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Dan + Shay stays humble while topping the charts Cleaning up
By John Benson
A paradox of success in the music industry is how does one stay in touch with the workingman when hit songs and royalties seemingly turn your life upside down.
When it comes to rising country act Dan + Shay (Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney), which watched its first album, “Where It All Began,” debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Country Album Chart and includes top 10 hit “19 You + Me” and No. 1 tune “Nothin’ Like You,” the answer is keeping up with daily chores.
“Sorry I was late calling, I had to do some laundry here in the concert venue,” said Smyers, calling from Camden, N.J. “It’s my only opportunity to do it.”
When pressed on the fact he’s, well, quite frankly, doing his own laundry, the Pittsburgh native, who has fond memories of visiting Youngstown for basketball tournaments as a kid, blew our minds.
“I keep it pretty low key,” he said. “Yesterday I was pulling weeds out of my yard. It’s good for me, the simple things in life that keep me there. I grew up working in the yard, doing my thing. I also got my own lawnmower instead of paying someone like $40 to do it. It’s funny, Darius made fun of me the other day because I wear so many outfits during the day.
“He said, ‘I’d hate to be the one who does your laundry.’ I said, ‘That’s me.’”
By the way, that Darius is of course Darius Rucker. Currently Dan + Shay is opening up for the former Hootie & the Blowfish singer’s tour, which comes through Northeast Ohio for a Friday show at Blossom Music Center. The band will also headline a skating show on Oct. 30 at Pittsburgh’s Consol Energy Center.
Perhaps decades (or months) from now Smyers will laugh at the memory of doing his own mundane chores, but in talking to the guitarist-banjoist-singer you sense he’s still learning how to deal with the fame that pretty much came overnight to Dan + Shay.
That’s not hyperbole either. Shortly after both Smyers and Mooney respectively moved to Nashville, they met at a party. Literally the next day, they wrote a song that hours (that’s not a typo) later was put on hold by the duo’s idols, Rascal Flatts.
At that point, the new friends kept writing material and recording demos on Smyers’ laptop. Those tracks – the demos with very little production enhancement – ended up being “Where It All Began.”
Now Dan + Shay is back with its highly anticipated sophomore album “Obsessed.” Smyers said the new effort marks a maturation in the group’s songwriting. The album includes current single “From the Ground Up,” which hit No. 2 on the charts.
Considering his penchant for DIY projects, any chance Smyers will take care of fan laundry before and after the Dan + Shay set?
“You know, records don’t sell like they used to so I’ll do laundry, I’ll make a quick buck where I can,” Smyers said. “So if anybody needs their laundry done, I’m available at any time.”