Dan + Shay love everything about the holiday season, including the chance to perform for several years on the annual CMA Country Christmas. But the duo, made up of Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney, who just released their self-titled third studio album over the summer, hint that a Christmas record from them might be in their future.
“We spent a couple years just making our record that came out this year,” Smyers shared with PopCulture.com at a recent media event. “And it’s like we’ve been doing all these different versions, and alternate versions, and acoustic versions … I’m like, ‘All right, let’s do a Christmas record.’ It’s hard to find the time. When you make a Christmas record, you kind of got to start it March or April if you want to get it turned around in time.”
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“So, we’ve always been crazy busy,” he continued, “but we’ve got a catalog, we’ve kind of got a repertoire of all the songs that we’ve done on the CMA Christmas performances. And maybe in the next couple of years; we always say we’re getting closer and getting closer, but at least we know the lyrics to four or five of them now, so that’s a start.”
Dan + Shay have certainly had a whirlwind year, with, “Tequila,” the debut single from their latest record, becoming a multi-platinum, crossover smash, and earning their first Grammy nod. Both Smyers and Mooney are still trying to come to terms with their rapid climb in the last 12 months.
“We really dug in on the songwriting, dug in on the production, kind of controlled it,” Smyers explained. “We did all the vocals and stuff at my house, and it was just the two of us. We wanted the world to hear just what we wanted Dan + Shay to sound like, and we did. That’s a nerve-wracking thing, to work so hard, work so long on a record. We hadn’t put out music in a while. And you’re like, ‘We’re so proud of this and we hope the fans like it.’”
“When we put out ‘Tequila’, it went next level for us,” he continued. “I don’t know if it was a combination of all the songs that we had put out in the past and everybody just kind of being in our corner and rooting for us and helping us along. But it’s seriously changed our lives. We’re feeling it at the shows. It’s such a cool thing and we’re trying not to take a minute of it for granted. We’ve talked to every artist that’s come before us and they say, not to quote Kenny Chesney, but ‘Don’t blink,’ because it does go by fast. We’re seeing that right now.”
Dan + Shay have big plans for 2019, including their own headlining tour, but first they’re going to take some time to celebrate all that happened in 2018.
“Our lives have changed in a big way this year,” Smyers noted. “We’re trying to enjoy it. We’re taking a lot of photos, blowing up the Instagram feed, trying to give ourselves a little reminder of how good things are.”
Photo Credit: Getty images/Jason Mendez
