OneRepublic life and biography

Formed in 2002 in Colorado Springs, OneRepublic is a well known American rock band which achieved great success on MySpace. Formed by Ryan Tedder and Zach Filkins, the band soon become one of the most prominent unsigned act on the website then. They signed onto Mosley Music Group in 2006, and released their debut album, Dreaming Out Loud in 2007.

After a few years of moderate success, they have since drawn mainstream attention with the release of their single "Apologize", which has sold in excess of 7 million singles worldwide. The song, according to SoundScan Data, is one of only two songs that have reached 3 million legal downloads in history. A remix of “Apologize” was featured on Timbaland’s Shock Value and the band’s debut album, Dreaming Out Loud, produced by Greg Wells. Their debut album was released in the United States on November 20, 2007, with international release dates staggered throughout early 2008. As of June 14, 2008, Dreaming Out Loud had sold 761,298 copies in the U.S. with the bands total album sales coming to over 1.5 million worldwide so far. The band’s second single, “Stop and Stare,” has also crossed the 2 million mark in terms of worldwide single sales. Their third single, “Say (All I Need)”, has been released in the UK and in the U.S.

Written by OneRepublic's frontman Ryan Tedder song "Apologize" was released in its original version on the band’s debut album Dreaming Out Loud. The song was also prominently featured as a remix on Timbaland’s 2007 release of Shock Value. The single, as featured on Shock Value, has gone 3x Platinum (marking three million copies sold in the U.S) and 5 million copies worldwide. It peaked at number three on the U.K. Official Top 40 Week on November 11, 2007. The week of November 10, 2007, “Apologize” was the biggest radio airplay hit in the history of Top 40 radio in North America, racking up an astounding 10,331 spins in one week.

OneRepublic was nominated for a Grammy in 2008 for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. And Tedder, plus guitarists Zach Filkins and Drew Brown, bassist/cellist Brent Kutzle and drummer Eddie Fisher have sold almost 2 million albums and 8 million singles.

The band's 2007 hit "Apologize," from their album Dreaming Out Loud went to No. 1 in 16 countries, going gold in 14 of them. It broke records for airplay when it finally made it to radio (and was only bested by Lewis's "Bleeding Love," which Tedder co-wrote). Their second single, "Stop and Stare," propelled OneRepublic beyond platinum status. Waking Up is their second album on Mosley/Interscope Records.

Their latest single "All the Right Moves" comes with a huge heap of anticipation from the millions of fans of OneRepublic and Tedder. But there are countless others who may not know the band or its members' names but recognize their heartfelt songs from the soundtrack of their last bad breakup or emotional meltdown. OneRepublic is that band.

While breaking sales, the members OneRepublic have proved for years that hard work pays off. As sensational as their rocket trip up the charts may have seemed, nothing happened for them overnight.

Filkins learned guitar at age 7 while living with his parents in Barcelona, Spain. "I wanted to play loud and crazy," he says. But his parents made him learn Flamenco. Tedder discovered vocal harmonies via the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (on cassette). He sang secretly at first -- to himself in his room or with his Walkman on. And some of the most satisfying pop tunes he heard as a kid were those on the soundtracks of the '80s movies he watched over and over. A fascination directly related to OneRepublic's epic and cinematic sound.

Tedder and Filkins met in their senior year in high school in Colorado Springs. They formed a band called This Beautiful Mess and played one talent show but broke up after a week. Far from the young angst-ridden punks that threw together set lists with three chords and the truth -- "We were not the Ramones," Filkins jokes -- the would-be OneRepublic founders vowed to spend their time and energy sharpening their skills as musicians and songwriters before they made another leap into band life.

"Most bands they play for years and they suck," Tedder says. "They figure out writing on the back end if they figure it out at all. I always wanted to know that as long as I was alive, I could write the kind of songs that would be hits so I would have a career."

Between his junior and senior years at college Tedder won an MTV songwriting contest and got a record deal but walked away from an opportunity to write bubblegum pop at the height of the boy band craze -- he wanted something deeper and felt he had more to learn. So at age 19, he moved to Nashville, where he landed his first regular paying gig recording demos. Secretly, he was figuring out not how the biggest country artists hit notes but how they wrote hits. "I had the advantage of seeing all these artists coming through and seeing the ones that worked and the ones that didn't," Tedder says. "I learned that people who write great songs are the ones that have careers."

At about that time, Timbaland, who'd seen Tedder on MTV, reached out to the promising young songwriter, offering him a production deal and a chance to work together in Miami.

Filkins, meanwhile, had studied aerospace engineering at college in Illinois but saw his grades slip as his passion for guitar playing blossomed. By 2003, he had moved to Colorado to study music and engineering. Tedder moved back to Colorado, too, after studying what he calls "Producer 101" with Timbaland in Miami. Having done all they could to minimize the risk of starting a band and gone about the typically impetuous process in the most studied, measured, and completely backward way possible, the two moved to L.A. to start OneRepublic.

After some early lineup changes, the Oregon- and California-raised Fisher followed a dream he'd hatched after seeing a U2 concert at Tempe Stadium in Arizona, the very concert recorded for Rattle and Hum. His former band mate Drew Brown, born and raised in Boulder, Colorado, had seen his first show as a 10-year-old in 1994 -- Weezer, with Teenage Fanclub. His dad threw him in the mosh pit to give him the full experience. Brown returned the favor years later by calling and asking his parents for money so he could move to L.A. to join OneRepublic. "Only recently my dad stopped regretting taking me to that concert," he says.

Songwriting alone landed them in a short-lived deal with Columbia. But what followed was a grind of mostly small L.A. club shows that didn't always work for the groups huge sound. They parted ways with the label, and while driving home from a show one night, Filkins, then 27 and working as a filing clerk for Coca-Cola, told Tedder, who was making money writing music for movies on the side, that he was quitting the band if nothing major happened for them in six months.

Six months later, almost to the day, Timbaland's remix of "Apologize" broke on the radio. The original version had racked up millions of plays on MySpace, and Tedder says its familiarity was key in driving the Timbaland remix up the charts. When the super-producer started his own Mosley Music Group with Interscope, he signed OneRepublic as his first band.

Fast forward through massive hits and record-breaking sales to 2009, and the band is training its laser-like focus on performing, completing their upside down approach to rock stardom. On the road for the last year and half, whether playing sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden in New York, the massive New Pop festival in Germany or the V Fest in the U.K., the band's live show has gelled, the members say.

Waking Up, recorded in their hometown Denver, is the band's most sweeping, cinematic effort to date, with even more strings and movie-like moments, thanks in part to the use of the same children's choir and orchestra used by Batman and Edward Scissorhands composer Danny Elfman (with whom Tedder has shared ideas). Plus, OneRepublic has recently added co-writer and bass and cello player Brent Kutzle to its lineup. "All he listened to before getting into this band was soundtracks," Tedder says. "He can name every score and soundtrack guy from the last 15 years."

Tedder's lyrics are as honest as ever. Dreaming Out Loud was a pure heart-on-his-sleeve confessional, written mostly before his massive songwriting successes. "I wrote every single bit of that broke as a joke, sleeping on other people's couches." Waking Up plays not only upon some of those same experiences but the reactions to them. Take the song "Secrets," and its lyrics:

I need another story/Something to get off my chest/My life is kind of boring/Need something that I can confess. Tedder explains: "That's me saying, 'Look, I'll spill my guts for you, but I don't think that's what you want to hear again.'"

Now a front man in full, he says he's continuously challenged and surprised by his band mates and OneRepublic's rapidly expanding, worldwide fan base. But even after accomplishing at age 30 what most songwriters never do in a lifetime, Tedder says his best work with OneRepublic is ahead of him, and he's more inspired than ever. He practically speaks in lyrics these days. "Music is my life," he says, "and songs are my currency."

Awards and recognition:

2008:
- Teen Choice Awards - Choice Music: Rock Track ("Stop and Stare")
- MTV Asia Awards - Best Hook Up ("Apologize") shared with Timbaland
2010:
- ESKA MUSIC AWARDS (Poland) - Band Of The Year (International)

Read more