For nearly a decade, David Nail hasn’t released a full-length album. It would be easy to assume he’s spent those years away from music, but the opposite is true. He’s continued releasing singles and EPs while remaining “as active as ever on the road.”
So, when asked what made now feel like the right time to release his newest album, Flowers, Nail had a simple response:
“Is there ever a right time?”
Flowers had actually been finished for around ten months before its release. Nearly three years ago, Nail arrived at producer Anderson East’s studio, knocking on the door of someone he had never spoken to before. Four or five hours later, the two had written “The Crown,” the song that would ultimately start the album’s journey.
Nail and East continued meeting about once a month, writing five songs together. One of them, “Skyline,” brought singer-songwriter Lori McKenna into the process. For Nail, it marked a turning point.
“I would say ‘Skyline’ was the moment where I was, I think I’ve been around long enough to know that you can get lucky. I think it was just like the perfect time. I mean, I think Anderson obviously was open to it and I definitely think, had it been two years prior, that day that we were supposed to write, I’d have probably woke up with strep throat… and then it would have never happened.”
At five songs, Nail thought they had enough material for another EP. But the momentum continued. Nail and East eventually wrote 12 or 13 songs before narrowing the project down to its 10 strongest tracks. For Nail, having more songs than necessary was intentional.
“My philosophy has always been, let’s have more than we need. So, as bad as it stinks to sort of have to move on from something or for something to not make it or whatever, I’d rather have a selection and be able to sort of pick however many the best are than just say, ‘Okay, we have 10. These are the 10.’”
While the album came gradually, the title arrived suddenly. Nail originally considered self-titling the album but eventually settled on Flowers.
“I got an email and it was three or four different comments and they were all just more or less saying, ‘That’s the dumbest idea ever.’”
This moment led Nail to reconsider. He listened to the album again over an entire weekend, hoping it would convince him of a different title. One Sunday afternoon, as “I Bought The Flowers”—a song about his oldest daughter—finished playing, everything changed.
As the song wrapped up, he looked across his dashboard at a rose from his mother’s casket. She had passed away the previous November, and he had kept the rose which was now dried up.
“I still to this day have a rose that was from my mother’s casket. She passed away last November… For whatever reason that day about that much of it was poking around the left side of my screen as that song sort of ended and it just hit me right in the face.”
This moment decided the title. The cover came together just as spontaneously. Nail took a screenshot from Dropbox that left a white strip at the bottom, resembling an old Polaroid. He then recreated his mother’s handwriting for the word “Flowers“, making the album art a visual tribute to her.
“So it was sort of a way to pay tribute to my mom, and sort of in memory of her. And it all just sort of was very instant spur for the moment.”
The story behind the title Flowers holds a personal weight, but Nail sees his album as something deeper than just memories condensed into songs. For him, the album represents a version of himself that his listeners haven’t been able to hear in real time.
“I was kind of misrepresented. I’m out here promoting and singing songs, they’re new to everybody else, but they’re old to me.”
To describe this feeling, he gives an analogy:
“I’m 30, but hey, I want you to really listen to what David Nail was at 28. This is who I was at 28. And if you think about that, it’s like if you told people that, they’d be like, ‘No, I don’t care. You’re 30. I want to hear David Nail at 30.’ But it’s like, no, you’re gonna have to wait till I’m 32 to hear David Nail at 30.”
When recording Flowers, his life had undergone many changes. He was married now, with three children, and experienced the loss of his mother. And from then until now, the music has also changed.
With time, his relationship with performing and singing has evolved. He remembered listening back to his music and noticing how his approach had changed from different vocal choices and different keys. He credits these intentional decisions with making the music more meaningful.
“When you’re young, it’s like you want to show every song. You want to treat like you’re on American Idol. You want to show everybody what a great singer you are. And that doesn’t necessarily make the song better.”
Flowers reflects that same restraint. Nail isn’t trying to prove what his voice can do anymore. He’s more interested in what the song needs. This, in turn, gives the album that same kind of evolution he has undergone in his life, but instead is reflected directly in the choices of his sound. Even when in the studio with East, Nail knows where he stands with his music. He comments on this, quoting his producer, Anderson East:
“You may be able to sing this song higher. You may be able to put more volume and make it bigger and powerful and all that, but is that what it needs to convey the emotion and sell it?”
“Mississippi” and “Comeback History” came from different points in Nail’s career, but stripped down to a guitar and a voice, the distance between them seemed to disappear.
On his Down To The Studs Tour, Nail carries that philosophy onto the stage. Playing live, he brings a stripped-down version with only his guitar, stories, and songs that reveal his true self. When planning his setlist, Nail expected it would be difficult to bridge his old and new eras, but it turned out to be the opposite.
“I thought initially I was going to have to do a lot of bringing the old to the new… and I think it was the opposite. I think sort of they all kind of met in the middle.”
The connection between songs sometimes seemed worlds apart. The first song he ever recorded for his debut album, “Mississippi”, had not been performed by him since around 2009. Bringing it back for the tour meant performing it with just a guitar and taking away the original piano-heavy production. He then paired it up with a song from one of the EPs he felt deserved more attention, “Comeback History”.
“I always felt like it was way cooler than both sounding on the record and I felt like the idea of it was unique and original. And I think no one ever told me this, but I think I always felt like nobody really appreciated or talked about that song as much as I felt like maybe they should.”
Although they were separated by loads of time, they were suddenly on common ground. That realization shows his discovery throughout the making of Flowers: distance between different versions of yourself becomes smaller when everything unnecessary is removed.
His Down To The Studs Tour allows his music to exist from every era, but told by Nail in the present moment today. After years releasing music that would release after he became someone else, he found the space to release music that represents him right where he is at that exact moment. And he hopes fans can see that too. With this, David Nail will be performing at The Center For The Arts In Natick on Thursday, September 10th. Find tickets for his show in Boston here.
When asked what he hopes people take away from the show, Nail didn’t talk about perfection. He talked about being real.
“I’m about as real and raw as anybody else. And I’m just telling stories about my life that were inspired by my life that hopefully somebody can sort of identify with, be moved.”
He then gave his description that captured both the record and the tour through his eyes and intention:
“It is the most imperfect show they will ever go to and hopefully that’s what makes it unique and special.”
That imperfection is the point of the tour. Less proving what he can do, more showing up as exactly who he is. Find out more about Nail’s current tour, Down To The Studs, on his website, and experience the story for yourself, exactly as he intended it to be told.
