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Lifehouse Touring Europe

English / Interviews / Konzerte / Oktober 10, 2010
Earlier this year Lifehouse had told us to hit European stages again soon to promote their new record “Smoke & Mirrors”. They kept their promise and rocked the Netherlands, Germany and London. Since this band has an incredible live performance I headed out to check out a few of those gigs. 8 out of 12 to be exact but who would even start to count? In Berlin ¾ of the band sat down with me for an interview again and talked about touring, sea cruises and horse statue riding. Being located in Los Angeles why did you rehearse for the tour in Atlanta? Bryce: “Well, we usually do preproduction for our tours in Nashville but they had a big flood. We thought Nashville was a perfect spot because it’s a creative town and if we’re out for a week in a certain spot then you can focus and not having the distractions of being at home with the families, toys and stuff. So when Nashville got flooded we were looking for a city that would kinda have that same sort of vibe and Atlanta had a really cool and cheap spot for us to rehearse in with good equipment so we spent a week there and it was a lot of fun.”   Are the Europe shows a final test for the U.S. headliner tour or is there another strategic decision why you came here first? Ben: “We love coming to Europe so we use any chance to play here. The audiences here in Europe are really fun. They actually clap in time.” (everybody laughs) Bryce: “That’s true.” Ben: “The vibe you get from the audiences here is great so whenever we get the opportunity to play here we love it.” Bryce: “Strategically it was just in our plans before the United States tour. We wanted to mesh the two together and so it was organized.”   What are the most important things you need when you go on tour? Ben: “Cellphone!” Bryce: Haha, sim cards.” Ben: “Yes, sim cards in every country. This tour it’s all about the sim cards. I have a German number right now. I have no idea what’s being said to me on the phone with the operator but I can make calls though.” Staying in touch is obviously important for a band that spends more time on planes and in hotel rooms than at home. What are your routines before and after a show? Bryce: “I guess we all have our little traditions. You know, Jason likes to lay down, focus, concentrate or meditate a little or whatever. Rick warms up on his practice pad. Ben will play on his guitar and I’ll warm up, too. And then before we go on stage we all get into a huddle for a second and do a little pump up, I guess you would say. A football like “Let’s GO!” and then we go on stage. And afterwards we come off and sit in the dressing room for about 20 minutes have a drink, cool off and talk about the set and cool off. Very simple.” First stop of the trip is the small town of Tilburg in the Netherlands. Still jet lagged and tired after a long journey the band enjoys the late summer breeze. As most of the dates the venue is sold out and fans wait outside for hours to get the best view on Jason Wade and his mates. I stick to the FOH which turns out to be a good idea otherwise I’ll be literally blown away by the power with which they kick off.   “Hello there Ladies and Gentlemen! Hello there ladies and gents, are you ready to rock?” is the introduction and motto of the night. Before you start looking through your Lifehouse tracklists, “Hello There” is originally from Cheap Trick. Rick: “This particular song comes out of the gates with such high energy, you know. We threw the idea in the pod and we ran it a couple of times in rehearsal and it seemed to be a pretty good one to start with. And we’re all big fans of Cheap Trick so it’s kind of an homage to a great American rock band.” Kat: “Some people thought it was a very new Lifehouse song.” Rick: “Oh woah, that’s ok, haha!” Ben: “It is, we changed it a little.” Already sweating from jumping up and down the show continues with the new single “All In”, the upbeat track “Here Tomorrow Gone Today” and the extraordinary “Nerve Damage”. Ben Carey owns the stage as the audience holds their breath during his guitar solo. Is Lifehouse planning to be rockier in general now? Maybe even on the next record? Bryce: “I mean, when we’re going to make a record we usually don’t have that in mind. When we do shows we like to keep it upbeat and the energy up so that we’re not getting a boring set. You never know what our next record is gonna be. You gotta have the sweet with the sour.”   I wouldn’t mind having more of the live Lifehouse on a record, though. On stage Jason Wade holds a little speech and thanking the crowd who came out to support the band after such a long time. In Munich an older fan asks me to translate a bit for her.     Do you prepare for touring in a non-english speaking country? Did you learn some German or Dutch for example? Rick, Ben and Bryce: “Oooohhh!!” Rick: “We are not that good with other languages. Ben speaks Australian, Bryce speaks Canadian and I speak American. That’s already it. I mean 3 is a lot!” Ben: “Sometimes Jay tries to figure out how to say the name of the town.” Bryce: “Every once in a while I work on my Australian and try to perfect it. Some of the verbs are really tough but I’m getting it.” Kat: “Like which ones?” Ben: “He’s not even close, really.” Bryce: “Capsicum. That’s green peppers in Canadian. In Australian it’s capsicum.” The show moves on with the bands’ softer side and at least over here the best known Lifehouse song: You & Me. Females and males fall even more in love with Jason Wade and sing along “Cuz there’s you and me and all other people…”. It definitely fits the situation as probably everybody feels that Wade is singing the words just for him/her. Finally it’s Bryce Soderberg’s time to be in the spotlight with his very own lead on “Wrecking Ball”. It’s not really new that the bassist jumps in and performs live but still Jason, Ben, Ricky and not to mention the fans are proud he does such a good job.   What happened if Jason got sick and couldn’t sing on a tour. Could you imagine filling in and singing a whole show? Bryce: “Nooo. We’ve been there before, we’ve been in situations when Jason’s lost the most of his voice. Usually what happens is that he can’t sing the higher with power so we’d do the broken down slower songs. But me doing a whole set? No, you know, people come to hear Lifehouse’s voice and that voice is Jason. I just have a couple of fun songs to play here and there and the majority of the audience probably would get bored.”   Many fans and myself certainly do not think so. Everybody cheers when you sing “Wrecking Ball” and they’re happy to have a little difference. Bryce: “I like to think of myself as Kramer from Seinfeld. Every time he opens the door and everyone applauds. (everybody laughs) That’s me.” After this 2 minute break Jason Wade takes over the stage again. Now it is just him and an acoustic guitar. The idea was born out of an accident when one of the guitar pedals had broken, I learned from stage manager Winnie. To keep the crowd happy while the board got repaired Wade grabbed his guitar and played acoustic. For many of the long time fans this is the favourite part of the show. “What do you wanna hear?” he asks and the crowd yells out the track lists of the first Lifehouse records. Most requested are probably “Storm” and “Everything”. There is not a second the chills stop running down my neck when the songwriter performs “Breathing”. About 1000 people start singing “Cuz I am hanging on every word you say…” and you can literally cut the tension in the room. It’s been a while since Wade had performed that song live. He stops shaking his head and asks “What? I can’t believe you actually know this song. The label said it would be a flop on the radio.”.  This is by far not the first time the label does not coincide with the listeners’ opinion. I was about to ask for the worst thing that could happen during a tour. My question was answered before I even asked it. Shortly before the interview in Berlin singer and guitarist Jason Wade injured his finger in a van door. Bryce: “Yeah, that was a trip. We’re gonna have a backup plan in case he can’t play the guitar. You know, Tom Petty broke his hand back in the day and if worse comes to worse Ben will cover the basses…” Ben: “I’ll play two guitars.” Bryce: “Yeah, two guitars at the same time.” I’m sure Ben Carey is indeed able to play two six strings at a time. The injury is not as bad as everybody feared but still a hair fracture isn’t the coolest thing to have if you have to play a 90 minutes set. Ben supports Jason mainly during the acoustic part and I wonder if guitarists get paid overtime. After this 10 minute intimate acoustic session drummer Ricky Woolstenhulme steps on stage.  As he folds his arms and yawns Jason can’t help but laugh about his impatient friend.   Will Ricky finally sing on a Lifehouse song? (Rick starts giggling) Bryce: “One day…?” Ben (looking at Rick): “I think when Jay loses his voice you could be lead singer and Jay could be the drummer.” Rick: “Yeah, when hell freezes over I’ll do a voice over.” Kat: “You don’t even talk on stage.” Rick: “That’s probably for the good.” Kat: “Noo!” Rick: “Noo, hahaha.” However, Ricky still wants to rock and so he continues beating his drums to start “Wash”.   Surprisingly, the glow-in-the-dark rubber duck doesn’t fall off his drum set. Rick: “A fan gave that to me at the first show in Tilburg for my birthday. And I think it glows in the dark so it was just appropriate to put it on my bass drum.” By the end of the tour each of the band members has their own rubber duck sitting on stage. The noise power intensifies again and the crowd parties big time. Ben Carey and Bryce Soderberg heat up the masses bouncing up and down during “First Time” and the newly released “Halfway Gone”. After having been out of sight for far too long in Europe the single is doing well on the radio and it seems like also the label shows more faith in the group.   How much influence does the label have on your music? Bryce: “The label gives us a lot of creative freedom, a lot of control. It’s actually up to us what direction to take on a record. I think lately the more we’vebeen growing together and the more experience we get in the studio it just kind of molds and blends together  into whatever comes out of us. It’s not usually like a specific direction. We just look at different influences, listen to a bunch of different bands, get influenced and go and make music. Our label, they don’t have too much to say, we do ourselves.”     Last time we met it was shortly before the release of “Smoke & Mirrors”. What were the main things fans liked or didn’t like about that record? Rick: “I mean the general consensus has been pretty good on the record. But yeah, that’s a tough question. Have we heard anything bad about it?” Ben: “I think we try and focus on the music and moving forward. If we try to please everybody you may fall short on many areas. So we do what we love doing and that’s what it is at the time. If we listened to what everyone said, good or bad, I think we’d be chasing our tail over and over again.” The final minutes of the set are dedicated to the newly recorded “Everything”. A song with so much passion, power and meaning I cannot even start to tell you what it feels like to experience it live. “And how can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?” probably describes it best. If you missed to see Lifehouse on this tour check out some of the videos fans took on YouTube. Have you ever considered doing a live DVD? Maybe even on this tour? Bryce: “We were just talking about doing one. We try to get that organized. We don’t have definite plans, yet. Either this tour or probably early next year we want to do a DVD.” On this tour it is not only Germans, Dutch and English fans. The band sees people flying in from Sweden, France, Portugal, Poland, Italy and even Israel. Are there any songs that are actually influenced by fans? Bryce:  “We listen to our fans and we read a lot of what they say. And as far as song inspirations I think everybody really liking “Storm” was one of the main reasons it landed up as the last track on our last record “Who We Are”.” Ricky: “There is also the track “By Your Side” which was inspired by a fan. She came out to a show and she had brain cancer. When we were making the record in L.A. we flew her out to the studio and she was getting really sick. We recorded that song with her being in the control room. Then she ended up passing [a few weeks later] and the song ended up on the record.” One of the bands highlights this year was probably being trapped on a boat along with hundreds of fans and other rock bands on the “VH-1 Best Cruise Ever.”.   When you do promo stuff like “VH-1 Best Cruise Ever” do you ever have time for yourselves? Ben: “Not on the boat unless you want to jump in the ocean.” Rick: “He’s right.” Ben: “We weren’t really sure what to expect on the boat. The area where our cabins are were pretty private so if you didn’t want to be around anyone you just stayed in your room. But the people were really cool. You know we had a lot of fun with everyone on the boat. It was chill. They were all just friendly and nice and we had a good time. Lots of room parties.” Bryce: “Everyone was respectful, it was surprising. I guess when you’re al together in a fun environment people are chill and normal.” Kat: “It looked like Spring break to me.” Rick: “It kinda was. There were pool parties everyday.” Ben: “Lots of party, no sleep. Lots of fun.” Rick: “Four shows, it was cool.”     Rock’n’roll and parties what else do you need for the perfect rockstar image? Tattoos! Bryce Soderberg got a new one just recently. Bryce: “Well, I can’t be credited as the tattoo guy. I got mine through Mike Devries, he’s like a really well established tattoo artist in Los Angeles. And I’m Canadian, I live in the United States so it’s an eagle holding a maple leaf. It’s kind of a combination between these two plus my family emblem is an eagle so that kind of ties in.”   Ben and Bryce, you both have stars on your arms. What’s the meaning behind them? Bryce: “Well, I got a star one day and then Ben went out and got 6.” (everybody bursts out laughing) Ben: “Actually I got 7. One for each day of the week. I just wanted to be like Bryce. Because he got a star and that was really cool so I thought I get tons of them.” Kat: “And next week you gonna go all blond again?” Ben: “Yeah, I used to be blond.” Bryce: “I ripped of his hairstyle he had for a while. You know, we’re a band we influence each other.” Ben: “I’m gonna get an eagle next as well.” Bryce: “On your face.” Ben: “Yeah. I think everyone has their means for their tattoos. Mine mean a lot to me. It’s the Southern cross on the Australian flag. It’s a constellation of stars I used to look at with my family every night.” Kat: “And what’s that spiral on your arm?” Ben: “I have a thing for spirals. Different shapes of spirals from all over the world. They mean a lot to me. The meaning inside what that is, is very close to me.” Kat: “Does Jason have any tattoos, though?” Rick: “He does not.” Bryce: “He was thinking about it but I think he’s gonna be the one clean skinned guy in the band.” Lifehouse is about to start their headlining tour through the United States. And what’s coming after the U.S. tour? Rick: “I don’t think we know that far ahead, yet. We’ll probably book more shows. We’re just focussing on finishing the Europe run and then getting the U.S. thing off the ground.” We couldn’t let the Lifehouse guys leave without our favourite question: Do you like cows? Rick: “Cows? What do you mean? Just like them?” Kat: “In general.” Rick: “I like to ride cows.” (Ben and Bryce burst out laughing) Bryce: “We just have a lot of pictures with Ricky riding these big plastic cows.” Rick: “Horse statues! Horse statue riding has been my main sports for years. Now that you’re just mention the cow… Basketball players can play baseball, too. And horse statue riders can also ride cows, haha.” Ben: “ Oh, I love it, haha.”   Rick: “What’s the significance behind “Do you like cows”?” Kat: “Absolutely nothing! It’s just to see the person’s reaction to the question itself.” Rick: “Oh really? You’re good!” Ben: “Is the cow your favourite animal?” Kat: “Not really, I rather like guinea pigs.”   Bryce: “Really quick, I have this really scary guinea pig story. When I was in elementary school one of the students was like “GUINEA PIGS” cuz the guina pig had babies, alright. And they touched one of the guinea pigs and the Mom started eating all the babies. And the kids were all freaking out cuz I guess the guinea pigs they eat their kids if you contaminate one of them so they were scarred for life.” If you want to know what Lifehouse loved the most about German food or what their biggest challenge as a band has been check out the video interview on Plenty of Sound.
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11 Comments

on October 10, 2010

Very cool interview ^^

    on October 10, 2010

    Merci, beaucoup et merci pour les photos!

    To our readers: Check out Ady’s Lifehouse page! It’s in French but it’s the best one out here in Europe!

on October 10, 2010

Nice interview 🙂
I like the writing ^^.

on October 11, 2010

They´re so awesome!!! Great interview … I´m so jealous…hahaha
I freakin ❤ them. Please help us to put #BRWantsLifehouse on theTrending Topics. Brazil loves @lifehousemusic

on October 11, 2010

Cool interview!

the cow question, moehahahaaa.

oh and : my duckiesssss:-)

thank you for this:-)

on October 11, 2010

Very nice interview 🙂 🙂 🙂

on October 11, 2010

Wow…that was an awesome interview, Kat! I laughed at some of their responses and you asked some great questions. 🙂

on October 12, 2010

Nice Question : Do you like cows ???

i’m glad no one said it is very tasty

on October 12, 2010

[…] la traduction ci-dessous. Je vous invite également à visiter le site de Katina pour voir l’interview originale, accompagnée de très belles photos. Plus tôt cette année, Lifehouse nous a conseillé de […]

on October 17, 2010

[…] check out also the Interview my friend from Access2Music has […]

on February 26, 2012

I LOVED this interview , soo informative. It seemed soo relaxed and chill and were willing to answer any question and they were all good ones. GREAT JOB !



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