2020 marks the 20th anniversary of Rascal Flatts as a group, and the guys say a lot has changed about the way they make music in the studio since they first started. Jay DeMarcus says, “It’s changed dramatically in a lot of ways. We had a distinct vision for how we wanted the sound of Rascal Flatts to be, and we wanted to be different.”
For their first few albums they worked with different producers to hone in on their sound and define what Rascal Flatts’ music is. Jay says, “We wanted to cut more rock ‘n roll tracks but with country lyrics, and still mandolins and fiddles on top of that. Nashville hadn’t really come around to embracing the pop side of music at that point and time so, we spent a lot of time experimenting with drum sounds, with making ‘em bigger, experimenting with the guitar sounds and putting more dirt on some of the parts and a little more muscle into the tracks.”
As the band settled into their identity and really established the sound of Rascal Flatts, Jay says, “As time went on and years went on, we got more and more involved in the making of the records, up and to the point we even self-produced a lot of our projects that are out there and a lot of our singles recently that have been released. So, it’s evolved to the point to where we’ve learned more together, we know what our strengths are. We try to capitalize on those strengths now in the studio, and highlight those strengths, and really, what everybody brings individually to the table, too, the strengths that we all bring together to try to make the best product we can.”
In fact, Rascal Flatts produced or co-produced six of the seven songs on their latest EP, with their latest single, “How They Remember You,” being the only song they completely turned the reins over to mega-producer, Dann Huff.
Rascal Flatts – difference recording over years 1:01
Jay DeMarcus – “It’s changed dramatically in a lot of ways. We had a distinct vision for how we wanted the sound of Rascal Flatts to be, and we wanted to be different. We wanted to cut more rock ‘n roll tracks but with country lyrics, and still mandolins and fiddles on top of that. Nashville hadn’t really come around to embracing the pop side of music at that point and time so, we spent a lot of time experimenting with drum sounds, with making ‘em bigger, experimenting with the guitar sounds and putting more dirt on some of the parts and a little more muscle into the tracks. And so, for us, as time went on and years went on, we got more and more involved in the making of the records, up and to the point we even self-produced a lot of our projects that are out there and a lot of our singles recently that have been released. So, it’s evolved to the point to where we’ve learned more together, we know what our strengths are. We try to capitalize on those strengths now in the studio, and highlight those strengths, and really, what everybody brings individually to the table, too, the strengths that we all bring together to try to make the best product we can.”