Ryan Tedder says OneRepublic’s latest album, ‘Human’, is “wildly different” from the majority of music in the charts.
The ‘Stop And Stare’ hitmakers have just dropped their fifth studio album and the frontman has insisted there is nothing else like it out there, “lyrically and conceptually”.
He said: “I’m scrolling through the charts right now, as we’re talking, and what we’re about to release is wildly different, subject matter-wise. You’re not going to get the boy-girl relationship. You’re going to get stuff that doesn’t necessarily make you think about the girl or boy that broke your heart or whatever relationship you’re currently pursuing. But it’s going to make you think about yourself and life in general. And where do you fit into all of it? And like, what’s your motivation? What is the pursuit of happiness? What is it that makes you content? That makes you feel human? And that’s the best thing I could say about this album. It’s wildly different, lyrically and conceptually, to 90%, 99% of what is currently out there.”
The 42-year-old songwriter – who has produced and co-written tracks for the likes of Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney, Adele and Camila Cabello – also insisted he never tries to write hits for OneRepublic, because his own music has to come from an authentic place.
He added to Music Week magazine: “Whether it’s Lil Nas X or Ed Sheeran or bands like us, people want to hear your story. So, by 2017 I was thinking ‘well, I’ve had 10 years of singing about my personal life and my thoughts on stuff…’ My day job is to write hits for other artists, but I’ve never sat down and thought ‘let’s write a hit for One Republic’. Everything we’ve ever put out has just been a reflection, or a reaction, to me living life. So if you look at it that way it’s like, if it’s not raining, the crops aren’t going to grow. So for me, I have to experience rain. I have to feel things, go through things, they have to land in my lap authentically. So like the inspiration for the album is two years of experiences in life that felt authentic enough to then justify a song.”