That time Tyler Hubbard relied on going public? He put it in “Park”

It's arguably easier to average a pitcher's gain than it is to determine a car's horsepower, and it's a good bet that the majority of drivers don't know how much horsepower their engine makes.

But almost everyone realizes that a bigger number equals a bigger speed. So when Tyler Hubbard boasts that he's got “700 horses under the hood” on the chorus of his new single, “Park,” it's easy to see what he's talking about. Especially since he, like most of us, understands it more as a comparative number than as one to calculate.

“I had a friend in college who had a super fast car that was basically like a muscle car,” Hubbard recalled. “There were 800 horsepower. It was like a race car, and I can even go to the drag strip with it and race. So I knew 800hp is a ton of horsepower for a car. So the 700 is definitely a luxury car.”

It's a fitting detail for a car-themed T-Hub song.

“He's always liked to go fast,” says co-writer Canaan Smith (“Famous,” “Runaway”). “Back in the day, when we first met at Belmont College, he was riding his motorcycle up and down the interstate, doing wheelies at 80 miles an hour.”

“Park” appeared near the end of a songwriter's retreat at the Gulf Coast home of Jesse Frasure (“Halfway To Hell,” “Young Love & Saturday Nights”). A few different teams were simultaneously working on material for Hubbard, who ricocheted from room to room as the songs evolved. They had already built quite a bit by the 'Park' session, so Frasure, Smith and Ashley Gorley ('I Had Some Help', 'I Am Not Okay') were able to take a few more creative risks.

“There's a bit of freedom when you have a couple in the box at a writing retreat,” Frasure says. “It's very relaxing and you're like, 'OK, cool.' So you make more aggressive tracks.”

Frasure deliberately presented an instrumental piece he had created with a danceable tempo and bright feel. “I want to put things in the artist pile that are fun, energetic, that you could see the pyro come out on stage,” Frasure says. “The more I do this, the more excited I get, because I just feel like this is the soundtrack to people's lives. People love a well-written tune and we'll give them awards, but I want one that's going to be on someone's playlist on the boat.”

The piece echoed around the room – Frasure's wife, Rhythm House vs. Stevie Frasure, and Hubbard's wife, Hayley, were both with him – and the writers started brainstorming ideas to match. Tyler was in the other writers' room as they reviewed titles, and Gourley mentioned the word “Park” from his list. The contrast between the dance beat and the word 'Park' was worth exploring.

“To me, there's a really interesting, cool twist to the story here,” says Smith. “Yeah, he likes to go fast, but there's nothing he'd rather do than put it in park.”

When Tyler returned, he gave them a green light on the song, which was already in progress, and they revved up the chorus, launching into it with a line adapted from Hubbard: “I can take you from that vocal to Hollywood.” The chorus explored the theme of driving – horsepower, speed and screeching tires – but made the thematic twist by the end of the chorus, as the singer considers the girl riding shotgun: “All I want is to park.”

“It was just an image of young, innocent, and it's fun and a little bit dangerous and wild,” says Hubbard. “We've all been there at some point in our lives, and I like to think occasionally that it's fun to get back into that mindset.”

The two verses added some detail to the story: a pair of kids racing on dirt roads around midnight, flirting with the thrill of driving for hours in anonymous darkness, but flirting even more intensely with each other. As the writers went through the lyrics, Hubbard reconnected with one of his own experiences, making out at age 15 in his girlfriend's car in a church parking lot, only to be pulled over by a police officer and then taken home and drop him to his parents. . Hubbard was grounded for the next month.

“It was a learning lesson, for sure,” he says. “It was only a mile from home. My dad said, 'Why didn't you come sit in the street?'”

Between the programmed track and the guitars in the room, the song was propelled by rhythm stacks and they decided to make room for a guitar solo that eventually turned into a short bridge. These sections use the same four chords as the rest of the song, although they are arranged in a different order, making this mid-song departure easy and natural.

“Bridges are usually for rough water,” says Smith, “but we didn't feel like that was a problem. We wanted it to carry with it and keep people immersed in what was going on, and sometimes you can do that musically with a little bit of a reset.”

Frasure created a quick, almost skip-the-line demo that gave Hubbard and his co-producer, Jordan M. Schmidt (Mitchell Tenpenny, The Band Camino), a solid foundation. Tony Lucido's start-and-stop bass, layering guitars and Nir Z's 700 horses of dramatic drums fueled the groove during a follow-up session at Nashville's Sound Stage.

“Some songs just call for certain things,” says Smith, “and this one definitely needed the Nir Z treatment.”

Schmidt and Jonny Fung completed the guitar layering in overdubs, and Hubbard made it relatively easy when he sang the final vocals. The hook “All I wantna do is park” was probably the hardest part of the process, as an “r” consonant can sound harsh at the end of a phrase (think Kevin Cronin singing “reme”, “together” and “forever ” in the second verse of “Keep On Loving You” by REO Speedwagon).

“It does come off the tongue a little differently,” Hubbard allows, “but somehow it's always been natural and it's always worked, even live. I have to be a little more intentional about it.”

The entire chorus fit Hubbard's vocal sweet spot perfectly. “His voice has always, throughout his career, been very good,” says Frasure. “It's very remarkable, and there are certain melodies and certain tones — and certain keys, actually — with Tyler's voice that are just money.”

EMI Nashville released “Park” to country radio via PlayMPE on June 3 as the second single from Hubbard's album Strong. Hubbard played “Park” second in the set during Kane Brown's In the Air tour, though there's a chance he'll pair it with “Dancing in the Country” in the future to create an extended party atmosphere.

“When I've got a few more singles under my belt and I've got a little bit more to play, we could definitely do a 10- or 12-minute moment,” says Hubbard. “They definitely live in the same family.”