 "Photo: Photo courtesy of Lifehouse")
Seven years ago, a little-known band burst onto the alternative rock music scene with its first chart-topping hit, "Hanging by a Moment," which would become one of the most played songs in 2001.
From that point, the three-piece band Lifehouse went through several ups and downs, sporadically hitting the music charts with radio-friendly songs such as "You and Me."
"It's kind of cool seeing kids that were probably, like, 7 years old when our first record came out at our concerts," lead singer Jason Wade said in a recent phone interview. "It's really funny to me to think that we've been around that long and that a song like 'Hanging by a Moment' is almost 9 years old."
And with last year's release of its fourth album, "Who We Are," and the hit single "First Time," Lifehouse is making a comeback after its disappointing sophomore effort, "Stanley Climbfall."
"We went through a time when it looked like Lifehouse wasn't going to be around anymore because our bass player and guitar player quit the band and our record label went bankrupt, so we didn't know if we were still signed," Wade said.
"I just went into writing mode for about a year and a half and wrote all these songs. Luckily, 'You and Me' was a really big success for us. We're really proud of the fact that our second record didn't do so well, but we managed to come back in our third record."
The current talents behind the band are Wade (guitar, piano and lead vocals), Rick Woolstenhulme (drums) and Bryce Soderberg (bass).
Two weeks ago, Wade and company kicked off their Disarray Tour with Matt Nathanson and Honey Honey in Washington. They will make a stop in Los Angeles on Friday.
"We're really excited to come back to L.A.," Wade said. "The Wiltern has always been a place that we've dreamed about playing at since we were kids. It's going to be exciting."
And there has been plenty of excitement for Lifehouse in the past few months.
One of its songs from the new album, "Broken," was featured on recent episodes of ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" and the CW's "One Tree Hill."
"Having our songs on a popular TV show means that someone out there is connecting to it and that gives you an opportunity to reach a bigger audience," Wade said.
The story behind the song itself, though, is noteworthy.
"I took a trip to visit a friend of mine who needed to get on a kidney transplant list. It wasn't really a trip to write; I just really wanted to support him, but I was overwhelmed the whole time I was there seeing him in that condition," Wade said. "So I wrote the song that night and we recorded it the next day. I feel like it's the most inspired song on the record."
Wade was also asked by Allstate to write a song for its Safe Teen Driving Campaign.
"At first I was kind of skeptical because I thought it might be kind of cheesy to do a commercial," Wade said. "But when I saw the clip, I was completely moved. So I took the clip back to my hotel room and probably watched it 75 to 100 times until the image was burning in my head and the song came out of me."
The result was the powerful "From Where You Are," a sobering homage to teenagers who die each year in car accidents.
"There's just a lot of emotion in the kids' faces and I realized that those kids, wherever they're going, they're not coming back. That just really impacted me," Wade said.
"From Where You Are" is just one example of Wade using his music to deliver a message.
"The Joke," a track from "Who We Are," was inspired by the story of a British boy who committed suicide after being bullied by kids at school.
"The song is a little dark, but I felt really compelled to write that song as a warning … These kids can never escape it. And I experienced that growing up," Wade said. "I lived in Hong Kong for a couple of years and I was the only white kid in the village. I always felt like the outcast, so I can relate to that."
As for what lies ahead for the trio, Wade said after the tour concludes, the band hopes to record its fifth studio album in his currently-in-development home studio.
But the band is trying not to look too far into the future.
"Our whole thing right now is just to take one day at a time and really enjoy the process," Wade said. "I feel like in the beginning we really missed out on the ride of what was happening because we were so young and nervous all the time. We didn't really know what we were doing. We're a lot more comfortable in our own skin now."
- Lifehouse performs tomorrow night at The Wiltern, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $30.
