On the last day of their U.S. tour One Republic is somewhere in Arkansas being interviewed by 43 high school students from all over the country on the phone. As we wait for the lead singer/songwriter Ryan Tedder to get out of the restroom so the interview can begin, the other band members which include Zach Filkins, Drew Brown, Brent Kutzle, and Eddie Fisher talk to us about iPod applications and Word Wars (like Scrabble except you play it on your cell phone).
When Ryan finally finishes up in the restroom the questions start flying out at the band. "What kept you guys going in the beginning?," One girl asked. "MySpace," Ryan answered with laughter in his voice," We almost broke up after getting dropped by our first record label, but 60 days after changing our MySpace status to unsigned we became the most popular unsigned act on MySpace, so that is definitely what kept the band together."
"A lot of bands that are on the radio now have songs on their albums that never get air time, so are their any songs of yours that you think should be played on the radio?," I asked, "Well we had a third single off of our first album called Say, but it just wasn't simple enough to play on the radio, a lot of songs today are dumbed down because it's too hard to be successful with complex melodies and lyrics that make people think," Ryan replied.
"Why do you think it is so easy for your fans to relate to your music? ," another kid asked. "The lyrics are honest, we aren't trying to sell a product to our fans and I hope they see that, we're doing something that is natural to us, something we would do regardless of the fame or profits," Zach answered.
"How do you feel about fans that download your music illegally?," I asked. "I am definitely not a fan of illegal downloading, but you can't stop it so I just want the people who download our music to at least come to a show and spread the word about the band," Ryan replied.

"How do you feel about the music industry becoming mostly digital now?," another girl asked. "I really think that younger kids that are in middle school now are really going to miss out on the experiences that we had because they won't know what it's like to be a true fan, to wait in line all day just so you can be the first person to buy your favorite bands CD at midnight or to bum a ride off a parent and blow all of your money on records," Ryan answered.
After about an hour it was already time for the last question,"Why did you decide to talk to high school journalists instead of professional journalists?"
"Because young minds are easy to corrupt," Zach answered jokingly," It's mainly because you guys pretty much decide the future of this band, in a few years you will be the ones that are going to our shows and buying our albums, we need you guys to have a future."
One Republic recently put out a new album entitled "Waking Up," be sure to check it out and catch them on tour this fall with U2.