The alternative rock band Lifehouse, known best for their hit single “Hanging By a Moment,” was t he opening act for the rock band Daughtry at the SaveMart Center in Fresno on April 26.
Lifehouse has toured on and off since 2001. The band’s bassist, Bryce Soderberg, took a moment for a phone interview with The Rampage to talk about the band’s music and current tour.
Q: Because you all didn’t know each other prior to forming the band, has it been difficult becoming a “BFF” with your bandmates?
A:Actually, that’s one of the reasons it started so well. It all came very naturally. We were all pretty close right off the bat.
That’s the advice we give to musicians when they ask for advice is to get in a band with members you get along with and respect so you can keep making music and stay together for a long time. We know what pisses each other off. So if we can, we just avoid it if possible so we can continue getting along.
Q: Who writes the songs for the band?
A: Jason [Wade] writes the majority of the songs. He’s the core song writer. He kind of is the “Lifehouse sound.”
Q: What is the main theme for the songs?
A: Jason likes to write a lot about his personal experiences. He likes to write songs about relationships and he also likes to write songs through other people’s eyes, people he’s met and the experiences that they go through. We had a song on our last record called “The Joke” that was about a kid who committed suicide through bullying in school. There’s a bunch of songs, like the song “Simon” off of our first record, which was about a friend of Jason’s. So, there’s a little mixture of both; there’s the sweet and the sour that gets put into the song writing.
Q: How will the songs change over time, or will the Lifehouse style stay the same?
A: On this last record we kind of, you know, took a good solid year and a half to develop that new sound and raised the bar. Jason experimented with a lot of co-writing. He likes to mix it up with song writing; we all kind of like to keep it fresh and new.
You can’t keep making the same record and the same songs over and over again.
Q: How do you find the inspiration to evolve your music into new stuff?
A: As far as writing goes, we [Soderberg, Ricky Woolstenhulme, and Ben Carey] arrange a lot of the songs, but Jason brings them to the table and to the studio.
As far as influences, we like to evolve by getting back to our roots and listening to what the classic rock bands did back in the day. We’re big fans of The Who, Led Zeppelin, The Stones. We grew up listening to the Beatles. There’s a couple songs on this album that are very Americana influenced like Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan. We like to stay current as well; we listen to pop radio and hip-hop, songs that are really catchy and, you know, the songs that are on Top 40 Radio.
Q: What’s your craziest live concert memory?
A: A weird experience in the last few years was when we opened up for the Goo Goo Dolls. At the end of the tour a lot of the bands played pranks on each other. They came up on stage dressed in gorilla suits, chicken suits, one guy was dressed as a banana, and they picked us up while we were playing so we had to play our song lifted in the air. That was a lot of fun.
Q: Is Lifehouse something that the band is dedicated to for life, as in a long-term career?
A: Of course! I mean, I see us just evolving and growing and becoming a better band every year we go. We finally have the team and lineup that we could go the distance if we wanted to go and reach out to a bigger audience. Hopefully we can headline arenas pretty soon; we just want to keep getting better. The sky is the limit and we just want to keep going.
Right now we feel like it’s the music that we’re really in to. We’ve got a few hits under our belts and we’re in our comfort zone where we can relax and work hard and more forward.
Q: What does the music and being in a band mean to Lifehouse personally?
A:There’s always something new that comes up that comes up that’s really cool that’s crammed with a lot of fun. I’m grateful for where I’m at and keeping that mentality is what makes it a lot of fun. If you constantly want to be the biggest thing in the world then you’re not going to enjoy it so much, we all kind of have that mentality. It feels good.
Q: Any last words for your fans?
A: We’re really stoked about our new record, “Smoke in Mirrors,” that just came out and we hope everyone can get a chance to listen to it and, you know, buy a copy for your mom.
