Fast, Slow And Weird Co-Writes With Steve Battey And Zac Maloy

The songwriting collaborators have worked on 20 songs or so together and co-creating them happened all different kinds of ways.

In 2016, Nashville Chapter hosted this conversation between collaborating songwriters Zac Maloy and Steve Battey, who have worked on about 20 songs together. Maloy began with the Nixons and remembers writing his first song for them in the 15 minutes it took to drive from his home to his band's rehearsal studio. That's in contrast with the GRAMMY nominated Miranda Lambert classic "The House That Built Me" co-written by songwriting exemplar Tom Douglas, mentor and model for many — that one took six months. Battey recalls the funny sectioning he came in on, for his parts of "Eenie Meenie" performed and co-written by Justin Bieber and Sean Kingston, with several other co-writers. Battey thought it was "a weird co-write but it all worked out." "What separates songwriters from normal human beings? It's kind of that we're dumb enough to keep going," Maloy said. As he later explains, the purpose is to "be blinders-on enough for that moment when you do actually get that song."

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