Ryan Tedder has this month appeared on the cover of FAULT's men's fashion supplement for the magazine's RAW Issue.
The OneRepublic frontman offered his frank take on the music industry in the feature interview, as well as opening up about differences between writing for yourself versus other artists, and his collaborations with Leona Lewis and Simon Cowell.
Credit: Kell Mitchell for FAULTOn working with Leona Lewis for her break-through single 'Bleeding Love'
"I would’ve bet money against that song being a hit anywhere outside of the UK. That’s how cynical I was. I had no idea of the expectation that there was for it. I didn’t even know till after we did the song that she had been on X Factor."
On Simon Cowell's label
"Simon didn’t get to where he’s got by sitting back in the passenger seat and just assuming or hoping that things will just take care of themselves.
"His label is aggressive, flat out aggressive. They have an objective, they have a goal, a single-minded goal and everyone at that label is dead on in their approach. They’re like, ‘here’s when it’s coming out, here’s when it’s due, boom boom boom boom boom boom.’ When you’re making an album you can move things around, but when you have TV involved it is completely different. Their calendar is their bible. They cannot change the dates of when something is going to broadcast and so because of that they have a more militant approach."
Credit: Kell Mitchell for FAULTOn working with other people versus working for OneRepublic
"OneRepublic songs are a lot harder for me. I compare it to theatre. A OneRepublic album is a play written, directed, produced, performed by us, by me, but when it’s for another artist I feel like I wrote the dialogue, but I don’t have to stand on stage and deliver it, so I’m not the one getting tomatoes thrown at ‘em if it doesn’t go well."
On making pop music
"You have to have hits all the time: that is your currency. You have to have the most cutting edge, innovative, driving, fantastical songs that the world instantly reacts to. They don’t need a lot of thought, and you don’t have to dig deep."
On the industry 'machine'
"If the artist is part of the machine then they’re too busy to really artistically care, they just say, ‘Give me the biggest hit.’"
Credit: Kell Mitchell for FAULTOneRepublic's new single 'Love Runs Out' is out August 3rd (available to pre-order on iTunes) and appears on a new version of the album 'Native' out August 11th on Mosley Music/Interscope Records. The band take to the stage at Live At Edinburgh Castle (BBC1) this Saturday and return to the UK and Ireland in October for their autumn tour dates - their biggest to date.
The full interview appears in FAULT Magazine Issue 18 out July 20th.
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