Jordan Davis Talks About Finding New Energy With 'I Ain't Sayin' Propellant Single: 'I'm Overdue For This'

Jordan Davis has built a reputation as a modern-day storyteller, winning the Country Music Association's 2022 Song of the Year for 'buy Dirt', claiming this year's Academy of Country Music Song trophy for 'Next Thing You Know' and climbing to No. 1 on Bulletin boardCountry Airplay charted in May with “Tucson Too Late.”

Moving to a ballad or mid-tempo tempo, all three explore a life lesson or a personal crossroads. But his latest release, “I Ain't Sayin',” takes a different tack, mirroring the bar setting of his 2017 debut, “Singles You Up,” with a solid dance texture similar to “One Thing at a Time ” by Morgan Wallen. ”

“It's been a minute since we've released this kind of song,” says Davis. “I feel like I've overdue it.”

“I Ain't Sayin'” was tailor-made for Davis, which took shape on May 25 on the final day of a writing retreat in snowy Livingston, Mont. While Davis wrote that morning with several other creatives in a rented cabin, Travis Wood (“Girl in Mine,” “'98 Braves”), Mark Holman (“Flower Shops,” “Don't Think Jesus” ) and Steve Moakler were working in a separate building, determined to build something a little faster for Davis. Holman had created a few pieces of music before the trip, and one of them, built around some claps and a muted acoustic guitar, energized the room.

“It might be like little guitar parts and a little loop or something behind it to get a vibe,” says Holman. “It's not crowded. It's enough to say, “Oh, we like this. We like the feel of this. “
Wood had a ready-made chorus that he had written with Los Angeles-based songwriter Emily Reid, with whom he often writes “starts” – small pieces of potential songs that can serve as a basis during a full songwriting session. He reached out to her to make sure she was okay with what she was used to on this trip.

“I'm in Los Angeles, they're in Montana, and I FaceTimed him,” Reed recalled. “It was like, 'Hey, we're writing this 'I don't say' idea.” It's really going well. Can you just make sure that first verse makes sense?' Because sometimes, when you're in the grass, it's hard to have perspective. And I said, “Damn, that sounds great.” ”

Reid's original idea wasn't actually the title. It was the line, “He sure as hell ain't,” that became the payoff line at the end of the chorus that she and Wood started. They weren't entirely sure what the plot was supposed to be, though it fit a script about a mismatched couple. While making it, they used the phrase “I don't say” as a recurring lyrical device in a loaded chorus.

“When we came up with that phrase, we wanted to do something that felt really fresh,” notes Reid. “We wanted to make it really rhythmic and get in there a lot.”

When they came up with a particular line, “I'm here and she's MIA,” they felt it had a lot of potential, though once they finished writing it, Reed took it out of her head. So the call from Wood was a welcome surprise.

As it began to take shape in Montana, Wood, Mockler and Holman unlocked the original verse, depicting a woman who had bought a beer for a date that appears to have choked her. The protagonist is introduced as a short-term fallback, though the writers instinctively knew he couldn't be too pushy.

“We could have gone more extreme with the guy and the girl,” says Moakler, “but we ended up choosing [to] walk the line, I think, in a nice way, where he's not overtly trying to steal the girl. He sees his opportunity and seems like a relatable guy, you know. That was the day's work.”

As the lead singer moves through the second verse, he tries to reframe the woman's bad moment with some hope: “She let you down, but here's the upside” — using one word, “upside,” in a way rarely heard in a country song .

“It's a little different,” Holman admits, “which is always a good thing.”

They saved the more elaborate lyrical twist for the end of this second verse, ensuring that this turn could match – if not surpass – the quality established in verse one.

“I ain't tryin' to turn this miss into a miss/But he don't know what he's missing” — I just love that play on words, Wood says. “It perfectly paraphrases 'I'm not saying' I'm him, I'm just saying he's not. I mean, you couldn't think of a cooler way to phrase that.”

They debated “He Sure As Hell Ain't” as a title, but settled for “I Ain't Sayin,” eschewing a slightly profane word in favor of the song's more commonly heard phrase.

“I think we made the right choice,” says Moakler. “I haven't heard a song called that. The only closure with the song is, people say, “What's it called?” And you say, “I'm not saying.” And they're like, 'Wait, why aren't you going to tell me?'” Holman quickly put together a demo, and Wood returned to his cabin, where Davis' small team was still writing in a different room. When that group ended, Wood had writer-producer Paul DiGiovanni (Travis Denning, Justin Moore) play the demo, which seemed to connect with Davis.

“Jordan was pretty subtle about it, but I didn't know if he was just being nice,” says Wood. “When we hit that foul line, he turned and looked at me after that line. So I said, 'I think he likes it'.”

Indeed, the following week, Davis, DiGiovanni and a studio band tackled “I Ain't Sayin'” at the Sound Stage in Nashville with drummer Nir Z sharing duties 50/50 with scheduled percussion. “The loop basically went all the way through the song, so I had to go to another level in the master and just keep the energy going,” says DiGiovanni. “The demo was exactly how the lyric felt the whole time, and I just put it on top.”

But improvements have been comparatively gradual. “We never changed a verse, never changed a melody,” Davis says. “We dropped the key a half step from the original demo, maybe we hit it [beats per minute] down a couple. But other than that, it was basically taking Mark's demo and I let Paul pepper it.”

While the backing band established most of the rhythm and texture sounds, DiGiovanni did add some color during the overdubs, including a Spanish-flavored guitar in the background, steely-sounding guitar parts, and a southern rock-like twin-guitar break .

“There was absolutely no need for a crazy guitar solo,” he says. “There's so much melodic stuff in the song, so I tried to do something that was kind of familiar. I think I sat down and put my track on a loop and played like five or six different kinds of melodic things, and it just stuck.”
Davis tends to introduce downward grace notes into his vocal performances, and while the writers didn't specifically put that on “I Ain't Sayin,” it lent itself well to his approach.

“That chorus tune, he was like, 'Wait a minute, are you sure I didn't write that?' “, he notes. “It seemed like something I would write and something I would say.”

MCA Nashville released “I Ain't Sayin” to country radio via PlayMPE on July 24th and is at No. 52 in its early stages on the Country Airplay chart dated August 17th.

“It's something I think people want,” Davis says of his cool, summery sound. “I feel like it's the right release right now.”