Derek Wells: Nashville Sessions, Demoitis, and Making Records

About Derek Wells

Derek Wells is a Nashville native, first-call multi-instrumentalist, and producer whose work reaches across country, pop, and rock. He has performed on more than 100 certified No. 1 songs, with credits that include Post Malone, Maren Morris, Morgan Wallen, Dolly Parton, Kenny Chesney, Shakira, Blake Shelton, P!nk, Thomas Rhett, Carrie Underwood, and many others.

Wells has also produced No. 1 records and serves as Vice President of A&R for Spirit Music Group's Nashville publishing office. In 2016, he became the youngest person to win the Academy of Country Music's Guitar Player of the Year award, later earning the honor for a second time.

What we talked about

• Knowing when to work as a guitarist, producer, editor, or publishing executive
• Why Nashville remains a stronghold for recording live bands with artists in the room
• How “demoitis” can shape—or limit—the way musicians approach a song
• The creative freedom behind Post Malone's F-1 Trillion sessions
• Balancing technical precision with the freedom to create something from scratch
• Recognizing creative burnout and putting the “sponge” back into input mode
• Why late-'90s and early-2000s rock sounds are returning to modern country
• How session musicians get hired and when Derek decides to turn down a project
• The mistakes, accidents, and background sounds that sometimes remain in records
• Pitching songs and connecting writers with artists through Spirit Music Nashville
• Creating his STL Tones ToneHub expansion pack from his own amps and recording chain
• Why decades of guitars and amplifiers are working tools rather than trophies

Knowing which hat to wear

Wells' work can shift quickly between producing artists, editing vocals, playing guitar, managing budgets, and handling the creative side of publishing. The key is understanding what role he was hired to fill on a particular day. When he is producing, he may guide the entire process. When producer Dann Huff hires him to play guitar on a Kane Brown session, Wells can contribute ideas while leaving the final direction in Huff's hands.

That narrower role can feel like a break. Playing guitar was the reason Wells entered the business, so sessions where he can concentrate on one instrument feel less like work than days filled with emails, editing, budgets, and executive decisions. His guitar playing has also changed as his producing career has grown: instead of trying to cover every part himself, he can focus from the control room and add only the pieces the record still needs.

Demoitis and the freedom of F-1 Trillion

“Demoitis” is what happens when an artist, label, or producer becomes attached to parts of a demo before the studio band starts recording. Even one guitar or drum part that must remain can affect every other decision. Wells has worked on sessions that required copying a demo almost exactly in a different key, sessions where nobody wanted the band to hear the demo at all, and every variation between those extremes.

Post Malone's F-1 Trillion was different because the songs often arrived as fresh writing-session recordings rather than carefully produced demos. That left room for Wells and a band that included Aaron Sterling, Dave Cohen, Paul Franklin, Larry Franklin, and Bryan Sutton to leave their own musical DNA on the record.

Wells enjoys both kinds of work. Recreating a demo can be a technical challenge: preserve what already works while improving the tone or changing one note. Starting with almost nothing offers more creative freedom, but doing that every day can drain the same muscles. The job is ultimately a service—making the artist's record, not a Derek Wells record.

Keeping the creative sponge wet

Wells compares creativity to a sponge. When it is full, ideas flow easily. After too much time in output mode, there is nothing left to wring out. His solution is often to get away from the guitar and deliberately return to input: watch movies, listen to television scores, take a drive, or hear music simply as a fan instead of analyzing it for work.

He also tries to avoid a creative echo chamber. That means exploring current pop and rock releases, returning to music from earlier decades, and asking friends what has caught their attention. Music that is genuinely vintage can create contrast with the present; music that is only a couple of years old can become an easy template to repeat.

Nashville's studio community can recharge him too. A day that begins flat can change when another musician arrives inspired and raises the energy of the whole room. Full-band tracking makes creativity communal: one player's idea can push everyone else toward something better.

Why Nashville tracking rooms still matter

Wells estimates that most of his guitar work still happens with the artist, producer, or a full band present. Remote recording remains useful for artists who live elsewhere or for what he calls a “country music emergency,” but Nashville makes it easy for people to be in the room and participate in the process.

Those rooms create the accidents that often make records memorable. A musician may play a demo part incorrectly and discover that everyone prefers the mistake. Another player may throw out the musical equivalent of a behind-the-back pass. Even background reactions can survive through open drum and room microphones, leaving voices, mistakes, or other sounds buried inside the finished track.

The same flexibility applies to gear. Wells may arrive with several amplifiers, cabinets, guitars, and a pedalboard without knowing what the first song will require. The sound reveals itself as the band hears the song, tests parts, and changes direction. On F-1 Trillion, much of his work came down to a smaller group of favorite amps and guitars, but the rest of the rig remained available in case the record suddenly went somewhere unexpected.

Publishing, ToneHub, and two decades of tools

At Spirit Music Nashville, Wells listens to songs from the company's writers, offers creative feedback, and helps connect the strongest material with the right artists, managers, or producers. The role draws on more than 20 years of relationships: when a song fits a particular artist, he often knows the most direct path for getting it heard.

His ToneHub expansion pack grew from a different practical need. Wells already had access to amplifiers, cabinets, microphones, and recording gear in his studio, but travel and his work as Post Malone's musical director made a reliable direct-recording setup valuable. He spent roughly a year capturing about 70 presets built from multiple amps, settings, and microphone combinations so the software could carry sounds from his physical studio into a laptop-based rig.

Wells is careful to explain that his gear collection did not appear all at once. It was built through decades of buying, selling, trading, and reinvesting as his career developed. He may have sentimental attachments to a few pieces, but most of the collection is practical. The instruments and amplifiers are wrenches: each one makes a particular job easier or fits a particular sound better.

Episode highlights

1. 0:19 Moving between production, guitar work, vocal editing, and publishing
2. 5:04 Why Nashville still records artists and full bands together
3. 7:17 Demoitis and the open creative process behind F-1 Trillion
4. 14:01 Recognizing when the creative sponge has gone dry
5. 19:30 The return of heavy rock and '90s country influences
6. 22:28 How Nashville session musicians get hired
7. 27:12 Happy accidents and improvised moments that stay in records
8. 30:42 Running the creative side of publishing at Spirit Music Nashville
9. 33:11 Building a ToneHub expansion pack from his own studio sounds
10. 37:30 How a working gear collection grows over decades
11. 40:15 Choosing the guitars and amplifiers used on F-1 Trillion