OneRepublic comes home to Hyatt

Timbaland's favorite rockers check in with Denver fans

October 26, 2009

Colorado's own OneRepublic stopped by the Hyatt Regency's Peak's Lounge Monday night for an intimate show overlooking downtown Denver. And to announce that they'll be celebrating Halloween as characters from "The Wizard of Oz," complete with a cross-dressed Dorothy.

One of the other big things they talked about was how the band is trying to avoid simply selling a single. "Apologize," a collaboration with hip-hop producer Timbaland, was a huge hit and made them a breakout band in 2007 and 2008, and their follow-up single "Stop and Stare" has proven to be just as viable. But the band (whose members hail from Colorado Springs and Denver) is hoping this album is full of songs that are, well, badass.

"We have a lot of ideas, and anything goes," said frontman Ryan Tedder, "but the rule with those ideas is that only the best idea wins. We had maybe 22 or 23 great ideas, and we break them out into categories: Badass, good, b-side.

"So we narrowed this album down to nine songs which were all badass! And then we ended up adding a few more, too. The bar was set really high (after the success of the last two singles). It's one thing to know a hit song, but it's moreso about the kind of song you put out. If it's just ear candy, it'll be here today and gone tomorrow... disposable. But if you hear the song and go, ‘That's the kind of band I want to see live,' that's what we're aiming for."

Finally, the band addressed how single-centric the music business has become and how great iTunes has been for them.

"They've been working with us to make this an album people would want to buy," Tedder said. "We're releasing a new single a week (they've already released three) to try and get that momentum going for the album."