RYAN Tedder of OneRepublic explains why his own band may be just getting going, but his songwriting royalties mean he's never going to be without a penny in his pocket.
You're No.1 in America with Leona Lewis's Bleeding Love, a song you co-wrote. How does that feel? |It's great but it's weird. In Germany, Bleeding Love and Stop and Stare were competing. She was keeping us from No.1 -- we just knocked her out. That was interesting. You must be thrilled Stop and Stare has been a hit, so you're not one-hit wonders after Apologize. I'm excited we got past Apologize. I think the third single, Say, is the biggest single on the record. I get a certain feeling from songs every now and again. The second I finished Bleeding Love I knew it was a massive hit. I was waiting for the right artist. Apologize, I had that feeling. And Say. It was critical that Stop and Stare should work. We could have made a much more alternative, indie-rock album. We have those songs. The world may never hear them. We have a side of us that could have leant that way. It would have been cool for us and a handful of people, but we wouldn't connect. Crowds respond to anthemic choruses. Not many bands these days are trying to write big songs. Starting an indie-rock band is much more popular than writing anthemic songs. Even Radiohead waited a few years to do their experimental Kid A. You have to earn the right to do that. We knew a lot of critics would hate us for making stuff that is user-friendly. We should have called the album User-Friendly. Three months ago I realised we're not Radiohead and never will be. We don't want to be. That's a dose of freedom. They've set such a high standard. Whether they admit it or not, secretly every band is like ‘‘Dammit'' when a Radiohead album comes out. They get No.1 albums that are critically acclaimed. But they sold five million copies of Pablo Honey because of the single Creep. The rest of that album wasn't so great, it was that song. But it earned them the right to do other things. That's not to say we'll go off on a tangent, but in order to take fans on an evolution, you have to have fans in the first place. I'm a sucker for pop melodies, things you can't get out of your head. The Beatles are the most credible band in the history of music. They won their fans from I Wanna Hold Your Hand and Drive My Car. Then they started evolving. We don't want to be the Beatles, but if you can chart anyone's evolution, it's theirs. Does a small part of you resent Apologize being credited to Timbaland featuring OneRepublic, considering you wrote the song? Dude, a huge part of me. What about when OneRepublic was left off certain charts? Now that p***** us off. Any time that happened, I'd call our label and say ‘‘Fix this immediately!'' I wrote Apologize five years ago. The label wanted to sell more copies of Tim's album. They wanted to get him up to three million. Which it did. Did it cost us? It was a trade-off. At first they promised us it wouldn't be a single. They were releasing our version on our album. But it was too popular. Every radio station wanted it. It took on a life of its own. We couldn't slow it down. It was very difficult to explain to the world it was our song and not Timbaland's. I can't wait 'til people stop asking those questions. I've answered ‘‘So, how did you meet Timbaland?'' 500,000 times. I hate it. It's called research. Now in certain places I'll say, ‘‘You can ask me one Timbaland question, that's it''. Surely part of you thinks ‘‘Two years ago I'd have killed to be doing these interviews'' though? Totally. I've been trying to be in this position since 1998. To have it finally connect . . . the frustrating part was ‘‘Timbaland featuring OneRepublic''. It's so backwards. It's ‘‘OneRepublic co-produced by Timbaland''. People forget we co-produced it. But he put us in the car-pool lane -- we were already moving, but we wouldn't be doing this for another two years if we'd had to do it on our own. Is it true you're a massive Silverchair fan? I'm a huge fan of Straight Lines. The fact that song wasn't a hit in America literally blows my mind. I think people were like ‘‘Who cares about Silverchair any more?'' In America they had tons of credibility and fans until he went off to do Dissociatives. They lost a lot of momentum. In America they're so ADD -- it's the hardest market to break. You have to give them a reason to care about you. Daniel Johns is a star. They get a little weird sometimes, but I get where his head's at: he doesn't care. I bought Young Modern and Straight Lines is the only song that could obviously work on radio. We'd love to take Silverchair on tour with us, if they'd want to. Obviously, if they hate our music that wouldn't make sense. Would you write with Johns? I'd love to write with him. I'm writing for a few people. Kelly Clarkson is one. How's it sounding? More poppy? I'm a sucker for solid, memorable melodies. I'm not interested in fad songs. Bleeding Love or Apologize could have come out 10 years from now or 10 years ago and they'd still work. I emailed Kelly the other day, ‘‘I want whatever songs we do to stick around''. I'm lucky to be working on the project. I'm not trying to do anything specific other than make great songs that are a little different from what people would expect. You wrote Bleeding Love with Jesse McCartney, but his record company rejected it. It must be a vindication now it's been a worldwide No.1. It is one of the most vindicating feelings in the world. I got some emails from the people who turned it down saying ‘‘OK, you're right''. The good thing about what's happening for me in the past year is I know I'm not crazy. When you have songs you think are hits, and time after time they get passed on, you start to wonder whether you have bad taste. I stopped writing one time after the rejection. I've got other songs stored up, other hits, that have been distributed. I'm more focused on who I'll work with now. I'm more picky. I've done three songs with Chris Cornell. Josh Groban's people are in touch. I did a song with James Morrison. I'd love to work with Doves. Love to write a song with Daniel Johns. You struggled for a few years. What are you going to buy when you get that first big cheque? I'll get a tattoo. My wife has a tattoo. I'm going to get one on my arm. I always said if I have a No.1 I'll never have to worry about having a normal job. Other than that I've lived in the same apartment in LA for two years, driven the same car for four years. I'm looking at houses in Colorado and California. Two years ago it would have scared me. Now I think, ‘‘Yeah, I can buy that''. We were with Enrique (Iglesias), we have the same manger, he has a private jet. In America, air travel is so bad. If I was to splurge on anything in the next two years it wouldn't be a car or clothing. We've talked about buying a used private jet for less than $1 million or something. We fly so much, the thought of not having to go through security would be worth more than a house right now. Dreaming Out Loud (Universal) out now
