Sarah Zimmermann and Justin Davisaka guitar- and banter-slinging duo Striking Matcheshave a lot to say about their upcoming debut album. We asked the musicians about meeting at Belmont and making Nothing but the Silence, out March 24.
You famously met after being randomly paired up in a guitar seminar as Belmont freshmen. How have you grown since that day in 2007?
Justin Davis (JD): The biggest change in us is that we came here to be guitar players. I didn't move to Nashville to be an artist. The whole notion didn't sound good at that time. We wrote songs but we didn't know you could be a songwriter; we just did it because we felt the inherent need to. It wasn't until we met up together and were playing [around town] and started traveling and actually being artists that we realized, 'Wow this was what we wanted to do all along.” We love being in the studio, we love writing songs, we love performing, and what's the job position that gets to do all that? The artist. And we fell into it organically.
Sarah Zimmermann (SZ): I got [to Nashville] thinking, 'Okay, I gotta find auditions, gotta find people to play with.” And now we have to audition drummers.
Are you still in touch with Belmont professor who paired you up?
JD: I've laughed about that because I don't think he even knows.
SZ: We had another teacher who taught a rock ensemble class that we were both in. He knows.
JD: We'll tell him one day.
We'd love you both to pick one track off the album and talk about why it's particularly special. Who wants to go first?
SZ: I have mine, but I don't want it to be the same as yours.
JD: I'm flexible.
SZ: All right. Mine is 'When the Right One Comes Along”
JD: [interrupting] Ugh! [laughs] No, I'm just kidding.
SZ: For me it's special because every time, it doesn't matter if we're at the Ryman or in somebody's conference room at a radio station in the middle of Illinois, I envision myself the first time we played the Grand Ole Opry. There's a certain note I get to and when I have to go for it, I picture myself looking at the top row [of the audience]that's how I get there.
And there's a special part to me about the recording of it. When we were in the studio doing it, there were a few songs that [producer] T Bone [Burnett] got us to where we needed to be by playing another song to listen to. So, this song he played us was Frank Sinatra's 'In the Wee Small Hours.” In that song the lyric and the vocal are just so simple but amazingly gorgeous at the same time. And he was like, 'Go out there and do that.” … So I took my vocal out of my headphones and didn't even realize at the time that we were rolling; I thought we were just rehearsing it. So we're doin' the song, like, whatever, my hands are in my pockets, singin' all Frank Sinatra or something. And we got to the end of the song, and T Bone was like, 'That's it! That's the take, that's the one.” I was like, 'Wait a second, we weren't even recording!” But we were going the whole time, and that's the version we used [on the album]. [By not overthinking it] I didn't have anything to worry about.
And Justin, which song on the album is special for you?
JD: Every song has a story. But if I had to land on one, I would go with 'Nothing but the Silence.” That was such a songwriting victory to complete that one. I had that lineNothing but the silence in between us that hasn't already been brokenand it had been plaguing me for six months. I had written it down in my phone and in all these notebooks, trying to get it to come to me and I couldn't. [One day] we were writing with a good friend of ours, Bonnie Baker, she's one of our favorite songwriters in town. It was like, 'All right, I have this thought: Nothing but the silence in between us that hasn't already been broken. We can try that or we can write something happy.” And whatever was in the room that day…it just came together right then and there. And once we started going, all the inspiration came. It just took this big long process to finally get to the song, and it became a really important moment on the record.
Here's a fun one: How would you describe your relationship?
JD: 'Friendly competitors.” We tend to push each other. Writing-wise, if Sarah comes up with something great, then I will immediately want to come up with something great. Or if she plays a great live solo, I will then immediately want to try [to do that]. We naturally have that competitive nature. It's not that we try to outdo each other; we just want to be the best we can. So we are always pushing each other. It's healthy, I think. It makes us better.
SZ: I think it's always been there, but in a good way. If one of us shines, it just makes the other one want to be there too.
JD: It stems, I think, from a mutual respect. I respect Sarah as a player, as a musician, as a songwriter. I know she's that good, and I know I better be that good too.
SZ: Likewise.
Watch behind the scenes of "Hanging on a Lie" from their forthcoming album.