Drake White Gravitated Toward Soulfulness Of ‘Livin’ The Dream’

When Drake White first heard “Livin’ The Dream,” he wasn’t quite sure what hit him. Although he’s an artist who typically writes his own music, there was something about the track that he knew he just had to be a part of.

“What really stood out to me was kinda the groove of it,” White tells Sounds Like Nashville. “I’m more of a throwback model of a traditional type guy. I wouldn’t call it traditional, there’s just this soulful thing that I just really gravitate towards and this song had a really cool thing in the beat of it. It just starts out kinda lazy and it’s about that groove and establishing that groove. That kinda stood out to me.”

But the funky groove wasn’t the only thing that the singer/songwriter noticed. It was also the lyrics that Jaren Johnston (of The Cadillac Three), Luke Laird and Tom Douglas had written.

“I started listening to what Jaren was saying, what he was singing and I was like ‘Wow,’” he explains. “It was one of the first times in my life I can actually see myself putting my stamp and making this a Drake White song on this tune. ‘Cause I say that all the time. Everybody’s always like, ‘What’s going on, Drake?’ And I’m always like, “Livin’ the dream.” And everybody does that, living the dream and just hanging out.”

One person White new he had to get a stamp of approval on was Big Machine Label Group’s president and CEO, Scott Borchetta. “When I let Scott hear my take on it, he was like, ‘I think this is a smash!’ I thought, ‘Cool, well if you think it’s a smash, you have a pretty good track record, so let’s go for it!’”

“Livin’ The Dream” is currently at country radio. White will perform the song on NBC’s TODAY show on April 18.

Fans can catch him on the road this summer as part of Zac Brown Band’s 2016 Black Out The Sun Tour, kicking off May 19 in Hartford, CT at the XFINITY Theatre.