Post by disarray on May 3, 2010 11:09:19 GMT -5
By Mike Thiel
The first thing that comes to mind when he hears Wisconsin is “cheese.” The first thing he thinks of when he hears the words Green Bay is “the Packers.” Needless to say, Lifehouse bassist Bryce Soderberg has learned well in just a few visits to the Badger State.
Growing up in Canada, Wisconsin is almost like home for the just turned 30-year-old, claiming it’s a lot closer to the weather he’s used to. Laughing through 75 percent of the interview, Soderberg is living his dream, rain or shine; luckily, he squeezed out just enough words between chuckles to speak of Lifehouse’s new album, Smoke & Mirrors, and current tour with Daughtry which visits the Resch Center May 21.
Mike Thiel: Tell me a little about the tour. Based on your similar sounds, I’m assuming you’re fans of Chris Daughtry. How do you usually tag team the audience during a show?
Bryce Soderberg: (laughs) Tag team. Chris is a great artist and a good friend. We met him three years ago when he was just starting with his band at a show that we were just randomly co-headlining with and we were like, we should go meet him. We got a knock on our bus door, he came on and he’s like ‘I’m a big fan of you guys’ and vice-versa…To make a long story short, fast-forwarding to now, when our record came out he invited us to tour with him…We do have similar styles and a lot of our fans are getting along with his fans and the combination of both bands and fans makes for a great live show. Jason (Wade) even gets on stage and sings with Chris on some nights on his song “Home.” That gets a huge crowd response.
MT: So you worked with Kevin Rudolf and Chris Daughtry on the Smoke & Mirrors album?
BS: Yes.
MT: But no Lil’ Wayne, what’s up with that?
BS: (laughs) He’s gonna have a guest appearance on our B-sides album.
MT: For real?
BS: No. I’m sorry (laughs). I wish! That’s the whole thing. The cool thing about Kevin Rudolf is he kind of collaborates with a lot of people in that whole pop and rock genre. He’s very down to earth with today’s urban and pop side of music and also he’s very rock influenced. That was one of the coolest things about making the song “Halfway Gone” because it’s kind of a hybrid of the two sides.
MT: I noticed the band taking more chances on this album. You experimented more than you have in the past, even on simpler songs like “It Is What It Is.” It almost sounds like a Rob Thomas song.
BS: Oh, wow! That’s one of the tracks that just out of the blue became a fan favorite. We didn’t see it coming at all. It was one of those songs that we went in the studio and tried to raise the bar and experiment with a bunch of different sounds…We kind of stepped out of our comfort zone and when the album was made, it was like the No. 1 downloaded track on iTunes for us and we were like, what? So that might wind up being our next single.
MT: So what was the real inspiration in making this album?
BS: We came off the road, touring on our last record, Who We Are, for three years. We came into the studio wanting to take a snapshot of that live organic sound. We recorded a few songs that are very influenced by classic rock and we recorded tracks live and all that. But halfway through making the record we kind of realized we were neglecting that side that we get a lot of Lifehouse fans from, which is that polished record making aspect for radio. So we started pumping out songs and co-writes like “Halfway Gone” with Kevin Rudolf, “Had Enough” with Chris Daughtry and that’s kind of how the title Smoke & Mirrors ambiguously fits in with those two sides of Lifehouse.
www.scenenewspaper.com/arts-entertainment/24-arts-entertainment/381-15-minutes-with-bryce-soderberg-of-lifehouse.html
I really hope IIWII is not the next single. All In is a much better choice. It's the perfect Lifehouse summer song.
The first thing that comes to mind when he hears Wisconsin is “cheese.” The first thing he thinks of when he hears the words Green Bay is “the Packers.” Needless to say, Lifehouse bassist Bryce Soderberg has learned well in just a few visits to the Badger State.
Growing up in Canada, Wisconsin is almost like home for the just turned 30-year-old, claiming it’s a lot closer to the weather he’s used to. Laughing through 75 percent of the interview, Soderberg is living his dream, rain or shine; luckily, he squeezed out just enough words between chuckles to speak of Lifehouse’s new album, Smoke & Mirrors, and current tour with Daughtry which visits the Resch Center May 21.
Mike Thiel: Tell me a little about the tour. Based on your similar sounds, I’m assuming you’re fans of Chris Daughtry. How do you usually tag team the audience during a show?
Bryce Soderberg: (laughs) Tag team. Chris is a great artist and a good friend. We met him three years ago when he was just starting with his band at a show that we were just randomly co-headlining with and we were like, we should go meet him. We got a knock on our bus door, he came on and he’s like ‘I’m a big fan of you guys’ and vice-versa…To make a long story short, fast-forwarding to now, when our record came out he invited us to tour with him…We do have similar styles and a lot of our fans are getting along with his fans and the combination of both bands and fans makes for a great live show. Jason (Wade) even gets on stage and sings with Chris on some nights on his song “Home.” That gets a huge crowd response.
MT: So you worked with Kevin Rudolf and Chris Daughtry on the Smoke & Mirrors album?
BS: Yes.
MT: But no Lil’ Wayne, what’s up with that?
BS: (laughs) He’s gonna have a guest appearance on our B-sides album.
MT: For real?
BS: No. I’m sorry (laughs). I wish! That’s the whole thing. The cool thing about Kevin Rudolf is he kind of collaborates with a lot of people in that whole pop and rock genre. He’s very down to earth with today’s urban and pop side of music and also he’s very rock influenced. That was one of the coolest things about making the song “Halfway Gone” because it’s kind of a hybrid of the two sides.
MT: I noticed the band taking more chances on this album. You experimented more than you have in the past, even on simpler songs like “It Is What It Is.” It almost sounds like a Rob Thomas song.
BS: Oh, wow! That’s one of the tracks that just out of the blue became a fan favorite. We didn’t see it coming at all. It was one of those songs that we went in the studio and tried to raise the bar and experiment with a bunch of different sounds…We kind of stepped out of our comfort zone and when the album was made, it was like the No. 1 downloaded track on iTunes for us and we were like, what? So that might wind up being our next single.
MT: So what was the real inspiration in making this album?
BS: We came off the road, touring on our last record, Who We Are, for three years. We came into the studio wanting to take a snapshot of that live organic sound. We recorded a few songs that are very influenced by classic rock and we recorded tracks live and all that. But halfway through making the record we kind of realized we were neglecting that side that we get a lot of Lifehouse fans from, which is that polished record making aspect for radio. So we started pumping out songs and co-writes like “Halfway Gone” with Kevin Rudolf, “Had Enough” with Chris Daughtry and that’s kind of how the title Smoke & Mirrors ambiguously fits in with those two sides of Lifehouse.
www.scenenewspaper.com/arts-entertainment/24-arts-entertainment/381-15-minutes-with-bryce-soderberg-of-lifehouse.html
I really hope IIWII is not the next single. All In is a much better choice. It's the perfect Lifehouse summer song.
. IIWII is one of my favorites and I do not want to hear it ever 5 seconds cause I don't want to get tired of it. Not saying I'd ever get tired of All In either.
. I'd also like to know if anybody has an HD copy of Lifehouse at Pinkpop 2003. BY far their best concert ever