Dan + Shay are opening up about their relationship, and how they reunited after not speaking for four months. Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney spoke about that challenging season, and how they moved past it, during a recent appearance on the Today Show, where they performed songs from their forthcoming Bigger Houses album.
“This is a brand-new breath of fresh air,” Mooney says. “Dan and I have been through a lot the last ten years, and I feel like this is a new chapter for us, and I’ve never been more excited to put out music. There are songs that mean so much to us.”
Neither Smyers nor Mooney planned to let so much time lapse between communication last year. But after completing their postponed The (Arena) Tour, and without any new tour plans or music projects on the immediate horizon, the two singers went their separate ways, unsure if there was a future for Dan + Shay/
“Being in a duo is the toughest configuration,” Smyers acknowledges. “We always say it. There are two people. Everything’s 50-50. When you’re in a trio, there’s always a tiebreaker. When you’re in a group, it’s chaos. But in a duo, you have to go out of your way to work on it, like a marriage. Time gets in the way, and if you’re not actively working on it, things can go by the wayside.”
Fortunately, Smyers and Mooney ultimately reconnected, and found they still had a lot more music they wanted to make, together.
“We just chose that one night,” Smyers recalls. “We’re like, ‘If we’re going to do this, owe it to our fans. Dan + Shay is always going to be a tattoo on somebody’s arm, the first dance at somebody’s wedding. We owe it to everybody to give it our best shot.’ We sat down, and we started writing songs, just hanging out like we used to when we first met. And that’s where the magic was, us writing songs on an acoustic guitar. We accidentally made the best album of our career.”
First time performing BIGGER HOUSES live! Thank you to the @TODAYshow for having us and thank you to the incredible fans who braved the rain this morning. Hope y’all have a great weekend and don’t forget to pre-order the album if you haven’t already! 🏠https://t.co/S2GJduJkjy pic.twitter.com/zXa7Ah4xeI
— Dan + Shay (@DanAndShay) July 21, 2023
Dan + Shay also performed the title track of Bigger Houses, for the first time on the Today Show, while they await the release of the album on September 15. The duo is already enjoying a Top 40 hit with “Save Me The Trouble,” their debut single from the record.
“‘Save Me The Trouble’ was the very last song that we wrote for this album,” Smyers tells Audacy. “That’s kind of how it always goes; you turn in the whole album, you think you’re done. All the pressure’s off and you get back in the writing room, when nobody’s looking over your shoulder, expecting anything, and this song poured out of us. The same thing happened with ‘Speechless,’ on our self-titled album.”
Dan + Shay have already hinted about a massive tour in 2024. Find music and tour dates at DanandShay.com.
