Interview: LAURA VELTZ, CMA Songwriters Series, London

With more hit songs than you can shake a stick at (Dan + Shay's Speechless, Maren Morris' I Could Use A Love Song, Eli Young Band's Drunk Last Night to name a few) Laura Veltz is rightly a key staple of country music songwriting. I sat down with Laura ahead of the CMA Songwriters Series (read all about that here) to discuss playing different roles in the songwriting process, how #1 hit Speechless came about, and our shared disappointment at the lack of women making it in mainstream country music - enjoy! 

Ciara’s Country (CC): Thank you so much for joining me today!

Laura Veltz (LV): Thank you!

CC: I had a look at your biography before this interview, and it seems to be that you are something of royalty in the Nashville songwriting community. The number of hits that you’ve worked on is so impressive – how do you keep writing great songs?

LV: That is so nice a compliment that I don’t even know what to do with it! Thank you for saying that. I truly believe I am just so lucky to be a paid staff songwriter. I’m living in a sea of gratitude about that, so the fact that I’ve been able to work on so many amazing projects is just whipped cream and cherries on top of that. I’m so grateful.

CC: How many years have you been writing songs?

LV: I’m on year eleven in Nashville, and I spent ten years before that in a band, so I’ve been in the music industry my whole adult life. Writing songs is a thing of its own, and that’s when my life really clicked into gear and I figured out what I’m supposed to do. It’s my favourite thing.

CC: Was it a case of being in the right place at the right time that meant you got the music you were writing into the hands of the right people?

LV: Absolutely. I feel like whoever is orchestrating this whole life is a big, nice person, thing, whatever. I’ve been able to write with the most talented people available. The people I would be fans of are the people I get to write with, and that’s insane. I feel like it’s been orchestrated by someone who must like me a lot.

CC: Very much so! And in that co-writing process, how do you make sure everyone’s voices and opinions are taken into account to create the end product.

LV: What a cool question! I feel like the thing with co-writing is that everyone’s coming in with their own set of influences and experiences, and talent levels too. Sometimes you’re writing with someone who doesn’t know much about songwriting but man, are they an interesting human. Or someone who doesn’t know how to construct a song but has melodies in their head that are out of this world. I love commercial songs, that’s all I’ve ever really listened to, I was never the ‘deep-cut gal’. I liked stuff that was on the radio. I try to look at my career as an ice cube tray…

CC: Go on…

LV: I show up, and if all the pieces are there, I’m just one cube, I don’t feel like I need to overfill. If the person I’m writing with is the single cube, and I have to fill the rest of the tray, that’s fine too. I just want to write a good song every time. I want it to be commercial and viable for everyone. I’m not the type of person who would want to write a song for a small group, I want everyone to understand what’s being said. Some songs, your co-writers are doing all of the work and you just have to stay out of the way, and sometimes you’re writing the whole piece. Either way I just want to end with a good song.

CC: That is quite possibly the most interesting analogy I’ve ever heard!

LV: Yay!

CC: Speaking of commercial songs, one of your most recent hits is Dan + Shay’s Speechless. Can you give me any inside scoops about the making of that song?

LV: That was a neat day. We’d thrown around a ton of ideas, and I had to leave in the middle of the day for a little while to take my kids from one place to another. By that point, it feels like we’d thrown around fifty-five thousand ideas. Dan is the type of person who is like ‘no, no, no, no, YES!’ when it comes to songs. He wants to wait until he hears ‘the thing’. Interestingly, as soon as I left, the thing arrived! It was Shay singing the ‘I-I-I’ part of ‘I’m speechless’. They’d decided on the title, and when I came back, it was like ants on food. It was amazing songwriting, we knew exactly what to do, everyone played such an amazing role. It terms of the tray, we were all filling an equal level of cubes. It was perfect songwriting. It was so much fun.

CC: Why do you think it’s so important that songs can tell great stories, like Speechless? Why can’t we just have mindless, boppy music?

LV: I love what you’re asking, these are great questions! I feel like our job is to emotionally simplify the things that are going on in all of our lives. The world moves and effects, and things happen, they make us distil things in a different way. If a celebrity does some weird thing, we’re all aware of it – it pushes us around. I feel like our job is to put those things into simple things so people can say ‘that’s exactly how I feel’. If it’s love, or if it’s loss, or just trying to present an attitude of gratitude – I hate that that rhymes, but it’s the truth – being grateful is what a lot of my songwriting is. Encouraging people to understand that what they have is plenty, and that we’re all going to be fine. That’s our job, and I try to write characters that aren’t weaklings or victims. I don’t think I’ve ever written something where someone is just a piece of shit, or letting someone be terrible to them.

Rich comes to mind now. That song is written from a place of acknowledgement – ‘I know I’m doing this’ – there’s no blame, I’m doing this to me, you’re not. If a person heard this song, I think they’d understand that, that it’s their influence in that situation and not anyone else’s. I think we help to distil situations for people and explain them.

CC: It certainly doesn’t hurt that it’s a very catchy tune sang by a brilliant singer either! Makes it a lot easier to get that message across in such a viable way for people to listen to it.

LV: I hope so, and I hope people feel it as much as we intended. But it certainly doesn’t hurt!

CC: And tonight, you’re being introduced to a UK audience. There are some cultural differences between the US and the UK – do you think your songwriting would be different if you were writing for a UK artist?

LV: I think it would have to be. Communities are affected differently by life, and even Nashville itself is affected in a different way to the rest of the US. Country music has it’s own set of words and how we distil things. Pop does it’s own things. We all influence each other because we can all see each other and feel each other. But it would have to change. We all have the same subjects to deal with – love, loss – there’s nothing new, but the way we interpret those things is different. I feel like when I write with people from the UK, like Jon Green, he does say things differently, he thinks of things differently. If we were writing for someone in the UK, I would want to ask him ‘tell me how you would say it’, and when he comes to Nashville, I think he does the same thing.

CC: I’m sure you work with a lot of new artists too – is there anyone out there you think people need to be listening too?

LV: There’s so many! I mean, just women! I feel like there are so many women. There’s a lot of guys too, but there are so many women who deserve to be heard. I want to write them all ‘the song’ that cracks open the door, but sometimes it’s not that easy due to the label they’re with or who they’re under. There are a lot of women in Nashville who deserve to be heard. There’s a few coming out that I’m a part of that I hope go as far as I think it should.

CC: Any in particular?

LV: Rachel Womack. She’s magnificent. She’s a incredible singer and we have some music coming out pretty soon. I think it’s official but I don’t know definitely, so I don’t want to say what it is in case it doesn’t happen. But she is going to be fantastic no matter if it’s my song or not. I’ve been hanging out with the Runaway June girls. They have a platform but I feel like the door should just be kicked open. I can’t wait until it’s open open, and they see the kind of success that Maren is seeing, and Kacey. I’m sure everyone has the same thing to say about it, but she deserves to be on the radio more than she is.

CC: Completely agree. I mean, with the Grammy award for Album of the Year, how can everyone, regardless of genre, not be playing her music?

LV: Exactly, it’s exhausting. Nonetheless, Kacey has kicked her door down, and she did it without the radio. I’m sure that’s so satisfying to go ‘okay, I’ll do it anyway!’ But there are a lot of women who deserves that kind of shattered glass ceiling. People need to hear the women that are being brewed up in Nashville. They’re just amazing.

CC: I’m so glad you’re fighting for women in country because I’m sick of seeing festivals where the only people on the bill are men.

LV: Same!

CC: Let’s hope that changes… And my final question is what is one question you’ve never been asked in an interview that you would love to be?

LV: Oh my God, that’s never crossed my mind! Do you have a question that you’ve always wanted to ask that you haven’t?

CC: I try to ask them all!

LV: Haha, I guess so!

CC: I mean, your conversation spurred topics that I never would have thought to have asked about, so I’m glad they came up.

LV: Well, sometimes I go very dark – post-mortem – like ‘when I die…’ Do you have a way to make that into a question?

CC: How about in terms of legacy?

LV: Yeah. Well, what’s neat is that I don’t give a shit if people don’t know what my face looks like, or even my name, but the fact that anyone gets to hear my thoughts is completely fascinating. Songs that have gotten through, I’m so proud of them. There are so many that I hope do, but I’m especially proud of the ones that have. I hope my legacy is that I told the truth, and that I put heart into everything.

CC: I think that’s a legacy to be proud of, and a great way to end the interview. Thank you so much! 

What an interview! I hope you enjoyed reading about Laura as much as I enjoyed interviewing her - leave any comments or questions below, and make sure to follow me on Twitter @CiarasCountry for more interviews and reviews coming soon. Thanks for reading!