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Interview: David Nail reflects on his career & talks new song ‘Sunset Carousel’

David Nail has had a rich and varied career in Country music. Recently, he has been on a creative journey releasing more personal, singer/songwriter music and connecting to his fans in a different way. With new release ‘Sunset Carousel’ fans will be reminded of the David Nail they fell in love with during his ‘Nights on Fire’ and ‘Red Light’ era but with a more modern sound. We were thrilled to meet up with him in Nashville during CMAFest recently to talk all about it.

Thank you for your time David, it’s great to see you back at CMAFest. You’ve had such a rich and varied career since the release of your debut album in 2009. What changes have you seen in Nashville and the music industry since then?

Oh wow, man. That’s a great question. The biggest change I can see that is that everybody is friends now. When I started out it was very much different. Of course, you had people you toured with and had people you were friends with but there was always this uncomfortable feeling that we were competing against each other, you know? You worried about who was getting radio play and who wasn’t in those days but it seems different now.

Whether it’s the youth in the industry around right now, or whether it’s social media I don’t know, but there’s a brotherhood and sisterhood around right now that is refreshing to see.

When I was putting this new project together I asked all my friends in the industry to point me in the direction of all the new cats, you know, the newer artists who were making waves. I wanted to hear what they were doing, their voices and what songs they were writing. I checked out several artists, some I liked, some I didn’t but it re-energised me and it was fun to do.

The singer-songwriter is still the core of who I am but I am also a performer and I can entertain a little bit, you know. I feel re-energised right now to be that type of artist, Covid didn’t help in terms of holding everyone in place for a couple of years but I am dying of thirst to get back out there right now and sing my songs.

If I could take you back in time to 2009 and let you give yourself a piece of advice what would you tell yourself?

I would tell me that you don’t have to be in such a big rush. When I came to town I was obsessed with everything happening at a young age. That’s another thing with artists now and the Country industry because a lot of the time we just assume everybody is in their twenties but it’s amazing to see how many artists are on their second or third albums and they are in their mid-thirties, it wouldn’t happen in any other genre.

A wise person told me the other day that you’ve never heard anyone say, ‘Man, I love that song but that guy is 44 years old!’. Music is music, man. That’s the thing I’ve learned the most, that everything doesn’t have to happen all at once.

There are certain songs I’ve written that I’m so proud of but I would never have been able to write them at 25 or 30 years old. With age comes wisdom, so hopefully that is true.

……..and fatherhood too.

Definitely that, man, I’m knee deep in fatherhood now, I’ve got three at home. (laughing) I got a 19 month old that I’m fascinated with. I love my twins too but the babies are so amazing. I’m just a different person now to who I was in 2009. I’d been in town a decade at that point and nothing had really happened for me and I was very in a hurry to get going.

You’ve had a lot of incarnations in your career. Major label artist, the Well Ravens, your Bootheel EPs in songwriter mode. Have you got a favourite phase that you’ve had in your career so far?

I think the ‘I’m a Fire’ phase would be my favourite so far. I had come out very publicly about my battles with depression and anxiety and it was really the first time in my life where I was super content and happy. I had so much fun out on the road during that tour and making the record was amazing too.

We played coast to coast on that tour, it was exhausting but so much fun. That thought that you were hopping on a bus on Thursday and you’d be back home Sunday night at some point! We had just thought about starting a family too, so that part of my life seemed so well rounded and fun.

David Nail
Credit: David Nail (Brighton Pier, UK)

Looking to the future, let’s talk new song ‘Sunset Carousel’. It feels like throwback to the ‘I’m a Fire’ era, was that a deliberate move?

It literally just came out of nowhere. I don’t know whether the co-writers had some sort of plan to tap into a ‘David Nail’ vibe or not (laughing) but we had two bars of a track to set a mood. Maybe I went back into that nostalgic feel but it was so much fun to write.

I’m not a fan of people who say, ‘we wrote that song in an hour’, because they are usually full of crap but if you take the time we actually spent writing the song once we had done some ‘getting to know you’ stuff, it would have been about that! (laughing) The song was so much fun to write and we learned about each other just writing it.

I’d be lying if I said it didn’t remind me of some of the songs I have recorded before in the past but hopefully it sounds modern and cool too. The whole entire time we were writing it I had a smile on my face and my lighter in the air, you know, it’s got that type of vibe. It feels just so damn good to listen to and I’ve probably listened to it more than any other song I’ve recorded, just for pleasure, man, you know? (laughing)

Is it reflective of a wider body of work that’s going to be coming down the line?

I think so! I’ve co-written and written more in the first few months of this year than I have in probably all of the last decade. ‘Sunset Carousel’ was written with Grant Vogel and Robyn Collins and so after that, because it was such an awesome experience, we have made it a priority to get together as much as possible. We actually wrote a song just this week that was pretty special that already feels like it could be the follow up to ‘Sunset Carousel’.

People always want to know what’s coming next but I wait for the songs to determine that and that’s what happened here, I definitely wasn’t looking to go back and get on radio or try to have a song that sounds like ‘David Nail’, you know, it just happened and now we are 4 or 5 songs deep into that project. There’s such a fun energy to things that I haven’t had in four or five years but I just can’t wait to get out and play for people again too.

Listen to David Nail’s ‘Sunset Carousel’ at the top of this page and on streaming platforms everywhere.

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