OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder Fala De Marcas, Tecnologia E Música Nova em 2016

OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder Talks Brands, Technology, And New Music In 2016

Apple CEO Tim Cook, right, looks at the new iPhone 6s with OneRepublic lead singer Ryan Tedder, in the demo room after Apple event at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2015. (AP Photo/Eric Rosberg)

As a band, OneRepublic has found massive, international success with several of their singles, and many of the more memorable ones—“Apologize,” “All The Right Moves,” “Good Life,” and “Counting Stars,” to name just a few—have gone several times platinum, and have earned them a place in the top 40 world. The group is lead by Ryan Tedder, who is by far one of the most prolific and creative hit songwriters and producers of our time, with much of his most famous material having gone to other artists. Tedder has worked with Adele, Taylor Swift, Rob Thomas, Ellie Goulding, One Direction, Demi Lovato, and countless others. 

He has won the highly coveted Album of the Year Grammy twice as a producer, with both Adele (for 21) and Taylor Swift (for 1989, the current reigning champion), and he is in high demand by almost every star out there. That doesn’t stop him from making his own band a priority, and just recently, the group released its first single in years as the beginning of a new promotional cycle.

Last week, the band took time out of its busy schedule to team up with Motorola to launch two new products specifically designed for smartphones at a free concert: a magnetic speaker that connects to the back of certain phones, and a device that projects the screen’s image onto the wall, cutting down the size of typical projectors many times over.

 I spoke with the OneRepublic frontman about the group’s process for how they decide to work with certain brands, why Motorola makes sense for them, and what’s coming up for the rest of the year (hint: lots of new music).

So tell me, what’s going on with Motorola? What is this?

We did an event with Motorola a couple of years ago. It was in a different country. Austria? I remember the whole time I was bugging the president to give me his phone. It was a prototype of some new phone. Anyway, he never gave it to me.

We did something with them in the past, and then this was kind of a last-minute deal, just in the last two weeks. Full disclosure, we kind of look for any opportunity to come to New York City. We love New York, and we’re here every six weeks or so. This is kind of a no-brainer for us. Motorola is a company we like and we use. We’ve all owned things from Motorola in the past. Without sounding brand-whorish, we actually genuinely like the company and have used their products. 

We like technology, we’re kind of geeks. Anything that’s new or shiny. I’m the guy that’s buying things on Kickstarter waiting for them to actually come to market. Half the time it’s terrible, like a floating speaker I bought, which sucked. The other half of the time it’s stuff like these products, which are actually functional. We’re techno-dorks. We’re into any type of technology that’s disruptive and that’s going to make things easier and better.

So it’s not just the actual products themselves, it’s the qualities of the company?

It’s that it’s disruptive. Anything that’s disruptive. There’s a lot of stuff that goes to market all the time. I’m constantly reading Wiredand FORBES—I read this month’s issue cover to cover. I’ll find something in one of those articles, and immediately I’m online, tracking it down and looking at the company behind it, to see if it’s a company worth investing in, or if it’s on Kickstarter. Is it something I’m going to actually use?

I love technology. I’m the guy that buys the new phone the moment it’s released. I’ve already purchased two. We’re into that because we travel so much. Technology is our friend. It’s how we record, it’s how we get ideas across, it’s how we communicate. Every new device that comes out that’s disruptive and that’s not just a clone of something else is something that I’ll likely purchase.

Other than if you like a product, how do you guys decide what brands you want to put your name with?

It would have to be very specific. We have a longstanding relationship with Apple. We’ve played at their launch events before. We’re friends with Tim Cook. We go way back with him. We have to be very cognizant of who we’ve done things with in the past, and what is the depth of our involvement in those things. There’s not a laptop company in the world that we’re going to align ourselves with that’s not a Macbook Pro. That’s honestly how we make all of our music and do everything we do. There are microphone companies that I’ll align with and others that I won’t. 

There are car companies that we’ll align with. We work with Mercedes-Benz, and we did a two-year campaign with them. When the Mercedes deal came through, it made sense. My wife and I have a G Wagon. Another member of the band has vintage diesel Mercedes. 

The brand partnerships that we’ve had have been as natural as can be. There’s always going to be a level of questioning the authenticity of any partnership with a creative entity, To me, both parties have to be serviced. It’s scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. It has to be natural. 

Someone asked us recently on Twitter what it would take for us to play at a Trump rally, and my answer was, “There’s not enough money in the world, including his entire net worth.” There are certain things where it doesn’t matter what someone does or how much they pay you. It’s whatever feels authentic and natural.

This kickoff concert with Motorola, is this the beginning of a long-term campaign, or is it just a one-off?

This is a… We’re rounding first base. Hands are on the hips. Maybe going up the back… We’re leading off.