Ryan Tedder Plans New OneRepublic Material for Early 2012

After he finishes up a loaded songwriting slate that includes work with B.o.B, Carrie Underwood and Cobra Starship, Ryan Tedder plans on focusing solely on his band OneRepublic's follow-up to 2009 sophomore album "Waking Up."

"We have probably eight or nine ideas, but we start the writing process for OneRepublic in about two weeks, and that's when I really dive in and start doing it and go until it's done," Tedder tells Billboard.com. "Our goal is to have the first single on the next album out by the beginning of 2012, or sometime in the early portion of 2012."

Tedder has seen a few recent collaborations become pop singles, including "Not Over You," the lead single from Gavin DeGraw's forthcoming album, and Colbie Caillat's latest hit, "Brighter Than the Sun." Meanwhile, Tedder was approached during the Billboard Music Awards to help flesh out a new Beyonce song, "I Was Here," barely a month before her new album "4" came out.

"There was one song came in at the last minute that was a Diane Warren-written song," says Tedder. "It was just a vocal, just Diane singing basically, and didn't have any real music behind it. We did the entire thing on two airplanes, from Vegas to Boston and then returning from Boston to Vegas two days later. It was absolutely bizarre, but the song sounds great."

Tedder says that he's wrapping up work on Cobra Starship's next album, and that he worked on five songs for K'naan's sophomore effort, which will feature producers like Will.i.am, Benny Blanco and RedOne. He also collaborated on three new songs with Carrie Underwood, whom he calls "one of the top three vocalists I've ever worked with."

However, Tedder seems most excited about his contributions to B.o.B's new album: the rapper worked with producers like Stargate and Benny Blanco on the follow-up to 2010 debut "The Adventures of Bobby Ray," and Tedder says that "there are some monsters" on the forthcoming disc.

"The last song I did with Bob sounds like nothing he's ever done," says Tedder. "It's almost like if Bob got in the room with Fleet Foxes and Mumford & Sons, or something like that. It's a total trip, and musically divergent from anything I've ever done."

So excited.
Music Heaven