Gloss chats to Brent, Drew and Zach from OneRepublic about the music that inspires them and the highlights and lowlights of their world tour…

You’ve been touring for a while now… what was one of the highlights of the tour? Any lowlights?

Brent: I made a list yesterday actually, we’ve been through nine countries in the last six months.

Drew: Auckland is definitely a highlight for us. Ryan has always said, “I know we’ve made it when we get to go to New Zealand” so for us coming here has been great.

Brent: “Yeah, it’s more vacation than work.”

Drew: Paris was a highlight for me. I loved Paris.

Zach: “Yes, Paris is fantastic. The architecture is amazing there, because they have spent time on everything. Unlike the US where the architecture is all about function.

Drew: It’s a shame that there is such a misrepresentation of the French – that they are snooty. We only had two experiences of that while we were there, mostly the French were great to us.

Brent: A lowlight was Pittsburg, Pensylvania. The septic tank in our bus broke and all our luggage got soaked in piss.

Drew: Buffalo, New York was a lowlight too as we went there six times last year and the place is really depressing. It’s now the poorest city in the USA.

Zach: Buffalo is ‘nothingness with people’.

Brent: The armpit of America.

Zach: The crowds are really good though!

What is your favourite album at the moment?
Brent: Rachel’s ‘Systems/Layers’. I fall asleep to that album. It’s strings, piano – Sigur Ros were influenced by them. It’s a great album to relax to… ambient and beautiful.

Zach: An album by Mew called ‘Frengers’ – it’s Danish post rock.

Drew: For the past week I have been listening to The Clash ‘London Calling’ – it’s one of those albums that pops up every now and again and takes over for a week.

Apologize has stirred up quite an emotional response from your fans – is there a song that has made you cry?

Zach: There’s a folksy band called Over The Rhine who have a song called ‘When I Go’. It’s a really cool song and very bluesy – I relate to it.

Drew: There’s a song by Jimmy Eat World called ‘23’ and it’s off their album called Futures. The first time I heard that song I cried.

Brent: ‘Knights of Cydonia’ by Muse. That song is completely epic!!

Drew: Yeah, it is… we should cover it.

What influences has working with producer Timberland had on you?

Brent: Well, before I met Timberland I never really gave hip hop a chance, and now I do. Pop too. They aren’t my favourite genres of music, but there is some good stuff. I didn’t even know who Justin Timberlake was before I met Timberland.

Zach: Timberland is always into something different and new. He writes music for the masses – he is able to blend doing something different and unique with thinking of his fans.

Drew: I like that we can expand what we’re doing and we can get crazier with what we do. As long as you have a good song to start with, we can connect with people. Eventually we might like to do weirder stuff with our music as well, like score movies. That would be great!

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