Story Behind the Song: Gone West, ‘What Could’ve Been’

Gone West wrote their single "What Could've Been" with Jamie Kenney, who ended up also serving as the song's producer. For a band working on their debut project as a foursome, still refining their sound and honing in on what it is that makes them special, the writing session that produced this song was an important step toward who Gone West are today.

Read on to learn more about the story behind "What Could've Been," told by Gone West themselves.

Nellie Joy: We went in with no expectations, because we had never written with Jamie all together before. I was a huge fan of his from an album he did a long time ago, with this girl named Erin McCarley. So I've always been a huge fan, but never thought he would necessarily become the missing piece for our band. But that's kind of what happened, starting that day. We walked in, and he said he had been listening to our EP in the shower ...

Justin Young: Which is apparently his routine to prep for a session ... 

Joy: And then he had this chorus-melody idea, and it immediately hit all of us, and we wrote it pretty quickly.

Colbie Caillat: We loved it. It's so different for every song, figuring out who's singing what verse, or who's singing what harmony. Some songs have been easier than others, or we'll have to experiment, or track it in a different key, because we realized we made the wrong choice the first time. But with this song, it was really just effortless, every step of the way, with writing it and recording it and figuring out who was singing what part. It was just so natural. It's just such a special chorus, when we all four come together. We feel something when we sing it together. There's something different about it.

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