Lifehouse talks before show

If you’ve listened to the radio in the past few years, chances are you’ve heard of Lifehouse…. If you’ve listened to the radio in the past few years, chances are you’ve heard of Lifehouse. The band’s “Hanging By a Moment” was one of the biggest singles of this decade, and their latest airwave favorite, “You and Me,” is similarly all over the rock ‘n’ roll world.

Lifehouse’s brand of rock-that-you-and-your-mother-can-enjoy is brought to you courtesy of the band’s singer and songwriter, Jason Wade, who was only 20 when Lifehouse burst onto the scene in 2000. Now an older, more experienced songwriter, Wade and Lifehouse released a self-titled disc in the summer of 2005.

Calling from New York City, Wade took a tour break to talk about music, his gig headlining Pitt’s annual Fall Fest on Saturday and cans of tuna.

The Pitt News: Have you ever played an outdoor venue like Fall Fest? Jason Wade: We’ve played a bunch of festivals. I love playing outside because it’s really open – especially at night. It’s just a good vibe – a Woodstock vibe.

TPN: Tell me about the name Lifehouse.

JW: Our name previous to Lifehouse was Blyss, and we put out a little indie record. Lifehouse was just one of the only names we could copyright. It was third on our list. It’s one of those names that, well, we weren’t excited about-but now I can’t imagine us being anything else.

TPN: Where do you go to write music?

JW: I like writing in my house. Being on tour, I write in a lot of hotel rooms. And being in different cities is really inspiring to me – it’s a cool people watch. I’ll walk around the city, then bring my acoustic guitar up and write in my room.

TPN: Do you have a feeling if a song will be a hit, or is it a surprise to you?

JW: I know if I like a song, but I don’t know if anyone else will. I mean, when I wrote “You and Me,” I knew it was poppy, but I didn’t know it would be a hit.

TPN: How was your stint opening for the Rolling Stones (November 2002)?

JW: It was insane. I actually lost my voice for one of the shows – but we still had two more. We played at the MGM Grand in Vegas; that show was off the hook. We got to watch the sound check in the empty arena and they played “Satisfaction.” It was one of my favorite days of my life.

TPN: Give me your own review of Lifehouse’s latest record.

JW: I think this record is the most organic record we’ve made. We’re very adamant about not fixing anything. We leave it raw and untuned. I took two years off to write it. We recorded in a house in Easton, Md.; we wanted to record away from L.A., where producers could pressure us just to write hits. We were off the radar just to be inspired again. It was college style – just a bunch of guys living in a house making music.

TPN: You waited two albums before releasing a self-titled disc. Why is your latest album called Lifehouse?

JW: We went through so many changes, we felt like we were starting over. Our record label folded and we got picked up by Geffen. Our bass player left the band and we got a new bass player. We wanted to self-title this one to give ourselves a fresh start.

TPN: Tell me about your best and worst shows ever.

JW: The worst was when we opened for a huge artist in Italy – Oscar Rossi. It was 70,000 people, and in between every song they were throwing pieces of bread, bottles of water and cans of tuna at every artist except this one. I had to run around the stage dodging things. The best was definitely with the Stones in Vegas.

TPN: Did you say cans of tuna?

JW: Oh yeah, it was so weird. Anything and everything they could throw at us.

TPN: What can fans expect to see this Saturday?

JW: We’re just two guitars, a bass and drums. It’s going to be organic. We’re going to play an 80-minute set and it’ll be a collage of all our stuff.

Lifehouse is playing this Saturday on Bigelow Boulevard. The band’s all-natural 80-minute set will begin at 5:30 p.m.