Story Behind the Song: Chris Bandi, ‘Man Enough Now’
In his single "Man Enough Now," Chris Bandi sends a message to an ex: It wasn't you, it was him. The introspective song finds the singer-songwriter confessing that it was inexperience that doomed a relationship, and admitting that he's grown enough to be good enough -- "man enough" -- for that love now.
Bandi co-wrote "Man Enough Now" with Jason Massey, a good writing buddy, and Jason Duke, a brand-new-to-him co-writer. Read on as Bandi shares the story behind the song with The Boot.
I got really lucky. I was set up for the first time to write with Jason Massey right after he signed his first publishing deal in Nashville. We got a song that we both loved that day and started writing a lot more. He texted me a few weeks before we wrote “Man Enough Now” and said, “Hey, I’ve got this friend who I think we could write something great with.”
That friend was Jason Duke. Jason Massey and I had written a few times before we wrote "Man Enough Now,” [but] I believe it was the first time all three of us had write together.
I brought in the idea, thinking about a previous relationship that I had been in. I started thinking, if she and I had met a little later in life, would it have worked out? I did a lot of dumb stuff that young guys do in their 20s when they’re not ready for a relationship. I felt as if I had matured a bit since then and was "man enough now" for a relationship.
It really did come together quickly: I think we wrote it in about two hours. It was one of those songs that, everything just started clicking in the room. I really love the line “It’s too bad we happened when we did, 'cause I’ve learned a lot about life since then.” To me, I feel as if that really shows the maturity of growing up and realizing and being able to admit the mistakes you made.
We sat in the room for about 30-45 minutes wondering if we should really say “get my s--t together” in the original version. We knew that if we were going to take it to radio that would have to be changed, but in the end, I feel like that’s what you really want to say in that situation. And if it got to the point where radio was going to start playing it, we were very happy to make the change.
The original demo was just an acoustic guitar and my vocals. We knew we had something special but really didn’t know what to do with it. I was a new artist in town with no publishing deal, no record deal, so I was very lucky that Jason and Jason let me take some time to figure out a game plan before letting anyone else cut the song ... Jason Massey did a phenomenal job taking it from that to what you hear today.
The reaction has been incredible. We never really knew if anyone would ever hear this song, honestly!
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