We take you behind the scenes and explore the making of one of our favorite tunes with The Song Remembers When…
In March of 2014, Lady Antebellum reached number one with “Compass.” The song was featured on the deluxe edition of their Golden album. And, it wasn’t your typical Nashville songwriters behind this one. It was written by six pop writers – yeah, six songwriters on one song.
Two to three writers is the norm in country music, but in pop music, having that many writers on a song isn’t unusual. Writer tend to write together at songwriting camps – that’s when a group of writers just go away together and write.
Mikkel Eriksen, Tor Erik Hermansen, Ammar Malik, Ross Golan, Daniel Omelio, and Emile Haynie are all the writers behind “Compass.” Ross said that you can be writing in a room and then someone walks by and just jumps in on the song, and that’s how they got together on this thing. One had the idea, then another came in to change a few chords, and one by one, they all sat in on the songwriting.
It was Ross who would later work with Lady Antebellum and hand them the song. Ross’s wife and parents are big country fans, and he said that they finally admitted he was a professional songwriter after Lady Antebellum had a hit with this one.
This week’s The Song Remembers When is Lady A’s chart-topper “Compass.”