Dan + Shay have been one of the hottest acts in country music since bursting onto the scene in 2013 with their debut single, ’19 You + Me.’ Since then, the duo comprised of Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney have seen their debut album ‘Where It All Began’ hit big with fans, have 3 nominations for ACM Vocal Duo of the Year and the album produced their first #1 single, ‘Nothin’ Like You.’ Most recently the guys released ‘From the Ground Up,’ which is the first single off their upcoming second album. Dan Smyers took some time out recently to chat with us here at New England Country Music about the new single, their first #1, and a few things in between.
‘From the Ground Up’ is the perfect follow up to the guys first #1 single as it’s a big change in terms of the tone of the music. It has already started to gain traction in country radio and fans can’t help but be drawn in by the tune’s message of love and hope. It certainly sets itself apart from many of the songs currently being played on country radio and for good reason. Smyers let us know how the song came about, a song deeply personal to both himself and Shay.
“It’s a super special song to us as it’s probably the most personal song we’ve ever written. We were going to our buddys house, Chris DeStefano, who we wrote ‘Nothin’ Like You’ with. We weren’t even planning on writing a song that day. I had just gotten back from my grandfathers funeral in Ohio and Shay’s grandfather was in the hospital at the time. It was a very emotional time for us and we were just sitting down chatting about how our grandparents were married for 65+ years. That’s something that doesn’t happen anymore and is super inspiring as with all the ups and downs they had to work at but were still in love after all those years. That’s the example of what we want to have in our lives and an hour and a half later we had this thing, ‘From the Ground Up.’ We recorded an acoustic demo for our team and was a unanimous decision to release it as our next single. We were kind of scared at first as it is so personal to us but it’s been incredible live, we’ve played it a few times and hearing the fans sing the words back to us already is a dream come true.”
Since the song’s release, the duo has been receiving stories from fans saying that the song is their love story or their grandparent’s love story. This is one of those songs that separates country music from all other genres, as country songs are so relatable and touch fans on so many different levels. This fact was not lost on the duo. “If you’re thinking about your grandparents or your own personal relationship, I feel that it’s one of those ones that can touch you and that’s country music. That’s why we fell in love with it, just the songwriting with songs by Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts and all of our favorite acts growing up. Those emotional kind of story songs that you can kind of relate to your own life.” Dan hopes that ‘From the Ground Up’ will be that storytelling song for them and he has every reason to think that, as the single certainly is along the same lines as some of Rascal Flatts biggest hits ‘What Hurts the Most’ and ‘Here Comes Goodbye,’ of which the guys are huge fans of.
The single itself has some instruments that unfortunately have been lost a little in country music, as a piano and strings were added in. These lent a more traditional and elegant sound to the new song which suits it perfectly. They brought in a great group of musicians to help them record the song, including Gordon Moat who played the keys on ‘Bless the Broken Road.’ Dan sat back at the soundboard as the band members jammed and was filming it with his iPhone when he realized there was magic to what they were recording. Originally, the song was recorded without the strings but when they added them, Smyers said, “that was the glue that held the song together, brought it to life and took it to that next level.” One day the duo hopes to be able to play the song with a big live orchestra backing them up.
When you have a song such as this, with such a profound meaning and lyrics, it’s tough to always transfer that into a music video. The duo wanted to make sure that video conveyed the scope of the lyrics and told a story as well.
“We chose Shaun Silva as the director on that as he is absolutely incredible. It was an early day that day and I think our call time was at 3:00am and we drove and hour and a half out to Williamsport, TN. The crew was great and super cool to us, the actors and actresses nailed it. The husband and wife, who were the subjects of the video had just gotten married in real life so they had some real time practice on it. We wanted it to be elegant and majestic to match the production of the song. I think they even did a great job in the editing, creating the different periods of the visual, having the lead couple back in the day with the grain and filters on that then translating that to modern day. The twist at the end was it was the them in the same house with the same motorcycle and stuff just passed on through generations.”
‘From the Ground Up’ only hit country radio a few weeks ago, but fans have held on tight to it’s message and some have already used it as their wedding song. It’s incredible to think how such a personal song to Dan + Shay went from them being concerned about sharing it to setting the tone for the beginning of peoples married life. We posed the question to Dan as to how he feels hearing these stories.
“We’ve seen some people tweeting about it and it’s the coolest thing ever. Some people have sent me videos of them using it at their wedding as their first dance and that’s one of the greatest honors. That’s one of the biggest moments of someones life and to have our song kind of stamp that…doesn’t get any better than that. I get the chills thinking about it, having someone be so emotionally connected to our song that they choose to put it in their lives at such a key moment is a big deal and we appreciate it. Hopefully we can get some invites to weddings or perform it at a wedding or two.”
Every Dan + Shay fan has been waiting for the guys to release their much anticipated second studio album. The release of ‘From The Ground Up’ has just fed fan’s appetites even more to hear more new music from the talented twosome. Above anything else, these guys are amazing songwriters and have been hard at work on the new album with numerous songs written for the project. Dan gave an update on how it’s coming along.
“We’re working everyday out on the road for the album and super proud of how it’s coming along. We wrote somewhere between 80-90 songs for it and that’s the toughest part as you have to narrow them down. You pick 30 songs, record 15 of those and then you have to pick 10-12 for the record. It’s certainly a process but a great song will always find it’s way, whether it makes it onto our album or somebody else’s. We’re working on it and it’s almost done. If you dug, ‘Where It All Began,’ then you’re going to love this, as it’s more where that came from but we set the bar on the first record with 12 songs so we had to beat each one of those with what we’re putting out now or we’re doing a disservice to our fans. Can’t wait to get it out there and play some of the new songs on tour this summer.”
It will be hard to top an album such as ‘Where It All Began,‘ as it produced so many hits, most notably their first #1 single, ‘Nothin’ Like You.’ Having that first #1 out of the way means the world to the guys and they make sure to give credit to the fans who constantly kept requesting it on country radio. The single had a slow burn as it took 45 weeks to top the chart, but it just goes to the show the love fans have for the song. Smyers discussed it’s success, “It was an honor to check that one off of the bucket list. You can’t take that away from us as if we never have another #1, we’re still Dan + Shay with the #1 single. We can always put that on our resume.”
Dan + Shay certainly don’t forget that the true push behind their amazing success is their fans, who are some of the most loyal amongst country music. The guys do their part to to keep in touch with as many as possible, be it at their live shows or through social media. With the growth of social media, it has provided fans with a huge outlet to reach out and be a part of their favorite musicians lives. Dan spoke on how much their fans mean to them,
“Our fans are so good to us and so passionate, we owe them so much! They come out to shows early, some who even camp out overnight to get there at 8 in the morning. We’re super thankful for each and every one of them. It’s cool with social media to be able to stay connected, stay in touch with them, get their feedback and hear what songs they dig. They kind of picked ‘Nothin’ Like You’ for us as we just looked at social media and we judged from the fan reaction at our live show. It was the song that they seems to latch onto the most right off the bat. My girlfriend tallies what song got tweeted about the most and ‘Nothin’ Like You’ won by far. Shoutout to the fans for being super supportive and always being right.”
‘From the Ground Up’ has the duo poised for even bigger success with the way it’s being received and only enhances the desire for the release of their second record. The guys will be hitting New England this summer as they will be on tour with Michael Ray and headliner Darius Rucker when the tour makes stops in Hartford, CT on 7/23, Bangor, ME on 7/29, Mansfield, MA on 7/30 and Gilford, NH on 9/4 Make sure to go hit up iTunes and download ‘From the Ground Up’, if you haven’t already done so. Huge thanks to Dan Smyers for taking the time to speak with us about everything going on with Dan + Shay. We’ll make sure to speak with them again once the album comes out so as always, make sure to keep your eyes on New England Country Music!
This article was written by NECM contributing writer, Mike Sullivan.