Last year, OneRepublic were given the biggest challenge of their careers. Their label, Interscope Records, called Ryan Tedder and the rest of the guys in June and asked if they could have the follow-up to 2009′s Waking Up ready by November.

Though recording an album in less than six month is not ideal, the band jumped at the chance for one reason, and one reason only: No other act on their label, which is home to Black Eyed Peas, No Doubt and U2, would be putting out an album that month, and the major label would be able to put all its focus on OneRepublic.

“People always know our songs,” Tedder told Radio.com. “But the profile of who we are is never as ubiquitous as the music itself, and we’ve been trying to fix that. So we got all jacked up, ‘Oh my God, we could be the only act coming out on our entire record label. That’s huge!’”

By September, the band knew they just weren’t going to make their deadline – “We spent two months on two songs,” Tedder said – so they decided to bump the release of their third album, Native, back to March 26.

Read more on Radio.com.