Ryan Tedder
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Ryan Tedder | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Ryan Benjamin Tedder |
| Also known as | Ryan 'Alias' Tedder |
| Born | 1979 |
| Origin | Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States |
| Genre(s) | Pop rock, Dance-pop, Techno, R&B, Hip Hop, Alternative rock, Adult contemporary |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, musician, songwriter, record producer |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar, piano, bass, drums, glockenspiel |
| Years active | 2000 – present |
| Label(s) | Columbia Records Interscope Records (2007 – present) |
| Associated acts | OneRepublic Leona Lewis Timbaland |
| Website | Ryan "Alias" Tedder |
Ryan Benjamin Tedder (born 1979) is an American singer, and Grammy nominated songwriter and record producer born in Tulsa, Oklahoma.[1][2] He has written and produced for various musicians but, as of 2007, he is best known as the front man for the "MySpace U.S. rock phenomenon", OneRepublic.[3] He is responsible for major hits like Leona Lewis's "Bleeding Love", his band's "Apologize", Natasha Bedingfield's "Love Like This" and many others. He is currently working with David Cook of American Idol, Jennifer Hudson, Whitney Houston, Rihanna, Mario, James Morrison, DJ Tiesto, Beyoncé, The Pussycat Dolls and Kelly Clarkson with their albums, all due later this year.[4][5][6]
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[edit] Early life
Born in Tulsa, Tedder was raised by an extended family of missionaries and pastors.[7] Tedder began learning to play the piano at the age of three via the suzuki method, whereby young children learn to play an instrument "by ear rather than reading notes".[7] His early interest in music was prompted by his musician father and school-teacher mother, who coaxed their young son into practicing piano in exchange for candy corn.[7] Tedder started singing at the age of seven.[2] A self-taught vocalist, Tedder began honing this skill at the age of 12 by imitating his favorite artists, which ranged from The Beatles to acts as diverse as Peter Gabriel, Stevie Wonder and Sting. He has commented, "I sang for two hours a day every day of my life until I was 18."[7] He continued to perform musically during his adolescence through church, school, and personally formed groups.[2]
He met and became friends with guitarist Zach Filkins on their high school soccer team, at Colorado Springs Christian High School in Colorado Springs (Tedder and Filkins would later go on to form the band OneRepublic). During this time and through college Tedder taught himself to play a variety of instruments, including guitar, drums and bass.[2] He attended Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma, majoring in PR and advertising and minoring in business. It was as a freshman that Tedder began to showcase his own material.[8] Tedder lost his degree scholarship in his sophomore year, because he "kept skipping classes to write songs". He has since stated that he took this as a sign that he was meant to pursue a career in music.[7]
[edit] Career
[edit] Early musical career
For several years Tedder worked as a waiter, and also a shop assistant at Pottery Barn, before securing an internship at DreamWorks SKG in Nashville, singing on demos to break into the music scene.[8] He produced demos for songwriters and labels, charging $300 to $400 a track.[7] Tedder claims that Dreamworks offered him his first publishing deal shortly after his arrival; however, he was intent on pursuing a career as an artist and his first venture in that arena came via a different route all together.[8]
At the age of 21, Tedder competed in a singer-songwriter competition and was selected by 'N Sync singer Lance Bass as one of five finalists to perform on a one hour special on MTV, performing original material in front of millions of viewers.[9] The prize for the winner was a music contract with Bass's now-defunct management company, Free Lance Entertainment.[9] The contestants performed live and were then rated by judges and the audience, the highest scoring artist winning the contract. Tedder’s performance of one of his own songs, “The Look,” received the most votes from the judges and fans, and he won the competition; however, a contract with a recording label was not finalized and no album was released.[10] Tedder later revealed the record and publishing deal he was offered, "wasn't real. It was just a bunch of hype that didn't turn into anything."[11] Matt Clizbe of the music website, clizbeats.com, has since commented, "While the concept was tried and true and continues to be used today, the Freelance show and contest did not last. Unfortunately, the public seemed to fall out of love with the Lance Bass fronted project before Ryan's potential could be realized…As the show faded so did the public's knowledge of Tedder and their eagerness to hear his music."[12] However, Clizbe adds that this "may have been the best thing that ever happened to [Tedder]. While the loss of TV support is often the end for most artists, Tedder's talent shown through and his career was just beginning…"[12]
[edit] Producing
After college Tedder moved to New York, then Nashville, continuing to write and produce songs wherever and for whomever he could, hoping for his big break. Before his eventual move to Los Angeles to start OneRepublic, Tedder’s talents caught the attention of the successful hip hop singer and record producer, Timbaland, who “formally took him under his wing”.[13] Tedder has commented, "I was with Timbaland from 2002-2004 to develop as an artist, but it turned out to be more like going to school for producing. I was already producing for other artists at the time, but being with him for two years stepped up my game a thousand-fold."[11] Tedder’s work has crossed many musical genres (ranging from hip-hop, R&B, Rock, Pop to Dance/Techno) and he has had many chart successes both in America and the U.K with a number of renowned artists.[14]
Tedder is the writer of "Apologize", performed by OneRepublic, a song which is currently the best selling and charting single of the decade along with many other honors and awards. Among those is a history breaking Top 40's Radio Airplay Record at #1 with 10,331 spins in one week. The song held this #1 position for 5 months until May 7, 2008 when "Bleeding Love", performed by Leona Lewis, a song that Tedder co-wrote and produced, broke the record previously set by "Apologize" and is currently #1 with 10,665 spins in one week. "Bleeding Love" is the best-selling single of 2007 in the United Kingdom, topping the UK charts for 7 weeks and was the fastest selling CD of 2007 receiving the most radio play worldwide prior to its U.S debut. The song also nabbed Tedder and Lewis a Best British single award nomination in February 2008 and has reached #1 in over 28 countries. Tedder and co-writer Jesse McCartney also got an award from ASCAP for writing "Bleeding Love".
Tedder wrote and produced Jennifer Lopez's top 40 hit "Do It Well"; co-produced and wrote Natasha Bedingfield's current hit single "Love Like This" (with The Runaways); co-wrote with Jonathan "JR" Rotem and Evan "Kidd" Bogart on Ashley Tisdale's current hit single He Said She Said; co-wrote and produced Leona Lewis's first international single "Bleeding Love" (which is the fastest selling single of 2007 in the UK as well as the biggest UK radio debut, reaching #1 in October 2007); produced and co-wrote Blake Lewis' first studio album A.D.D. (Audio Day Dream) (including 1st single Break Anotha); wrote and produced single "Thrill Is Gone" by Baby Bash, and he also worked on Paul Oakenfold's album, "A Lively Mind", for which Tedder received a Grammy nomination. In addition, Tedder has written and produced singles with artists such as Teairra Mari, Chris Cornell, Ludacris, Lupe Fiasco, Paula DeAnda, Hilary Duff, This World Fair, Timbaland, Frankie J, NLT, Christina Millian, Bubba Sparxxx, Shayne Ward, Tupac, Lemar, Esmee Denters, Marie Digby, Clay Aiken, YoungbloodZ, Jamie Scott, Alsou, Dima Bilan, t.A.T.u., Jennifer Hudson, Ashanti.[15] and a number of songs with various different rock acts in the U.S. and abroad. Tedder's frequent songwriting collaborators are Sam Watters, Rico Love, Wayne Wilkins, Savan Kotecha, Evan "Kidd" Bogart, Jesse McCartney and Steph Jones. He is currently working with Kelly Clarkson on her up coming 2008 album, due in the 4th quarter. Other projects include Rihanna, Mario, James Morrison, Beyonce, The Pussycat Dolls, Jennifer Hudson's albums due later this year.
[edit] OneRepublic
As well as producing, Tedder also sings lead vocals and plays guitar and piano for rock band, OneRepublic. The five piece band was formed in Colorado Springs in 2003 by Tedder and high school classmate Zach Filkins.[16] Tedder has since revealed that the band was formed at a "crossroads" in his life: "I was offered two publishing deals within two months of being in Nashville…I could have just written songs and lived a carefree life, but I knew that I had to be an artist. I wanted to form a rock band and create my own sound."[7] Based in LA, OneRepublic started out as an unsigned act on the social networking website, MySpace. Since June 2004 they have accumulated over 26.4 million plays for their music on the site. As of 2007 they are the number one band on MySpace and have been in the MySpace Music's Top Artists since summer 2006.[17]
The band gained further exposure when their 2007 single, "Apologize", was re-mixed and re-released on Timbaland's compilation album, Timbaland Presents Shock Value. The remix became an international chart hit in the fall of 2007. The song broke records after gaining 10,693 spins in one week. According to SoundScan, it is one of only 2 songs that have reached 3 million legal downloads in history and is the second best selling song of the decade.[18] OneRepublic's debut album, Dreaming Out Loud, includes both the song's original version and version with Timbaland, and was released on November 20, 2007 on Timbaland's Mosley Music Group imprint via Interscope Records.[19] The band had previously been signed to Columbia Records, but although their album was due to be released in 2006, this did not occur. Tedder explained, "Crap happened. People got fired. Labels merged and politics abounded".[20] Subsequently, the band was released from their deal with Columbia, and they were signed by Timbaland in the summer of 2006 to be the first rock band released on Interscope Records.[20] Tedder has commented on the success of his band's hit single, "Apologize": "The toughest thing to do is write a hit song, but we [had] a hit song before we [had] an album… What has happened has been really strange and really great."[19]
[edit] Works and writing credits
Note: This chart only features Tedder's work according to the ASCAP database. Some songs, names of the performers and complete info on Tedder's work on the song may be missing.[21]
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[edit] References
- ^ "Ryan Tedder Interview", ZM (New Zealand). Retrieved on 2007-10-31.
- ^ a b c d "Ryan Tedder", soundclick. Retrieved on 2007-10-21.
- ^ "No 189: OneRepublic", The Guardian. Retrieved on 2007-10-21.
- ^ Ryan Tedder on the coming of OneRepublic | Herald Sun
- ^ Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love Duo Plans Hits For Idol Winner
- ^ "Ryan “Alias” Tedder", Tedder official myspace. Retrieved on 2007-10-21.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Bio", oru. Retrieved on 2007-10-21.
- ^ a b c "Excellence ORU", oru. Retrieved on 2007-10-21.
- ^ a b "FreeLance Entertainment", kiwibox. Retrieved on 2007-10-21.
- ^ "FreeLance Entertainment", kiwibox. Retrieved on 2007-10-21.
- ^ a b "Talking Shop: Ryan Tedder", BBC. Retrieved on 2007-10-21.
- ^ a b "Rock Freelancer Builds OneRepublic", /www.clizbeats.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-21.
- ^ "Ryan “Alias” Tedder", Tedder official myspace. Retrieved on 2007-10-21.
- ^ "Excellence", oru.edu. Retrieved on 2007-10-21.
- ^ Jennifer Hudson Reworks Album
- ^ "OneRepublic", myspace.com/onerepublic. Retrieved on 2007-10-21.
- ^ "Timbaland - Apologize", ’’ilikemusic.com’’. Retrieved on 2007-10-21.
- ^ Timbaland/OneRepublic Shatter Top 40 Radio Airplay Record
- ^ a b "Who Is OneRepublic?", www.elitestv.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-21.
- ^ a b "News", onerepublicfans.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-21.
- ^ ASCAP ACE - Search Results
[edit] External links
- Ryan Tedder at the Internet Movie Database
- Ryan Tedder For the Sound
- The official site of OneRepublic
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