Young upstart leads Lifehouse
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Jason Wade, 20, is singer, songwriter and guitarist for upstart California alternative quartet Lifehouse. The Hatchet caught up with Wade just before the sound check for Lifehouse’s show at the Gund Arena in Cleveland, Ohio last week.
Lifehouse is currently touring with Matchbox Twenty and Everclear. On tour, members of Lifehouse look to reach out to audiences that may already be familiar with their hit single "Hanging by a Moment" and expose them to the rest of No Name Face (Dreamworks), the band’s most recent release.
Although the shelf life of new rock bands like Lifehouse can be short, Wade said he believes the band has a bright future.
"In my eyes, we’ve already exceeded expectations," Wade said in an interview. "But with the popularity of the Korn’s and the Limp Bizkit’s, I think we have our own niche. We’re not as hard and as fast as bands like Korn, but were not as soft as Matchbox Twenty. I think we appeal to an in between audience".
"Hanging by a Moment" plays regularly on D.C. 101 among other alternative stations nationwide. It’s a catchy love song, poured straight from the young frontman’s heart. And even to cynical ears, the chorus is a tempting singalong.
To combat the stasis sometimes found in the alternative genre, Wade said he plans to change the band’s formula on the next album.
"Our first album is kind of gloomy, it really connects with certain phases in my life, like my parent’s divorce," Wade said. "I think our next album will be more up-tempo, we’re going to look to have a little more fun with it".
Hopefully, with this attitude, Lifehouse can avert the tragic demise that struck so many other alternative flashes in the pan, such as Nada Surf and Days of the New.
The success of No Name Face has thrust Wade, along with his Lifehouse band mates, Steve Mathis, Sergio Andrade and Rick Woolstenhulme, into an excellent position to work with the established heavyweights of the alternative genre. Veteran producer Brendan O’Brien mixed all 12 tracks of No Name Face. O’Brien, generally recognized as a maven of the mixing board for his work with Matthew Sweet, Pearl Jam and a host of others, won high praise from Wade.
