When Jessie James Decker put pen to paper to write her current single “Lights Down Low,” she wanted it to feel real. “I feel like I have to write from experience,” the artist and songwriter says. “I feel like if I’m up there singing songs that I don’t really relate to or that I feel like are not me, I have such a hard time making [the audience] believe it.”
For “Lights Down Low,” Decker shares from her booking agency’s offices in downtown Nashville, the hook came right away. “I just [kept] singing, baby durn the lights down low,” she says. She sent the idea to close friend Alyssa Bonagura, who liked it, co-writing it with Decker to completion.
“I started thinking about like what do I want to say in this song,” Decker says, “and at that moment, Eric and I were hanging out, the kids were asleep, and I was like, I’m gonna write about us. How we just make date nights at home because we don’t have time to go anywhere half the time cause we’ve got kids, and busy lives, and you still have to make that time to be with each other. So I pretty much listed everything that he and I do on a date night. The only thing I missed in there, which I’m mad [about], is we play cards.”
Eric, Decker’s husband, is in the NFL, which, she says, influences their choice of card game. “They play card games on the plane, they like make up these games,” she says. “So they’re not real games. Half the time I don’t even know if he’s really winning because I’m like, this is made up, this is bull!”
Cards aside, the song and video, in which Eric Decker co-stars, capture their relationship well. Even the house in Malibu where the video was shot bears a strong resemblance to their home in Georgia. It’s far from the first time the Deckers have shared the more private side of their lives, as fans of their reality show on E!, Eric & Jessie: Game On, can attest.
“I feel like the vulnerability is very similar when you are just letting people in,” Decker says. “With songwriting you get to be a little more creative with it and you can choose your words wisely with how much you wanna say. With reality TV you just have to trust the team around you that they’re gonna portray you in the way that you are. Eric and I were lucky enough that they did.”
Letting vulnerability be a part of her songwriting is something Decker did a lot of for her upcoming album, which will follow the single in the country-pop vein. “I felt like finally as an artist I’m not gonna try to be something I’m not, I’m just gonna make music that feels good to me,” Decker says. She wrote all but two songs on the album, which came to her from co-writer and publishing company Big Yellow Dog colleague Maren Morris. “I’ve finally done that with this record,” she continues, “where [my producer’s] job was to make it all sound consistent and it was my job to write it and make it everything that I wanted.” Decker, who has two young children, notes that she wants her music to be something families can enjoy. “I want to be a role model and I want my kids to be proud and to be able to come to my shows,” she says.
When she’s not working, Decker likes to cook. She cooks three meals a day; recently, she says, she’s been doing a lot with arugula, a green that has more health benefits than kale. Decker pairs her culinary creations with Parisian cafe music or Brazilian bossa nova. “I like really vibey music when I’m at home, just to mellow me out,” she says.