[Music]
hi i'm ryan federer and i'm chatting
right now with joey on icrt fm 100.
hello was it joey yes
possibly my favorite act and uh be it
from uh apologize to stop and stare to
good life the counting stars to the
fifth album that's about to release
we're going to speak with ryan teder
today hello ryan hey how you doing i am
very well and uh i don't know if we have
time to fanboy a little bit but you can
see that i'm wearing the oh my my
t-shirt that i bought back in 2017 when
you visited taiwan amazing thank you i
love that
i remember the trip that was a fun trip
to taiwan that was i'm so glad to hear
did you do you remember anything from me
oh yeah i remember um a number of things
i went on a tour of taipei
and got to see all the old the old town
and the old part and i remember
um eating at din tai fung for the first
time in my life and it's one of my
all-time favorite meals i've ever had
um i love dim sum and i just love uh all
southeast asian food in general
taiwanese food uh singaporean food
chinese food i just love i love asian
food so yeah i remember every meal i had
in taiwan was spectacular and then i
also remember that like um
every like
block uh every street in taipei
had like the sign with a foot on it and
there were people getting like foot
massages like every day all day
and i thought that i thought that was
the the best thing ever i was like well
i'm so i remember getting like a foot
massage it was awesome well that begs
the question did it hurt yeah it did it
was um they're really really intense but
like i really i didn't i learned while i
was there that that's just like a part
of taiwanese cultures like you work hard
and then you go take care of yourself
and get get your shoulders rubbed and
your your legs rubbed and and i you know
i was kind of jealous of that because we
don't really do that in america that
much yeah that's right and uh it is a
part of the culture not only just to get
a massage but foot massage it's in
itself you know the pain is in part
therapeutic which i think is an idea
that shows through your music a little
bit actually that's the exactly that's a
good parallel yeah no it's it was it was
very painful but afterwards i felt
better yeah yeah okay so we're here to
talk about the upcoming album obviously
which drops august 27th uh today might
actually be the day when we play the
interview um not far from the release
date of this album which is called human
and we've already heard six singles the
latest one being run so let's run with
this one um right off the top of the
couple of lines i there's a lot to
extrapolate from this song first off uh
you saying when i was a young boy living
in a city all i did was run run run run
run i hear that you're actually a big
fan of running
yeah i am run is a very literal song
it's also metaphoric but it's a literal
a literal song
because um everyone that knows me knows
that i'm i'm constantly
like running is like my therapy that's
how i keep saying that's how i keep
healthy
and i run pretty much in every city that
i'm ever touring in um that's how i
that's how i see the city is i get out
i put on my headphones some sunglasses
get my phone and i run and i'll take
photos of places and i'll i'll write
down
i'll write down notes on if i pass
something interesting or a cool
museum or a restaurant or whatever i'll
like drop pins in it so i can make sure
to go back with the band and show them
around later and um i've been doing that
for as long as i remember um and okay so
the second line from that verse is uh
staring at the lights they look so
pretty mama said sun sun sun zan sun and
then you continue with a couple of lines
of words of wisdom from mom now i know
it's a completely different song
compared to
um leonard skinner's simple man but that
song also reminded me of some words of
wisdom from mom so when you were little
was mom the cat the person to bring you
a lot of that wisdom um yeah i would say
my mom and my my um you know my step-dad
were the two people that that definitely
imparted a lot of
wisdom to me you know and that song very
much is
it's such a simple song but like there's
some
profoundness in some of those lyrics
i was almost afraid to put the song out
because of how simple it was but that's
also what made it so catchy and so
memorable um you're gonna grow up you're
gonna get old
all that glitters it doesn't turn to
gold but until then just have some fun
yeah run run run run run and it was
basically just like
you know don't be don't be too
mesmerized by the big city just because
it's the big city um just because you're
moving to new york or you're moving to
l.a doesn't mean that uh everything is
you know all that glitters isn't gold
it's not gonna it doesn't mean that
everything's gonna work out for you yeah
but um you're gonna do it anyway so get
out there and you know go do it and and
um
that more or less was was the lesson
that's what they told me you know what's
beautiful about your music is that i
always find words of wisdom in it like
for example counting stars there's a
line that i always share with our
listeners um everything that kills you
makes you feel alive and i've always
said like that's my favorite line from
it yeah um so when you write like do you
try to educate is there a mission i
think so i mean i i'm i'm really
i'm really trying to go inside my brain
and like
um
i'm always trying to come up with a
lyric that is
very visual unexpected unique i'm i'm
with one republic stuff i intentionally
am trying to
say things that other pop
artists would not say you won't find
those lyrics in a dualipa song or a
maroon 5 song
you know um or even a coldplay song i'm
trying to differentiate
us
and the best way i know how is lyrically
um to say things that you know i'm not
trying to be preachy because i don't
really like those types of songs either
but um i'm most of the time i'm
talking to myself i'm like having
especially with counting stars
there's a lot of um you know the verses
are very
somewhat difficult to decipher um
but that's just my in inner monologue in
my head i'm just thinking those things
and a lot of them are random and but
that's what makes one republic songs
different is that i'll say some random
stuff that
you have to think about it for a minute
to go oh wait a minute okay i i know
what he means by that and
everything that kills me kills you makes
you feel alive is is one of those for
sure one of those those statements
because it's a yeah it's kind of deep
but it it that's why the music video
people are always asking me about the
music video and
it's still to this day one of the most
played videos of all time on youtube
and i've always been blown away by that
um but
everything that kills me kills you makes
you feel alive people are like why is
there
why is there an alligator in the video
why is why why is the light bulb with
the water
the waters on the light bulb and why the
preacher
with the super super hyper religious guy
that looks like he's in a cult
and all of those three things are
referring to that line you know
everything that kills you makes you feel
alive you see an alligator and yet you
can't help but get closer you how close
can i get before this thing snaps at me
yeah and
water and electricity don't mix you know
what i mean and it makes you nervous and
so really all those scenes were designed
to make the viewer feel
you know on edge uh you know these are
all things that can destroy you but they
also are the things that give you the
adrenaline you know yep i love it
because every time i listen to your
music it does bring me back to you know
um english class back in grade seven
grade a where your teacher tells you
that every line um leaves every reader
something to extrapolate from and i
think that's the beauty of music from
one republic and uh you're a family man
you know i'm sure you impart the same
words of wisdom to your family or to
your kids but you're also a very busy
man ryan you host uh sandland i think
you guys are about to pick up season
three um you're writing music for movies
uh clouds was from last year you owned
restaurants a chain of restaurants are
you keeping track of all the different
um businesses and ventures that you go
on do you ever get confused uh what
you're working on i have them all kind
of up here pretty much they're all yeah
but i also have a team of people now
that um
that uh
run my family office that are able to
they they know where all the pots are
but they know where all the plates are
spinning
fortunately you know the everything got
big enough that i had to
put uh infrastructure in place so that i
could focus on music and continue to i
see to write songs and be inspired and i
don't i don't like sitting on long
telephone calls discussing
restaurant profits or like
you know real estate i mean i'll do the
calls when i have to but um i really try
to keep the focus on music as much as
possible okay i see uh but have you ever
say uh maybe
written a song for a certain artist and
sent it to the wrong person or confused
a line of lyric as a for barbecue recipe
things like that um i don't think i've
ever sent the wrong i've i've definitely
sent the wrong song
to a record label like to oh
like
i remember i i pitched a song last year
or two years ago
to the the president of atlantic records
craig calvin
and i i was so excited to send him this
song like this is a smash
this song is i think this song would be
such a hit for so and so artists
and his response back like an hour later
was
yeah um
i didn't sign them they're not they're
not they're not signed to my label
so good luck and i felt like i felt like
an idiot i was like oh great sorry man
that always i've never i've never sent
the wrong song to an artist i'm very i
make sure that i'm like i i always read
my text very carefully
make sure that like
you're not sending the wrong thing to
the wrong person you know that's it's
terrible
um do you have time to relax right with
all these ventures um say to sit down
and watch a netflix show or two oh yeah
i i mean i'm gonna do that tonight i'll
be watching that's like right yeah
everyone thinks that i have too much
going on but i have i have teams of
people that's the thing that people
don't realize it's not all me doing it
um
you know uh
i i always have partners i have i have
teams of people that oversee everything
so
it it makes it a lot easier for me to
just
sleep and sleep well and know that
things are taken care of and
and that um you know that uh
yeah i mean i i definitely sleep is more
valuable than anything so the moment
the moment that i can't sleep is the
moment i know i'm doing too much and i
need to let some you know what i mean
because like yeah the point of any of it
if you can't sleep like what is the
problem that's true that's true what's
the point of
having all of this if you can't enjoy
life to be to be honest yeah i'm trying
to take more vaca to be honest i'm my my
commitment
at the beginning of 2021 coming out of
well we thought we were coming out of
the pandemic clearly we're not wow yeah
um
the the big change in my life that i
i just said that's it
we are going on
twice as many vacations three times as
many vacations we're gonna start going
on family vacations more i'm gonna start
taking more time off i'm just forcing it
i'm not because you talk about it you
talk about it you talk about it and then
five years goes by and you go yeah i
only took 10 days off last year what am
i doing you know and you know in america
that's very much and i know in in
southeast asia too depending on the
country the culture is so
work obsessed and yeah it's just not
healthy so like i'm really
i'm really now trying to dial it back
and
uh
focus more on taking much longer trips
to places around the world following
from that conversation just now why is
this album called human is there now a
different direction that one republic is
going in are you starting to you know
want to shed some light on the human
nature itself i think that in reality
all of our albums probably should have
been called human um i i think
dreaming out loud waking up native um
uh oh my my because really the majority
of all
the things that i write about are are
about the human experience and from all
from different angles
and i'd say 90 95 of the songs that i
write are about
um you know
life
uh sin sentimental sentimentality um
um
friendship
love hate faith death
um everything in between
um and
i
i'm trying to strike a nerve with people
and say i'm just trying to say something
that i haven't heard said in a unique
way
and hoping that people connect with it
and um because i'm not just sitting
around writing about relationships
um
and all of our songs deal far more with
human nature than anything they always
have
and so the the the reality is that had i
had the
crystal ball back in 2007 i probably
probably would have named dreaming out
loud human volume one and right now
would be on volume
five this would be volume five so that's
that's the true answer is that it okay
every album has been
human it just it's just i didn't i
wasn't clever enough to
like adele was 21 25 30.
like i i uh i wasn't thinking that
simply at that point but that's this is
really human volume 5. that's hard to
say i mean it's possible that adele may
regret that decision right now who knows
yeah well i mean
if you hit if you hit 40 and you're like
40 then all
people are like oh i didn't realize you
were that old you know
that's why i never wanted to attach an
age to it yeah that's true okay so so
far we heard six singles right rescue me
wanted uh somebody to love deny better
days and run
um can you reckon because the album does
come out in a couple of days can you
recommend another song that you're
really proud of from the album and i'm
going to play that one for our listeners
oh sick um yeah
i would say
take care of you okay
yeah i love that song take care of you
is like
um i like the message behind it i like
the beat it's very unique for a one
republic song it's um
almost has elements of like drake in it
the music does to me yeah um and uh look
i mean i've given up predicting what
songs what what's a hit nobody knows
what it is what a hit isn't you know you
can only look back now
in in retrospect um you know rescue me
was yeah uh run run is turning into one
um the other songs we released for
different reasons um
and uh
it's interesting now because um
in retrospect you start to figure out
what song
what songs you like i wanted i really
wanted wanted to be a huge record but it
just didn't react the way that we hoped
it would um and so and the label was
convinced that it was and then and then
people
didn't really want me to there were some
people that didn't want me to to release
lose somebody with kygo and then it
turned into a huge hit so like nope
knows anymore nobody knows everybody's
guessing um but take care take care of
you as just a record that i personally
really really there's a lot of songs on
this album that i like i would play
take care of you and then um
[Music]
forgot about you is probably the
poppiest song on the album okay
yeah
okay so take care of you or forgot about
you that's the ones we're going to get
our listeners to listen to
yeah yeah because it's it's they're
different yeah all right and uh yeah
everybody uh wait for the release
perhaps it's already out i don't know
how long it's gonna take for me to
produce this video but uh there you go
uh the fifth album coming from one
uh human and uh continue to listen to
all the singles uh today we had ryan
tedder joining us here on icrt ff100
thank you so much ryan awesome thanks so
much man
you