New country music act, Dan + Shay, are quickly climbing their way to the top of the charts, and Nashville is starting to take notice.

Dan Smyers, one half of the duo, spent several minutes chatting with me about the new album, their headlining tour, being nominated for a CMA Award and how country music continues to evolve.

It was Dec. 7, 2012 when Smyers and Shay Mooney first met. Smyers was hosting a house party in Nashville and a mutual friend introduced the two. Mooney grabbed a guitar (after all it is Nashville, and those are just lying around) and the two guys started singing some covers and harmonizing and quickly became friends.

The two had been solo artists, doing their own thing at the time. Mooney was signed to T-Pain’s Nappy Boy Entertainment, and Smyers had been in the group Bonaventure.

“I listened to country music my whole life. I was living in Pennsylvania and Shay was doing his thing. We’d always just listened to country music,” said Smyers. “I wasn’t living in Nashville, but I was like, ‘I gotta move to Nashville if I want to write country songs’ and that’s what I was writing.”

“The next day we realized we were both songwriters and kind of linked up and said, ‘Hey, we should write today’ and we did,” he explained. “The first song we wrote was put on hold by Rascal Flatts, which was awesome because we grew up listening to Rascal Flatts.”

Rascal Flatts has since recorded two of Mooney’s songs on their latest album, “DJ Tonight” and “I Like the Sound of That,” which were also co-written with Meghan Trainor (“All About That Bass”).

“But, we kind of had a bunch of songs on hold for them and then we became a duo and kind of needed to start keeping songs for ourselves.”

He added that, “those guys have been really cool to us and kind of introduced us to a friendship with them. They’ve kind of been mentors to us and given us really good advice when we came out on the road.” He also hopes that they’ll be able to play more shows with them out on the road or write with them when they have the time off to get back to Nashville.

From there, the duo continued to write more and ended up with 80 or 90 songs in the first few months of knowing each other. They would travel around Nashville playing for publishing companies and record labels, pitching their songs to other artists and people started commenting that they sounded good together.

They found themselves playing a “random little showcase – South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, TX.” That was the moment that they looked at each other and thought, ‘You know, it’s cool to do things separately, but it’s such a better vibe to sing new songs together on stage.”

Smyers recalled that moment before adding that just last night they played to a sold-out crowd.

“It was just a kind of crazy whirlwind of a ride and we’re super lucky that we met that night.”

First and foremost, Smyers and Mooney are songwriters and that shows on the album. They take full ownership of the album, having co-written every track and Smyers producing it.

“It was the easiest way for us to do it, because we didn’t have any money and we couldn’t pay anybody else to produce our album, so we kind of had to do it on our own with just a laptop and that’s kind of still what we’re doing.”

The duo knows what they want and consider it “organic.” What you hear is purely Dan + Shay.

“It’s not somebody else coming in and telling us what we need to sound like. We’re very thankful  that our record label has given us such creative control and freedom to make our own sound and pick our own singles, and kind of do what we want.”

Some of the duo’s musical influences include country artists, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts and Kenny Chesney. But, they’ve also been inspired by a lot of groups from the 80’s, such as Scorpion and Motley Crue.

“I listened to a lot of rock stuff growing up, so like The Wallflowers and the Foo Fighters. That explains why there are a lot of guitars on the album,” he added.

Moving forward, they already have at least 30-40 songs written for the next album and are hoping “to beat everything they’ve put out there so far.”

With so many, it can be tricky to narrow down favorites for the album, which was a bit of a daunting process at the time.

“Probably the hardest thing we had to do for the first album, I remember we had just this big stack of songs,” said Smyers.

Scott Hendricks, a producer from their record label, told them to write the songs on pieces of paper and shuffle them around, because “you can kind of get lost and lose your mind on it.” After that, they asked for input from their family and friends.

For the most part, the decisions were unanimous, but there were a couple songs that they felt they needed to add, as well as help transition to where they’re going with the next album.

“Putting it in order was a pain. It took, like, three weeks and it was tricky, but I think we nailed it. Definitely tough, but it’s a good problem to have.”

Their first single, “19 You and Me” found a lot of success. The duo felt that it was a great way to showcase their songwriting and sound to the world. Do they feel the pressure for what’s to follow?

“Yeah, absolutely,” said Smyers. However, the guys were thankful to country radio and the fans for embracing the first song and getting behind them.

As for the current single, “Show You Off,” Smyers and Mooney noticed that people were going crazy and having a good time during the song. They knew they’d be touring a lot, so “that’s kind of why we picked the single.”

Aside from getting a lot of airplay on the radio, Dan + Shay have also been getting recognition, having been nominated for the ACM Awards, the CMT Awards, and more recently, the CMA Awards, which will take place take place Nov. 5.

“That’s a dream come true. That’s an honor,” said Smyers of the recognition. “I’ve watched those every year and never dreamed that I would one day be nominated.”

Smyers said that the guys would’ve either been watching or attending as fans, so to attend as one of the nominees is something they’ll be pinching themselves about.

The duo was in the Bahamas when they heard of the news. When Smyers was able to connect to WiFi, his phone started blowing up with text messages.

“I hadn’t been on the internet in awhile and everybody was like, ‘congrats, congrats,’ and I was like, ‘what are you congratulating me on?’”

He was finally able to see the video and started reading the blogs, which included their name. Luckily, they were in the perfect place to have small celebration with their friends.

As country music continues to evolve a little further away from its traditional bluegrass roots, some people aren’t necessarily on board. However, Smyers views it as a good thing.

“It’s more progressive now; People are coming in with different sound,” said Smyers. “Some people get angry about it and feel like it’s losing its traditional vibe, but I think, you know, it’s best for country music.”

Smyers believes that it has expanded the genre to a new audience and more people are starting to embrace it.

“Whatever it takes to get people to let country music into their heart – They can discover the classics and really fall in love with it,” said Smyers. He likes that it has given a new generation the chance to get into the music.

“There are more listeners to the country radio than there have ever been,” he claims.

After touring with some of the best in the business, Dan + Shay have picked up on a few things, for their own headlining tour, which starts Oct. 9, which starts in Minneapolis, MN.

“Blake Shelton has just such a great command of the audience and his live shows are just so natural. That’s one thing we try to do is not make it too forced or choreographed or anything like that; Just be real,” said Smyers of their time with Shelton on his Ten Times Crazier tour.

Smyers added that humility is another thing they’ve learned from Shelton.

“He’s on top of the world as an artist. He’s just a normal guy, and I think if you have that attitude, you stay like that, you can stay on top for a long time. As soon as you start getting an ego, that’s when things start to fall apart for you.”

Former tour mate, Hunter Hayes has also taught them a thing or two.

“Hunter’s a great guy. I learned that I probably need to practice guitar a little more, because he’s crazy. He’s a menace,” he joked with a laugh.

The guys can’t wait to play longer sets, which will include being able to play their full album. But, they also can’t wait to get “up close and personal with the fans,” since some of the bigger arenas limit that right now, due to stage set up. Playing smaller venues and clubs, will allow them to meet the fans.

The duo will be playing in Bakersfield on Oct. 1 at Buck Owens’ Crystal Palace, but it won’t be their first visit in town. They stopped here during their radio tour and everyone told them they needed to play here.

“We’re super excited to be playing there now! It’s gonna be a blast,” said Smyers. “It’s a very historic venue. We follow our social media a lot and a lot of fans have tweeted that they’re excited about that show.”

The show is part of the KUZZ concert series, which is sponsored by Barber Honda. You can purchase tickets here: http://vallitix.com/venues/buck-owens-crystal-palace/2124/. The show starts at 7:30 p.m.