Interview: DAN & SHAY, Bush Hall, London

Country duo Dan & Shay kindly took the time to talk to me ahead of their show in London as part of the Obsessed Tour - read on to find out what they're obsessed with, choosing the right songs, and what they'd do with lots of money...

Ciara’s Country (CC): I’m joined by Dan & Shay tonight – so first of all, I have to welcome you to the UK! I know a lot of fans have been waiting for you to tour over here for a few years so we’re really glad you’re finally here! How are you enjoying your time in the UK so far?

Dan Smyers (DS): Ah, being in the UK has been incredible so far. The fans are super receptive to the music and with every song that we’ve played over here, the fans know every single word which is just so crazy to see. You know, we’re so far from home and to know that we wrote those songs on like an acoustic guitar at a friends house or a little writing room and to have the music travel this far and have fans know every single word of all of the songs on the new album is surreal, and we’re excited to keep going! We’ve had a few days off here in the UK so we’re enjoying the scenery and just having a good time.

CC: And have you done anything quintessentially British while you’ve been here?

DS: Yeah we’ve been trying to just trust the locals! We’ve gone to local pubs, eating at local joints, and just hanging out and cruising around the place really. We’ve been walking around and trying to see as much as possible really – we’ve been in Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham so far and are going to go out tonight for our sound guys birthday which I’m sure will be crazy so we’ll see what happens! We’ve been taking the train a lot too, which is always pretty crazy with all the guitars and tech and stuff.

CC: I don’t envy you there! So you're over here to support your latest album Obsessed - how would you say this album differs from your first album Where It All Began in terms of things like style and content? 

Shay Mooney (SM): I think as far as style goes, we tried to stay with the traditional Dan & Shay sound of the first album but I think this is Dan & Shay 2.0. We’ve definitely matured as songwriters and so I think we really owe it to our fans to put out the best music possible. We never really stopped writing after our first record and are just trying to continue to write good songs! We put together what we thought was the best of that group, and we’re really proud of this album. I think it’s just the next step for us, and obviously people love our first album – I think we kind of knew a little bit more about what we were doing on this record and wanted to take our time, whereas the first album we kind of made my accident. It was a lot of fun with this one to get in the studio and just be able to take our time in making the Dan & Shay record that we knew we had to make.

CC: And can you tell me a bit about your creative process when it comes to writing songs?

DS: Yeah that's the beauty of songwriting really – it’s different every time. You get in a room with different people, like Shay & I will meet up in a room with one of our friends and it usually starts with a title or an idea. I mean, we both have laundry lists in our phones of titles and concepts, so you start to go down that direction and you kind of try to figure it out as you go along and piece it all together. It’s really satisfying and rewarding whenever you finish a song and you’re proud of it, and you hear the demo and then go record it in the studio. Then when you hear it on the record or the radio, or hearing fans sing the words back to you, it’s really cool to thing about that process from the first step and see how far that song has come, so it’s a really fun adventure. It’s different every time but we love doing it and songwriting is still one of our favourite things to do.

CC: And what would you say out of all the songs you’ve written so far has been the most interesting song for you to write? 

SM: Oh man, that’s a tough question! I think the most special song to write was definitely our last single From The Ground Up because that was a very personal song. But I think as far as the most interesting song to write goes, it would probably be the title track of our second album Obsessed. That song kind of just came together – we were in a writing camp and wrote down that title after seeing all of our fans on social media tweeting different things like ‘I’m obsessed with this, I’m obsessed with Dan & Shay, I’m obsessed with pizza’ and the like, and we hear that phrase a lot so got it written down and ended up writing that song! We felt like it was the perfect track because we wanted it to be a tribute to our fans cause they’re so great to us. We’re obsessed with our fans. I think that was pretty interesting because we wrote the song and we thought it was great when we wrote it just on acoustic guitar, but once we got into the studio and got to play around with different sounds and use a saxophone part, that song really came to life, so it was pretty cool to see the life of that song from start to finish.

CC: Speaking of the album title, Obsessed, what's something you guys are obsessed with that your fans might not know?

DS: Ah man. We’re pretty transparent on social media but I would have to say animal rescue. If you’ve watched our Nothin Like You music video you can see that’s a big passion of ours. We’re heaving involved in it, and we’ve got rescue dogs of our own. In the Nothin Like You video we partnered with a shelter in Nashville and got a bunch of views on the video so hopefully raised awareness for that too. It’s a really cool thing and it’s really close to our hearts.

CC: Do your dogs get to come on tour with you too?

DS: They do! So long as we’ve got room on the bus. Sometimes we kick some of our band members off the bus just so we can fit more dogs. Dogs are better than people anyway haha.

CC: I’d agree with you there! So you mentioned there too From The Ground Up which has been hailed as like the wedding song of the year – how does that make you feel?

SM: We feel great about it! I mean that’s just a crazy thing to be a part of because it’s such a huge moment in peoples lives. You know, the first dance song that’s played at your wedding is something that you’re going to remember for the rest of your life, so for us it’s such an honour. That song means so much to us because we wrote it as a tribute to our grandparents and true love so it’s awesome to hear the stories of what it means to people. We hear so many great stories at Meet & Greets, and on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, so that’s been awesome, so thanks to the fans for making that the wedding song of the year – we like that!

CC: Great! And I read that you actually wrote over 60 songs for this album - how did you pick the ones that ended up on the final cut?

DS: You know, it’s a team effort and we’ve got a great team around us, and great A&R staff at our record label, and we cut our record with Scott Hendricks who’s produced at least 70 number ones at this point in country music, and he’s a notorious stickler for great songs, so he pushes us to make the best possible songs. Whether we wrote the song or we didn’t write the song, having him in our corner is always a good thing and like I say we co-produced our record with him so we really dived in and listened to tonnes of songs. For our fans, we want to deliver the best music possible, and whether we wrote the song or didn’t, we let the best song win and with that motto we’ve been doing alright for ourselves, so it’s working out for us so far and we’re enjoying it!

CC: Sounds like it’s working! Do you ever return to any of the songs that have been like second-favourites but didn’t quite make it through?

SM: After the first record we put together, and it kind of happened really fast, we just never stopped writing. There were a couple of songs that didn’t make the first record, not necessarily because we didn’t like the songs but just because you can’t put twenty songs on an album! There’s always going to be some of the songs that you love that get left out, but there was one song Sway that we loved that didn’t quite get on the first record but we’d play it at Meet & Greets and people loved that song so we knew we had to put it on the second record. There’s often times that there’s just a great song out there that doesn’t make a record but we still love it, and Sway was one of those, but it finally found its place on our second record.

CC: I think it’s great that you tend to play songs that aren’t necessarily on the album at your gigs too, and thanks to artists like you, country music really is growing in the UK.

SM: Yeah, we love that that’s happening too!

CC: Speaking of country, is there one artist out there who you think is currently underrepresented but deserves more recognition? 

DS: Ah there’s so many artists in Nashville that are awesome right now. Let’s see – we’re taking out this guy named Walker Hayes on our fall tour in the United States and he’s really really cool. His stuff is really fresh, and I think he’s going to catch some buzz. We’ve got a really good track record with our opening acts – the first act we took out on tour was Cam and she’s had incredible success with Burning House and her album and touring. Then we took out Canaan Smith who had a big number one, and then our buddy Kelsea Ballerini who we took out on the road and she’s just killing it right now. We think Walker Hayes is the next guy to break and we really believe in his stuff, so if you haven’t heard it, check it out!

CC: Great! Fingers crossed we’ll be seeing artists like Walker and also you guys over here more often then! And then finally as we draw the interview to a close, I have to ask what's the one question you always wish you were asked in interviews but never are? 

SM: Haha that’s a pretty good one there that you just asked!

DS: What about ‘how are you so good looking?’ haha! There’s probably a reason why people don’t ask that… I don’t know, that’s a tough question. I like that question!

SM: Yeah, that’s probably the best question you could ask! I don’t think we’ve ever been asked that.

DS: I think we’d like people to ask us ‘would you like some more money?’ and we would say yes. But they never ask us that!

CC: Ooh, good question and answer there – but what would you do with the money?

SM: We could donate it to a rescue shelter!

DS: I feel like that question is similar to if you had three wishes, I mean I would obviously ask for more wishes. Is that greedy?

CC: Haha I think you answered that very well! Well that’s all the questions I have for you today, so thank you for taking the time to answer all of my questions! Best of luck with the rest of the UK tour and I hope we’ll be seeing you back this side of the pond sometime soon.

DS: Thank you so much! We’re happy to be here, we’re enjoying it and we’re definitely going to come back soon!

Shout-out to Dan & Shay for the great interview - let me know what you thought of the interview on Twitter @CiarasCountry and stay tuned for even more interviews and reviews coming soon!