Dan and Shay's Dan Smyers didn't always know he was going to be a musician. In fact, if he hadn't gone this route, he'd probably be working on Wall Street. The singer reveals that his major was far from studying Music Theory, but shares that math and music actually have a lot in common.

Taste of Country Nights host Sam Alex caught up with Smyers recently and got him to open up about his life before Dan + Shay. The singer attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. As an undergrad, his major was essentially the opposite of music. Sort of.

“I dig incorporating the finance and that kind of mathematical background into what we do here," Smyers tells Alex. "You’re kind of running a business. I love writing the music, and music is very mathematical as well, you know. I love being in the studio and when you’re in Pro Tools you can see all the grids and how things work and that kind of stuff."

Smyers' alma mater seems to be proud of the singer, as he was recently honored on their website.

“They actually did a little feature on me, which was really cool," he explains. "It was crazy ‘cause my friends all read that stuff and they were all sending me all the cool stuff that’s happened to us in the past year. That was like the thing, they were like, ‘Dude, you were on the front page of CMU.edu. It’s crazy!’"

Adds Smyers modestly, "But hey, I’ll take it. I’ll take what I can get."

Sam Alex is the host of Taste of Country Nights radio, a syndicated night show which airs on more than 60 Townsquare Media Group stations nationwide.

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