Stop and stare

The following are quotes from Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, who was interviewed by Popjustice, one of my favourite music websites.

So many things he said remind me of the challenges that King Kong Jane faces, not least of which is the struggle to achieve that elusive balance between mass appeal and indie cred.

I guess it feels good to know that even OneRepublic thinks about such things...

"It seems the idea now is to look as indie as possible and to act as much as possible like you don't give a shit. But you know what? We do give a shit. To take your fans on a journey you need to have fans in the first place."

"And what was very useful to me was the day I woke up and realised I wasn't Thom Yorke and OneRepublic weren't Radiohead. And that's fine. It's funny because I think a lot of bands struggle with getting their heads around that: the fact that Radiohead can somehow straddle between mass appeal and total credibility. We just thought 'to Hell with it' – and we wrote songs that can be sung up to the rafters. Everybody right now is trying to be indie and cool and we decided to be obvious."

"When I write a song I write the music first and then the music will tell me that lyrics are necessary and I'll start recording gibberish. I'll just sing nonsense, the first words that come into my head. But the phonetics – the consonants and vowels that come out of my mouth the first time I sing along to something – are absolutely critical to the final product of the song."

"You have to say no. The thing that makes your career are the times you say no, not the times you say yes. I think the most important thing artists can do is not package up bullshit in a pretty bow, because it still smells like bullshit. And that's the one thing that with the band I've sworn myself to. The moment you start to try doing something and you try too hard it becomes disingenuous."

...but it feels even better to know that he writes his lyrics like the way I do!

Click here to read the full interview:
http://www.popjustice.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2653&Itemid=9