Earlier this month, Dan + Shay shared on Twitter that they'd met eight years ago that day (Dec. 7). They added a loudly crying face emoji, which said so much about how grateful they feel about having been together as a duo for so long. (About 54,000 hours longer than "10,000 Hours," their recent No. 1 Grammy-nominated collaboration with Justin Bieber.)

As legend has it, Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney originally met in Nashville at a house party at Smyers' home and hit it off immediately. And in a recent radio interview, they talked about where it all began with Where It All Began.

"That album was just a collection of demos. We had met, we were writing two or three songs a day," Smyers recalls of the music they'd made on his laptop. And when they asked their record label when they could start making their debut album, they said, "What do you mean? Your album's done."

Their debut single "19 You + Me" was released in October 2013, less than a year after they met.

The duo also opened up about how the slow pace of the pandemic has allowed them both to take a good, long look at their eight years of successes. "When you're in it, it's really hard to slow down because you're keeping your head down and working really hard," Mooney explained. "So after Dan and I had quarantined for what felt like two years, we talked for three hours about how cool it is that we get to do music with a best friend."

"This year, all these milestones sink in a little bit more," Smyers added. "Eight years. It's been crazy to look back and see all the fans sharing memories. And I think that in itself is the gift.

"We feel like we're just getting started."