Music

When Dylan Schneider released his first full-length album Sept. 27, he titled it Puzzled, recognizing after at least five previous EPs that the pieces of his musical persona were fitting together better than ever before.

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“This whole process of creating the album was figuring out, you know, who I am now as an artist, what I want to say, where I want to go with my music,” he says. “And I think that this collection is the best representation and the best songwriting I’ve done.”

A new single from the project, “Better Than You Left Me,” behaves much like a sonic puzzle — it employs a hook with the kind of verbal twist that’s associated with country songwriting, and it opens with a jigsaw instrumental riff, a simple acoustic guitar arpeggio that interlocks with a three-note “drunk steel thing,” as producer Zach Abend characterizes it. That intro establishes a mildly mysterious tone for a piece about a familiar conundrum.

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“It’s a classic sentiment,” Schneider notes. “Someone’s moving on, they’re finally doing good, they’re happier, they found somebody new, and the second that word gets out about that, you know, the person that did them wrong wants to come back around and try to mess it up or sneak back in. I feel like that happens all the time.”

“Better Than You Left Me” arose Oct. 10, 2022, on the first day of a multi-day writing retreat at Nashville’s SMACK offices, where a handful of songwriters crafted material for Schneider. As Schneider drifted periodically between dueling writing rooms, Michael Tyler (“Somewhere on a Beach,” “Mind on You”) and unrelated Brett Tyler (“Cold Beer Calling My Name,” “Wild as Her”) settled into the office of Lalo Guzman (“Cowboy Songs”), and after a long period of catching up, one of the Tylers – which one remains an enigma – offered up the “Better Than You Left Me” word game. It finds the singer in conversation with an ex, affirming that he’s feeling better than when they broke up, but also noting that he’s become a better man since meeting the new girlfriend.

Schneider remembers Michael throwing out the title, though neither of the Tylers is certain who introduced it. Even if the title was Michael’s, Brett had a similar one in his notes, helping to crystallize the song’s direction.

“The idea that I had was sort of that ‘Leave the world better than you found it’ sort of thing,” Brett recalls. “It kind of stems from that quote, and I was thinking it’d be interesting if you were in a relationship and it was bad, [but] the next person is going to get me better than you left me.”

To get the music going, Guzman called up a program that allows a keyboard to approximate acoustic guitars. That might make traditionalists scoff, but it has a practical application in a group setting. “Instead of me being like, ‘Everyone be quiet, I’m gonna mic this up,’ it’s just an easier way to keep the vibe going in the room,” Guzman says.

And since the programmed version requires pressing keys instead of plucking strings, it also changes some of the creative possibilities. “When I’m playing the acoustic on a keyboard, I’m playing completely different methods,” Guzman says, “and I’m playing completely different inversions of chords that spark a completely different way of feeling and thinking.”

He used that set-up to create the acoustic guitar riff for the intro, and it shifted the group out of its chatty disposition and into more focused progress on the assignment. “After Lalo brought that track up,” Michael says, “it kind of jump-started the whole song.”

The arpeggiation inspired a fairly linear verse melody, and they explored the protagonist’s situation, introducing a breakup-induced period of bar-hopping, when he felt like an “empty glass.” After repeating the linear melody twice, they introduced a pre-chorus with an “I saw the light” positivity that created an anticipation for the chorus.

Even in that early stage, they knew that segment was strong enough they should repeat it again later. “If it’s good enough for the pre-chorus, then it should be good enough for the bridge,” Michael suggests.

That “pre” shifted straight into a hooky chorus that varies between elongated phrasing and lighter, bouncy passages that work in tandem even as they contrast. “I always like crafting melodies where you give something really staccato, almost, and right on the beat, and then throw in a curve ball that makes it pop out a little bit more,” Brett says. “It’s a push-and-pull thing.”

In the second verse, the ex reappears in what could be interpreted as a booty call, or – now that he’s found someone new – a play to take the guy back. Regardless of the motive, the singer pushes back, confirming in the process that he really is in a “Better” place. “You want to find somebody that not only will make you feel better, but will make you a better person, will make you work on yourself,” Schneider notes.

Michael sang lead on the demo, and Guzman finished the bulk of it during the session’s final moments, blanketing the faux arpeggiated-guitar intro with a simple, three-note atmospheric part. “That was something I created with a little pitch-bend on the keyboard,” he says. “I have a couple sounds that I do that with to create a vibe, that you really can’t do without doing it that way.”

When Schneider went to record Puzzled, he included “Better Than You Left Me” in a large batch of potential songs he presented to Abend, who was convinced that it should be part of the project. There was little pre-production conversation about “Better” – Schneider trusted Abend would know what to do with it. For his part, Abend thought he should stick close to Guzman’s roadmap.

“It had that trappy beat, and that sig lick was in there,” Abend says. “It was so like a Lalo kind of demo, kind of more on the urban side.” They recorded “Better” at Sound Stage on Nashville’s Music Row, mixing real musicians with some programmed pieces. The snare sound, for example, was the thin, ticky-ticky style originally popularized in hip-hop recordings, instead of Nir Z’s thicker snare pops. It was tucked in with Tim Galloway’s banjo, the two instruments combining to define the percussive support.

“A real snare would have gotten too busy,” Abend notes.

“There’s no gaps in the lyrics,” he added. “I wanted to put fills everywhere, but it would distract, I think.”

However, guitarist Justin Ostrander took a solo in the middle of the song, deftly rippling his way through a scene-changing side journey. Schneider recorded his final vocal at Sound Emporium, deviating in a few spots from Michael’s original phrasing to make the performance a little more personal. “He sounds really effortless,” Brett says, “and also really believable.”

Wheelhouse originally planned to release “Carhartt,” the opening track on Puzzled, as a single, but “Better” – even though it was the 14th cut on the project – generated nearly the same number of streams. The label took notice and switched its plan, issuing “Better Than You Left Me” to country radio via PlayMPE on Jan. 7, with Jan. 27 pinpointed as the official add date. It’s catchy; it’s also relaxed enough to assist Schneider’s promotion efforts.

“It’s not like a straining thing,” he says. “You can just be easy and run around stage, have fun, and focus a little more on your performance and getting the crowd excited. Which, I think that’s what this song does anyway.”