Los Angeles, CA. (Top40 Charts/ Geffen Records) - During its first decade as a band,
Lifehouse has had times when it enjoyed huge success. The songs "Hanging by a Moment," from the group's 2000 debut CD, "No Name Face," and "You and Me," from its 2005 self-titled disc, became No. 1 hits.
The band's latest CD, "Who We Are," has yet to produce that kind of a blockbuster song. But one won't find Lifehouse singer/guitarist Jason Wade complaining.
"I'd rather have two or three songs do decent than have that huge smash like 'Hanging by A Moment' or 'You and Me,' where it sticks out so long that you can't get a follow-up single," Wade said in a recent phone interview. "That's always been our problem. We've had these huge hits, but we've never been able to connect with a second single."
"Who We Are" is breaking that pattern, and fans can hear some songs off that album Sunday when Lifehouse visits Concrete Street Amphitheater with opening act Honeyhoney..
Wade said he feels that this time, Lifehouse has a record with legs and that "Who We Are" may just be starting to really gain momentum with fans.
"I'm really happy with the way this record's doing," he said. "Especially it seems like when the songs are getting on the radio they're starting to perform really well and people are starting to call in.
"I don't think people are really aware that it's out there (yet)," Wade said. "I run into people on the road sometimes who don't even know there's a new record out. So I think the more the songs get saturated on the radio and the more the tour continues to go along, I think people will find out about the record."
Fortunately, he thinks "Who We Are" translates nicely to live performance and will remain fun to play for as long as the band, which also includes drummer Rick Woolstenhulme and bassist Bryce Soderberg, tours behind the CD.
"We wanted some more uptempo songs," Wade said. "We wanted to get a little bit more guitar based."
The band also avoided going overboard on overdubs and added instrumentation because it wanted the songs to translate well to live performance.
"There aren't a lot of elaborate string arrangements, mostly two guitars, bass and drums," Wade said. "So we wanted it to be as simple as possible and have as much energy as possible."
These, however, were about the only predetermined goals for "Who We Are."
"After that (first) record did really well, I kind of felt a lot of pressure on me to follow up that success," he said. "I think I got into a mindset where I was just kind of, not writing for other people, but I was definitely conscious of it. It's taken me like the last four or five years to kind of reprogram my mind to just think about the inspiration and the music and not really worry about the business aspect of it."
Lifehouse's spring tour, which mostly visits theaters, will allow the band to upgrade the visual aspects of its shows.
"We're bringing out our own lighting rig, and we've got some really big, blown up artistic banners," Wade said. "So the stage will be a little bit more decorated this time. It's definitely going to be just as much a visual (experience) as the songs."
