OneRepublic's Tedder writing country, contemplating movies

Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic

Credit: AP Photo/Matt Sayles

OneRepublic's leading man Ryan Tedder feels like he's done it all, even though promoting his band's new album "Waking Up" has just begun.

The songwriter told Billboard.com that while he's achieved so much with hits like "Stop and Stare" and "Apologize," as well as write the big hits for superstars like Leona Lewis, Jordin Sparks and Beyonce, he might be ready to move on from songwriting on the whole.

"I might reach a point with music when I'm kind of like, 'OK, I've done what I set out to do and I don't know if I'm gonna beat where I'm at,'" he said, noting he was going to slow down over the next couple of years. "I've always been the kind of person who...half the fun is getting there and I just move on to something else rather than being like, 'OK, I want to play king of the hill and see how long I can stay up here.' I don't want to turn into friggin' Madonna or whatever, where you're constantly fighting to maintain some kind of pole position. It's that eternal pressure to maintain it that drives people mad and starts killing people."

He's obviously still hard at work, though. He is penning some country tracks for superstar crossover act Rascal Flatts, and is now headlong into the album release cycle of "Waking Up," to be released tomorrow.

Listen to the album in its entirety here.

Meanwhile he's working that whole "I've got a friend who..." angle when it comes to his aspirations for film, of all things. But don't look for the typical musician-actor career move. Instead, Tedder would like to write screenplays.

"I love movies. I've always loved movies," he said. "I used to want to be an actor, but that's never gonna happen, so I might shift into writing moves [sic] at some point. I've had a couple screenplay ideas I've been toiling over for the last two or three years. I've already pitched one of them to a buddy of mine who's a producer, and he thinks I could get it made."

Katie Hasty
Managing Editor

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After five years as a columnist and editor at Billboard, Katie Hasty joined HitFix in 2009 for music and film reporting out of New York. The Midwest native has worked as a writer, music promoter and in A&R since 1999 and performs with her band Numbers And Letters.