{"id":152331,"date":"2023-05-17T12:40:59","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T11:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=152331"},"modified":"2023-05-17T12:40:59","modified_gmt":"2023-05-17T11:40:59","slug":"the-objective-is-not-just-to-have-a-hit-its-to-make-people-feel-less-alone-more-loved-more-alive-more-thankful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/the-objective-is-not-just-to-have-a-hit-its-to-make-people-feel-less-alone-more-loved-more-alive-more-thankful\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The objective is not just to have a hit, it\u2019s to make people feel less alone, more loved, more alive, more thankful.’"},"content":{"rendered":"

MBW\u2019s World\u2019s Greatest Songwriters series celebrates the composers behind the globe\u2019s biggest hits. This month we talk to Josh Jenkins, the SESAC Nashville Music Awards Songwriter of the Year, with credits on Walker Hayes’ Fancy Like<\/em> and Jordan Davis’ Buy Dirt<\/em>. World\u2019s Greatest Songwriters is supported by AMRA<\/a> \u2013 the global digital music collection society which strives to maximize value for songwriters and publishers in the digital age.<\/p>\n

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Songwriting runs in the Jenkins family.<\/p>\n

Josh Jenkins may be the current toast of Nashville \u2013 having picked up the 2022 Song of the Year and Songwriter of the Year awards at the SESAC Awards \u2013 but he and his brother Matt (also an acclaimed Nashville hitmaker) started young.<\/p>\n

Their father was an amateur songwriter and, when the boys started to show an interest in playing music as they grew up in Texas, he would sit them down with a yellow legal pad and encourage them to write their own songs.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis philosophy was always, \u2018It\u2019s great to cover people\u2019s songs, but ultimately you have to find your own voice, find what you want to say and hone that craft\u2019,\u201d says Jenkins. \u201cThat was instilled in us.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Mr. Jenkins Snr\u2019s advice has certainly been paying off lately. The brothers may have initially gone their separate ways \u2013 Matt heading for country music capital Nashville while Josh pursued his rock star dream as the lead singer of successful touring band Green River Ordnance. But, after 15 years of \u201cnot knowing where the road was going\u201d, Josh decided to make a few changes in the 2010s and his brother suggested he too move to Nashville.<\/p>\n

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Once immersed in Music City\u2019s scene, Josh signed a publishing deal with SMACKSongs and began writing for others alongside his work with the band, gaining cuts with Randy Houser and Dustin Lynch and building long-term songwriting relationships with artists including Walker Hayes and Jordan Davis.<\/p>\n

In the last couple of years, those relationships have produced some spectacular results. In 2021, Davis released Buy Dirt<\/em>, an emotive, authentic hymn to faith and family, co-written with the Jenkins brothers and Davis\u2019 own brother Jacob. It became a Country No.1 and was nominated for the CMA Song of the Year.<\/p>\n

Josh Jenkins followed that with Fancy Like<\/em>, a good-time Friday night country anthem by Walker Hayes, dedicated to the American restaurant chain Applebee\u2019s, and co-written with Hayes, Cameron Bartolini and Shane Stevens. That song became a TikTok sensation, a Country No.1 and<\/em> a Top 3 Hot 100 hit.<\/p>\n

That he should find such enormous success with two completely distinctive songs has encouraged Jenkins that his slowburn, laidback approach to songwriting \u2013 a world away from the frantic world of modern hitmaking \u2013 is the right path.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how any of this happened,\u201d he grins. \u201cYou just keep your head down, hopefully do pretty good work and you get lucky and blessed all at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jenkins has a lot more of that good work coming up \u2013 he continues to collaborate with Walker and David, as well as a host of new artists. He also has his own solo material, and would like \u2013 take note, music industry beyond Nashville \u2013 to move into working with pop\/rock singer-songwriters such as James Bay, David Gray or John Mayer as well as country stars. And then there\u2019s his ever-expanding family \u2013 a recent arrival means he now has four kids under the age of eight (\u201cNew songs and new babies – wild times, my man!\u201d).<\/p>\n

Whether another addition to the Jenkins\u2019 songwriting dynasty lies within that brood remains to be seen. But it\u2019s time for Josh Jenkins to briefly duck out of paternal duties and talk to MBW<\/em> about songs, success and the importance of Oreo shakes\u2026<\/p>\n

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DID YOU DO ANYTHING DIFFERENTLY BEFORE LAST YEAR\u2019S DUAL MEGAHIT BREAKTHROUGH?<\/h6>\n

Not really. I heard somebody say this and it\u2019s so true: you have to position yourself to get lucky. Songwriting is equal parts craft and just getting the 10,000 hours in.<\/p>\n

When I first moved here, I thought I was a pretty good songwriter and then I listened back to those songs and they weren\u2019t very good. What Nashville will teach you is the discipline of showing up every day and writing, just creating songs, getting better and learning how to mine your heart to find ideas.<\/p>\n

At the same time, you serendipitously meet people that become your crew. You write a bunch of songs, one of those ends up working, the dominos fall and it\u2019s a beautiful thing. But songwriting is not an A-to-B business, it\u2019s not like \u2018If you do this thing, this happens\u2019. You have to follow your creative force, knowing that the more you do that, the more likely one of the things you\u2019re a part of will find the light of day.<\/p>\n

It may be a big song or it may be a small win but, whatever happens, eventually these songs will find their way. That\u2019s my story: staying with it, meeting Jordan and Walker, then them having their moment \u2013 and I was fortunate enough to be a part of it.<\/p>\n

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IS THERE ANY GALLAGHER BROTHERS-STYLE SIBLING RIVALRY WITH YOUR BROTHER?<\/h6>\n

[Laughs] It\u2019s funny \u2013 people ask that and there really isn\u2019t. Maybe it was pride or ego, but we didn\u2019t write together for a lot of our life. He was doing his thing, I was doing my thing and we found success outside of working together.<\/p>\n

But then moving to this town and being close to projects \u2013 halfway through my time here, we started collaborating more and finding our creative unity. Some of my best moments as a writer have been shared with my brother, who is also my best friend. It\u2019s beautiful \u2013 and that youthful competition is gone; we\u2019re older now and there\u2019s more love.<\/p>\n

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DOES YOUR EXPERIENCE AS AN ARTIST HELP YOU WHEN YOU\u2019RE WRITING WITH ARTISTS?<\/h6>\n

I think so. Artists live in a bubble and it\u2019s a good thing, but it\u2019s also sometimes tough to find your own voice.<\/p>\n

The best thing you can be as an artist is brave and courageous enough to tell what\u2019s unique to you, what matters to you, what your story is. And not to operate out of fear.<\/p>\n

“The best art is unapologetic, honest, sometimes offensive \u2013 it feels unique, like God breathed.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you need to [write something] to get on radio, inevitably, fear can creep in. So it\u2019s our responsibility as writers to help their vision come to life and part of that is helping them to be brave. The best art is unapologetic, honest, sometimes offensive \u2013 it feels unique, like God breathed.<\/p>\n

Artists have a different set of tools and colours that they work from and you get to facilitate that. When I write with Walker [Hayes], he can say things completely differently to how I\u2019d say them.<\/p>\n

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IS SONGWRITING IN NASHVILLE DIFFERENT TO OTHER PLACES?<\/h6>\n

Well, the creative boundary can work both ways. I know people that are Hall of Fame songwriters that have written incredible songs and they will work on a song for a month. And I know people that have written a ton of hits that write a song a day.<\/p>\n

As a creator, you have to figure out when and how you are at your best. I\u2019m at my best if there\u2019s a longer creative process, when it\u2019s not a one-off, a \u2018Let\u2019s write a hit today or never write again\u2019 kind of thing. I work better setting my seed in the dirt and thinking about what we want to say and how to say it.<\/p>\n

I want to live in a slow, peaceful, creative space. You know, songs live forever. They\u2019ll outlive us and they\u2019re like gifts from heaven. I want to live in a space where we view our time not with a frantic energy to crank out a ton of things, but with the space to take a breath, let an idea be born and take your time to develop something.<\/p>\n

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THAT\u2019S NOT REALLY WHERE THE MODERN SONGWRITING INDUSTRY IS HEADING THOUGH, IS IT?<\/h6>\n

No, but you\u2019ve got to separate yourself from it. We have an obligation as creators. We need more things that are inspired and heartfelt.<\/p>\n

The objective is not just to have a hit, it\u2019s to make people feel less alone, more loved, more alive, more thankful. I\u2019m not against songs being played a ton of times and making money, I just think we\u2019re short-changing what a song is and the potential of what a song can do.<\/p>\n

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FANCY LIKE<\/em> AND BUY DIRT<\/em> ARE VERY DIFFERENT SONGS TO HAVE COME FROM THE SAME WRITER\u2026<\/h6>\n

Oh yeah, they\u2019re polar opposites.<\/p>\n

Walker is this eccentric, wild man and the day we wrote Fancy Like<\/em>, he wanted to write a fun song. It was true to him and none of us knew that song was going to happen. There\u2019s no big machine involved, the label is not a huge label, Walker is 40-something with six kids so he wasn\u2019t your typical superstar about to have a big hit.<\/p>\n

But the song caught fire with people, they wanted to do the dance with their daughters. People attached it to their lives and had a lot of fun with it. We didn\u2019t write it thinking there would be a TikTok dance!<\/p>\n

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