Jordan Reynolds, a GRAMMY® award-winning songwriter, has an impressive career, from award nominations to songwriting credits for artists like Dan + Shay, Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood, Camila Cabello, Lady A, and more. Currently, he holds five number one singles, including Dan + Shay’s massive hits “Tequila,” “Speechless,” “All to Myself,” and “10,000 Hours.”
We recently had the opportunity to speak with Jordan Reynolds about how he got his start in the music industry, his advice for upcoming songwriters, and more.
Can you start by telling us a little bit about yourself?
I’m originally from St. Louis. I grew up playing classical violin, so I learned music classically, I read sheet music, theory, and all that stuff. I’m a theory nerd — I love music theory, so that's kind of the foundation for how I make music.
I moved to Nashville in 2007, where I attended Belmont University as a music major. I studied voice and music business. During that time, I also worked at a church just north of Nashville, in Hendersonville, Tennessee, where I served as one of the worship leaders for about 10 years while simultaneously writing songs. I signed a publishing deal with Warner Chappell in 2014, where I’ve stayed, signed Wendell Mobley at Warner Chappell — Wendell is an amazing hit songwriter.
I have a wife and two kids — a little boy named Rhodes and a little girl named Banning. We love Nashville, but we also love spending our time down at the beach in Florida.
And yeah, I love making music.
How did you know you wanted to be a songwriter? Was there a certain experience or songwriter who inspired you to follow this passion?
Honestly, I didn't know songwriters existed before I moved to Nashville — I just assumed every artist wrote their own songs. I honestly didn't give much thought to the songwriting process. I just thought “this is a song...somehow somebody made it...and I just enjoy listening to it.”
So I moved to Nashville, went to Belmont, and slowly started hearing about songwriting. And I learned there were these people who...nobody knew their names, but they were important in Nashville. They were friends with all these artists, and those artists trusted them to give them hit songs. It's this super intriguing world I knew nothing about.
For a minute, I wanted to be an artist. I thought about pursuing that, and got some really wise counsel early on that unless I wanted to be an artist 110%, I shouldn’t do it, because it can be heartbreaking. You're gone constantly. Well, I’m a homebody — I like being in my own bed at night, and spending time with my family. So, being a songwriter aligned with those values.
And...I get to do a lot of really cool things, but I don't have to deal with the pressure of being an artist. I love being able to write a bunch of different types of things. I think when you're an artist, you’re expected to stay in your lane. So, I get the joy of hopping on the train of whatever artist I'm working with, and helping them fulfill their goal — I get to write that kind of song for that day. It just keeps it fresh creatively.
I think when all those things started making sense — the schedule, the flexibility, the realization that I could make good money doing it — I knew I wanted to be a songwriter. And I was naive enough to think I was going to see immediate success. Obviously, it took a few years before anything happened, but I think the allure of it was mostly just, gosh, this sounds like such a fun job and I get to stay home, which is great.
You’ve taken home some prestigious accolades, including a Country Music Award for your work with Dan + Shay on “Tequila,” as well as a GRAMMY® with for King and Country, congratulations! Can you tell us more about what it was like working with these artists and receiving these awards?
Awards are so cool, I have a love/hate relationship with them. Honestly, up until winning one, I kind of poo-pooed them.
Award shows are very political. Often, people are doing stuff behind the scenes to push people to win. I never want my art to be judged that way or to have the final say on a song be decided by somebody else. Obviously, I want to write songs people like, but at the end of the day, if I don't win an award for a song, it doesn't mean I’m not successful.
Sometimes, especially in the GRAMMY® world, if your song is super successful, it may actually damage your chances for winning a GRAMMY®, because they’re focused more on the art than the commercial success. Every now and then, those two align — like Dan + Shay has a unique thing where they get it, and we won a GRAMMY® with For King and Country, as well. They have a lot of commercial success, so every now and then those things line up...but my overall thought on awards is, it’s a great honor to win one.
I remember being at the MGM Garden Arena in Las Vegas for the ACM’s...we had lost CMA...we had lost the GRAMMY® for “Tequila”, although Dan + Shay had won a duo group performance GRAMMY® for “Tequila”, but we don’t win a GRAMMY® for that as songwriters. We’d already lost two awards, so we just weren't expecting to win anything. It was the first award of the night, and Lady A — good friends of mine — announced that we had won song of the year with “Tequila,” and I absolutely lost my mind. Getting to go up on stage in front of your peers and a televised, nationwide audience is a pretty cool thing. There's no feeling quite like it.
So I have a love/hate relationship with awards. Winning one really is awesome...but you can't bank your career on whether or not you're winning awards. You can have an extremely successful career as a songwriter without ever winning a single award. I think you have to decide what your win is. My win really is being able to be in the room with these artists, and writing these songs — that's where the magic happens. That's the stuff that really fulfills me. And that's the stuff I can control — I can control what I bring to the write, what my input is, and what my relationship is with these artists. What I can't control are the award show outcomes — those things are just too unpredictable.
What’s your process for songwriting?
As songwriters, we have to be flexible. I often say the goal of a songwriter is to serve the artist — whatever the artist needs, we do that. And if we aren’t writing with an artist, we try to think like the artist, and imagine what he needs. That’s the groundwork - serve the artist.
As far as process goes — because I learned how to write a song in Nashville, and I'm a little biased in thinking this is the best way to do it — specifically for country music (but really, this applies to all genres), I like starting with the concept. You can have great melodies, and great chords, and a great vibe, but if you're not saying anything, it doesn't matter.
Now, that can be debunked in the pop world, because you can have no idea what they're saying, but it feels amazing. And that's okay, too.
So, my personal process is...I love to start with a concept. For example, I had the idea: when I taste tequila. I decided the direction it was going to go, and that inspired everything else — it inspired the melody, the vibe — all of that came from the concept. So in my mind, we start with the concept, we talk out the flow of what the song is going to do. A lot of times, we start with the chorus, and work our way into the verses — verse one, and then verse two — but the beauty of it, too, is that every day is different...so I try to be flexible. I think that's a really good trait to have as a songwriter — specifically if you’re a staff songwriter, where you're trying to write commercial songs with artists. Every day is a little different. Sometimes we start with a melody, sometimes somebody’s got a vibe that's going, and we're like, “hey, this is a great vibe, what kind of concept does this feel like?”
But at the end of the day, it always comes back to — what are we writing about? Is this worth writing about? Is this going to move the needle for somebody? Is this going to connect with people? Are people going to be able to relate to this?... It has to check all those boxes for me to finish the song, to make it a song worth turning in, to finish it with, or send it to an artist. It's got to have a great concept... a great idea...a great title to work from.
At that point, we usually create a demo — I think it's an incredibly important thing, in our day and age (of songwriting), to have some kind of knowledge of recording software. I just think it's a must if you want to stay in the business. It’s not 100% necessary, but as we move forward in songwriting, it's just such a helpful tool to have to be able to record your own ideas, to be able to inspire your own ideas with different sounds, etc.
So...I'll record a demo...I've got a studio setup where I record and try to make it sound as much like a record as I can, depending on the song. “Tequila,” for example: we did a piano vocal and that's all that song needed. Then Dan took it and produced it with Scott Hendrix and they made it amazing.
Every song is a little different in how far we go with the demo, but we try to make the vocal sound amazing, and the performance great, so that we convey the emotion of the song.
Do you have any go-to audio equipment you use during the songwriting process?
My go to audio equipment is:
- My MacBook Pro (I use logic)
- I use an Apollo interface, I use the Apollo x6
- I use a glyph solid state hard drive
- I use Audio-Technica microphones and Shure microphones
- I use Audio-Technica headphones and Grado headphones
What’s your favorite song you’ve written?
That is a tough, tough question. I'd have to go with “Tequila” as my favorite song I've written, for a couple of reasons: first, it was my first single to go to country radio and it just did a whole lot of things for my career that continue to help me today, three years after its release.
The fact that it was my idea, it was just special. I was at a friend's house for a bourbon tasting. My buddy goes, “we should do a tequila tasting sometime, because when I taste tequila…” and I forget what he said after that, because all I heard is “when I taste tequila…”
So, for me, this song just feels really close to home. I feel really involved in it. The fact that so many people loved it really resonated with me because it was one of the songs I loved when I wrote it, and I really, really hoped that other people would love it too, because that doesn't always happen. Sometimes, some of your favorite songs are not necessarily the most commercial songs, and that's okay. The fact that “Tequila” lined up and hit both of those things where I loved the song, I was so proud of how we wrote it, and people responded so great to it...just checked all the boxes for me.
If you could give advice to aspiring songwriters, what would it be?
First, move to the town where you want to be working. If you want to write pop music, move to LA. If you want to write country, move to Nashville. I know there are exceptions to this rule, and people may say this is not 100% correct, but in my experience, being in the town and knowing the people who are doing it is so important.
So if you truly want to be a hit country songwriter, you’ve got to live in Nashville, you’ve got to go to writers rounds, and meet other writers, and you’ve just got to slowly work yourself into the system. It's this small, tight knit family, and it doesn’t happen overnight.
Nashville is called a 10-year town. I moved here in 2007, and “Tequila” went to country radio in January 2018. So I literally got my first single at just over the 10-year mark. It’s really true. It doesn't matter what kind of fast track you're on. It's going to take time. So...first, move to the town you want to be in, and second, have lots of patience. Just keep your head down and write a bunch of songs.
Not to quote my own song, but the 10,000 hours rule is so true. You’ve got to put in a ton of time. I’m still learning. I hope I never feel like I have songwriting figured out. I hope I feel like I'm learning something new every day. The way you do that is first, write a bunch of songs, and second, write intentionally. Find out what you're good at. Be aware of what you're good at.
When I first started, what came natural to me was writing melodies and putting chords to it. I'm good at that. What I'm not natural at is writing lyrics. I had to be aware enough to say “this is something I need to work on.” The way I continue to work on it is by surrounding myself with really, really great lyricists. That has worked. I have become a much more well rounded writer because I've learned from the best. I've learned from people who are really, really good at what they do.
So find out what you're good at, and then surround yourself with people who are better at the things that you're not good at, so you can get better. Just have patience with it and write a ton of songs.
Then, if you want to pursue a publishing deal, there's a whole other world. Get plugged in with a PRO - Performing Rights Organizations - like ASCAP or BMI or SESAC. ASCAP was massive in helping me get started. I played them the three songs I’d written (they were pretty bad), but the girl who was there saw something in me, and hooked me up with another writer, and that just kind of started the snowball slowly moving forward.
So get involved with a PRO - they have a membership division that's strictly to help new writers get on their feet. Take advantage of that. Meet other writers at NSAI...there's just so many outlets where you can meet other people and write songs. Get plugged in and go to writers nights where you’ll meet other writers.
Go up to a writer after writer’s night and say, “Hey, you were awesome. Can we get coffee sometime?” And you know what? They might be like, “Nah, I don't want to do that…” But, every now and then, one might say yes. And you just never know how beneficial that relationship could end up being for both of you. There could be some chemistry. As you know, you have to put yourself out there. I'm not naturally an extrovert...I'm probably somewhere in the middle between extrovert and introvert, but early on, I stuck my neck out and would say, “Hey, can we write some time?”...”Hey, I know this is weird, but can we set a day up and try to get a song?” You just kind of have to do that early on, meet new people, and try things out. You’ve got to get plugged in somehow. Have patience. I know I've said that several times already, but be patient, it's gonna take time.
And then wait for the timing. You don't want something to happen too soon, and you don't want something to happen too late. Trust that everything is supposed to happen when it's supposed to happen. There have been so many occasions, even now, that I get frustrated that I'm not in the room with whatever artist. Dan + Shay are a great example. When I first signed to Warner Chappell, I found out I was signing to the same A&R person that Dan + Shay had just signed to. And Dan + Shay are one of the main reasons I wanted to get into writing country music in the first place. I was so excited. I thought...this is perfect. We're gonna start writing all the time! It's gonna be amazing!...and it was three and a half years before Dan + Shay and I wrote a song.
During that process, I got frustrated, because I just wanted it to happen. I was like... “why is this not happening? This would be so great!”...But what I wasn't seeing was that I was getting prepared for that first write with Dan + Shay. It was something I can see in hindsight, but couldn't see while I was in the thick of it. I was just being prepared for it — I was getting better at songwriting, better at being a writer in the room, better at maintaining relationships — so, there's no talent. If I had done it any sooner — if I had been in the room with them — I could have screwed it up. It may not have gone as well as it should have. There have been other writes I had — big writes — that happened too early. And you come to recognize that. That isn’t to say you can't make up for those relationships later, but you just don't want to ruin your chance too early by wanting something too soon. So, have patience, and know that it's going to work out when it's supposed to work out.
How can fans keep up with you and your projects?
Probably the best way to do that is Instagram. I try to not be too humble/braggy on Instagram, because people get annoyed with it. But I truly just get excited about it! I still think it's so cool to hear these artists sing songs that I wrote — it's still the craziest thing to me. So I get super excited about it — I like to post about songs, but I don't post about everything that comes out.
Apple Music and Spotify are working on songbook things, or their own version of that (whatever they call it) where you can basically click on my name in the credits of songs and it'll show you all the songs I've written that are on Spotify or Apple Music. There are other companies who do that kind of stuff that keep up with credits and I think the person I'm interviewing with shortly — Jaksta — you can literally see any credit I'm working on, whether I'm producing something, if I sang BGV's on something (because I like to do that a lot), songs I didn't write — I love doing background vocal stuff, or songs that I've produced or written on…you can keep track of all that stuff and all music on Jaksta and other similar websites.
And to learn more from me about songwriting and how to become a better songwriter, follow my blog BetterSongs.com.