Robby Klein
It’s hard to imagine Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney—the artists behind the three-time Grammy Award-winning duo Dan + Shay—as anything but happy.
The hitmakers have been comfortably seated at the top of the charts for most of their ten-year career. Most recently, their critically acclaimed and multi-award-winning fourth studio album, Good Things, produced the Platinum-certified hits “I Should Probably Go To Bed” and “Glad You Exist,” as well as the 5x Multi-Platinum global smash “10,000 Hours” with Justin Bieber, which has racked up more than two billion global streams (thus far) and spent 21 weeks at number one on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. Over the past decade, Dan + Shay have become household names all over the world, amassing more than 11 billion streams globally, multiple international no. 1 singles, and 49 total RIAA Platinum and Gold certifications in the U.S. alone. In other words, they were on top of the world.
So when the duo took to social media on July 9 to share a short film called “The Drive,” fans were taken aback. In the four-minute clip, the duo, seated side by side in a vintage Ford Bronco, revealed that they almost went their separate ways in March 2022 after four months of not speaking. The candid and emotional clip breaks down what almost drove the longtime friends apart and what inevitably brought them back together for their fifth album, Bigger Houses.
“We’ve always been transparent to a degree with our fans, but it’s the nature of the beast with social media: you only share your highest highs and best moments. From the outside looking in, things seem great. We never want to seem like we’re complaining, but we felt like it was important to show our fans [what was really happening] and be a little bit vulnerable,” says Smyers. “When I hit post on ‘The Drive,’ I was like, ‘Did we just end our career?’ But we felt like it was important to share our story. It shows people what you see onstage isn’t always the truth.”
Dan + Shay’s truth was that they were burned out. Burned out on career, burned out on the effect and aftermath of COVID on the music industry, and most notably, burned out on each other.
“We were in a low, kind of sad place because we let life get in the way and we weren’t as close as we had been early on,” says Smyers. “You get busy, you’re going a million miles an hour, you’re doing 200 shows a year, you come home. If you’re not going out of your way to nurture that relationship, it’s going to fall apart. It was nothing specific, it was just that we weren’t spending enough time kindling that relationship.”
It didn’t help that they, like many artists, were stymied by COVID. Riding high on the success of Good Things, Dan + Shay were just a few shows into their very first headlining arena tour in 2020 when the pandemic hit. It was a blow to both of them, and while the tour eventually picked back up in 2021, the emotional damage was already done.
“As an artist, that’s your dream as a little kid. ‘I wanna be able to headline an arena someday.’ That’s the pinnacle. And COVID pulled the rug out from under us,” says Smyers. “We got three shows under our belt, so we got our first taste of it, and boom—it was gone. And we didn’t know if it was ever gonna come back.”
It was another thread unraveling in an already frayed partnership. And with a supporting spot on Kenny Chesney’s 2022 Here and Now tour on the horizon, the duo knew it was time to make some hard decisions.
“We started having this conversation and getting emotional and vulnerable with each other,” Smyers says of that March sit-down. “It was like whether we decide to go our separate ways or whether we decide to do this the rest of our lives, there’s no denying that this band has meant so much to us. It has meant so much to us and our families. It has meant a lot to a lot of other people, as well. We still had this Kenny Chesney tour that we were doing after we had that conversation, and we didn’t want to go into that holding any grudges. If we were going to break up and it was going to be our last tour, hell, let’s ride into the sunset playing football stadiums with all of our idols, or let’s figure out how to get ourselves right and use this as a stepping stone for the best chapter yet. And luckily that’s what happened.”
Andrew Nelles/The Tennessean
Dan + Shay perform during the first night of CMA Fest at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tenn., Thursday, June 8, 2023.
The duo knew they owed it to themselves to carry on the Dan + Shay legacy. They also knew they owed it to the fans who had helped build that legacy.
“We talked about how whether we break up or we stay together, Dan + Shay—our music—is always going to be a tattoo on somebody’s arm. It’s always going to be a first dance in somebody’s wedding,” says Smyers. “Even if we never had a hit again, our music has mattered to people. There’s no taking that away no matter what. And that really hit us.”
“We talked about how whether we break up or we stay together, Dan + Shay—our music—is always going to be a tattoo on somebody’s arm. It’s always going to be a first dance in somebody’s wedding,” says Smyers. “Even if we never had a hit again, our music has mattered to people. There’s no taking that away no matter what. And that really hit us.”
Mooney says moving forward as a duo meant finding new, healthier ways to approach stardom.
“I think every single one of us is one perspective shift away from seeing the brighter side of life. And this applies to everybody, not just what we went through. This is human stuff,” Mooney says. “For both of us, we started trying to shift our perspective from we have to do this to we get to do this.’”
For Dan + Shay their dream had become a reality, but that reality had become a job. A job that meant being away from their families for long stretches of time. A job that came with the highest highs and lonely lows, even as a duo. A job that made it impossible to enjoy success in the moment.
“You have to remind yourself of the wins and not just let them pass you by, which is what we did for so long,” Mooney says. “This is our job.
That’s just what happens. You’re so busy focusing on the next thing because that’s what you’re supposed to do. But what’s dangerous is we let the Grammys pass us by and ACMs, CMAs, CMTs, all these awards and number ones and sold-out shows and we were like, ‘Great, what’s next?’ It’s so important to take a second and be like, ‘No matter what happens, we’re gonna have that. No one can take that away from us.’ I’m going to take every single one of these wins.”
A shift in perspective is exactly what Bigger Houses is all about. And in the chorus of the album’s title track, Dan + Shay get right to the heart of the matter.
There’s always gonna be a higher high you could chase for the rest of your life. Greener grass in the yard next door or a shined-up Chevy a little newer than yours. You’re never gonna fill an empty cup if what you got’s still not enough. Thing about happiness I’ve found is it don’t live in bigger houses.
“What that song talks about is you can get all the money in the world, but if you aren’t appreciating the little things in your life and the little wins, you’re never going to be happy,” says Mooney. “We’ve seen that. We’ve been doing this for a long time, and we’ve had success that clearly did not bring us happiness. It was the joy that we found in the process that truly made us happy.”
The album Bigger Houses was born out of the conversation Mooney and Smyers had that day in March 2022.
“We were only spending time together when we were working and doing things that became monotonous,” says Smyers. “So, it was like, let’s hang like we used to—on a Monday afternoon let’s go for a jog; or let’s sit down and write a song. Like with no pressure, nobody looking over our shoulders saying, ‘Hey, you guys have to do this today.’ Let’s just hang and be the friends that we were when we first met. And from there, it was magic.”
The hangout sessions turned into writing sessions.
“I wish I had a testimonial from all the songwriters and friends who were in the room with us. Some of the texts that I got from them were like, ‘Man, it feels like the boys are back.’ It felt like the energy did when we first met, when we were running around Midtown getting our feet wet in Nashville,” says Smyers. “It was an amazing moment. Probably one of the most pivotal moments in my entire life, honestly. It put us on the right track and it all came from that conversation that we described in ‘The Drive.’”
New songs like “Bigger Houses” and “Always Gonna Be” are classic Dan + Shay tracks that will surely become anthems for their listeners. The latter has already become one for the duo.
“‘Always Gonna Be’” is one that feels really special,” says Smyers. “A lot of those lyrics relate to the conversation we had. The idea of Dan + Shay—our songs—they’re always gonna be a moment in somebody’s life. And no matter what happens, you can’t take that away.”
Every song on the album is personal to the duo, and true to Dan + Shay form, there are no skips. Each track is radio-ready with soaring vocals by Mooney and skillful production by Smyers, who co-produced the entire album.
“I’m proud of every single song on this record. This album is 150 percent genuine. There’s nothing about it that’s put on, from the music to our perspective—it’s all genuine,”says Mooney. “I feel like our music has really matured, and for the first time in our career, I feel like the music has caught up with my life. There’s a palpable thing that you get when you hear this music. You know it’s coming from a place that we are actually living in right now and I think that’s a beautiful thing.”
“‘Then Again’ is one that’s close to my heart, and Shay, too,” says Smyers. “The lines are very personal, [like] ‘That boys trip to Colorado.’ I went to Colorado to kind of fall back in love with music, writing for another act, and hanging out with friends. It was an important step in getting my mental health right so Shay and I could get ourselves right. There’s other personal references, [like] ‘507.’ 507 Morton Avenue is the house Shay and I met at. That’s where I lived when I moved to town and Shay came over there one random night. All those moments in your life, sure, you wish you could go back and change this, change that, but it’s kind of the bless the broken road thing. All those mistakes got you to where you are today.”
With an album full of sentimental songs, choosing a lead single could have been tough. But for the duo, the answer was obvious.
“We chose ‘Save Me the Trouble’ to be the radio single because it’s important for us to always lead off an album with something only Dan + Shay can do. That song’s got the catchy chorus, and the dynamics of it are just very Dan + Shay. We felt like it would set the tone for where we are in our lives,” says Smyers. “We’re going out on tour pretty soon and I think that song is absolutely going to crush it live. Hearing Shay sing that when we performed on The Today Show, I was just looking over at him like, ‘Wow, this guy!’ It’s a very impressive vocal song and I was really proud of the arrangement and the harmonies. When we finished production, I remember sending Shay a mix and being very proud to put our stamp on that.”
“A sneaky one is ‘We Should Get Married,’” says Mooney. “I remember going over to Dan’s house and they were throwing around this little idea they had, and I just loved it. We’ve never done something like that before—we went into the studio with no demo and we had all the musicians in the studio and Dan on acoustic guitar. I didn’t even know the lyrics. We just mapped out the song and I jumped in the booth. Watching what Dan did to that in production was really wild to me. I’m always impressed with his production—where he’s progressed and just mastered the art of producing. Watching as a fan of Dan’s is really fun, and to watch a song go from an idea we had to a finished product is really exciting.”
Clearly there’s a lot of love between these two. And after navigating some tough times, the bond between Dan + Shay is stronger than ever. You can see it in their friendship, and you can hear it in Bigger Houses.
“I think when you hear this music there’s a lightness; there’s a closeness in our relationship. And whether you’re listening for it or not, it’s tangible,” says Smyers. “We had fun making this record. We had fun spending time in the studio together. I don’t know what it is, but when I hit that album from top to bottom in playback, I can hear it.”
Read the full story in our September issue. Pick up the new issue here.
Robby Klein