The last time Nathan Chapman collaborated with Taylor Swift, they won the Grammy for Album of the Year.
If early indications are any prediction, he's on his way to a set of Grammy bookends by spring.
Chapman is the Lee University alumnus who produced all but one track on Swift's self-titled debut album and all of her sophomore CD, "Fearless."
On Oct. 25, their third collaboration, "Speak Now," hits stores.
Its first single, "Mine," shot to No. 35 on Billboard's Top Country Songs within two hours of its release in August, according to Nikki Burns, publicist with Swift's label, Big Machine Records.
The title track, "Speak Now," notched No. 1 on iTunes All-Genre Singles and iTunes Country Singles charts within hours of its release Oct. 7. Its first-day sales surpassed 85,600 downloads, according to Burns.
Chapman calls "Speak Now" the "next logical step" in Swift's musical growth.
"This CD is more about where she is in life now. She's maturing as a person and songwriter," Chapman said in a phone interview from his Nashville-area home.
"The consistency between 'Fearless' and 'Speak Now' is that she has always been writing about what she's feeling at the moment. It's similar to 'Fearless' in that she is being transparent and very real in her lyrics. But where she is in life now is different."
In March, the country music industry officially recognized "Fearless" as the most awarded album in the history of country music. It is the only album to win the Grammy's all-genre Album of The Year, plus Country Album of the Year honors from the Grammys, Country Music Association, Academy of Country Music and the American Music Awards.
And Chapman has achieved this pinnacle of success in less than a decade after graduating in Lee's class of 2000.
Life at Lee
Chapman is the son of Christian singers Steve and Annie Chapman.
"I grew up in the studio and on tour with them my whole life. Lee was kind of an escape for me. By the time I was 19, I was burned out on being on the road," he said.
After hearing a touring Lee choir at his church in Nashville, he enrolled at Lee as an English major.
He met his future wife, Stephanie, while on a Lee cross-cultural trip to Normandy. The six-week study-abroad program in France was held at Chez Vous, where she was a staff member.
"I always thought Nathan was a deep thinker and his own person," said Dr. James Wilkins, professor of French at Lee, who accompanied students on that trip.
"He was very congenial and very individual. Looking back, I guess those are good traits for someone who's in the world Nathan is now," said the professor.
Chapman said he and Stephanie fell in love in France and married upon their return. She was an aspiring singer/songwriter.
"When you're trying to impress a girl and she says, 'I want to sing,' that's when you say, 'Oh, I know how to do all that stuff,' " he joked.
But her career did draw him back to the business after college.
"She ended up at a publishing company where Taylor was co-writing with different people," which is how he met the future country phenom.
Swift Success
Neither he nor Swift had ever made a record when the two paired for her debut CD.
Why take a chance on an unknown, who was then a teenager, for his first producing gig?
"I'd known Taylor for a couple of years and really loved her songs and dug her as an artist. We really hit it off on all those levels. She basically gave me my first shot," he said.
The pair recorded her original songs in the basement studio of his home.
Swift has said in interviews that she'd walk into sessions with two dozen or more songs, and Chapman would help her narrow the choices for the album tracks.
He said his song-selection formula was: the staying power of the lyrics plus how their selections merged as a cohesive body of work.
"Sometimes you like a song, but that song will wane in appeal over time. It's usually a combination of a gut feeling about a song and how that song appeals the more time passes," he explained.
"My role as producer is to help her get her ideas out. She may have a particular kind of guitar sound in mind; she'll describe it to me, and I'll help her realize that.
"We'd figure out together even what tempo the songs should be. Those little details seem kind of small after the album is finished, but at the time those are big decisions. I help her sort through what she is trying to accomplish."
He credits the success of her CDs with opening doors for him.
In the last three years he has produced tracks or CDs for Jason Walker, Rissi Palmer, Point of Grace, Jewel and Train. He has played guitar on recordings for John Oates and Trisha Yearwood and had a song recorded by Martina McBride.
Chapman produced five tracks on The Band Perry's current EP and is working with a new country band signed to Atlantic Records, The Invites.
"I've had the opportunity to work with some cool people who wouldn't have known about me had this not all happened," he said.
"I get to live a pretty exciting version of what I was hoping my life would be as a producer. It's cool. From day to day I never know who I'll get to meet or make music with."