Take It or Leave It

A song about comitting to a relationship.

Matt Shultz says, “We have a rehearsal cabin in Portland, Tennessee, which if you know anything about Portland, Tennessee, you know that only about 10 people live there. One day, the band was in the cabin, and Brad started playing this little guitar thing. Pretty soon, Jared started playing drums to it. Everyone jumped in and the song started to happen. It was one of those ‘light-bulb’ moments.

“I’d hardly been listening to any music while we were working on the record, but I would go bowling, and when I did, I would play Blondie on the jukebox. That song Heart Of Glass was my favorite. It made me want to do a super-playful type of vocal delivery.

“We put together the verse, but the chorus didn’t want to come to us – that was always a big problem with the song. We cut the track in the studio, but there was still no chorus. After a while, we started to get really down in the dumps, because at first this was the most promising song of all, and now it was just sitting there.

“One morning, I woke up in my living room. I picked up the guitar and the whole thing poured out. I literally sped down to Nashville to get to the studio to show it to the guys. We jumped right in and recorded it that day. Sometimes these things happen when they’re gonna happen, and you just have to be patient.”

Shultz and crew, which consists of Brad Shultz, Daniel Tichenor, Nick Bockrath and Jared Champion, recently released the video for “Take It or Leave It.” The video also has an Instagram campaign where fans can post #takeitorleaveit to the band’s site and be featured all over social media.

The idea for the video came from Shultz and was inspired by the movie “American Hustle.”

“I had just watched it and was inspired by the 1970s leisure suit,” he says. “And we wanted to add some roller skating into it. Who doesn’t love roller skating?”

Along with the trip to South America, Shultz says the band was looking for new sounds to incorporate to its music. He says it’s important for the band to continue to evolve.

“We’ve been a band for nearly 10 years now,” he says. “I think that with each record, we’ve been able to evolve with our sound and find new inspirations. It’s important for me to keep looking for inspiration because it helps me grow as a songwriter and a musician.”