Lifehouse (band)

Jason Wade had been writing songs since his parents' divorce as a coping mechanism. After moving to Los Angeles in 1995, he met bassist Sergio Andrade, his next-door neighbor.[6] The following year, Wade, Andrade, and Jon "Diff" Palmer formed Blyss, the forerunner of Lifehouse, and began to play live shows at high schools and colleges.[6][7][8] Later, Collin Hayden and Aaron Lord were added to the band.[9]

Soon thereafter, word-of-mouth reached producer Ron Aniello, who introduced Jason to Jude Cole, who in turn introduced him to DreamWorks Records principal Michael Ostin.[7][10] In 1998, Aniello produced Blyss's first demos, with the financial backing of DreamWorks Records. Some of these recordings would form the 1999 EP Diff's Lucky Day, which would be sold at live concerts or distributed among friends and music industry contacts.[9]

In 2000, Blyss re-recorded, remixed, and released twelve of the fifteen Diff's Lucky Day session demos as No Name Face, their debut major label release under the name of Lifehouse.[8][9] On their choosing the band name, frontman Jason Wade said, "It's about what we do as a band and for me personally. Most of this record is about my life and about life's circumstances. Not only my life, but other people's lives. We thought Lifehouse was a good name for it."[11]

No Name Face met significant commercial success and established the band, and eventually would sell in excess of 4 million copies worldwide.[7] This was in part due to the success of "Hanging by a Moment", Lifehouse's first commercial single. Due to the charisma and talent of frontman Wade, DreamWorks Records' focus was primarily on him.[12] "Hanging by a Moment" was the third song in chart history to be named the "No. 1 Song of the Year" on the Billboard Hot 100 despite not having reached No. 1 on any weekly Billboard Hot 100 survey (after Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs' "Wooly Bully" in 1965 and Faith Hill's "Breathe" in 2000). The second single from the album, "Sick Cycle Carousel", was not as commercially successful as "Hanging by a Moment", peaking at No. 35 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart; the third and final single was "Breathing", a reworking of a song featured on Diff's Lucky Day.

The song "Everything" was the first of many Lifehouse songs to be featured in the future hit WB drama Smallville.[9] Seven of the band's songs would be featured in episodes of the series' first four seasons, and the band itself would perform live at the Smallville prom at the end of the fourth-season episode "Spirit". The song "You and Me" would be released on the series' second soundtrack, Smallville: The Metropolis Mix, in an extended form, subtitled "Wedding Version" ("You and Me (Wedding Version)"). The song "Everything" was also used in the series' 200th episode, "Homecoming", in the show's 10th and final season, as an homage to the series pilot and first-season finale episodes.[13]

The song "Somewhere in Between", also from No Name Face, was featured in the first-season episode of Falcon Beach, "The Blame Game".[14]

By the time Lifehouse's first album was released, Palmer had left the band, and Wade and Andrade were the only remaining founding members.[7] Soon after recording No Name Face, Wade and Andrade met Rick Woolstenhulme, who auditioned for the needed drummer part and joined the band as full-time drummer.[7] Before the audition, Woolstenhulme had been rehearsing in an adjacent room to Lifehouse and frequently he and Wade would pass each other without meeting the other.[8]

Shortly after a long tour for No Name Face, Lifehouse reentered the studio to cut their second album, Stanley Climbfall. The album's initial success was short-lived and its singles, 2002's "Spin" and 2003's "Take Me Away", were vastly overshadowed by the success of the first album.[15] Shortly after the album debuted, Rick's brother Sean Woolstenhulme (of The Calling) officially became the fourth member of the band in June 2002. He had previously toured with Lifehouse.

In April 2004, Sergio Andrade confirmed that he had decided to leave the band to pursue individual projects. Shortly after his departure, Sean also left the band to pursue other musical projects such as Abandoned Pools and The Jimmy Chamberlin Complex.[16]

Jason Wade and Rick Woolstenhulme remained the active members of Lifehouse. In September 2004, Bryce Soderberg (previously of AM Radio) signed on as Lifehouse's new bassist. On July 6, 2004, they went to Maryland to begin work on their eponymous third album, spending less than two months in the studio to record thirteen songs produced by John Alagia.[17] Lifehouse was released on March 22, 2005.

The album's first single, "You and Me", was released for airplay on January 18, 2005. It was written several years prior and was originally performed by Jason Wade for the 2000 independent film All Over Again. The song was a success and stayed on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 for 62 weeks (the fifth longest-charted in history), peaking at No. 5. The song also appears on the soundtrack to Smallville. One episode, "Spirit", featured the band actually performing it and three other songs from the album ("Come Back Down", "Blind", and "Undone") on the show. The song has also appeared on Cold Case, Boston Legal, Gavin & Stacey, Everwood, Grey's Anatomy, The 4400 and Medium as well as the commercial for the final episode of Zoey 101. The song "All In All" was featured in Scrubs. The music video for the album's second single, "Blind", was released October 19, 2005. It starred Tina Majorino and featured several other up-and-coming young actors such as Sarch McClain, Stephen Cheung, Christopher Thien Duc Van and Andy Walters.[8]

In 2006, the newly-written song "Good Enough" was featured in the Disney film The Wild and was repeated over the end credits.[18]

Lifehouse in 2008

Lifehouse began recording their fourth record in mid-2006 at Kiefer Sutherland and Jude Cole's recording studio, Ironworks Studios, in Los Angeles.[19] Their fourth album, entitled Who We Are, was released on June 19, 2007.[20] The album features Wade, Woolstenhulme and Soderberg as its lineup, and "rocks a little harder" than their previous album, according to the band.[21] The album's release was followed by a tour with The Goo Goo Dolls and Colbie Caillat, which began June 15 at the Dodge Theatre in Phoenix, AZ.[22]

The album's first single was a bright, pop rock love song "First Time", released on April 24, 2007. The song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 48 in May,[23] and peaked at No. 3 on the Hot Adult Top 40 Charts. The album's second single, "Whatever It Takes", was released to radio stations on October 29, 2007.[24] "Broken", the album's third single,[25] has appeared on several TV series, including Grey's Anatomy ("Lay Your Hands On Me"), Criminal Minds ("In Birth and Death", season 3, episode 2), One Tree Hill, One Life to Live and The Hills. Most recently, it was featured in the motion picture soundtrack The Time Traveler's Wife. It peaked at No. 83 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Lifehouse held a contest to make a video for the song "Make Me Over".[26] The band gave 60 USC School of Cinematic Arts graduate students a chance to shoot the video for their new single. The winning video premiered at a gala event on December 5, 2008, at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, CA.[27]

As of October 2008, the album had been certified gold.[28]

On April 11, 2009, the band announced that Ben Carey was an official member of the band. They said that they had been "a four-piece for some time" and that Ben is "family to us". Carey had been touring with the band since 2004.[29]

The single "Halfway Gone" was released on October 27, 2009. The music video premiered on the VH1 Top 20 on VH1.com at the end of November.[30] Smoke & Mirrors was released on March 2, 2010. The album debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 with 54,203 sold. This marked the highest chart debut of their ten-year career, beating out first week chart position for their 2002 sophomore set Stanley Climbfall, which debuted at No. 7.[31]

On September 11, 2012, Lifehouse released a new single featuring Natasha Bedingfield entitled "Between the Raindrops". A month later, on October 18, the band announced that the title of their sixth studio album would be Almería, named after a city in Spain famous as the locale of many classic Spaghetti Western films.[32] Almería was released on December 11 in the US and December 12 worldwide. The album was met with mixed reviews, and failed to spawn a second single.

On July 24, 2013, Wade posted a letter to the band's Facebook page saying that Lifehouse had parted with Geffen and was on a temporary hiatus as each band member turned attention to other projects (with the assurance that the band would continue to make records in the future).[33] Drummer Rick Woolstenhulme Jr. began touring with the Goo Goo Dolls; bassist Bryce Soderberg initiated a new band titled KOMOX; lead guitarist Ben Carey continued work in country rock band Elvis Monroe; and singer and songwriter Jason Wade worked on his as-yet-unreleased singer-songwriter solo record.[34][35][36][37] The band's final show before their break was on September 25, 2013.[38]

On December 8, 2014, Lifehouse stated on their official website that Ben Carey would no longer be a part of Lifehouse and instead would be focusing on his own projects; for live shows, the band later revealed that Steve Stout would fill in on lead guitar.[39]

Lifehouse reentered the studio in May 2014. "Flight" was released independently on November 18, along with an announcement that the band's hiatus was officially over and a new album entitled Seven would be released in April 2015.[40][41] The first official single, "Hurricane", was released on January 27, 2015.[42] On January 27, Billboard.com revealed a new album title Out of the Wasteland and published the official standard-edition track list of the album, giving an official release date of May 19, 2015.[34][43] The album was released online and in stores on May 26, 2015 and debuted at number one on the Independent Albums chart.[44] A special Target edition was made available with four bonus tracks. The band was to begin touring in support of the album on June 19, as an opening during the second North American leg of the No Fixed Address Tour, before the tour was cancelled due to the health of headlining band Nickelback's lead singer, Chad Kroeger.[45] A European headlining tour commenced on September 15, 2015 in Amsterdam, with extra dates added due to high demand.[46]

During the summer of 2017, Lifehouse toured with Switchfoot throughout the United States, with one show in Toronto.[47]

Also in 2017, Jason Wade teamed up with Switchfoot's Jon Foreman, to help raise funds for Houston's Hurricane Harvey victims through the track called "Shine Like Gold".[48]

In early 2018, Lifehouse toured with Collective Soul across South Africa.[49]

Lifehouse at the 2019 Alameda County Fair

On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Lifehouse among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.[50]

• Jason Wade – lead vocals, lead guitar, rhythm guitar (1997–present)
• Rick Woolstenhulme, Jr. – drums, percussion (2000–present)
• Bryce Soderberg – bass guitar, backing vocals, lead vocals (2004–present)

• Steve Stout – lead guitar (2014–present)
• Stuart Mathis – lead guitar, backing vocals (2000–2001)
• Joerg Koehrig – lead guitar, backing vocals (2001–2002)

• Jon "Diff" Palmer – drums, percussion (1997–2000)
• Aaron Lord – violin, viola, mandolin (1997–2000)
• Sergio Andrade – bass guitar (1997–2004)
• Sean Woolstenhulme – lead guitar, backing vocals (2002–2004)
• Ben Carey – lead guitar (2009–2014, touring 2004–2009)