We were working on a demo one night in Nashville early on, and I joked, “If you ever need someone to play guitar on the road, I’m in.” Fast forward a year or so later, we were opening for Taylor Swift on her Speak Now tour.
Aside from writing, we also shared a strong interest in production and had really similar music influences. We wrote a song called “All You Ever” at our first write and it actually ended up on his debut record. Our introduction came after some advice was given to me to make sure that I write and work with people my own age-thought is those are people you’ll be working with in 20-30 years from now. How did you connect with Hunter, and can you talk about your collaborations with him?Įllis: I met Hunter back in 2009 through my longtime publisher, Cyndi Forman at Universal Music Publishing Group. Tebey and I still work together and he’s become a very dominant artist in Canada since then.ĭK: You’ve collaborated on many songs with Hunter Hayes and you’ve toured with him. The song actually ended up being one of the most played Canadian country songs in 2011. Most of that demo ended up being the final. I then took what we had back to my parents’ basement where I had my little studio rig and made a demo for it.
We actually wrote the song on one of my first trips to Nashville. Over You,” which was co-written by Sam Ellis.Įllis: I had a little bit of success on country radio with a song called “Somewhere in the Country,” performed and co-written by Canadian artist Tebey. Here’s the video of Lady Antebellum’s hit “What If I Never Get I feel really fortunate to have been surrounded by really generous and great musicians growing up.ĭK: Did you have success as a songwriter & producer in Canada, before you moved to Nashville? This was also around the time when I started writing songs that we were able to work up as a band and sometimes even play out. If we could get anywhere close to sounding like Dave Matthews Band, then it was a good day. I also had the usual high school band with a couple of great friends. He was very influential in my introduction to that side of the music industry. My dad was also a great songwriter/producer. We were heavily involved in our local church band in Cambridge, Ontario, which allowed me to get to know a bunch of different instruments and really get a hold of the basics at a young age-arrangement, playing with other people, tuning, etc. He tells how he got started in the music business, and how he co-wrote the hits “What If I Never Get Over You” and “More Hearts Than Mine.”ĭK: How did you get started as a musician and songwriter? I read that you’re originally from Canada. We are pleased to do this new Q&A interview with Sam Ellis. In addition to the artists mentioned above, Ellis has co-written and/or produced songs for Carly Pearce, Danielle Bradbery, Rachel Wammack, Josie Dunne, Jordan Smith, Jacob Sartorious, Leah Daniels and Kira Isabella.Įllis is signed with Universal Music Publishing Group in Nashville, and he works closely with Cyndi Forman, who is Vice President of Creative at UMPG. He has also played in Hayes’ band and toured with him. Ellis has since written many songs with Hayes, for his albums Hunter Hayes, Storyline, The 21 Project and Wild Blue. In addition, he co-wrote and produced the ballad hit “More Hearts Than Mine,” by rising artist Ingrid Andress.Įllis initially worked as a songwriter & producer in Ontario, Canada, but he got a big break when he began collaborating with hit country artist, Hunter Hayes. He co-wrote Lady Antebellum’s Top 5 country hit, “What If I Never Get Over You,” which also reached the Top 50 on Billboard’s Hot 100 pop chart. Notwithstanding these fine credits, Ellis’ career has recently reached a new level of success. Originally from Canada, Ellis is now based in Nashville and he has co-written songs for such top artists as Thomas Rhett, Kane Brown and Hunter Hayes. For the past decade, Sam Ellis has been a successful songwriter & producer who mostly works in the country music field.
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