LIFEHOUSE

WITH GAVIN ROSSDALE

8 p.m. Sunday
Los Angeles County Fair
Grandstand Stage
1101 W. McKinley Ave.
Pomona
$25-$125
(909) 865-4590; www.ticketmaster.com

Not that long ago, singer/songwriter Jason Wade was a typical teenager caught between his parents and their painful divorce. But instead of trying to ease his teenage angst with destructive behavior, he said he turned to something positive.

The lead vocalist and guitarist of the rock group Lifehouse found solace in music, which turned out to be a saving grace in ways that surprised even him.

"I started writing songs more out of desperation and to express the pain I was feeling," said Wade, who will perform with Lifehouse at 8 p.m. Sunday at the Los Angeles County Fair. "It was therapy. But people started responding to them and really connecting with the lyrics. Things kind of just fell into place."

Prior to discovering his talent for songwriting at the age of 15, Wade said he wasn't all that into music. His mother played the guitar and he mostly listened to her. It wasn't until he formed his own band that he discovered artists such as Pearl Jam, Nirvana, The Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel.

Drawing on those inspirations, Wade's songwriting ability blossomed. He signed his first recording contract with Dreamworks in 2000. He said the label wanted him to be a solo act but he insisted on being part of a band. "I wasn't comfortable with being on stage alone," said Wade, 28. "I've always liked playing and traveling with friends."

Record execs at Dreamworks agreed to give Wade what he wanted and started a search for musicians. After auditioning several, Wade and the label decided on drummer Rick Woolstenhulmer, 29. And after several lineup changes, bass player Bryce Soderberg, 28, joined the band in 2004.

Lifehouse released its first CD, "No Name Face," in 2000. It was a smash, selling nearly 2.6 million copies. The project produced the No. 1 alternative hit "Hanging By a Moment," which became the Top 40's most played song in 2000.

The group's early success led to opportunities to open for Matchbox 20, the Goo Goo Dolls and The Rolling Stones on tour.

"I was so nervous when we were opening for the Stones," said Wade, a native of Camarillo. "I didn't even get to enjoy it because I was overwhelmed and had a lot of fear. But now, I'm enjoying every aspect of it and all the touring is starting to pay off."

Lifehouse's second release, 2002's "Stanley Climbfall," didn't fare so well in sales. But the band's third CD, "Lifehouse," produced another hit, "You and Me." The song spent more than 60 weeks on Billboard's Hot 100 chart and sold more than 100,000 digital downloads.

Still, Wade said Lifehouse has only recently discovered its musical niche with its fourth CD, "Who We Are." The songs on "Who We Are" define the band's music as stripped down rock, driven by raw emotion.

Wade wrote or co-wrote all the tunes for the project and the entire band collaborated on the production. Among the tracks are: "Disarray," "Whatever It Takes," "The Joke," "Mesmerized" and "Storm."

"This time around it was not about having any preconceived notions," said Wade. "It was about letting the tape machine roll and getting the music down spontaneously.

"I'm at a place where it doesn't matter to me what other people think. I'm comfortable being myself and I'm writing from an honest place not thinking about who's going to hear it."

Lifehouse's newfound philosophy must be working. Since the release of "Who We Are" in June, the CD's third single "Broken" peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart. The music video for the song was directed by actor Keifer Sutherland and debuted in September on VH1's top 20 countdown.

Despite Lifehouse's recent success, Wade says the most fulfilling part of the journey is that he and his bandmates finally have a chance to be what they wanted to be all along - a rock band aimed at touching the hearts of everyone they play for.

"We have really grown into a unit with its own personality and style," said Wade. "We established camaraderie on the road and jelled. This record defines who we are, which is why that's the title. The sound fits where we're at right now."

Gavin Rossdale, former lead singer and guitarist for the post-grunge band Bush, will open for Lifehouse. Rossdale, who is married to singer Gwen Stefani, will perform songs from his critically-acclaimed CD "Wanderlust.

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American rock group Lifehouse talks about fame, sad songs
and people who confuse them with ‘Lighthouse’

By Paul John Caña, Contributor

Most fans of American pop-rock group Lifehouse know them best for their saccharine sweet lyrics and heart-melting melodies. Songs like “You and Me,” “Everything,” “Breathing” and “Broken” have helped establish the band as the ultimate sentimental rock group.

But the band composed of Jason Wade, Rick Woolstenhulme, Bryce Soderberg and newest member Ben Carey have more to offer than the songs you hear on television shows like Smallville and Grey’s Anatomy.

The Manila Times: A lot of your fans are women. Where do you get the inspiration to write lyrics that speak to them?

Jason Wade: From the women—that’s where I get my inspiration.

Bryce Soderberg: Women are the inspiration for everyone, except women.

TMT: Have you ever heard a song of yours being played on a TV show and thought, “Wow, they got that one right?”

JW: Yes. The song “Broken” was used in Grey’s Anatomy. I didn’t even know that it was going be on television. I liked how they used it on that episode. Although I have to say the editing there was a little weird.

TMT: What bands did you listen to when you were growing up?

JW: For me, Nirvana. The bands from Seattle, because I grew up in Seattle. Then I got into the music of the sixties. The Beatles. Badfinger. Those guys.

BS: Anything organic really. We’re a real band that plays live. And now, a lot of people don’t. I like the organic stuff. Real music.

TMT: Are you guys fans yourselves of other artists?

JW: I think the new Coldplay record is genius. You know who Gillian Welch is? She’s one of my favorites.

BS: Yeah we’re going to see Radiohead later next month.

Ben Carey: I’d love to say Tom Petty. I’ve never seen him play live but he’s a big inspiration and his guitar playing.

Rick Woolstenhulme: The Ting Tings. I like them.

TMT: Jason, how do you feel about comments that you are essentially the face, heart and soul of Lifehouse?

JW: I feel I might be the face of the band, but in my opinion, these guys are the heart and soul of the band. Rick and I have been doing this for eight years. There’s nothing more exciting than being onstage with your best friend.

TMT: How is your musical artistry affected by fame?

JW: In the early days, when we were making the first record, there was no pressure. When that record sold a lot and it became really popular, we had to go through the growing pains. When we make records, we shut everything out. We make music because we love it, not because we want to sell records.

BS: I think too much of the music today is done through computers. There’re a lot of people who can’t sing. You really feel you’re getting ripped off when you get a record and they can’t perform it live. We take a lot of pride in making our records really pure and organic.

TMT: Out of all the songs that you’ve written, which one is your favorite?

JW: It changes depending on how long we’ve been playing the song and how sick we are of it. But right now, I would have to say a song called “Broken.”

TMT: For Ben, you’re a new member. Did you have to make adjustments when you joined the band?

BC: I think it takes a long time for people to find the right people to play with. And we were just lucky enough to find each other. We actually sat down and talked for a couple of hours before we even played our instruments. And it wasn’t an effort. It was a lot of fun and it was a good hang. The first song we ever played together was “Spin.”

TMT: How has music changed your life?

BS: I’ve been playing music my entire life. I can’t see myself doing anything else.

JW: I fell in love with music when I was 15 and it changed everything. Having an outlet to create songs and express your self and connect with people, it’s the most amazing feeling in the world.

TMT: What’s the significance of the title of your new album, Who We Are?

JW: It’s a message to all the people who called us “Lighthouse” over the years. This is the first record that we co-produced and it was our truest record and we went in without having any ideas and laid it all down.

TMT: How do you feel that your second album (Stanley Climbfall) wasn’t as successful as your first one?

JW: I still think it was one of our best records. You write songs that are honest and you open yourself up to be criticized by everyone. We just kept writing songs and moving on. And our third record was a success, with that song “You and Me” and we’re just happy to be doing this and not working at [some donut shop].

TMT: You’ve been together seven or eight years. What’s the secret of your longevity?

BS: I don’t think we even know what it is.

JW: Music is kind of magical. You don’t really know where it comes from sometimes. As long as you stay true to the music and you do it for the right reasons, you’ll be OK. I think that’s what we’re doing. We’re having fun.

TMT: With the songs you’ve written, you seem to be a sad songwriter, Jason.

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You guys have been touring the US cities lately so it’s quite a trip you’re going all the way here.

I’ve been to the Philippines before but I was really young. I lived in Hong Kong for three years when I was seven, passing through the Philippines with my family, but this is definitely the first time the band is playing here and we’re really looking forward to it. Seems like we’ve got a pretty good following over there.

Yeah and people here know Lifehouse as a sort of flagship band for softies, which is a bit different from what you guys are now via Who We Are, your latest album, which packs-in harder rock with a little more grit. There’s even a song about some dude’s suicide…

I feel like we’re really comfortable with both at this point. You know, when “You and Me” came out, I think a lot of people wanted to pigeonhole us as just kind of like an acoustic rock band, but our roots from No Name Face on have always been more electric guitar-driven. But I kind of like the balance between both.

The third record really dealt with the falling-out that I had with my father that a lot of people perceived to be about a girl or whatever. And I kind of dealt with that and kind of moved on and didn’t really wanna write about that on this record. I feel like I’ve always written what I know—whatever’s going on in my life—and I feel like I’m in a really comfortable place in my life right now with my relationships. But it’s almost like when you’re happy, these songs are kind of harder to write. You can write better songs when you’re falling apart and when you’re in a lot of pain, but, I don’t know, I’m starting to use other people’s lives as inspiration and you almost become an actor and start role-playing and trying to put yourself in different scenarios outside of your own life.

The song that talks about suicide is “The Joke,” which deals with the issue of kids getting bullied today and people not realizing how many commit suicide because of it. So I wanted to tackle something that I’ve never really written about and I had to write the song three different times, putting myself in the kid’s shoes and write it from his perspective before I really connected to it.

At least there’s an effort to stray from just being that band girlfriends listened to while their boyfriends approached your music with pitchforks and shovels—were you ever bothered by that?

(Laughs heartily) Our first single “Hanging by a Moment,” a lot of people didn’t realize it was a rock song first—that it was number one in alternative radio for, like, eight weeks. And then it crossed over to Top 40 and I think all the little girls got really excited about it, which turned off the guys. But over the years, we’ve never changed our sound to appeal to anybody. We’ve just kind of written our songs and got the crowd wanting to come to our shows and it feels like guys now aren’t so much ashamed to say that they really like Lifehouse.

And if it wasn’t for “Hanging by a Moment,” we probably wouldn’t have a record deal right now and I’d probably be working at Dunkin Donuts (laughs). I feel like it was a blessing and a curse. It took us eight years to kind of get beyond “the band that sings ‘Hanging by a Moment’” and it’s been a long, uphill climb, but I feel like I gotta have respect for that song ‘cause it definitely got us out of being a bar band or whatever. But at the same time, it was kind of hard ‘cause people didn’t even know the name Lifehouse. But if you’d sing “Hanging by a Moment,” they’d know the song.

Was slapping on the guy-liner a conscious effort at changing your image a bit?

(Laughs) That was just for that one video! (the vid for “Blind”) Kind of like an art piece or whatever. You won’t be seeing me in guy-liner at the show!

Is there some ritual that gets you so damn in touch with your emotions? I have this image of you looking wistfully across a lake when you write these songs.

(Laughs) Well if I did have a ritual, I feel like it wouldn’t really work. I have a songwriting style that’s so random, like, a lot of the time, I don’t really sleep a lot during the night—I just get woken up by a thought or an idea and I write a lot of my songs at three or four in the morning. I’m always listening to the older ‘60s stuff like Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. The Beatles are my all-time favorite band. I feel like they wrote some of the best songs that can never be duplicated. That time so much inspired me—so I’m always listening to that.

Then again, Zeppelin was the sort of band you knew trashed their hotel rooms and diddled their groupies. I have a feeling that with Lifehouse—not so much. How do you guys not live that sort of rock star high life?

Well, a lot of us are family men, you know. I’ve been married for eight years and Rick has been with his girl for, like, seven years. And Bryce and Ben are single so they kind of do their thing. So I feel like we’ve got a good balance since [Rick and I] are like the anchors of the band, keeping this thing going for a little over 10 years now. I feel like we’re the responsible leaders and it makes room for everyone to have a good, healthy time.

Our band is really tight-knit so on days off or whatever on the road, we always end up at restaurants getting Mexican food and margaritas together or going to see movies. We’re all really good friends and we try to keep each other grounded and never become those unapproachable rock stars that feel like they’re better than everyone else.

Apart from settling in as responsible rock stars, your latest album is your first self-produced album. So now, you guys can pretty much play whatever the hell you want to play.

Absolutely. We wanted to cut the cord with preconceived notions with what kind of record Lifehouse should make on this one. And we wanted to make a record that was fun to play live, ‘cause we’re a band that lives out on the road, so writing just ballads isn’t really fun to play live. So that’s another reason why this record is a little more uptempo ‘cause we wanted it to be exciting in an energetic live show.

I feel like we’ve always been a band where we don’t wanna recreate the same record twice just ‘cause it was successful. We kind of took a risk on Stanley Climbfall, our second record, and that was a little heavier than the first one. It didn’t really do very well but I’m still proud of the fact that we tried something new and didn’t just write another Hanging by a Moment just to be successful. So when we get back in the studio, I wanna continue to grow and change and even lyrically, come up with new concepts.

You also mentioned in an interview that these days, you “don’t give a damn” so much. Were you referring to how Hanging by a Moment, with all its lash-batting introspection and being the most overplayed song of ’01, turned you guys into the poster babies of soft pop rock and how you don’t give a damn about that anymore?

I mean, as an artist I feel like, whenever you’re gonna write a song and put it out there for the world to criticize, you’re opening yourself up to becoming more vulnerable. And to be honest, when I started writing songs when I was 15, my ultimate goal wasn’t to get a record deal or get famous and make a lot of money. I needed to write these songs just ‘cause I was going through a hard time. And for me, making music and writing lyrics kind of gave me an outlet—almost like therapy, so when all this stuff started happening, it took me years to kind of get comfortable with it. I think I’m finally at a place in my life now where I’m comfortable performing live. I would get stage fright in the early days and feel really uncomfortable in front of the cameras and all that stuff. So it’s been one of those things where it’s been an eight-year transition for me to actually feel comfortable in my own skin. And I feel like, as a band, we’re getting to that place where we can just be ourselves and not really care what people think.

And also, getting successful is being able to go to places like the Philippines for five days or so, and places that we would never get to go to if we had a nine-to-five job. And I know the guys really feel the same way, so we’re looking to enjoy the culture over there and have a good life experience.

Lifehouse in Manila by Concertus Productions, brought to you by MCA Music, MTC Phils, NoCurfew, Gant Time. Co-presented by Tanduay rum, Clear for Men, SM Mall of Asia, Discovery Suites, Chrysler, Global Destiny Cable, Azta Urban Salon, Figaro, ETC., Jack TV, 2nd Avenue and Crime and Suspense.

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With a little more dirt and motor fuel in their new album “Who We Are”, Lifehouse proves they can grind those guitars harder and talk about other things (try suicide and kidney transplants) apart from, you know, being “whipped.” Still, the record’s also got its share of ultra-introspective, emo-solemn ballads; the stuff that’ll get all the girls flinging their panties at the stage when the band comes to the Philippines “for the first time”, rocking the Araneta Coliseum on July 26. And hey, all those girls’ boyfriends might just be as enthusiastic as well.

You guys have been touring the US cities lately so it’s quite a trip you’re going all the way here.

I’ve been to the Philippines before but I was really young. I lived in Hong Kong for three years when I was seven, passing through the Philippines with my family, but this is definitely the first time the band is playing here and we’re really looking forward to it. Seems like we’ve got a pretty good following over there.

Yeah and people here know Lifehouse as a sort of flagship band for softies, which is a bit different from what you guys are now via Who We Are, your latest album, which packs-in harder rock with a little more grit. There’s even a song about some dude’s suicide…

I feel like we’re really comfortable with both at this point. You know, when “You and Me” came out, I think a lot of people wanted to pigeonhole us as just kind of like an acoustic rock band, but our roots from No Name Face on have always been more electric guitar-driven. But I kind of like the balance between both.

The third record really dealt with the falling-out that I had with my father that a lot of people perceived to be about a girl or whatever. And I kind of dealt with that and kind of moved on and didn’t really wanna write about that on this record. I feel like I’ve always written what I know—whatever’s going on in my life—and I feel like I’m in a really comfortable place in my life right now with my relationships. But it’s almost like when you’re happy, these songs are kind of harder to write. You can write better songs when you’re falling apart and when you’re in a lot of pain, but, I don’t know, I’m starting to use other people’s lives as inspiration and you almost become an actor and start role-playing and trying to put yourself in different scenarios outside of your own life.

The song that talks about suicide is “The Joke,” which deals with the issue of kids getting bullied today and people not realizing how many commit suicide because of it. So I wanted to tackle something that I’ve never really written about and I had to write the song three different times, putting myself in the kid’s shoes and write it from his perspective before I really connected to it.

At least there’s an effort to stray from just being that band girlfriends listened to while their boyfriends approached your music with pitchforks and shovels—were you ever bothered by that?

(Laughs heartily) Our first single “Hanging by a Moment,” a lot of people didn’t realize it was a rock song first—that it was number one in alternative radio for, like, eight weeks. And then it crossed over to Top 40 and I think all the little girls got really excited about it, which turned off the guys. But over the years, we’ve never changed our sound to appeal to anybody. We’ve just kind of written our songs and got the crowd wanting to come to our shows and it feels like guys now aren’t so much ashamed to say that they really like Lifehouse.

And if it wasn’t for “Hanging by a Moment,” we probably wouldn’t have a record deal right now and I’d probably be working at Dunkin Donuts (laughs). I feel like it was a blessing and a curse. It took us eight years to kind of get beyond “the band that sings ‘Hanging by a Moment’” and it’s been a long, uphill climb, but I feel like I gotta have respect for that song ‘cause it definitely got us out of being a bar band or whatever. But at the same time, it was kind of hard ‘cause people didn’t even know the name Lifehouse. But if you’d sing “Hanging by a Moment,” they’d know the song.

Was slapping on the guy-liner a conscious effort at changing your image a bit?

(Laughs) That was just for that one video! (the vid for “Blind”) Kind of like an art piece or whatever. You won’t be seeing me in guy-liner at the show!

Is there some ritual that gets you so damn in touch with your emotions? I have this image of you looking wistfully across a lake when you write these songs.

(Laughs) Well if I did have a ritual, I feel like it wouldn’t really work. I have a songwriting style that’s so random, like, a lot of the time, I don’t really sleep a lot during the night—I just get woken up by a thought or an idea and I write a lot of my songs at three or four in the morning. I’m always listening to the older ‘60s stuff like Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. The Beatles are my all-time favorite band. I feel like they wrote some of the best songs that can never be duplicated. That time so much inspired me—so I’m always listening to that.

Then again, Zeppelin was the sort of band you knew trashed their hotel rooms and diddled their groupies. I have a feeling that with Lifehouse—not so much. How do you guys not live that sort of rock star high life?

Well, a lot of us are family men, you know. I’ve been married for eight years and Rick has been with his girl for, like, seven years. And Bryce and Ben are single so they kind of do their thing. So I feel like we’ve got a good balance since [Rick and I] are like the anchors of the band, keeping this thing going for a little over 10 years now. I feel like we’re the responsible leaders and it makes room for everyone to have a good, healthy time.

Our band is really tight-knit so on days off or whatever on the road, we always end up at restaurants getting Mexican food and margaritas together or going to see movies. We’re all really good friends and we try to keep each other grounded and never become those unapproachable rock stars that feel like they’re better than everyone else.

Apart from settling in as responsible rock stars, your latest album is your first self-produced album. So now, you guys can pretty much play whatever the hell you want to play.

Absolutely. We wanted to cut the cord with preconceived notions with what kind of record Lifehouse should make on this one. And we wanted to make a record that was fun to play live, ‘cause we’re a band that lives out on the road, so writing just ballads isn’t really fun to play live. So that’s another reason why this record is a little more uptempo ‘cause we wanted it to be exciting in an energetic live show.

I feel like we’ve always been a band where we don’t wanna recreate the same record twice just ‘cause it was successful. We kind of took a risk on Stanley Climbfall, our second record, and that was a little heavier than the first one. It didn’t really do very well but I’m still proud of the fact that we tried something new and didn’t just write another Hanging by a Moment just to be successful. So when we get back in the studio, I wanna continue to grow and change and even lyrically, come up with new concepts.

You also mentioned in an interview that these days, you “don’t give a damn” so much. Were you referring to how Hanging by a Moment, with all its lash-batting introspection and being the most overplayed song of ’01, turned you guys into the poster babies of soft pop rock and how you don’t give a damn about that anymore?

I mean, as an artist I feel like, whenever you’re gonna write a song and put it out there for the world to criticize, you’re opening yourself up to becoming more vulnerable. And to be honest, when I started writing songs when I was 15, my ultimate goal wasn’t to get a record deal or get famous and make a lot of money. I needed to write these songs just ‘cause I was going through a hard time. And for me, making music and writing lyrics kind of gave me an outlet—almost like therapy, so when all this stuff started happening, it took me years to kind of get comfortable with it. I think I’m finally at a place in my life now where I’m comfortable performing live. I would get stage fright in the early days and feel really uncomfortable in front of the cameras and all that stuff. So it’s been one of those things where it’s been an eight-year transition for me to actually feel comfortable in my own skin. And I feel like, as a band, we’re getting to that place where we can just be ourselves and not really care what people think.

And also, getting successful is being able to go to places like the Philippines for five days or so, and places that we would never get to go to if we had a nine-to-five job. And I know the guys really feel the same way, so we’re looking to enjoy the culture over there and have a good life experience.

Lifehouse in Manila by Concertus Productions, brought to you by MCA Music, MTC Phils, NoCurfew, Gant Time. Co-presented by Tanduay rum, Clear for Men, SM Mall of Asia, Discovery Suites, Chrysler, Global Destiny Cable, Azta Urban Salon, Figaro, ETC., Jack TV, 2nd Avenue and Crime and Suspense.

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