Parmalee’s Songs: From the Music Sheets to Make Our Hearts Beat
American country music band Parmalee is Kelly Ford’s co-host this week on Backstage Country! Brothers Matt and Scott Thomas, Barry Knox and Josh McSwain promise that “even if the whole world turns itself against us,” they’ll gonna love us and play good country music all week long!
“Gonna Love You”
Matt shared the story behind the band’s song, “Gonna Love You” which Ford mentioned is another of the band’s numerous wedding songs. Matt revealed he took a couple of sessions to finish the song. “Our intention was to have a global theme. A big song that you could hear in movies, cinematic, that kind of thing. So, we had this big idea and obviously, love is the universal language.”
He added, “We had this title “Gonna Love You,” and it was just mapping it out and what it should sound like. The lyrics are about people that stick with you in life no matter what you’re going through, all those people that have your back.”
“Musta Had A Good Time”
“Musta Had A Good Time” started with a party, according to Scott. Barry said it was about an ongoing house party in Greenville where the band lived together. Matt described it as a party with beer cans and cigarette butts everywhere and there’s always a person passed out on the couch. He added, “We wrote that song in our RV parked outside the Tin Roof. We were living in Nashville for about a month and our RV and writing songs, that was one of the first ones we wrote when we got out here.”
“Take My Name”
Another wedding song, Matt mentioned “Take My Name” was written while the band was sitting in the back of a tour bus after playing at a club one night. “It’s crazy. I remember going over it. My brother Scott had just got married during quarantine before we wrote this. So that kind of love was in the air. And I said, ‘Well, we can do it if we can make it Parmalee style.’ And next thing we’re jamming that song at the front of the bus.” He added, “We still have people come up to us at every show and tell us that that’s their engagement song or that’s ‘our first dance.’”
“Carolina”
Ford mentioned she can’t forget the first time she heard “Carolina.” Matt shared that the song was inspired by being out in California. “We’ve been gone for a while. And we go to the studio. But the studio reminded [us] of being back in California. So, I had that song, ‘Feels like Carolina looks like California,’ and it just kind of stuck in my head.”
Check back all week for more from Parmalee on Backstage Country!
