The members of country music act Gone West are uniquely qualified to write and record love songs.
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Jason Reeves, Justin Young, Colbie Caillat, and Nelly Joy
Made up of Colbie Caillat, Jason Reeves, his wife, Nelly Joy, and Caillat’s fiancé, Justin Young, the quartet’s inner relationships provide a wellspring of inspiration. Their latest single, “What Could’ve Been,” arrived on June 7th via Triple Tigers and contemplates the loose ends of a past relationship.
“Although we’re two happy couples,” Caillat says. “We’ve all been through heartbreak before. Even in our current relationships, at the beginning of them, I think we had both broken up for a small amount of time.”
The track, which is approaching top 40 on Billboard’s Country Airplay Chart, is the first sampling of their upcoming debut album, Tides. It follows the group’s last release, a four-song EP (also named Tides) which dropped in January. Like the band’s previous work, “What Could’ve Been” posed a number of technical questions including who would sing what, or if certain members should sing anything.
“We were actually just going to make it a female lead the whole way through,” Joy says. “Then we kind of finessed the idea of, ‘maybe this song is coming from two perspectives, male and female.’ If they’re both feeling the same way and don’t know it, it’s even more heartbreaking.”
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Gone West
Eventually, the singers landed on four-part harmonies for the chorus and duetted verses. The result is a crisp yet plaintive ballad, with vocals which both stand out and blend together naturally — an effect which inspired the band’s formation in the first place. While Caillat and Reeves have been collaborating for years (they co-wrote some of Caillat’s most popular songs, including “Bubbly” and “Realize”), it wasn’t until they toured together with their respective partners that they thought to form an official group. After contributing to Caillat’s 2016 LP, The Malibu Sessions, the future Gone West bandmates embarked on an acoustic run of shows which proved to be more significant than they could have imagined.
“That tour was one of the most fun times of my life,” Reeves says. “I think we all felt that way, and we just wanted to continue it. Turning it into a band just kind of made sense, because we all sing, we all play, and we all write!”
Aside from his successful career as a songwriter, Reeves is an accomplished pop-rock and soul artist. Joy was one half of the CMA-nominated country duo the JaneDear girls, before the two parted ways in 2012. Justin Young is a notable artist in the contemporary Hawaiian music scene, and his fiancé is a Grammy-winning pop songstress. Together, the four could have ventured into any genre they pleased, but they felt that country music was calling their names.
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Gone West
“I truly think that country music chose us,” Joy says. “And that’s pretty awesome, because I can’t think of a better place to land.”
Shortly after their very first release together, a video of an acoustic rendition of their song “This Time,” Caillat, Reeves, Joy, and Young made their Grand Ole Opry debut as Gone West last October 26th. Since then, they’ve been working diligently on creating new music for the project, and while they’re not certain exactly when the forthcoming album will arrive, they’re confident in its sound and style.
“We want people to go on a journey through the stories,” Joy says. “We’re calling the album Tides, and I feel like you’re going to feel the waves and tides in the music, because that’s how it comes out of our hearts, and that’s what we’re writing about: the highs and lows of life and love.”