Old Dominion comes to Boston: An Interview with Matthew Ramsey

Even before the release of their debut single, “Break Up With Him”, Old Dominion was already influencing what country music fans were hearing on the radio.  The quintet, comprised of Matthew Ramsey (lead vocals), Trevor Rosen (guitar, keyboard), Whit Sellers (drums), Brad Tursi (guitar), and Geoff Sprung (bass guitar), has written No. 1 hits for some of today’s top country artists.

While Ramsey and Rosen have written for the likes of Dierks Bentley (“Say You Do”) and Craig Morgan (“Wake Up Loving You”), Ramsey also collaborated with band mate Tursi for Kenny Chesney’s “Save It For A Rainy Day” and Rosen wrote “Neon” for Chris Young and “Come Back To Me” for Keith Urban.

Although these projects seem by design, the collaborations with most artists are sometimes more happenstance than not. “We don’t set out to write for other people. We just try to write the best song we can,” he explains.

“Break Up With Him” was the first song that all five members collaborated on, and fittingly, their first No. 1 hit as a band.  Even the band itself couldn’t have guessed how quickly the song would bring them success.  Ramsey said, “The whole ride of that song has been pretty amazing.  It’s crazy now that we start to play and people are screaming and taking out their phones”.

In putting together their first LP, “Meat and Candy”, the band had some decisions to make in terms of what songs to include.  Thanks to stations like Sirius XM radio, a few songs like “Shut Me Up” had already had their chance to shine, so the group was excited to showcase new material. “Nowhere Fast” took off and soon found its way to Country Aircheck’s Top 50 without being released as a single. “It means so much that people are singing it.  We feel so lucky,” said Ramsey.

Since the release of “Break Up With Him”, the band has been road warriors, which made it difficult to find time to record the tracks in Nashville.  According to Ramsey, the band had two days to lay down the tracks for seven songs.  Starved for time and proper location, the band even found itself recording background vocals in dressing and hotel rooms. 

Ramsey admitted it was tough to choose which song to release as their next single, considering the group is so excited to share the new music. The band felt current single, “Snapback” was still young like “Break Up With Him” and that the song could serve as a bridge from the fun songs on the album to the more serious like “Song From Another Time”.  

Old Dominion’s growing success has given them a more selective approach to offering their songs for other artists to record.  “We’re transitioning from songwriters to artists.  Now we can get first pick or only pitch songs to the biggest artists,” said Ramsey.

The band spent the summer opening for Kenny Chesney’s Big Revival Tour and will again hit the road with Chesney this summer for Spread the Love tour, named in honor of the singer’s charity created in response to the Boston Marathon bombings.   Ramsey called his first Gillette Stadium ‘Countryfest’ “amazing” and looks forward to playing again this summer.  The pair of shows at Gillette broke Chesney’s personal record by playing for 120,206 people over the two nights. 

The band was thrilled to be asked to hit the road with Chesney again this year.  “We were getting kind of sad that [The Big Revival] was ending. He told us he was inviting us back, and we did some celebrating that night,” said Ramsey. 

Old Dominion returns to Boston on Thursday, December 17, at the Royale located at 279 Tremont St, Boston, MA 02116.  The show is sold out but you can try to win your way in thanks to Country 102.5.

Limited tickets for the Spread the Love tour at Gillette Stadium are still available from Ticketmaster.

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