INSIDE LIFEHOUSE-
Lifehouse is an American rock band from Los Angeles comprising Jason Wade (lead vocals, guitar), Bryce Soderberg (bass, vocals) and Rick Woolstenhulme, Jr. (drums, percussion). Since 2000 Lifehouse has released seven albums and sold over 15 million records worldwide. Chart-topping hits include “You and Me,” “First Time”, “Halfway Gone,” “Hurricane” and "Hanging By A Moment," which was the most played radio track of 2001.
Lifehouse: Hey! This is Jason and Bryce!
Musique Magazine: Hi! Thank you for taking the time to chat with us! Congratulations on your greatest hits album! Please, tell us about it. How did you pick songs for it?
Lifehouse (Bryce): Oh, thank you for that! Basically, we put the songs in the chronological order by release, starting with “Hanging By A Moment”, and with our latest single release, which was the song “Hurricane”. We added a couple of songs in, that we thought were necessary to kind of portray what our fans gravitate towards: songs like “Everything”, “It Is What It Is” is another one, and “From Where You Are”. Other than that they've just released and been released in the chronological order.
Musique Magazine: Please, tell us about the process of writing "Hanging By A Moment" song. What do you think made it so successful?
Lifehouse (Jason): Well I wrote it back in 99. It happened very quickly, it was almost like an out-of-body experience. I picked up an acoustic guitar, I was almost finished with the first album “No Name Face”, and I just got inspired in the song, almost channel the song from another place. I feel like it happened so quickly my mind didn't have time to kind of tweak it at all, so it was just a very pure expression of the moment of inspiration, and I think that people latched onto that.
Musique Magazine: "You And Me" is also one of your biggest songs to date. What's the story behind this song?
Lifehouse (Jason): “You And Me” was a song that I wrote for my girlfriend, that I actually proposed to my girlfriend with around the same time that the first album came out. The song didn't surface for another six years, and it's interesting that that song become a big wedding song because it was kind of coming from that place in my personal life. And I've always believed that your song has to mean something to you if it's going to mean something to anybody else. So that's a special song for me personally.
Musique Magazine: Lifehouse has sold over 15 million records. What such success means to you? And how do you define the word “success”?
Lifehouse: Success to us - it's never really been about the numbers with album sales, it's been about maintaining our integrity and making the best records that we can to look at where we're at right now, and releasing this greatest hits, and kind of looking back at all the trials and tribulations, peaks and valleys that we’ve been through. Obviously, is a huge bonus to have had the fanbase that we've had and to sell the records that we've had. But, you know, to be in the present moment and enjoy each step of the way is to us a success as well. Musique Magazine: So now you're on “Looking For Summer” tour! How was your experience so far? Lifehouse: It's going really good. We're about three weeks into the tour. Switchfoot has been amazing! They're great guys. It's a good show so far, it's been really good vibes. Musique Magazine: What's the best live performance experience have you had?
Lifehouse: Probably playing the opening up to the “Rolling Stones” a long time ago in 2002 - 2003 pinnacle.
Musique Magazine: What was your favorite and least favorite venues to play?
Lifehouse: Madison Square Garden was probably the best. My least favorite…I forget the name of it, but we used to play like on parking lots - not very good.
Musique Magazine: Which songs do you perform more frequently?
Lifehouse: We always like to perform our hits: the songs that we know that a lot of our fanbase are coming out to hear, such as “Hanging By A Moment”, “You And Me”, “Halfway Gone”. A lot of bands get or claim that they get tired of playing songs over and over. We get a great reaction from our fanbase from these songs and we enjoy playing songs that get to the connection with the crowd.
Musique Magazine: What do you like to do outside of music?
Lifehouse: Jason: I like to be outdoors. I like to ride bike and hike and just be anywhere near water. Bryce: I like to play basketball, read, and listen to music, watch documentaries - stuff like that. Checking out art in different forms, going to museum or looking at a good painting, watching a good movie. It's inspiration everywhere.
Musique Magazine: What do you do on the road?
Lifehouse: On the road we try to sleep as much as possible because we don't on the bus. We look for good restaurants on days off and just interesting things to do in the cities trying to kill time, because you have 10 percent of the time on stage and 90 percent of the time just wandering around strange places. Musique Magazine: What are your plans for the future after this tour?
Lifehouse: We've been talking about making a new live album, so I’m gonna start writing songs after this tour and then we'll just see where that takes us.
Musique Magazine: Thank you so much for your time! It was nice talking to you!
Lifehouse: All right, thanks so much. Bye-bye!