It's hard to believe the lyrics to Thompson Square's latest hit 'Glass' were penned by two virtual strangers. It penned during the first writing session ever between Ross Copperman and Jon Nite.
"Ross Copperman and I had spent maybe a total of 30 seconds together before the morning we wrote 'Glass,'" Nite tells Taste of Country. "Josh Vanvalkenburg at EMI and Jenny Gill at ZMG set us up to write a hit. They heard the songs we wrote independently, and they set us up to write. We met on Music Row, and we sat down and started talking. Ten minutes later, he started playing the lick to the song."
"I had one little line written down in my list of lines, which was almost the first of the song," he continues. "I think it was 'you can't love with a heart that can't be broken.' We fit the music by adding 'trying to live and love with a heart that can't be broken,' and we were off."
"Trying to live and love / With a heart that can't be broken / Is like trying to see the light with eyes that can't be opened / Yeah, we both carry baggage / We picked up on our way, so if you love me do it gently / And I will do the same," they wrote in the opening lyrics to the song.
"Honestly, the whole first write was like finding a life long friend and co-writer and writing one of the best songs we'd written in maybe an hour and a half," recalls Nite. "I remember Ross just pouring melodies out and sounds that were bits and pieces of words. It was inspiring, and I just wrote the words down I thought he was saying. We tossed them back and forth, and then I remember Ross spouted out something about 'Glass' as he sang what he felt. We knew that was it."
"I'll let you look inside me, through the stains and through the cracks / And in the darkness of this moment / You see the good in that / But try not to judge me, cause we've walked down different paths / But it brought us here together, so I won't take that back," they wrote in the song lyrics to the second verse.
"I met my wife when we were 15," says Nite. "We are still in love after hanging on for the next 15 years. We have been an exception to almost all rules about love. We've been through hell and back a handful of times, but we have been honest and transparent with each other. At times we are both good and bad, and we choose each other despite our flaws. We have seen a lot of rough times as a musician. We've had less than nothing for a lot of years. I couldn't think of a better song to change that for us!"
"After we left that day, we had the verses and music and [what we thought was the] chorus written," he adds. "The chorus turned out to be the bridge. On the way home, I started thinking the chorus lyrics were mysterious -- more like rock than country. I talked with my publisher who agreed. That night I wrote some lines I thought might work for the chorus. We got back together a week or so later and smoothed them out and finished it."
"We may shine, we may shatter / We may be picking up the pieces here on after / We are fragile, we are human / And we are shaped by the light we let through us / But we break fast / We are glass," they wrote in the finished chorus.
"'We are shaped by the light we let through us' is one of my favorite lines," notes Nite of the lyrics. "I am by nature, cynical. I know that happiness is something that we all crave and chase like crazy, but it is really a choice. This line is true to me. I wanna choose to be happy and leave less shadows in the doorways I pass through."
'Glass' eventually found its way to Thompson Square, who cut the tune for their debut album on Stoney Creek Records. The song was released as the followup single to their Top 5 hit, 'I Got You.'
"Since they set Ross and I up to write, I can't even count the number of awesome songs we've made up together," says Nite. "They would have never happened without 'Glass.' I couldn't be more thankful for Thompson Square's willingness to take a huge chance on us. Shawna's voice is perfectly strong and stirring, and Keifer just takes it over the top on harmony."
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