The Sit Down with The Shires
Pioneering British country duo The Shires; Ben Earle and Crissie Rhodes, return with their first album in four years, “Bonfire” this Friday on June 3rd which is available to pre-order HERE. Headed up by lead single “Getaway Car” which made country music history when it became the first track by British artists to top the Official UK Country Radio Airplay Chart on Sunday 12th April. Since their breakthrough, the duo have solidified their position as the most decorated acts in country music on this side of the Atlantic who have played some of the biggest stages in the UK including this past weekend at American Express presents BST Hyde Park where they opened The Great Oak Stage on the same day as Garth Brooks. Following on from the festival and ahead of the release of the new record, we caught up with Ben to talk all about their sixth studio album.
Good to see you mate, how was Hyde Park for you on Saturday?
“It was incredible. I don't know if you heard but we had a false start, we went on and the sound just cut out on everything. I mean, we couldn't tell, obviously so it was very weird for me mostly because I've had a lot of stage fright over my life, like heart pounding and stuff so everything seems a lot bigger when you're that anxious. Actually, I walked out for almost the first time since I can remember and I felt absolutely fine, it was kind of like seeing in HD or 4K where everything was so clear and I felt really positive and happy. Then it was like Hi, Hyde Park and then everything just went off like a nightmare. You could see all these people just looking at us and going we can't hear you, we can't hear you, so, apart from that, it was amazing. We came back on and it was just amazing to see just how far country has come. Selfishly for us, being on that stage is an amazing thing, but just to think that there's seventy thousand people there in the day for Garth Brooks and country fans, it's just incredible. Hyde Park is just such a special thing. I feel so lucky that we get to play there, it's the fourth time we played in Hyde Park and, for some reason, I don't know, being away for a few years, made more grateful and understanding of how amazing it is.”
Good to see you mate, how was Hyde Park for you on Saturday?
“It was incredible. I don't know if you heard but we had a false start, we went on and the sound just cut out on everything. I mean, we couldn't tell, obviously so it was very weird for me mostly because I've had a lot of stage fright over my life, like heart pounding and stuff so everything seems a lot bigger when you're that anxious. Actually, I walked out for almost the first time since I can remember and I felt absolutely fine, it was kind of like seeing in HD or 4K where everything was so clear and I felt really positive and happy. Then it was like Hi, Hyde Park and then everything just went off like a nightmare. You could see all these people just looking at us and going we can't hear you, we can't hear you, so, apart from that, it was amazing. We came back on and it was just amazing to see just how far country has come. Selfishly for us, being on that stage is an amazing thing, but just to think that there's seventy thousand people there in the day for Garth Brooks and country fans, it's just incredible. Hyde Park is just such a special thing. I feel so lucky that we get to play there, it's the fourth time we played in Hyde Park and, for some reason, I don't know, being away for a few years, made more grateful and understanding of how amazing it is.”
Yeah, it's crazy to think about really because when you guys were first starting up and when I started doing this, the idea of a country event in Hyde Park for the third year running was so far out. Then Garth obviously playing to the biggest crowd they’ve ever had there really shows how far country music has come over here and as much as you see numbers on Spotify or socials, that is where you physically see it your eyes right in front of you.
“Yeah and also feeling it as well. I think what you just eluded to with Spotify, Apple and stuff, you see these numbers and the same with Instagram and TikTok where it is two thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand or whatever it is and you forget the energy of that many people who just love music, just want to listen to music and get lost in it. I've been doing it with The Shires for thirteen years now and you kind of, I hate to say, but you get complacent, you don't realise you're complacent. You don't realise that but when you walk on stage and you have a whole crowd Hallelujahing or singing “Tonight” or “Nashville Grey Skies” or “Daddy’s Little Girl” and not everyone has that! I think speaking to people coming up on the scene like Outpost Drive who are good friends of mine and even Kezia who’s doing really well, but she's you know, still growing and I don’t know what is happening inside of me but I’m just so grateful. Also, people like Ashley (McBryde) who I had on my podcast and she came up to me with a big hug, I feel like we're kind of colleagues now and there's a mutual respect amongst a lot of US artists as well, which I think for a long time, as UK artists, we didn't feel like we were taken seriously. I feel like now just being on that stage and also having the love of Ashley, Jackson Dean is a good friend of mine as well and even Garth asking us to be on the stage, it's just an absolutely incredible thing.”
Coming on to being on that sort of parity with the Americans and looking ahead to Long Road where you guys are headlining the Friday night so you're on the same level as what Bailey and Maren are. You’ve headlined there before but it was when it first started and on a smaller scale where now so many people want to come over, yet still you can show everybody you’re just as good as the Americans are and people believe in you.
“I think the people believing us thing is definitely true. I saw figures for the tour in November and it just blows me away with how many tickets we sell, how many fans we have here and it's an amazing thing. Selfishly again, I just love Long Road and I like that I’m lucky to have a free ticket ha-ha. Then playing it as well is just so great, Bailey is huge and Maren is massive, but I know that all those artists love coming to the UK because we just really appreciate country music in a way that isn't the same in the States. It's just different, it's not bad or better, it's just different and I feel really proud that we’ve just been part of the scene for so long and still are. Playing for a UK crowd, there's nothing like it!
Talking about the tour, you've got someone joining you that's coming from even further afield, you know, that must a nice short twenty-four hour flight or something but it’s so cool that you’ve got KBell joining you and her getting the chance to play a lot more shows than she’s been able to play over here. Have you done much stuff with Kaylee before?
“We're just friends. I was introduced to her by Sinead Burgess and it's funny actually, because Sinead said to me at C2C, I can't remember which year it was but it was like seven years ago or something and she said her friend Kaylee was coming over so we should meet up and we were just really busy so I just didn’t make the time ha-ha. I felt really guilty about it and also, I think at points and this sounds awful, but I felt I had a lot of friends and I just didn't have time to make any new friends, so I didn't see Kaylee on that trip. We laugh about it now because we get on so well, we’ve hung out in Nashville a few times and we just message each other now and again then she said I see your tour is happening? Can I come on tour with you? I was like yeah, that would be amazing because she's the most streamed female country artist from down under of all time and she's brilliant. She's so good, I know our fans will love her and I think people are paying a lot to come and see us, so we want them to have an amazing night and I think Kaylee will be awesome. It'll be so much fun as well.”
“Yeah and also feeling it as well. I think what you just eluded to with Spotify, Apple and stuff, you see these numbers and the same with Instagram and TikTok where it is two thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand or whatever it is and you forget the energy of that many people who just love music, just want to listen to music and get lost in it. I've been doing it with The Shires for thirteen years now and you kind of, I hate to say, but you get complacent, you don't realise you're complacent. You don't realise that but when you walk on stage and you have a whole crowd Hallelujahing or singing “Tonight” or “Nashville Grey Skies” or “Daddy’s Little Girl” and not everyone has that! I think speaking to people coming up on the scene like Outpost Drive who are good friends of mine and even Kezia who’s doing really well, but she's you know, still growing and I don’t know what is happening inside of me but I’m just so grateful. Also, people like Ashley (McBryde) who I had on my podcast and she came up to me with a big hug, I feel like we're kind of colleagues now and there's a mutual respect amongst a lot of US artists as well, which I think for a long time, as UK artists, we didn't feel like we were taken seriously. I feel like now just being on that stage and also having the love of Ashley, Jackson Dean is a good friend of mine as well and even Garth asking us to be on the stage, it's just an absolutely incredible thing.”
Coming on to being on that sort of parity with the Americans and looking ahead to Long Road where you guys are headlining the Friday night so you're on the same level as what Bailey and Maren are. You’ve headlined there before but it was when it first started and on a smaller scale where now so many people want to come over, yet still you can show everybody you’re just as good as the Americans are and people believe in you.
“I think the people believing us thing is definitely true. I saw figures for the tour in November and it just blows me away with how many tickets we sell, how many fans we have here and it's an amazing thing. Selfishly again, I just love Long Road and I like that I’m lucky to have a free ticket ha-ha. Then playing it as well is just so great, Bailey is huge and Maren is massive, but I know that all those artists love coming to the UK because we just really appreciate country music in a way that isn't the same in the States. It's just different, it's not bad or better, it's just different and I feel really proud that we’ve just been part of the scene for so long and still are. Playing for a UK crowd, there's nothing like it!
Talking about the tour, you've got someone joining you that's coming from even further afield, you know, that must a nice short twenty-four hour flight or something but it’s so cool that you’ve got KBell joining you and her getting the chance to play a lot more shows than she’s been able to play over here. Have you done much stuff with Kaylee before?
“We're just friends. I was introduced to her by Sinead Burgess and it's funny actually, because Sinead said to me at C2C, I can't remember which year it was but it was like seven years ago or something and she said her friend Kaylee was coming over so we should meet up and we were just really busy so I just didn’t make the time ha-ha. I felt really guilty about it and also, I think at points and this sounds awful, but I felt I had a lot of friends and I just didn't have time to make any new friends, so I didn't see Kaylee on that trip. We laugh about it now because we get on so well, we’ve hung out in Nashville a few times and we just message each other now and again then she said I see your tour is happening? Can I come on tour with you? I was like yeah, that would be amazing because she's the most streamed female country artist from down under of all time and she's brilliant. She's so good, I know our fans will love her and I think people are paying a lot to come and see us, so we want them to have an amazing night and I think Kaylee will be awesome. It'll be so much fun as well.”
Coming on to the record that is coming out on Friday, it’s the first one through Blue Highway but probably at the time you made this decision it was under the old entity. When you spoke to Ian last time, you'd said that it came about after you reached out to Alex (Hannaby) so what was it about Big Machine or HYBE as it now comes under that really attracted you to there being the place that you wanted to be releasing music through?
“I felt that with the last two records, we just fell in the middle of the Atlantic a bit. I just felt like we were too country for the UK and it was too UK for country, not with the records themselves but just the perception of it. It's not something that Big Machine UK had ever done and I'd always hang out with Alex every year at Country to Country so the idea just came into my head. I was like, well, they are the only dedicated UK arm of a Nashville label and we’re the best selling UK country act so surely there must be a thing that can happen. I think when we first started, I believed there was such an order to things, I thought there was the way you do things and what I’m learning now in my mid to late thirties, is that if you have an idea, just go for it. That's what we did at the start of The Shires, country was not a thing or it didn't feel like a thing but Crissie and I just loved it. We just believe that we could make it as a country and I've been blown away by Big Machine slash HYBE slash Blue Highway. For me it's just the ambition and bits like the line dancing thing on Saturday, we were like, let's do that, let's just do things and I feel like they never say no. They say, right, how can we make that happen, which is really exciting.”
“Bonfire” is album number six, which is probably crazy to think about when you hear it but since you put the last record out, Crissie obviously has had big changes in her life and I’m sure that has an impact on the music but what do you hope is the message behind this record that people will take away from and what sort of growth do you think people will see in terms of your sound over the last four and a bit years?
“I think it's just a really instinctive record. I'm very guilty of thinking too much generally and I think our first two albums kind of felt like one album, they sort of spilled into each other and we just did what we do and didn't think about it. Then particularly four and five, you don't realise you're doing it but it’s why did that song work? We should write something like that again or have a song that does this and have a song that does that. Having that bit of time off when Crissie had the twins, just that year or so of writing songs for the sake of writing them and just not thinking about it, I hope people will take that away. I hope people just listen to the record, get lost in it and just enjoy the songs because for myself right now, I'm going through a real period of just loving music for what it is and forgetting all of the other stuff. I hope people do that with our album and just get lost in the songs because there's a lot of feel good up-tempo, stomping songs just to have a great time to. That was the one big thing I really wanted with this record for us, was just to have songs we can go on stage at places like The Long Road or our tour and just have fun. To have those big moments where everyone's just having a great time and can forget about the world which can seem a bit crazy at the moment.”
It must fill you with a lot of confidence when you're putting out a new record, that the lead single has been doing so well as the first British act to have the radio number one over here. With the whole process, you know, you wrote these songs a long time ago, you were in the studio a long time ago and by the time it comes out, it's not new to you really plus you're likely already looking at the next one which is just the way of the world behind the scenes, but the fact that people are already so excited about it dropping, must feel great.
“I felt that with the last two records, we just fell in the middle of the Atlantic a bit. I just felt like we were too country for the UK and it was too UK for country, not with the records themselves but just the perception of it. It's not something that Big Machine UK had ever done and I'd always hang out with Alex every year at Country to Country so the idea just came into my head. I was like, well, they are the only dedicated UK arm of a Nashville label and we’re the best selling UK country act so surely there must be a thing that can happen. I think when we first started, I believed there was such an order to things, I thought there was the way you do things and what I’m learning now in my mid to late thirties, is that if you have an idea, just go for it. That's what we did at the start of The Shires, country was not a thing or it didn't feel like a thing but Crissie and I just loved it. We just believe that we could make it as a country and I've been blown away by Big Machine slash HYBE slash Blue Highway. For me it's just the ambition and bits like the line dancing thing on Saturday, we were like, let's do that, let's just do things and I feel like they never say no. They say, right, how can we make that happen, which is really exciting.”
“Bonfire” is album number six, which is probably crazy to think about when you hear it but since you put the last record out, Crissie obviously has had big changes in her life and I’m sure that has an impact on the music but what do you hope is the message behind this record that people will take away from and what sort of growth do you think people will see in terms of your sound over the last four and a bit years?
“I think it's just a really instinctive record. I'm very guilty of thinking too much generally and I think our first two albums kind of felt like one album, they sort of spilled into each other and we just did what we do and didn't think about it. Then particularly four and five, you don't realise you're doing it but it’s why did that song work? We should write something like that again or have a song that does this and have a song that does that. Having that bit of time off when Crissie had the twins, just that year or so of writing songs for the sake of writing them and just not thinking about it, I hope people will take that away. I hope people just listen to the record, get lost in it and just enjoy the songs because for myself right now, I'm going through a real period of just loving music for what it is and forgetting all of the other stuff. I hope people do that with our album and just get lost in the songs because there's a lot of feel good up-tempo, stomping songs just to have a great time to. That was the one big thing I really wanted with this record for us, was just to have songs we can go on stage at places like The Long Road or our tour and just have fun. To have those big moments where everyone's just having a great time and can forget about the world which can seem a bit crazy at the moment.”
It must fill you with a lot of confidence when you're putting out a new record, that the lead single has been doing so well as the first British act to have the radio number one over here. With the whole process, you know, you wrote these songs a long time ago, you were in the studio a long time ago and by the time it comes out, it's not new to you really plus you're likely already looking at the next one which is just the way of the world behind the scenes, but the fact that people are already so excited about it dropping, must feel great.
“It is amazing. I think “Bonfire Song” was written, gosh, eighteen or twenty months ago and it’s so nice to see. I think the thing for me is when you see the comments, our Instagram and particularly our TikTok has grown massively over the last few months and you forget how someone has taken the time to write I love this song or I was line dancing to “Watching You Watching Me” or “a good life”. That recognition's amazing, but seeing it at Hyde Park on Saturday, when we played “Getaway Car” and that was the number one obviously, you really feel it. Like I said earlier, that’s what you want from the song, you know you write songs just for yourself, the room and your friends but then you get on stage and you see people really connecting with them, it's the most amazing thing. It's just a privilege to be six albums in and still doing it.”
Lastly, you were a lot more involved behind the scenes with this record than the previous ones. People will see from the three songs that have come out already that you're either the producer or the co-producer on those and you worked heavily with Lindsay again. What is it about Lindsay Rimes that makes him great to work with and also that they're the right person to help you learn from and bring the right sound you wanted with this?
“I just trust him massively. I think because he's Australian and he's had success here as well. he gets that we never want to play country like we never want to pretend to be from the US. That could have been a thought, it could have been like, should we be making US country radio record? I think if we had a different producer really pushing us that way, we could have done that and twanged it up but we just always wanted to be honest and real as where we are which I trust Lindsay with. Also, with vocals, I trust him massively, he gets a great vocal sound but, it's been really fun. I’ve got a little shed at the end of the garden here and “a good life”, I produced the whole thing in there by myself, then “Bonfire Song” the guitars are done and Lindsay works really well in the sense that we can send things back and forth. Also, we can play all the stuff ourselves, I think we played every instruments ourselves, actually, there was nothing from anyone else on there, so that's really nice to be fully in control of it and take our time. We made the album over quite a few months in the end, I think we spent eight or nine months making it so I can’t believe it’s about to come out.”
The Shires Summer Festivals:
Sun 26 July – Melbourne Hall, Derby
Fri 28 August – The Long Road Festival, Leicestershire
The Shires November UK full band headline tour:
Tues 3 Nov – Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Thu 5 Nov – Gateshead Glasshouse
Fri 6 Nov – York Barbican
Sun 8 Nov – Manchester Bridgewater Hall
Mon 9 Nov – Birmingham Symphony Hall
Wed 11 Nov – London Palladium
Thu 12 Nov – Brighton Dome
Sat 14 Nov – Ipswich Regent Theatre
Sun 15 Nov – Poole Lighthouse
Mon 16 Nov – Swansea Building Society Arena
Wed 18 Nov – Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
Thu 19 Nov – Bedford Corn Exchange
Fri 20 Nov – Bristol Beacon
The new album “Bonfire” from The Shires will this Friday on June 3rd and is available to pre-order HERE. Ben and Crissie have a number of festival dates this summer along with their own headline tour in November, with all of the dates listed above and ticket information available on their WEBSITE. You can also keep up to date with The Shires and all that they are up to by following along on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK and FACEBOOK.
Lastly, you were a lot more involved behind the scenes with this record than the previous ones. People will see from the three songs that have come out already that you're either the producer or the co-producer on those and you worked heavily with Lindsay again. What is it about Lindsay Rimes that makes him great to work with and also that they're the right person to help you learn from and bring the right sound you wanted with this?
“I just trust him massively. I think because he's Australian and he's had success here as well. he gets that we never want to play country like we never want to pretend to be from the US. That could have been a thought, it could have been like, should we be making US country radio record? I think if we had a different producer really pushing us that way, we could have done that and twanged it up but we just always wanted to be honest and real as where we are which I trust Lindsay with. Also, with vocals, I trust him massively, he gets a great vocal sound but, it's been really fun. I’ve got a little shed at the end of the garden here and “a good life”, I produced the whole thing in there by myself, then “Bonfire Song” the guitars are done and Lindsay works really well in the sense that we can send things back and forth. Also, we can play all the stuff ourselves, I think we played every instruments ourselves, actually, there was nothing from anyone else on there, so that's really nice to be fully in control of it and take our time. We made the album over quite a few months in the end, I think we spent eight or nine months making it so I can’t believe it’s about to come out.”
The Shires Summer Festivals:
Sun 26 July – Melbourne Hall, Derby
Fri 28 August – The Long Road Festival, Leicestershire
The Shires November UK full band headline tour:
Tues 3 Nov – Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Thu 5 Nov – Gateshead Glasshouse
Fri 6 Nov – York Barbican
Sun 8 Nov – Manchester Bridgewater Hall
Mon 9 Nov – Birmingham Symphony Hall
Wed 11 Nov – London Palladium
Thu 12 Nov – Brighton Dome
Sat 14 Nov – Ipswich Regent Theatre
Sun 15 Nov – Poole Lighthouse
Mon 16 Nov – Swansea Building Society Arena
Wed 18 Nov – Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
Thu 19 Nov – Bedford Corn Exchange
Fri 20 Nov – Bristol Beacon
The new album “Bonfire” from The Shires will this Friday on June 3rd and is available to pre-order HERE. Ben and Crissie have a number of festival dates this summer along with their own headline tour in November, with all of the dates listed above and ticket information available on their WEBSITE. You can also keep up to date with The Shires and all that they are up to by following along on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK and FACEBOOK.