There's no way you'd ever guess that Audrye Sessions are from California. Their lilting melodies, ever-swelling sound, their delicate pronunciations... even their clothes, haircuts and hometown (Livermore??) scream Brit-rock. And man do they scream it well! Like Muse covering U2 or The Verve with The Arcade Fire's berserk rhythm section.

Speaking of covers, much of the internet-addicted world got their first taste of Audrye Sessions when their weepy take on Elliott Smith's "Waltz #2" made the blog rounds. The band, which consists of Ryan Karazija (Vox, Guitar), Alicia Marie Campbell (Bass), Michael Knox (Guitar) and James Leste (Drums), has made short work of the offline world too, playing San Francisco's Noise Pop Festival, taking major strides at SXSW, touring with Margot & The Nuclear So & So's and quietly becoming one of Oakland's biggest deals. To add to the growing buzz, Audrye Sessions are in the process of translating their addictive vintage sound into their first full-length album. If you're a fan of Snow Patrol, Coldplay, Radiohead or Oasis, definitely give Audrye Sessions a whirl. Here's their video for "Turn Me Off."

If you're wondering exactly how chill OneRepublic is, the answer is this -- so chill that despite being up for 36 hours straight, the soul-pop fivesome still took their sweet time to talk to us after they finished performing live on TRL, even though they probably would've rather been back at the hotel napping.

First we caught up in the MTV Studios green room and reflected upon the finer points of the show: the wad of $2000 in real bills dangling from a gold rope around The-Dream's neck; and Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams, whom the boys declared can "Sing. Like, Kelly Clarkson-sing." Then we chatted about Brit rock, Lance Bass and what it feels like to be treated like The Hoff. Read on, won't you?

Buzzworthy: Before we get into it, let's talk touring, because you're blowing up, and people wanna know when they can see you live. What are your tour plans for 2008?

Ryan Tedder: We'll be all over Europe in February and touring with Maroon 5 in New Zealand and Australia in March. And pretty much any time we're not out of the country, we'll be playing in the states. Just in the next month alone, we're in Vancouver, Miami, Boston and San Diego, so it's like we're in all four corners of the country.

BW: We'd be remiss if we didn't ask this: how do you feel about all those comparisons to Coldplay? Read more...