologize on the record. Sonically there’s a similar feeling and vibe. The whole rest of the record, melodically, the feeling that Apologize has, the overall moodiness is present throughout the rest of the record, but Say, the first track is probably my favourite of those songs.
ILM: What did you learn from Timbaland about making music?
Ryan: Oh yeah, plenty. Musically my instincts have been sharpened. When I sit down to do a song for somebody else now, where I go musically has definitely been influenced by Timbaland. I’m not going to go to the obvious place anymore. I’m going to go to the most musical place possible. Whether it’s with an instrument or with my mouth, it’s like Tim has helped me to develop my instincts to a higher level as a producer and a writer. I’m a lot more innovative since having been with him. I’ve always been strong melodically, but when it comes to making the music, the actual track, the beat and the rhythm and all that, I’m a lot more innovative having been exposed to Timbaland
ILM: It’s like you’ve had your antennae for what works polished?
Ryan: Exactly, you got it.
ILM: You write emotion-driven lyrics and songs. Please can you describe the OneRepublic music making process? Does it tend to be lyrics or melodies first?
Ryan: Yeah, it does (melody first), partly because I’ve been writing for so long for so many different artists. I write literally seven days a week for eight years now and anything you do that much, you just get quicker and quicker. So lyrically when I sit down for OneRepublic to write a song for this band, melodically whether it’s myself playing piano or guitar or one of the other guys in the band, usually the melody is the first thing that jumps out of me. If I don’t find a melody that I fall in love with immediately, then we don’t write the song, we move on to something else. We’ll find different chords or use a different instrument, because the melody is most important because that’s what gets your attention, that’s what sticks in your head. When you don’t remember the lyrics you can still hum the melody.
So, I’ll come up with the melody first and if I find a melody that I think is really captivating then I’ll flesh out the lyrics. Typically the chorus lyrics just pop out of me. I can’t even explain it, it’s not something that I think about, it’s just something that happens. To me, I’ve always said music tells the writer what the song wants to say. The music will tell you what the lyrics want to be. It’s really weird, it’s almost a spiritual thing, the song wants to say what it wants to say and all you have to do is not get in the way and just let it happen. It’s a very out of body experience, at least it is for me. It doesn’t take any amount of opiates or alcohol or drugs. I just try not to get in the way of what the song wants to say and the lyrics come out really quickly.
ILM: You wrote Leona Lewis’s current number one hit, Bleeding Love. Tell us about that song and writing for Leona?
Ryan: I did, I wrote and produced Bleeding Love.
ILM: It’s a great tune but also it really fits with her voice and with the high expectations everybody had for her.
Ryan: Thank you, I also did another song on her record called Take A Bow, which I hope and think might be the second single, which I like as much as Bleeding Love and she was wonderful to work with.
ILM: Yeah, she’s such a lovely girl.
Ryan: Absolutely.
ILM: You’re a Grammy nominated writer & have written & produced tracks with/for various other artists, including Natasha Bedingfield, Jennifer Lopez, Lil' Jon, Paul Oakenfold, t.A.T.u., Bubba Sparxxx, Tupac and Timbaland. How did you get into songwriting and production with such high profile people?
Ryan: Well the high profile thing has only been really in the past year, because I had to work my way up the pecking order, the ladder of credibility. I started with brand new artists who barely had record deals to medium artists and you’ve got to have hits at some point and then that gets you up to the real A-list artists.
I started writing and producing just out of necessity. I was flat broke about five years ago. I promised myself that I wouldn’t do any jobs that weren’t music related. So I started hustling songs I started OneRepublic about five years ago too, so at night I would work on OneRepublic, booking shows and writing and rehearsing and during the day I’d work on hustling songs for other artists, for anybody and everybody, anything to generate an income, because I was living in poverty at that point. So it started out of necessity. I didn’t ever plan on being a producer or songwriter per se, I planned on being an artist. But if we had a show on a Thursday night, I still had seven hours left during the day to do something else, so I started filling my days with songwriting. And one thing led to another and now it’s all happening at the same time.
ILM: Well yeah, it’s really paid off, all that hard work.
Ryan: Yeah, that’s all it is really, I never stopped. If I got turned down or rejection, I’d just write another one, I’d try to beat it or improve it. You do that enough and work spending enough hours doing anything, I guess you get good enough at it to pay the bills. And then things really started connecting in the past year, things really started taking off.
The key is; you have to love it. The problem is when you get stuck in a job that only pays the bills and you somehow have to convince yourself to work hard at it but it’s not something you love. I am impossible if you put me in a position where you ask me to do something I don’t like, you’ll get the worst results. I have to enjoy it otherwise I’m the laziest person in the world. But if I love it, I’m the hardest working person in the world.
ILM: Totally, it’s a motivator isn’t it?
Ryan: Yeah, absolutely.
ILM: You’ve been MySpace Music’s Top Artists since summer 2006, with over 12 million total song plays and counting – remarkable for a band that is yet to release an album. What’s your advice to young people on following their dream career, not necessarily in the music industry but just doing what they want to do career wise?
Ryan: You can’t take for granted that every person has a different set of parents and some people have no parents and parents are huge motivators or de-motivators, depending on what your parents are like. But, excluding any influence that parents may have on somebody, my motto has become at this point: life is way too short to not do what you love, whether it pays a million dollars a year or a hundred dollars a week, life is too short, that’s really my whole philosophy. You’re not guaranteed another day.
I’ve had friends who’ve tragically died in car wrecks, when they were 18 or 24 or had things happen to them they never could have predicted, so if you really think about life that you’re never promised another day, that really inspires you to that day, every day do exactly what it is you want to do. If what you want to do isn’t something that pays a ton of money or you think it’ll be a while before you can do it professionally, it doesn’t matter, you just do it. Because, if you do what you love, then that’s what you’re going to be best at. Whatever you do for free, that’s what you should do for your job. And people can come up with all sorts of excuses, but life’s too short and I think it’s a tragedy to not go for what you want to do however crazy it sounds.
ILM: That’s how ilikemusic.com came about. We may not have big bucks or big backers, but we wanted to do something that we liked, so we decided, let’s go against the grain, let’s do this and let’s choose not to slate artists or be a gossip site, but instead lets focus on the music… and here we are.
Ryan: That’s how all the great companies come about, by people doing what they want to do, regardless. That’s the best way to do it.
ILM: What does the future hold for OneRepublic?
Ryan: Hopefully we’ll have a long run. This album, I can say with confidence, it’s not just Aplogize. We’re not going to be a band that comes out with one decent song that does really well and then disappears. We have tons of material to follow it up with and it’s not even the best song on the record. So I can say as a songwriter and producer as objectively as possible that this project has been three years in the making and the so much thought has gone into every tune that’s made this album down to the fifth single, we’re really thinking down the road, we want to just follow it up.
So the future for us is hopefully one filled with playing bigger and better venues with each passing month and getting as much material out there as possible, that’s what it’s all about. We want as many people as possible to hear our music, in as many countries as possible. Those are the kinds of songs we wrote. All the bands that have inspired us have had those albums that have connected with the whole world. We’re not just interested in the States or one particular territory, we’re interested in everybody. And I’m a sucker for big singalong choruses and that’s what this album is. A lot of songs about love and life and faith and relationships and humanity. We’ve tried to really write a record that’s about the human condition. And if it’s not giving us goosebumps then it’s not giving anyone else goosebumps and that’s what we try to do with each song, we try to make it deeper than just a catchy tune.
ILM: Well with that much passion and experience I think you’re going to be around for the long haul, definitely.
Ryan: Well thank you. I appreciate it.
