5 Things to Know About Singer-Songwriter Ron Pope and 'Calling Off the Dogs'

Remember that hit song "A Drop in the Ocean"?

Of course you do. Well, the guy behind it has a brand new album out that you have to get your hands on. Ron Pope got on the phone with us to chat about his eleventh studio album, Calling Off The Dogs, and here are the 5 things you need to know about him.

5: He had dreams of another occupation before becoming a musician. "I wanted to be a baseball player," said the Georgia native. "I played the first two years of college, but then I got hurt. I've always loved music and been in bands, but once I couldn't play baseball anymore, [music] became the essential focus of my life."

4: Ron is a pop-rock singer-songwriter, but he appreciates all kinds of music. "As an artist, everything you hear has to influence you in some way. Whether it's 'I definitely want to do that' or 'I don't want any of that in my music.'" His family's eclectic taste rubbed off on him. "My parents liked country music, Elvis, Sinatra and soul music. My mom's into pop and my dad is more rock. The first thing I found on my own was hip-hop."

3: His biggest hit yet, "A Drop in the Ocean," was actually written in 2005, which was years before it was released on The Bedroom Demos in 2008, but that's not out of the ordinary for Ron. "All of my songs kind of come from the same place. I'll sit down to write and whether I have a melodic idea or some chords - I just sit and hash it out. I'm one of those people that write a lot of songs and then I'll figure out what works and doesn't work."

2: The 30-year-old singer put in overtime for his latest album, Calling Off the Dogs. "I wrote 50 songs or so," he told us." Well the strategy seems to have paid off - he even got his album title from his favorite song on the album.

1: "I came up with a bunch of titles and a lot of them felt generic," Ron told us about his interesting album name. "In the song 'Silver Spoon,' there's a line that says 'When they're calling off the dogs, and you're sleeping on the lawn, will your heart desert me?' This record to me feels incredibly original, so I felt like it needed a title that felt unique. I felt like it was a very distinct title."

Grab your copy of Calling Off the Dogs today.