Long before Dan + Shay recorded “10,000 Hours” with Justin Bieber, they had already achieved plenty of success at radio, including their record-breaking “Speechless.” But the success of “10,000 Hours” has stunned both Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney, who admit they never imagined they would ever get to collaborate with one of pop music’s reigning superstars, let alone have the song do so well.
“This has been really cool,” Smyers told Kix Brooks on American Country Countdown via Nash Country Daily. “I mean, obviously, ‘Tequila’ and ‘Speechless’ changed our world in such a big way, but this song has reached new places that we had never dreamed of having music out [in], so to have people listening to country music all around the world is unbelievable.
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“And, Justin, I know, is excited to be a part of it,” he continued. “He loves country music [and] has always been a fan, so having him on our song is pretty surreal. I have to pinch myself. I’m like, ‘We’ve got like the biggest superstar in the world on our song!’ It’s insane.”
“10,000 Hours” set a new record, with more than 75 million global streams during its debut week. Both Smyers and Mooney hoped to work with Bieber at some point during their career, but waited until they had the right song to approach the idea, which they did with “10,000 Hours.”
“We’ve crossed paths with Justin a few times in the past, and we’ve always kind of toyed with the idea of collaborating on something,” Smyers told Zane Lowe from Beats1/Apple Music. “We wrote this song in Nashville and we were like, ‘This is a crazy idea’; We had the same manager, Scooter Braun. So I sent it to Scooter and was like, ‘Yo, hear me out on this. This might be wild. This might be like absolutely insane, but picture Justin singing on this.’”
“10,000 Hours” might be a hit on pop and country radio, but both Smyers and Mooney focus more on making sure they give their fans the best songs they can, without bowing to too much pressure.
“For us we try not to get too caught up in it with the, we have to do this, we have to do this, but try to make it organic,” Mooney maintained. “But we definitely do have that pressure and responsibility really to our fans and to radio to put out the best material you can. Dan and I try not to put anything out unless we can truly put our stamp on it and say, all right, this is right.”
Photo Credit: Getty / Terry Wyatt
