Lifehouse

A ‘Moment’ with Lifehouse’s Jason Wade

by Lisa Hummel

“Desperate for changing
Starving for truth
Closer to where I started
Chasing after you…”

Those words, the opening lyrics to the smash hit “Hanging By A Moment” from the California-based band Lifehouse, have found their way to quite a few places since the release of the band’s debut album, No Name Face in October. They’ve blared from many a radio; from the side stage of a Pearl Jam tour; to enthusiastic audiences, filling clubs and, just recently, packed arenas. Telling the tale of searching, those words have struck a chord with listeners and have placed its songsmiths atop the Billboard charts. Those words have given Lifehouse its first hit and have given the world its wake-up call: if the band members have anything to do with it, Lifehouse is here to stay.

Comprised of singer/songwriter Jason Wade, bassist Sergio Andrade, guitarist Stuart Mathis, and drummer Rick Woolstenhulme, Lifehouse got its start some five years ago, the brainchild of Wade and Andrade. Originally called Blyss, the band spent most of their time playing in and around Los Angeles before signing with Dreamworks Records.

“We started as a garage band, really,” said Wade. “Then we met our producer [Ron Aniello] and a couple of years later he let us go in and do some demos and it ended up getting passed to Dreamworks, we got a record deal, and we’ve been on the road for the past five or six months.”

Currently on tour promoting the album, the members of Lifehouse have enjoyed the meteoric rise that the success of “Hanging By A Moment” has brought them, and it is not lost upon Wade just how far he has come in his 20 year existence.

Growing up the son of ministers, Wade led a nomadic childhood, living in a number of locations — from Hawaii to Hong Kong — before settling in California with his mother following the divorce of his parents at age 15. And while there is no denying that the influences of religion and culture have affected his music, Wade cites his parents’ break-up as his musical turning point. “When my parents got divorced, that had more of an affect on my music than the fact that they were ministers. I kind of draw off of where they had it right and off of their mistakes, too, and I think that that comes across in my music a lot, where it’s not pretending to have all of the answers, but just kind of being real about where I’m at the time.”

And that level of real-ness is the quality that has connected Lifehouse to its audience. Since its release, No Name Face has received praise from critics and fans alike, many who draw the parallel between the disc’s 12 tracks and an emotional journey. That parallel is one Wade doesn’t outright deny. “I was drawing off a lot of inspiration from my past and it was just kind of therapeutic for me to get it out on paper. I wasn’t planning on making it conceptually that way, it just kind of happened,” he said. “To me, it makes it really special, because I can really look back and go, ‘okay, that’s where I was.’ It’s like a diary almost to me.”

Easily inspired, Wade admits that he finds his muse in a variety of ways, from movies and television (both of which he is a big fan) to people watching at Barnes & Noble book stores. But what he won’t do is assign specific meanings to his songs, including the current hit. “To me, the song [“Hanging By A Moment”] is very spiritual and I think that people sometimes look past the lyrics, ‘I’m letting go of all I’ve held on to,’ and ‘I’m running and not quite sure where to go,’ — the whole song is about a search, really, but many people interpret it as just a love song that they sing to their boyfriends or girlfriends, and that’s fine, too,” he said. “I don’t try to put the whole answer in the song because it kind of alienates an audience. I’d rather have people figure out what it means to them — and sometimes that can change, a song can mean one thing to someone at a time in their life and later on it can mean something different. I am really sensitive to that when I’m writing.”

These days, however, Wade has traded his pen for a guitar and hit the road — and he’s enjoying every minute of it. “I love it [touring]. It’s a cool lifestyle. And we just got a PlayStation for our bus,” he said, laughing. “So we were excited about that.”

After spending the past few months playing radio shows — including the recent Snowblast 2001 event held by WQXA at the Blue Marsh Ski Complex — the band is now sharing the stage with Everclear and matchbox 20. “I love radio shows, I think they’re great … and for the last two months, that’s all we’ve been doing, so we’re still adjusting to the arena level.” And that adjustment was one that the band found to be a little nerve wracking. “It was in Minneapolis, and it was pretty scary,” admitted Wade. “You can’t hear everything that’s going on out there and all you can really see is the first couple of rows, so you really have to trust that your sound is together. It’s so big, but we’re starting to adjust to it a little bit more.”

Following this current tour, Wade says the band plans to travel to Europe and then return to the states to play some club dates. The next single off the album is slated to be the disc’s second track, “Sick Cycle Carousel,” and, if all goes as expected, there are no doubt more — and bigger — touring plans down the road. But, for now, the members of Lifehouse are contented to just sit back and see how it all pans out. “I kind of look at it like if you sell 2,000 records you’re doing pretty good, because that’s 2,000 people who hear your music and that your lyrics mean a lot to them,” said Wade. “If you really keep it in perspective, it’s not about selling records and about how much money you make but how many people you’re connecting with. So if you can connect to 50 people I still think that’s good. I’m really happy with where we’re at right now.”

And as for the future of Lifehouse? What does Wade see for the course of the band over the next few years?

“I have no idea, really, what to expect in the future,” he said. “I know I want to keep making records and I know that I love touring right now. I don’t know where I’ll be in two to three years, but hopefully I’ll get to make another really good record — and I’m striving to make it better than this one. I’m kind of a perfectionist and I want it to be better than anything I’ve ever done, so that drive will probably keep me going at it for quite a while.”