Ira Dean rose to prominence in the early 00s as part of Trick Pony. Following the band's breakup, Dean continued as a solo artist and wrote and produced for other artists.
With many hits to his name, including Aaron Lewis' chart-topping 2021 song ‘Am I The Only One', Dean stepped back into the solo spotlight earlier this year with his emotive new single “Missin' How It Used To Be”. He's also been busy working on a brand new solo record.
I caught up with Ira after seeing him performing in Nashville recently to talk about “Missin' How It Used To Be”, discuss his countless hits for other artists and to find out more about his upcoming record…
I saw you last month at 3rd & Lindsley in Nashville playing a songwriter show and I've been listening to your music ever since. Your current single, “Missin' How It Used To Be” has particularly resonated with me and my husband, we absolutely love it. Tell me the story behind that song…
I lost my mom last year. Me and my mother were really tight; I wish everybody had the relationship me and my mom had. It hit me hard so I cancelled all my songwriting appointments for the next two months. There's a guy named Dave Turnbull, who's written a lot of big hits and he's one of my great friends, he called me up and said, ‘Hey, we're supposed to be writing today'. I was like, ‘oh, I thought we canceled. I lost my mom' and he said, ‘why don't you come over anyway?' My writing appointments are more like therapy appointments, we just talk for a while and then start writing things out. I wasn't planning on writing that day but all that stuff started pouring out. We started writing and that song just fell out. I recorded it for my new record deal. I didn't think it was going to be a single and the label called, two weeks before Mother's Day and said, ‘would you mind if we release this for Mother's Day?' My mom would have been ecstatic and she deserves that.
We immediately shot a video and I called the label and asked if I could make a suggestion. I save all my mom's voicemails so I sent them my mom's voicemail and said, ‘I'd like the video to start with this'. It was one of the last voicemails my mom sent me. That's how that song came about; a lot of pain and a lot of tears. It's taken off and it seems to connect with a lot of people, like yourself. I think people like real things and like to feel emotion. Everybody likes a good uptempo but sometimes you got to write those songs that really connect with an audience and help with the healing. I'm thankful people get it and love it.
It works on so many levels, not only your original intention but reflecting on the state of modern society and how crazy everything seems to be all the time. When I was growing up things seemed a lot simpler. Are you finding that fans are reacting in that way too?
The world is a little crazy right now. There seems to be a lot of hate and a lot of division. I don't ever remember it being like this. Politically wise, there's a reason why there's curtains on voting booths, you know? Keep that stuff in there. But now it seems to be on the forefront of everybody's mind. I grew up in a simpler time where after school we'd jump on our bikes and ride until the streetlights came on and the sun went down. That was the time we had to be home and we started the day with the Pledge of Allegiance in school. It seemed like a simpler time. I don't want to sound like the old grumpy guy but I just don't know what happened but hopefully we'll get back there. Life is too short to be this angry.
Social media really does have a lot to answer for. On the one hand it's great for being able to directly connect with people and start conversations, but on the other it's given people a platform to speak their mind and say whatever they want. It's a scary place…
Yeah, there's a lot of keyboard warriors out there. I'm on the budding end of it, too. Just like you and your husband love “Missin' How It Used To Be', I guarantee you I'll get somebody who hates it and has to voice their opinion. It's crazy. If you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all. That's how I was raised. We don't all have to agree but we do have to all get along. We're all on this planet together.
When I saw you perform recently you sang ‘Am I The Only One?', which you co-wrote with Aaron Lewis and it was a big hit. That song feels like a pre-cursor to “Missin' How It Used To Be”. Did that song receive a divisive reaction when it was released?
That's the more in your face version of “Missin' How It Used To Be” I guess (laughs). It's a good comparison. I got a lot of people that loved it and I got a lot of people that took it personal. I did get some some not pleasant fan mail. Aaron's a non-apologetic guy, he goes out there and does his thing, and he doesn't apologize for it. I got some hate mail on that and I'm like, ‘listen, I write songs. My job as a songwriter is to look out the window, and see what's going on through from my eyes, or the artists eyes and our job is to inspire motion. We're supposed to make you laugh, cry, think about your childhood, think about your love, your loss andall this stuff'. This did inspire emotion. People loved it and people hated it but art isn't art if somebody's telling you how to do it. Aaron was watching the news and he was upset, and that's what he wanted to write. I helped him write it. That's my job.
The sentiment in that song is so true and it really resonates with me. Our situation isn't a mess here in the UK but it's very different to what's going on in the US. It's amazing that your songs are striking a cord with your fans over here too…
Thank you. I really don't know what to say, except I hope we can get back to where we all get along. Even though there's two people in the room that see different politically, we should still be able to reach across the table, shake hands and have a discussion and intelligent conversation about it. Hopefully we get back to that. I'd like to see that.
Me too, or at least that people can agree to disagree. I was brought up to respect people's differences and listen to points of view that don't necessarily mirror my own….
Imagine how boring this life and this world would be if we all thought the same thing. If we all did the same thing, if we all wrote the same songs, if we all believe the same thing… diversity is what makes this planet so great.
There's strength in that rather than division, and that's what people need to realise…
Yeah. We got to have division. Imagine if there's only one food, one country one race and one thought. This whole planet is a palette of paint. It's multi-colors, and multi-textures and multi-thoughts, and that's what makes this planet awesome.
Following on from “Missin' How It Used To Be”, you've got a new album, ‘I Got Roads', coming out. You're working with a lot of familiar faces on it. Tell me about the making of the record and what you want to achieve with it…
I was writing and producing, and back in the early 2000s, I had a band called Trick Pony and we we had a great run. Then I had a solo deal. Then my life evolved into producing and writing, and still doing about 50 shows a year of my own, but then I got a phone call from Noah Gordon, who's a friend of mine that owns a label, and he's like, ‘I think it's time you do an album'. I was like, ‘are you sure because part of me thought I was retired in a way?' We went in the studio down in Muscle Shoals and cut six songs that I had written. I was writing with Ronnie Dunn shortly after that, from Brooks and Dunn, and he was like, ‘I hear you're cutting an album' so I played him a song called ‘Teleman', which is a song I cut with Vince Gill on guitar, and John Osborne, from Brothers Osborne, on guitar. Ronnie listened to it and he's like, ‘why didn't you call me to sing on this?' And I was like, ‘oh, I know you're busy man and I've heard you turn other people down'. He said, ‘I want to sing on this. I want the second versus and second chorus'. He came in and sang, and it just blew my mind.
To me, there's not a better traditional country singer in my generation than Ronnie Dunn, I just think he's the best. That inspired me to call up all the people that inspired me and I respect in music business, and write songs with them or record with them. This album has guest appearances from Ronnie Dunn, Vince Gill, John Osborne, Gary Allan – who cut some of my songs in the past – Uncle Kracker, Gretchen Wilson, David Lee Murphy, Ted Nugent plays guitar on it and one of England's own, the drummer from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Steve Ferrone. He flew in from LA and played on it and we just had a blast. They just pressed record and I wish they recorded even when we weren't in the studio and we were just talking because it was like a bunch of kids having a blast. We cut a great album all of us together. If I don't do anything else in my music career, this album is one to hang your hat on.
This feels like a great opportunity to have a star-studded show to play the album live. Can you imagine having all of those people on stage with you?
Would that be heaven or what?
If you make it happen, bring it to the UK…
I would love to get back to the UK. Maybe Ferrone could get me back over there? I haven't been over to the UK since 2004 I think. That'd be awesome.
You'd had such a varied career and you've worn many different hats along the way. If there was only one aspect of what you do that you couldn't give up, what would it be?
I don't want to ever give up any of it to be honest with you (laughs). I love being creative. I love being surrounded by creative people and working with the people I work with. I love songwriting. I love the recording end of it. I truly love the the live aspect of it. I love interacting with people. I love making people laugh. I love taking people on a musical journey. I like the applause and the feedback right away. When you write songs, you don't get that. You write songs, the song's done and it might be five years till somebody cuts it or till somebody hears it so you don't get that immediate response. I love people, I love being on stage and taking everybody on a little musical journey and having fun. That's probably the biggest kick out of the music industry – playing live and meeting people.
As a songwriter, how do you know when to keep a song for yourself and when to give it away to another artist?
There's a thing called a pitch sheet and they'll say who's cutting, like Blake Shelton's cutting in a month and he's looking for an up tempo (song). If I'm going in writing for that, trying to write for an artist, it's kind of the job part of it. But when you're sitting down, there's a lot going on in your head and it's like musical therapy, you've got to get it out. You're just writing for nobody but spilling your emotions and talking about real life. Those are the ones that are hard to give up. When they're so personal. When you're singing about your family or something that really happened to you like a loved one passing or falling in love or having your first child… just real life generally… sobering up… any of that. When I write those songs, those are hard to hear somebody else sing because you know they didn't live it.
It's such an incredible skill to be able to put yourself into someone else's shoes and write for them…
When you're writing for somebody else, it's always great if you can write with them because then you're in the room with them and you can hear their thoughts. My process of writing is I really like to get in the other person's headspace and see what's going on in their life and try to write real stuff. Every once in a while there's somebody I don't know and the producer comes up and says, ‘I need you to write a song for so and so'. Then I have to do research. I have to go listen to their stuff and see what they like to sing about and get the way the ball bounces with them rhythmically. It's like solving a Rubik's cube at times.
Which of your songs that has been cut by another artist are you most proud of?
Oh gosh there's so many. The songs are so close to me and the story of writing the song. I have stories of when I was in the room writing that song so there's an emotional tie on top of the story itself. ‘Am I The Only One' Aaron Lewis was great. We were the first ones to put out a conservative thinking, God/Country/Family song. It seems like the happening topic now but we were the first ones to do that. That'll always be a place in my heart. Montgomery Gentry “I'll Keep the Kids'; Eddie was going through a divorce at the time and that was an emotional write, that one holds dear to my heart. There's a Trace Adkins song that was never a single called ‘Proud to Be Here'. Me and Chris Wallin wrote that and that is totally my life. When I hear him sing it, that's one of those songs (that I was talking about) but he lived it. He called up personally and said, man, I think you wrote my life' and I was like, ‘we've lived the same life'. That's one of my favourite songs out there. Gary Allan's ‘Feeling Like That'… I could go on and on. Every song has got a little memory tied to it but those are my favourite cuts out there.
That's an incredible catalogue of songs. It must feel very validating for you as a songwriter?
I'm just lucky. I'm just blessed. I don't know how to explain it. I'm dyslexic. I can't read out loud but for some reason I can write songs and I'm just glad people like them. I'm blessed to make a living this way because Lord knows I was a maintenance man, I was a bartender… I did all this stuff before moving to Nashville. This is the best job I've ever had, I love it.
It sounds like you've always been multi-skilled, which is admirable…
I came to town as a drummer, believe it or not? I wrote songs but I didn't even know you could make a living writing songs. As a kid, buying an album and you look at (the sleeve notes)and it's the Eagles, and it says, ‘all songs written by the Eagles'. I always thought that the artists wrote their own songs. Elton John writes his own stuff. I came to Nashville as a drummer, and there were so many drummers, and I played guitar and bass and a lot of instruments. I ended up playing bass to make a living but Warner Chappell/Warner Brothers heard some of my stuff and offered me a writing deal. I was like, ‘you can actually make money writing songs? Do I go on the road with another artist and just write for them or what?' They said, ‘no, you sit here and we'll bring people in and you write with them. Or you write by yourself and just turn your songs in'. It seems like my whole life fell in my lap. I had a plan of doing one thing and the universe and God above took control and said, ‘nope, you're not gonna play drums you're gonna play bass. Nope, you're gonna play guitar now and you're gonna write songs'. The journey that I've been on is not the one I thought I was going to do but I wouldn't do it any other way.
You just have to follow the signs and see what happens…
Yeah, what's the worst case? The worst thing to happen is you're not good at it. Okay. Move on. But man, saying yes is taking me on a hell of a journey through life, I'm going to stick with it.
Ira Dean's single “Missin' How It Used To Be” is out now. His album ‘I Got Roads' is due for release later this year.
