If I Lose Myself (song)

***If I Lose Myself*** is a song recorded by American pop rock band OneRepublic for their third studio album, *Native* (2013). It features as the second track on the 2013 release, and the third track on the 2014 re-release of Native. It was released as the album's first official single on January 8, 2013. The song was written by Ryan Tedder, Benny Blanco, Brent Kutzle and Zach Filkins. It was produced by Tedder and Blanco while Kutzle served as the co-producer. The song peaked at number 74 on the US *Billboard* Hot 100 and number 6 on the Media Control Charts in Germany. In early 2014, the single was re-released in the UK after the huge success of "Counting Stars".

## Writing and inspiration

OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder told *Billboard* about the song's lyrics: "It's actually about my buried, latent fear of flying and going down in an airplane, having that moment of sheer panic, looking out the window, seeing your life pass before you and somehow finding comfort in the fact that the person next to you is experiencing the same traumatic event."

## Live performances

On March 28, 2013, OneRepublic performed "If I Lose Myself" on *American Idol* with former Idol contestant and NBC *Smash* star Katharine McPhee. They also performed on *Good Morning America*, *The Ellen Degeneres Show* and *Rachael Ray*, as well as several other concerts and festivals.

## Music video

In an interview with fuse.tv, Tedder said, "The original concept [for the video] was borrowing from the opening scene of Garden State—the plane's going down and all the oxygen masks drop out and everyone's going crazy... We chased that for a minute but realized... It's one thing to watch that kind of video once, but you don't wanna sit there and hit repeat on watching a plane crash."

The music video was released on January 24, 2013. In the video, a group of people are sent a text from Ryan Tedder, of a picture of a wolf and the numbers 11.11.11 at the bottom. The camera follows the group around the city chasing clues that are spray painted on fire hydrants and street signs around the town that will help them guide their way to a secret concert that OneRepublic is holding. The video cuts to scenes of the band performing the song in a dark, smokey room with colored lights surrounding the room with a bunch of fans dancing. There are pictures of owls and foxes being projected around the room which are allusions to the album cover for *Native*. At the end of the video, there is a fox being projected on Tedder's face. The video was inspired by the movies *12 Monkeys* and *The Matrix*

## Lyrics

I stared up at the sun
Thought of all other people, places and things I've loved
I stared up just to see
Of all other faces, you are the one next to me
You can feel the light start to tremble
Washing what you know out the sea yeah
You can see your life out of the window, tonight

If I lose myself tonight
It'll be by your side
If I lose myself tonight (whoa, whoa, whoa)

If I lose myself tonight
It'll be you and I
Lose myself tonight

I woke up with the sun
Thought of all other people, places and things I've loved
I woke up just to see
Of all other faces you were the one next to me
You can feel the light start to tremble
Washing what you know out the sea yeah
You can see your life out of the window, tonight

If I lose myself tonight
It'll be by your side
If I lose myself tonight (whoa, whoa, whoa)

If I lose myself tonight
It'll be you and I
Lose myself tonight (whoa)
Whoo
Oh ooh

Take us down and we keep trying
40, 000 feet keep flying
Take us down and we keep trying
40, 000 feet keep flying
Take us down and we keep trying
40, 000 feet keep flying
Take us down and we keep trying
40, 000 feet keep flying

Lose myself
If I lose myself tonight
Hoo hoo ooh
Hoo hoo ooh

## Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of *Native*