I’ve always followed Ryan Tedder, ever since he was part of a small time band called OneRepublic on MySpace back in 2004.  Of course, we all know the name OneRepublic now, with their chart-topping singles like Apologize, Secrets and Good Life on mainstream radio.  However, I knew of Ryan Tedder even before the fame, when he released his first version of Apologize (before the collaboration with Timberland put them on top of the game).  I remember having the first version of Apologize as my MySpace song for the longest time.  I must say, I always admired his talent.  He has a clear passion for music, is an amazing producer and an even more amazing vocalist.  Whenever I see his name on a piece of music, I know it’s going to be an instant hit.  He doesn’t just stick to one branch of music; he evolves with the times, and features in almost every genre there is today.  That’s what makes him so successful, in my opinion.  He’s adaptive, and he has a clear drive for success.  This post is dedicated to Ryan Tedder, how far he’s come, and how much farther he can go.

Here he is in Gym Class Heroes latest single, “Fighter”.

-Aaron “The Chief” Chen

A new video up! With a MTD theme song involved?

If you want to relive a bit of the Prelude Weekend, well here you go! Thanks again to everyone that come out, danced, and supported us throughout the weekend. We felt the love and can’t wait to do more!

WEEKLY BLOG UPDATE:

I was debating what to make this entry about for a while and never seemed to settle on a specific topic. I didn’t let myself ponder too much about it though. I had a couple of ideas and I figured I’d wing when it came time. Well I recently watched this video from Ellen and was touched by her words at the end. Yes it was supposed to be comical, but she ended by talking about being worried where you’re supposed to be. I was gonna write a rather personal retelling of some low points in my life, but that’s too depressing/lame. So instead, I’ll go with this. Working hard at your passion. This might sound totally cliche and over done, but I totally stand by it. While in school, I had zero motivation to do school work because it meant nothing to me. But now I can work on projects I totally enjoy, and admittedly I’ve busier they I had ever been while in school. I love it though. I’m glad my life has come to this point now because I learned so much over the past year. And even though I was lost at times, that next turn taught me more and I was able to better myself from those experiences. It took a lot of long days and nights working and constantly staying busy. (I didn’t come home to my apartment for about a week because I was doing so much work. Ask my roommates.) To me, I didn’t have time to be doing nothing because when I was working, I was barely making enough to keep my already low key lifestyle. So when I wasn’t working, I had to do stuff to make it so eventually I could make my work life something I totally enjoyed. I still have a long way to go, but I feel like I’m finally making some better steps. 

If you ever have the time though to watch a documentary, this would be the BEST to watch now. I don’t like to use the word “inspiring” often, but I will apply it to this story. Pixar is an amazing company and they are so humble. They’ve gone through a lot and worked WAY harder they I ever have. But they achieved their goal and pushed themselves to strive even further. Their story inspired me and still inspires me keep pushing and working hoping to find the right turns and directions to lead me to where I want to go.

-SKIM

Who’s Bad!?

This past weekend, I went to my home church in Winston-Salem, NC to join the fam on Mother’s Day. It was a beautiful thing. After church, I was talking to my home church pastor, Pastor Thomas, and he whips out his phone, and says, “You gotta check my grandson out, he learned this from you.” 

He showed me this amazing youtube clip of his grandson, Kortlen Thomas, performing smooth criminal at his school’s talent show. I was literally blown away and immediately replied with, “He didn’t learn that from me. I need to be taking lessons from him!”

Please watch and share this little kids talent because it is much deserved. You can tell that Kortlen has actually watched, studied, and practiced how to move like Michael Jackson. If More Than Dance had any part in influencing him to dance, and he dances like this!? I’m just as proud as his grand dad was, I’m proud of him either way. Little Kortlen has a true gift and talent at such a young age, and it does my heart good to know that we are helping to inspire kids like this. 

Keep dancing Kortlen, I’m going to get you out to one of our workshops VERY soon!

-Mikey