With Who We Are, their fourth Geffen album in seven years, Lifehouse, all still in their mid-20s,are really starting to enjoy the fruits of their success and have some fun.Their multi-platinum 2000 debut, No NameFace, produced “Hanging by a Moment,” a #1 alternative hit which crossedover to become Top 40’s Most Played Song, while 2005’s self-titled platinumeffort yielded “You and Me,” a giant hit ballad that set a record by spendingmore than 60 weeks on Billboard’s Hot100 chart, Lifehouse are not just the sum of their considerableaccomplishments.
On Who We Are,singer-songwriter Jason Wade—along with drummer Rick Woolstenhulme and bassistBryce Soderberg—gets back to the basics of what made him first form the bandwhile still a teenager in suburban California.
Says Jason: “We just love making music and feel really luckyto be able to continue doing it.”
Producing themselves for the first time with Jude Cole, whoalso co-wrote several of the new songs, that joy comes across unfettered on therocking twang of the lead single, “First Time,” already climbing the Hot A/Cand Top 40 charts, a fond look back at the butterflies and excitement of theinitial rush of romance.
“It just felt urgent, like a first kiss, a first love,” saysJason. “Like the first time you realize there’s more to that relationship thanyou thought. I had to dig a little for that one, but I find myself at a placewhere I can write stuff that’s a little deeper than your average love song interms of emotion.”
The approach was also pretty fresh. The band didn’t recorddemos before entering the recording studio. Wade brought in a skeleton of asong and the group worked on it as a unit. “Nobody really knew what they wouldbe playing,” explains Woolstenhulme, the musical purist of the group. “We justcut it, listened to it and realized it was pretty electric…the kind of songwhere you just turn up the radio.”
Known for his brooding lyrics of teenage angst resultingfrom his parents’ divorce and his own poor relationship with his father, Wadeexplores more diverse songwriting topics this time around, putting himself intoother characters in songs like “The Joke,” with its syncopated world beat,inspired by a newspaper article detailing the story of a British boy who hunghimself after being bullied by schoolmates. Jason puts himself into thesubject’s shoes, with lyrics that could be right out of a suicide note: “Whenyou find me in the morning/Hanging on a warning.”
The wrenching ballad “Broken,” with a chorus that recallsthe Police’s “Every Breath You Take,” came out of a trip Wade took to Nashvilleto visit a dear friend waiting on a kidney transplant, as once again heidentifies in first person: “I’m falling apart/I’m barely breathing/With abroken heart/That’s still beating/In my pain/There is healing/In your name/Ifind meaning/So I’m holding on/Barely holding on to you.”
Lifehouse’s love of British rock comes across in theavant-Europop of “Make Me Over” with its ethereal opening and falsetto vocals(Wade: “Sometimes you’ll do anything to be in love, even becoming someoneelse”), while the stark, Plastic Ono Band strains of “Learn You Inside Out” isone of the rare songs Wade penned on piano.
“I wrote it really quick,” he recalls. “We decided just tofreestyle. It was one of those moments when we really grew as a band, beingable to reach each other and know where we’re going.”
“This record came very naturally,” agrees Bryce, the newestmember of Lifehouse, who cut his teeth on tour before entering the studio withhis bandmates. “On the road, we’d throw a song out during sound check and itjust flowed together. There was a great deal of spontaneity involved. We wereinto similar influences. It felt like we were on the same page musically.”
“We’re closer as a band than ever,” nods Rick.
The raw energy of “Disarray” deals with Wade growing up in astrictly religious family, where questioning wasn’t allowed. “Angels, demons,”he says. “We all fight them both, and anyone who pretends they don’t is notsomeone I want to hang out with.”
In fact, the group was liberated by being left alone tocreate without outside interference or pressure.
“This time around it was about not having any preconceivednotions,” confesses Jason. “It was about letting the tape machine roll andgetting the music down spontaneously. I’m at a place where it doesn’t matter tome what other people think. I’m comfortable being myself. I’m writing from anhonest place, not thinking about who’s going to hear it, what they’re going tothink or how they’re going to interpret it. The lyrics can’t be contrived. Theyhave to hit you right in the heart.”
One song that does just that is the album finale, “Storm,”which Wade wrote at 16 “when I was going through hard times,” and was includedon the band’s first indie record, 1,000 copies of which were pressed back whenthey were called Bliss. The original version has been circulated over theInternet by the group’s fans and was even licensed by the television show So You Think You Can Dance. Wade decidedto re-record the song when he realized how much it meant to people.
“That was fun to record because of its starkness,” saysJason. “We love the idea of the title, surrounded by negative space, like the acappella beginning. Because when you’re lost in confusion, no matter how muchis going on around you, you’re still alone.”
With all their radio airplay, multi-platinum sales andawards, Lifehouse are still intent on raising the bar, which makes Who We Are a revelation both musicallyand lyrically.
“It’s stripped down, very raw, the way we are live,” saysBryce. “We discovered along the way that less is more.”
“Since Bryce joined, this really has grown into a unit withits own personality and style,” concludes Jason. “We established camaraderie onthe road and gelled as a unit. This record defines ‘Who We Are,’ which is whythat’s the title. The sound fits where we’re at right now.”
With Who We Are, Lifehouse are free to be exactly who they are…a rock band with a gift formelodies and lyrics that touch people.