Ryan Tedder has insisted all musicians are “stealing from each other”.
The OneRepublic frontman pointed out that with “only 12 notes in a scale”, songwriters have a “limited” capacity for total creative freedom, which is why he didn’t mind when ‘I Don’t Want To Wait’ collaborator David Guetta admitted he uses his chord progressions in his own songs.
Speaking to the Metro newspaper’s ’60 Seconds’ column, Ryan said: “I’ve known him for 10 to 15 years and any time I’ve run into him, he reminds me he likes to use my chord progressions in his songs.
“It’s flattering but the truth of it is, we’re all stealing from each other! There’s only 12 notes in a scale so it’s kind of limited.
“But he’s an endless wellspring of energy. He’s more than a decade older than me but can go harder, doing shows at 5am and then playing the after-party.”
The 45-year-old singer – whose band just dropped their sixth album ‘Artificial Paradise’, the final release on their 2007 record deal – admitted their track is “too obvious” but he loves it.
He explained: “Sometimes you catch a hit with a really cool record you feel represents you.
“We’ve had a few of those but every now and again, you have these overtly blunt pop records… but within the confines of my band I usually try to avoid those because it’s a bit cheesy and too obvious.
“This was one exception where we were like, you know what, this is too obvious but f*** it! It’s been a lot of fun hearing that record everywhere that summer.”
Ryan is incredibly grateful for ‘I Ain’t Worried’, which featured on the ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ soundtrack in 2022 and gave them a “massive worldwide” hit 17 years into their career.
However, 2013 chart topping single ‘Counting Stars’ is one that will always hold a special place in his heart, and he can still remember the band finding out the news “outside a pub near the Corinthia hotel in London” when Bruno Mars and his group walked past.
Ryan recalled: “He was like, ‘Hey Ryan, congrats on the number one, man! I love that record, that’s huge.’ And I remember thinking, that’s really cool.”