Gerard O'Riley

I joined a songwriter's forum, primarily for country music songwriters, thinking I'd fit right in. I didn't. At all. It's all about pop radio hit country, the stuff they call "bro country." I don't typically write stuff like that. But, okay, I can technically. So, I thought I would. This is a very upbeat, heavy, tempo-driven song that's almost spoken-word in the verses yet explodes in the chorus and is the typical sort of "bro country" that's popular today.

There are so many love songs written, and I've written my fair share, though I wanted to get a little different, a little creative, and really tell a story asking the question: What if "love" were a place? Would you be weary traveling there? Would you want to go? How does it make one feel to cross the borders of "Love" and enter it? I like how this turned out.

While I still write and certainly listen to sad love songs, I don't always want them sad. This is a song about a guy who's crushed that his girl left him, but the overall tone of the song is just reflective, a guy looking back on the good in his life, and isn't necessarily written to be some emotional tear-jerker. It's far more upbeat than that.

Romeo and Juliette is the age-old classic about two lovers. Though how realistic is that for everyone? This song re-imagines Romeo and Juliette with a smaller, sorta nerdy Romeo who's head over heels in love with a Juliette that doesn't love him back. I wondered what that scenario would look like, so I wrote it into a fun, quirky song. "Hold on, Juliette, I'm comin'!"

Most country music that touches on anything related to "love" deals with adult themes. But before we were adults we were all teenagers, and most of us had that teenage love. Especially younger boys, as I was once a younger boy, get very excited against spending time with their girlfriends -- we're just not too thrilled when their mama is there! So this is a fun little playful song about that. One of my favorites.