Lifehouse interview

Just when you think you know what to expect from a band after a decade of listening to their music, Lifehouse goes and makes Smoke & Mirrors. Sure, there are plenty of radio friendly pop songs on the band’s new album, like the current chart-topping single Halfway Gone, but there are an equal number of tripped out rockers like Nerve Damage that’ll never get anywhere near the radio – which is exactly the way the band wants it. As Lifehouse surreally prepares to perform on the Tonight Show for the second time in two months, lead singer Jason Wade filled me in on everything we need to know about Smoke & Mirrors, which was just released today…

Some of the songs on this album like Nerve Damage are pretty out there for Lifehouse, don’t think you think?

That’s definitely what we were going for. I think we kind of pride ourselves on not just recreating the last record just because it was successful. We took our time with this record, we took a year and a half, and we just wanted to make sure that we were moving forward and not just standing still.

Some of these songs like Halfway Gone sound like a typical Lifehouse song, but then there’s others, it’s almost like there’s two albums going on here.

There’s two sides to the record, you know, there’s the more professional record-making songs that are more conducive to the radio, and then there’s more of like live rock tracks, like Smoke & Mirrors and Nerve Damage and songs that are gonna make the live show really exciting.

Last time we talked you guys were a trio, at least officially. Now it looks like Ben is an official member of the band, not just a touring member. How did that come about?

It just basically happened naturally. He’s been with us for five years, he’s a great guy, we love him to death, and he just really fits the mold and just it felt time. It felt time on this record to kind of bring him into the picture and bring him into the studio a little bit more. It just felt like a natural progression.

What does that do for you in the studio when you’ve got that extra guitarist?

Well to be honest, he only played on a couple songs on the record. His position is basically he’s in the band, he’s family, but we didn’t want to mess with the chemistry too much because [Jude Cole] and myself have predominantly played most of the lead guitar on Lifehouse records. So we didn’t want to change the chemistry too much. But he played on two or three songs.

I know that Jude has been a member of the Lifehouse family, musically, from day one, but this is the second time in a row you’ve used him as a producer.

Jude’s just a huge catalyst for us. He’s always motivating us to try new things and he just really pushes us, almost like a coach on a basketball team or something. There’s a chemistry there and a trust that I think was really evident to everybody. So it was almost like one of those if it’s not broke, don’t fix it type of things.

Anytime you’ve got a song on your album that’s cowritten by you and Richard Marx and Chris Daughtry, I guess you know you’re gonna get asked about it, right?

[Laughs] It was actually Chris’ idea. Chris and I started to become really good friends. We played a couple of shows together and then when he was in LA we just hit it off and kind of became good friends. I wrote a song for his record, and basically he had the idea to bring Richard Marx in as a third party and cowrite a song for my record. I met him at his place in Hollywood, and Richard Marx flew out from Chicago, and we just had a great time. We wrote for two days and “Had Enough” was the song that we wrote on the second day. And some cowriting scenarios can be really awkward. This one definitely wasn’t. It was just a lot of fun.

Your lead single, Halfway Gone, was cowritten with Kevin Rudolf.

That was Jude’s idea, actually. It was one of the last songs written for the record, and we just felt like we had our pop songs covered, we had our rock songs covered, but we wanted a fusion of the two. And we really thought that he did that well with his song Let It Rock, and it turns out that he was a big fan of ours as well. So he came down to the studio and it was a different cowriting situation because he kind of comes from that hip hop world. He brought in his drum machines and he brought in his keyboard, and it was me on acoustic guitar and Jude on electric guitar, and it was really interesting just to see how other artists work and write, and just get into the mind of a really great songwriter like Kevin Rudolf.

I want to throw a couple of lyrics at you from the album: “I spent a week away from you last night.”

To me personally, that’s almost like if you have a fight with your wife or girlfriend or whatever, and you don’t see her that night. Maybe you part ways for the time being, and it just feels like the longest night.

“It is what it is.”

I just think that it’s embedded in pop culture, and I hadn’t heard it in a song as a title, and I just thought it was a cool catch phrase.

The last time I saw you guys in concert, I saw that Bryce was singing lead on Bridges.

Bryce has got a great singing voice, and to be honest it gives me three minutes off of some of these songs that are really hard to sing. It just makes it seem more like a family. And we wrote a song called Wrecking Ball which is Bryce is actually featured on lead vocals, which is different for us. We’ve never done that before. Bryce has a unique tone to his voice.

You’ve played the Tonight Show plenty of times, and you’ve played Conan’s show before, but a couple weeks ago you played on what was one of Conan’s final Tonight Shows. Was that weird to be doing that?

It really was, man. But to be honest it was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. It seemed like all the guests were on fire. He was so funny, and I think it was just the tension of everything that was going on, it was just a great day for us to be on the show.

Rick’s been in the band forever, and obviously you guys do well together, and having talked to Rick it seems like the two of you have the same demeanor. But if you were to look at a photo of the two of you and to be stereotypical, you’d say “I bet those two guys don’t like each other.” What’s the dynamic between the two of you?

That’s funny. You know what, man? Rick’s one of my best friends in the world. When I met him, right before our first record came out, we just clicked. I think our personalities are very similar. If you look at us in pictures it’s true, it looks like we don’t get along, but it’s just the opposite. He’s one of the few people that I spend so much time with, but I have a day off and I’ll call him up to go grab a beer or get something to eat on the road. And that’s kind of rare when you’ve been in a band for ten years.

I know Smoke & Mirrors is the title of one of the songs, but why did that end up being the album title?

I just think that it was a loose association of the fact, like you mentioned, that this record kind of has two faces. There’s the more polished radio side of what Lifehouse does, which is equally important as the live side, but then there’s also the meat and potatoes rock tracks, the songs that are basically two guitars, bass and drums, and there’s not a lot of trickery to it. So we just thought that was a fitting title for the two sides of this record.

Lifehouse has about a third of a million fans on Facebook. How does that help you guys as a band?

You can really use the internet to keep connected to your fans. And we were kind of Johnny Come Lately. It seems like guys like John Mayer are on top of everything a little more than we are, but we’re starting to really realize that you can use Twitter and Facebook and MySpace to really connect to your fans, and it really is important. But Bryce is kind of the catalyst there, he definitely is the one that is keeping us connected, keeping the lifeline to the fans.

Does it help having someone in the band like Bryce who’s a little younger?

It really does, and he just has his pulse on what’s going on out there, and it helps us because my head is in a different space most of the time. I’m always thinking about songs or movies and stuff, so it’s like I need someone like that to kind of remind me to stay connected.

You’ve spent your entire twenties being in Lifehouse, and now you’re staring at another decade. Have you thought about that much?

Yeah, I turn thirty in July and it’s like everything changes. We’re kind of in a transition period. Me and my wife are thinking about having kids. It seems like everything is just kind of changing, but I’m really thrilled to still be in a band and still get to do what I love.

I see you guys are going to be touring with Daughtry. I assume you’re looking forward to that, since you’re friends with Chris?

Yeah it’s gonna be a lot of fun. It’s three and a half months, and like I said, we wrote some songs together, so that whole chemistry should play out later. I’m sure there will be some guest appearances and guest vocals by Chris.

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