Matthew Ramsey, Trevor Rosen, and Brad Tursi from Old Dominion talks about the songs on their new album Happy Endings.

  “No Such Thing As A Broken Heart”
Matthew: “‘No Such Thing as a Broken Heart’ is our new single and we wrote that song on the bus and we didn’t have an idea that day, we just started writing. I started with, for whatever reason I don’t know why, I said ‘I wonder if Jack and Dianne ever made it,’ and that kind of grabbed everyone’s attention. And we just started to explore what that meant and then we ended up writing this song that I think we needed to hear our self. It’s something that we probably would like to say to our kids at some point. When the world is down on its luck, you got to keep your chin up. I think that really is what this song is about. It’s just about living life without fear and being confident in your family and lean on them when you need it.”

  “Shoe Shopping”
Matthew: “’Shoe Shopping’ is just, you know… that’s one of the most classic ‘Old Dominion’ things, I think. Like fun, a little ditty. It’s fun to groove to and feels good in the car.”
Trevor: “It’s catchy, clever.”
Matthew: “Yeah.”

  “Not Everything’s About You”
Trevor: “Yeah, ‘Not Everything’s About You,’ I think… it’s a little different for us, but it’s cool. It’s the one that probably most sounds like a band, you know. And it’s a progression, a little bit away from like just the fun, you know candy kinda clever songs to a little more substantial song. It’s fun to do the harmonies, and yeah.”

  “Hotel Key”
Matthew: “’Hotel Key’ is a good little, it’s a dance number. When we start playing it live, you start to see people dancing and it’s nice to have that, you know we need some more up tempo stuff in our set. And it’s fun to have a little dance tune there.”

  “Be With Me”
Brad: “’Be With Me’ … I think it’s pretty ‘Old Dominion-ish’ at its core. It was actually the second song that Matt and I wrote that particular day. So yeah, I think it’s a nice moment in the show. Matt gets to run around out in the crowd. And we get to hear all the girls screaming into his microphone really loud hurting our ears!”
(Old Dominion laughs)

  “Written In The Sand”
Matthew: “’Written In The Sand’ is you know, is one of the more ‘pop-y’ sounding songs on the album. But uh, it comes from a place that I think a lot of people can identify with… Is your relationship, you know, built to last or is it something that’s just kinda a passing thing? And it’s a hard place to be at in a relationship. I think that’s why this song is gonna speak to a lot of people.”

  “So You Go”
Trevor: “’So You Go’ is one of my favorite’s on the album too and it’s just um… I guess it’s a ballad technically but it does show off our rock side. But it does kinda have that power anthem chorus. We wrote it with our buddy Andrew Dorff one day. And we actually had pitched it to a couple people and it almost got cut by somebody… and it didn’t. So, fortunately it didn’t because we got to record it, and I like it (laugh)!”

  “Stars In The City”
Matthew: “’Stars In The City’ is exciting because Little Big Town makes a guest appearance on there. They were super cool to work with, they’re some of the nicest people on the planet and also some of the most talented. So it was really an honor to have them, at a surprise really, we really didn’t know if they would agree to being on our album… so, it was very exciting when they agreed to do it! It came out fantastic.”

  “New York At Night” (note that Brad sings lead vocals on this song)
Brad: “Well it’s my personal favorite on the record (laughter)! It’s a song that Trevor (Rosen) and I wrote with another dude in town. Yeah, I think just kinda decided as a band, like it might be cool to switch our legs as far as, you know, having me sing one. So, happy to…happy to have it on there! It’s a fun, rockin’ song live too, it feels pretty good.”

  “A Girl Is A Gun”
Trevor: “’A Girl Is A Gun’ is, I don’t know, like the most playful song on the record. It’s kinda crazy… We didn’t know what we were gonna do with it in the studio. We just sort of started playing something and that’s what came out! We also wrote it with our buddy Matt Jenkins, who’s one of the best songwriters in town, and also wrote quite a number of songs on Meat and Candy. But it was nice to have Matt Jenkins on this record too.”

  “Still Writing Songs About You”
Matthew: “’Still Writing Songs About You’ is the most country of the songs that we’ve done, I think. Talks about whiskey, and women, six strings, and stuff like that… and Dallas! You know, that’s a country song right there (Trevor laughs). So yeah, it feels good to be able to do something like that and try to lean towards the country side a little bit, and you know talk about another thing I think a lot of people identify with, which is having somebody they just can’t quite get over.”

  “Can’t Get You (Live)”
Matthew: “We did slip a live track in there, but not because we didn’t try recording that song a couple times. We tried to record it for Meat and Candy … we tried to record it for this album in the studio but just could not quite get it to sound right. And I think the energy that an audience brings helps us deliver that song the way it needs to be delivered. So it made sense to put the live version on there.”