Interview: TRAVIS DENNING, CMA Songwriters Series, London

Travis Denning has written hits for Jason Aldean, Justin Moore and Chase Rice, as well as having some catchy songs to his own name, so of course I had to catch up with him when he came to London to perform as part of the CMA Songwriter Series (read all about that here!). Read on to find out why he struggles to write love songs, how the song All Out Of Beer ended up in Jason Aldean's hands, and his top five guitar heroes - enjoy!

Ciara’s Country (CC): Hi Travis, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me!

Travis Denning (TD): Absolutely!

CC: We’re talking at the CMA Songwriters Series at The O2 where you’ll be performing alongside Cam, Jimmie Allen, Laura Veltz and Ross Copperman. The aim of tonight is to explain some of the stories behind your songs, which is such an important thing in country music – why do you think that’s so important to country fans?

TD: I think the reason people fall in love with country music is because the songs are stories, and if they’re not necessarily stories in themselves, everybody knows something happened to inspire someone to write that song. For me, that was why I fell in love with writing songs, hearing some of my biggest heroes like Craig Wiseman, Rhett Akins, and all these great songwriters I looked up to, get up there on stage and sing a song and say something about it that I never knew. It helped take on a whole new meaning to the song I didn’t get, or it affirmed what I believed it was about. There’s not really that going on in other genres, so I think that’s what make it special. People just eat that up.

CC: How did you know that was something you yourself could do?

TD: I knew as soon as I started writing songs, they were coming from something that I’d lived or I’d done, so it never really felt like anything difficult or hard to do. When I sang David Ashley Parker From Powder Springs, I can tell every detail of that story because it really is something I went through and it was a fun part of my life. After A Few is the same – it wasn’t necessarily a fun part of my life but I can remember that fire and that dangerous romance that I went through. I think it’s important for songwriters to tell those stories because there might be someone in the crowd who’s gone through the exact same thing but doesn’t know there are other people who have gone through that too. It’s awesome to reciprocate that feeling that you’re not alone, we’re all in this together, it’s okay that you were in a crap relationship, that you felt sad at that point, because I did too, and I wrote a song about it!

CC: You mentioned there two of your songs that were based on your own experiences – do you find that you stick to writing what you know, or are there any themes that you haven’t experienced but could still write a song about?

TD: Yeah, love songs! I haven’t necessarily fallen in love yet but I can still try to write one! I really try, especially if it’s a song I’m going to record, I try to find something in there that I’ve lived or I know about, because then it gets really difficult for me to get on stage and sing about it if it isn’t something that’s me. When I’m in the room writing songs, I try and take my mind everywhere because I think it’s really important for songwriters and artists and creators to sometimes get out of the box of who they are and try and paint pictures and stories of things that they aren’t connected to. I think it helps work that muscle and makes you a better songwriter, and maybe even a better person when it comes to perspective.

CC: I think you’ve also managed to write things that haven’t been written about before – David Ashley Parker comes to mind as a song about a fake ID and certainly a topic I’ve never heard in song before. How do you find topics that you’re interested in, that are a bit different and would make a good story?

TD: Honestly, the ones that come out really good, they were just purely natural. It was just an idea that I had in my head when I was 20 years old that I wanted to write, and finally in August 2016, I was in a room and said ‘I’ve always had this idea to write this song, and have the name of the song as the name on the fake ID’. It was nothing more than that. Thank god for John Randall and Jess Alexander who I co-wrote it with because they saw the potential too and we got it rolling. I think you just have to let those things come naturally. If you start trying to work up and influence things, it starts to get weird, a little unattached from what people really love. You just have to let it happen.

CC: You’ll be telling those stories behind those songs tonight?

TD: Absolutely.

CC: Are there any songs you won’t be performing that have a particularly interesting story behind them?

TD: That’s hard to say because usually I make a setlist up for these things about two minutes before we go on stage so I don’t even know what I’m playing tonight! For sure I’ll do David Ashley Parker and After A Few. I probably won’t play a song called Life In The Livin’ that I wrote for Justin Moore, just because I haven’t played it in so long and I’d forget all the words. I do remember the story of that song. I literally woke up one morning and I had this melody. I’m never like that, I’m usually the guy driving into the writing appointment thinking ‘what idea am I going to write?’ I never think about the melodies but I had this one, I jotted down some things, recorded it and sent it to a friend of mine. My voice sounded God-awful, it was the most morning voice ever, but I was like ‘just think on this’, and that was how the idea sprung out. We wrote it a week later and it got cut. I probably won’t do it though because I genuinely can’t remember the words right now. I’d need a few Jack and Cokes to help.

CC: You mentioned you’ve written tracks for Justin Moore, as well as Jason Aldean, Chase Rice and more – how does it feel to have other people telling your stories?

TD: I think it’s awesome. I said this a couple of weeks ago in Nashville, it’s purely still the biggest reason I moved to Nashville, I think it’s such a validating experience. It’s really good to keep on keeping on. When you hear these people that I’ve looked up to – I remember seeing Jason Aldean my senior year of high school in Macon, Georgia, and thinking ‘if this guy from the same area of Georgia as me is doing it, why can’t I?’ For him to sing a song I’d wrote was a huge moment for me personally. I remember going to Target and buying five copies of the CD, just because I was so excited. I gave them to my parents. It’s just very special and it’s a very different feeling from hearing my song on the radio, but they’re both so special.

CC: Was it a case of ‘right place, right time’ that got your music into the hands of these people?

TD: Definitely for that Aldean song. There were so many crazy little variables that added up. I wrote that song before I even moved to Nashville. I was 20 years old when I wrote it, and it was one of my first co-writes with someone who had a publishing deal, they kind of had some stuff going on. I was just some little goofy kid trying to write with people. I got in the room with Jeremy Bussey and Jordan Rager, and it was Jeremy’s idea. Everything about it was him, he had a great sense of where to go with it. The only thing I contributed was the vibe and the feel of the song, and the last line before the end of the song. As a 20 year old, I was like ‘I finally got my part on a song!’

Then at Thanksgiving 2014, which was over a year later, a guy called Barry Williams, who’s Jason Aldean’s dad, was managing Jordan Rager; was riding around town with Jason who said ‘play me some of Jordan’s stuff’. He played him All Out Of Beer, and no joke, Jason was like ‘is he going to record that?’ Barry said it was a little too old for Jordan to be singing as a nineteen/twenty year old, and Jason said ‘I’ll cut it’. From one random co-write, my first write with Jeremy Bussey, me and him later had more success writing songs, but having Jason ride around and listen to that song was definitely a right place, right time scenario.

CC: That certainly is a story to tell!

TD: I think I’ve found my third song to sing tonight!

CC: Brilliant! Final question for you: what’s one question you’ve never been asked in an interview but would love to be.

TD: That one, maybe! I don’t know. I get asked about music a lot. I think one question I don’t get asked a ton is about my guitar playing, and that’s really what drove me into music. I started playing guitar when I was eleven years old, it was my first love, but I don’t get to brag about my guitar heroes a lot. There’s my musical inspiration, my songwriting inspiration, but also all these guitar playing inspirations. I could go on and on about that.

CC: Give me some notable names.

TD: For sure Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers band. Derek Trucks, who also played in that band. Dimebag Darrell, who’s in Pantera, I think is the best heavy metal, hard rock guitar player of all time. Angus Young from ACDC. Jimi Hendrix for sure, purely based off of what he did for guitar playing and the innovation he brought. I put him as the best of all time from the inspiration standpoint. If he came out today, he would sound totally different to what he did in the sixties, but it would be because of who he was as an innovator and envelope pusher. Those are definitely my two five.

CC: Plenty of guitar heroes. Thank you so much for your time!

TD: Thank you!

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