Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Can you seperate "Apologize" and One Republic? Ryan Tedder hopes so

MTV recently talked with Ryan Tedder about the pitfalls of a first single being so big that it is the only defining criteria of that band. "A song can become too big," Tedder said. "If, in the next six months, you bring up this band's name and people still can't connect who we are, and you have to bring up 'Apologize' every time to reference us, I would say the song got a little too big — that it's bigger than the band. I know certain bands that have literally called radio stations and asked them to stop playing their songs, because it could burn out fans. A year from now, we'll be able to tell if it was too big. And I think we could have a hit that big again. We're constantly running this race, and your goal should always be beating your previous record. Lightning can strike twice; we just want people to connect with another song, other than 'Apologize.'

With One Republic's "Apologize" being the biggest radio airplay hit in the history of North American Top 40 radio you'd think mission accomplished, but if that's the only song your known for, the audience loses out on what else you have to say as musicians. "As wonderful as 'Apologize' has been for us, I think any band is kind of afraid of their first single. If it blows up enormously, it's a lot to live up to. Plus, you're also trying to solidify the fact that you're not a one-hit wonder. We want to move past that phase, to where people are like, 'OK, it's a legitimate band.'

Late last year, we could do a 45-minute set and it wouldn't matter — the crowd would sing along to one song, and the rest of the songs, you can see they're kind of deciding, 'How much do we like this band?' or 'Are we here for one song?' " he said. "You see that from the stage. They're just kind of staring at you. But we played Philadelphia recently, and 1,500 people or so sang every single song we played. I've had a lot of people ask me how we measure success — it's a weird question. What makes us feel more validated is people coming to see us. Because, think about it, to go out on a Friday night, and pay parking ... all the nonsense you go through just to see a live show — when someone shows up, it's like, 'Thank you for showing up."

You can check the full article on MTV Newsand be on the lookout for One Republic's 3rd single "Say" very soon. Also be on the lookout for Ryan Tedder's production on such projects by James Morrison, Varsity, Jennifer Hudson, Kelly Clarkson, and The Pussycat Dolls to name but a few.

5 comments :

  1. Ryan Tedder is that dude!!!

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  2. I completely agree, this song was probably too big. people just wanna have this one song, the album isnt really selling well. at least they should be platinum already, but they not

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  3. Their other songs aren't with Tim.

    While that song's success was a combination of songwriting, vocals and production - I don't think what I've heard from them meets Tim's remix of Apologize on all three. They're an uninteresting rock band without that Tim beat.

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  4. Sad truth is, they are uninteresting without Tim. THey need to make a decision, combine the two genres and start fresh, or continue now and fail in the long run.

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  5. I don't think OneRepublic are uninteresting without Tim's production at all. His "remix" of "Apologize" was whack compared to the original. I liked the version on Shock value until I heard the original and then I kicked the "remix" to the curb.

    I'm glad they're releasing "Say (All I need)" as a single, because that right there is a hot song that has the potential to be really big - especially for the Summer.

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