Our sound is different because it's who we are as a band.
— Matthew Ramsey
There's a lot of people out there - like, a lot of people out there - that wouldn't know our music if it wasn't for Spotify.
The truth is, that's what we moved to Nashville to do - to learn how to write hit songs. We weren't necessarily trying to get on college radio. We're trying for mass appeal.
Sometimes when you're writing a song, it's work, and you really have to make sure you're kind of pounding out every little piece of it. And then sometimes you write a song, and you turn around and you go, 'How did we do that?'
The more successful we get, the more opportunities come our way.
When we write songs, we don't ever sit down to write an Old Dominion song. We just sit down to write the best song we possibly can.
Honestly, with pop and rock and things, artists are from all over the place, so they're kind of isolated. The city of Nashville helps create the camaraderie. Everyone moves there for the same reason.
There's something about the West Coast. The air is lighter. The vibe is chill.
We definitely wanted to show we're a band that can be around, and we have something to say other than the lighter, 'pickup line' sort of songs.
You definitely want your own fans, but you also want the support of your peers and the people you work with.
As writers, you spend so long trying to build your cred as a writer, and then everything comes together at the same time: your artist career happens when your songwriter career is, too.
I think that's one of the hardest parts as an artist, and creating a career, is the song is what is gonna lead you there. So it's hard to find great songs.
We never really dreamed of being a band until it just naturally happened. All of a sudden, we were like, 'Maybe we should take this kind of seriously, because people seem to like it.'
SiriusXM has been an unbelievable way for us to share music. Songs move a lot faster there than they do on terrestrial, so hopefully we can continue to partner with satellite radio as a way to share as much music as possible with our fans.
We take what we do seriously, but we don't take ourselves too seriously, and I think that kind of helps us stay focused on what's important - and that is the music, our fans, and our families.
The most important thing I can say is to make music that moves you. Don't try and chase what's on the radio or what you think people want to hear.
There's no shame in being a support act for anyone. It's been extremely beneficial for us to be allowed onstage for any of the artists we've toured with, and we've gotten some big exposure from them sharing their crowds with us in the past.
It's pretty cool to see, like, from town to town, how different the crowds are.
It's easy to get squashed down in this business, for sure. Nashville can definitely train you to not get too excited.
I'm a huge Lionel Richie fan, and sometimes we actually listen to Lionel Richie on the bus.
We don't take ourselves too seriously. We're just friends that like to goof off.
When you go out for the night with your buddies, it feels like you're in a band, and I think everybody can relate to that.
In a certain sense, every time you sit down to write a song, there's a fear that you've forgotten how to do it.
Working with a company like LIDS just makes sense for us. Every night, we play a song we wrote that has now become a hit and was inspired by seeing so many of our fans wearing Snapbacks. Our fans are LIDS customers, and we are excited to partner up and bring them into the Old Dominion family.
A band in our position, we have a first impression to make. We don't want to come out of the gate and make people sad. I think we consciously made that choice to keep it happy and up.
There's no need to put a dumb picture of us on the album cover. We always look at ourselves and think, 'Wow, we look like idiots.' We'd rather have a piece of art on there.
I get excited about a crowd that likes our kind of music.
'Old Dominion' is the nickname for the state of Virginia, and four of us have ties to Virginia.
It's very rewarding to know that people respect what you do.
It really wasn't until I realized that country music had a whole underworld of songwriters that I dug into it.
Personally, my favorite 'meat' song is 'We Got It Right.' As soon as it comes on, it transports me to a different place. And I'm really proud of our performance in the studio on that one.
'Still Writing Songs About You' - that one hits me every time. For some reason, I really feel that song every time we play it. I just love the sound of it, and I feel like everybody probably has that person that they never fully forget or never can get past.
The writing process for us is different with every song. Sometimes they come from our lives, or someone else we know may be going through something that we choose to write about.
This goes for our songwriting as well as our success as a band - the minute we stopped chasing what we thought people wanted to hear and started writing things that moved us, that's when people started paying attention.
It's a huge deal for us to have our own headlining tour and our name on the ticket.
We love writing hit songs. That thrills us.
For me, 'I Can't Make You Love Me' is one of the most brilliantly-written songs ever.
When we come on the radio, people will go, 'That's Old Dominion,' 'cause it's a sound that can only be made by whatever the five of us make together.
I think it's natural for people to see a band and imagine themselves as part of that. That's what I grew up fantasizing about, looking at posters of bands on my wall. There is an allure to a band.
We wanted to make a living, but success was creating a song that we enjoyed playing. Quite honestly, that is still a measure of success for us.
Work hard at doing what you feel is right. Don't be scared!
There's no such thing as a broken heart, and there's no such thing as a Sasquatch.
When people want to be associated with us, in the end, that's going to help us gain more fans.
I can't imagine being a girl out there on the road. We can throw a hat on and stink. Girls have to do their hair.
The first time we went to the ACMs, no one really knew who we were.
I think that's the great thing for us - we're a band full of songwriters, and we're capable of writing all kinds of songs.
We have always been a touring band, and we love playing live.
We don't want to be the standard thing. We're more interested in having people hate us than glaze over us. We'd rather have a reaction than be in the middle.
In the end, yes, I'm the singer of Old Dominion, but we're a band of great singers and great musicians, and we just respect each other so much.
When Taylor Swift was first beginning to really take off, a couple of guys I knew in her band called and offered me a job on her tour playing acoustic guitar and singing background vocals, and they thought I would be a really good fit for it.
