The Sit Down with Halle Kearns
We always look forward to spending our August bank holiday at Stanford Hall for The Long Road Festival as it is one of the highlights of the year for British country and Americana fans because it always has the best atmosphere and an incredible lineup. 2025’s stellar bill is stacked from top to bottom with some of the biggest names from across the entire globe and whilst we shouldn’t have favourites, there is a certain lady from Columbia, Missouri that we are incredibly excited to be welcoming back across the pond.
We first met Halle Kearns last year in Berlin during the C2C: Country to Country festival as she led up to the release of “Homemade Margaritas” which would form part of last summer’s “Quarter Life Crisis” EP which was all about the ups and downs of being in your twenties. Now with a UK return including three headline shows of her own just around the corner, we caught up with Halle as she has even more new music on the way that currently is in a much pettier version of summer.
I’s delightful to see you friend and I can’t wait to catch up again IRL but starting off with “Wish You Gone” which came out two weeks ago and I love the Welcome to Petty Summer tagline you were pushing, I’m totally here for that! You wrote it with Jess Cayne and Willie Breeding so, who brought the idea in to the room and where did the whole thing come from?
“I thought you were meant to be my friend and taking it easy, you are going at me tough from the get-go! Well, okay, Jess was the one to technically bring this idea in. We were talking, she had just recently gone through a really brutal breakup and we were just kind of talking through that. It was literally within the last two weeks that she had gone through this so we started talking through all the things that this boy had put her through and he had a tendency to lie about a lot about a lot of things. So I just told her, I've been through this exact same thing, I can absolutely relate to what you're talking about and I also had dated a compulsive liar. We just started writing this song, kind of about all the different emotions and all the different things you feel within one of those toxic breakups because you're experiencing so many feelings all mixed into one thing. You hit on joy of being broken up, you hit on the anger that you feel towards that person, there’s resentment, you touch on just the overall bitterness, loneliness and still longing for them at the same time. There are so many emotions mixed into the song, which is why I really like it, because I think when you're in the pit of that breakup, it is hard to hone it on one emotion, it’s really the mix of all of them. That’s basically the long way of saying it's about really bad ex-boyfriends!”
We first met Halle Kearns last year in Berlin during the C2C: Country to Country festival as she led up to the release of “Homemade Margaritas” which would form part of last summer’s “Quarter Life Crisis” EP which was all about the ups and downs of being in your twenties. Now with a UK return including three headline shows of her own just around the corner, we caught up with Halle as she has even more new music on the way that currently is in a much pettier version of summer.
I’s delightful to see you friend and I can’t wait to catch up again IRL but starting off with “Wish You Gone” which came out two weeks ago and I love the Welcome to Petty Summer tagline you were pushing, I’m totally here for that! You wrote it with Jess Cayne and Willie Breeding so, who brought the idea in to the room and where did the whole thing come from?
“I thought you were meant to be my friend and taking it easy, you are going at me tough from the get-go! Well, okay, Jess was the one to technically bring this idea in. We were talking, she had just recently gone through a really brutal breakup and we were just kind of talking through that. It was literally within the last two weeks that she had gone through this so we started talking through all the things that this boy had put her through and he had a tendency to lie about a lot about a lot of things. So I just told her, I've been through this exact same thing, I can absolutely relate to what you're talking about and I also had dated a compulsive liar. We just started writing this song, kind of about all the different emotions and all the different things you feel within one of those toxic breakups because you're experiencing so many feelings all mixed into one thing. You hit on joy of being broken up, you hit on the anger that you feel towards that person, there’s resentment, you touch on just the overall bitterness, loneliness and still longing for them at the same time. There are so many emotions mixed into the song, which is why I really like it, because I think when you're in the pit of that breakup, it is hard to hone it on one emotion, it’s really the mix of all of them. That’s basically the long way of saying it's about really bad ex-boyfriends!”
This has been the third song you've put out since the EP last year. Are you working on a similar release strategy to how you put that out? Have you found this gradual release of tracks on their own and then building up towards a finished project tying them all together is the way that really works for you as the way of putting music out?
“Yeah, it's just the way I've done it and the way I prefer to do it because I love a project, I love a bigger concept than just a standalone or a single. I've tried the single thing before where I just, you know, throw music out for the sake of like, defeating the algorithm or whatever, and it just feels really unauthentic to my artistry. I personally just love having a goal to work towards where at the end of all these releases, you will see it all come together with this big old bow and a deeper concept as you listen through it in its entirety. So yeah, that's kind of what the play with this is.”
Is that partly as well, the fact by doing it this way you are making something cohesive at the end of it, but each of those songs is still getting its moment because you can put a lot of effort into pushing each one individually before it comes out.
“Absolutely. It is such a long process from start to finish so I love each song getting to live on their own, stand alone and just be what that song's about, but also I love being able to listen from top to bottom and knowing that there's a whole other meeting behind it when you listen to it where there’s like another layer of art.”
You can do all your magic with socials too, which you do really well with as you build up to dropping stuff but I’ve been seeing a lot of travel content recently so most importantly how many states are you up to now?
“We're at 45 out of 50.”
Do you collect something from each one?
“Yes, we collect fridge magnets. It started as this joke where I was travelling for tour and I brought Kelly a magnet home and they always would get cheesier with each one as we went along. I think somewhere along the way, I just got obsessed with it and the other day he said to me, he's like, this isn't for me anymore, is it? Then I’m like no, it's it for me now and our fridge is almost completely covered.”
“Yeah, it's just the way I've done it and the way I prefer to do it because I love a project, I love a bigger concept than just a standalone or a single. I've tried the single thing before where I just, you know, throw music out for the sake of like, defeating the algorithm or whatever, and it just feels really unauthentic to my artistry. I personally just love having a goal to work towards where at the end of all these releases, you will see it all come together with this big old bow and a deeper concept as you listen through it in its entirety. So yeah, that's kind of what the play with this is.”
Is that partly as well, the fact by doing it this way you are making something cohesive at the end of it, but each of those songs is still getting its moment because you can put a lot of effort into pushing each one individually before it comes out.
“Absolutely. It is such a long process from start to finish so I love each song getting to live on their own, stand alone and just be what that song's about, but also I love being able to listen from top to bottom and knowing that there's a whole other meeting behind it when you listen to it where there’s like another layer of art.”
You can do all your magic with socials too, which you do really well with as you build up to dropping stuff but I’ve been seeing a lot of travel content recently so most importantly how many states are you up to now?
“We're at 45 out of 50.”
Do you collect something from each one?
“Yes, we collect fridge magnets. It started as this joke where I was travelling for tour and I brought Kelly a magnet home and they always would get cheesier with each one as we went along. I think somewhere along the way, I just got obsessed with it and the other day he said to me, he's like, this isn't for me anymore, is it? Then I’m like no, it's it for me now and our fridge is almost completely covered.”
I love that! I know you’ve been to Hawaii which is one of the harder ones to tick off so, where are you still chasing?
“I haven't been to Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Nevada or Alaska.”
That’s the other tricky one that I would have guessed. Do you just count if you’re just visiting or are you only putting it on the list if you have played a show there?
“No, as far as shows played, I think I've hit 39 states.”
That's still really good.
“Thank you, I think so too. I want to hit all fifty as far as performing as well, but no, as long as I've been there, I don't count like layovers like I've been in Utah and Nevada on layovers, but I don't count that. I've also driven through Utah. in a bus at 1AM that I was awake for it, but I couldn't see anything, I didn't touch ground, you know, so I feel like it doesn't count.”
I know that you’ve been having a little bit of time off and some down time before you head back and see us over here but earlier this year you were on the road with Mason (Ramsey) again. You’ve toured together a lot and share part of your teams, so what you think you both bring to each other apart from just playing shows together? At times do you feel like the cool cousin or a big sister in a way?
“Absolutely. I think brother-sister is definitely the best way to sum up of our relationship. We got really, really close, obviously, it's been, like a year together and just with proximity, we were really essentially living on a bus together. You get to know people very well and he's such a sweet person, he has such a good heart and I have all the faith in the world that he's going to go as far as he wants to go in this industry. As far as what we both brought to the table, he's such a star and he's so young, he's only 18, but he's been doing this since he was 11, so he's been doing this full time music thing a little longer than I have. Even though he's so young, he has so much to offer as far as live performances, notes and just skill, he's really talented. I think maybe I'll have a little more of that life experience as far as I'm older and can, I don't know, just have things that I can pull from in heartbreak in life and I do feel like I got to assume that big sister role bit and offer advice about things he was walking through throughout the year we were together and it was just sweet. It was such a fun time and I'm always going to look back on that with really good memories.”
I really liked the video the truck that you both made for socials before you went on the tour.
“Ha-ha, it was so stupid, we were loving it and we had so much fun. Everyone is so cool, you know, artists are just so cool and they're like, too cool for everything and there's a way to do it. I fall into that all the time, I'm like, no, it's my art and I’m so serious about it, but I'm such a freaking goof ball and so is Mason. I was like, why are we not making tour content that is just fun, dorky and shows off our personalities a little bit, you know?”
You were both here last March and I’m obviously so excited that you are coming back, I cannot wait to hug you loads in just over a month. The Long Road is one of my favourite festivals, it’s themed so well, the site is so pretty and it just has such a great vibe but in terms of coming back over, what are you goals for the trip apart from having beers with me? Also, reflecting back on when you were last here for C2C, are there things that you picked up from playing here that are making you think about how your sets may differ from playing shows back at home?
“Honestly, that's a great question. I think the deep cuts will be coming out more because I remember that being a really great memory from playing over the last time. It was just that people were coming up and requesting songs that I forgot that I really play this one. I'm like, I don't even remember it, how do you know that song? You dug it out and I just think that's so cool because it shows that the fans are really like digging into the music and not just listening to the highest streamed songs because I think every artist knows that sometimes the highest song is not always your favourite one, it's just what happened to click in whatever way. I think for what my expectations are, I always try to just go in with an open mind with an excitement and a happiness about it, but I don't have expectations as far as how it's going to be, you know, received or anything like that. All I do know about Europe from the experience is how incredible the fans are, whatever it is, people will be listening, they'll be really respectful and just there for the music which is so refreshing as an artist.”
Before the festival, we've got three headline shows in Manchester, Brighton and London, where you have Callie Twisselman opening up for you, have you met her before?
“We haven't met yet, we're just Instagram friends right now.”
She's adorable and she is just so sweet. I met her for the first time at C2C this year.
“I can’t wait, it’s going to be Halle and Callie, that’s the cutest!”
“I haven't been to Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Nevada or Alaska.”
That’s the other tricky one that I would have guessed. Do you just count if you’re just visiting or are you only putting it on the list if you have played a show there?
“No, as far as shows played, I think I've hit 39 states.”
That's still really good.
“Thank you, I think so too. I want to hit all fifty as far as performing as well, but no, as long as I've been there, I don't count like layovers like I've been in Utah and Nevada on layovers, but I don't count that. I've also driven through Utah. in a bus at 1AM that I was awake for it, but I couldn't see anything, I didn't touch ground, you know, so I feel like it doesn't count.”
I know that you’ve been having a little bit of time off and some down time before you head back and see us over here but earlier this year you were on the road with Mason (Ramsey) again. You’ve toured together a lot and share part of your teams, so what you think you both bring to each other apart from just playing shows together? At times do you feel like the cool cousin or a big sister in a way?
“Absolutely. I think brother-sister is definitely the best way to sum up of our relationship. We got really, really close, obviously, it's been, like a year together and just with proximity, we were really essentially living on a bus together. You get to know people very well and he's such a sweet person, he has such a good heart and I have all the faith in the world that he's going to go as far as he wants to go in this industry. As far as what we both brought to the table, he's such a star and he's so young, he's only 18, but he's been doing this since he was 11, so he's been doing this full time music thing a little longer than I have. Even though he's so young, he has so much to offer as far as live performances, notes and just skill, he's really talented. I think maybe I'll have a little more of that life experience as far as I'm older and can, I don't know, just have things that I can pull from in heartbreak in life and I do feel like I got to assume that big sister role bit and offer advice about things he was walking through throughout the year we were together and it was just sweet. It was such a fun time and I'm always going to look back on that with really good memories.”
I really liked the video the truck that you both made for socials before you went on the tour.
“Ha-ha, it was so stupid, we were loving it and we had so much fun. Everyone is so cool, you know, artists are just so cool and they're like, too cool for everything and there's a way to do it. I fall into that all the time, I'm like, no, it's my art and I’m so serious about it, but I'm such a freaking goof ball and so is Mason. I was like, why are we not making tour content that is just fun, dorky and shows off our personalities a little bit, you know?”
You were both here last March and I’m obviously so excited that you are coming back, I cannot wait to hug you loads in just over a month. The Long Road is one of my favourite festivals, it’s themed so well, the site is so pretty and it just has such a great vibe but in terms of coming back over, what are you goals for the trip apart from having beers with me? Also, reflecting back on when you were last here for C2C, are there things that you picked up from playing here that are making you think about how your sets may differ from playing shows back at home?
“Honestly, that's a great question. I think the deep cuts will be coming out more because I remember that being a really great memory from playing over the last time. It was just that people were coming up and requesting songs that I forgot that I really play this one. I'm like, I don't even remember it, how do you know that song? You dug it out and I just think that's so cool because it shows that the fans are really like digging into the music and not just listening to the highest streamed songs because I think every artist knows that sometimes the highest song is not always your favourite one, it's just what happened to click in whatever way. I think for what my expectations are, I always try to just go in with an open mind with an excitement and a happiness about it, but I don't have expectations as far as how it's going to be, you know, received or anything like that. All I do know about Europe from the experience is how incredible the fans are, whatever it is, people will be listening, they'll be really respectful and just there for the music which is so refreshing as an artist.”
Before the festival, we've got three headline shows in Manchester, Brighton and London, where you have Callie Twisselman opening up for you, have you met her before?
“We haven't met yet, we're just Instagram friends right now.”
She's adorable and she is just so sweet. I met her for the first time at C2C this year.
“I can’t wait, it’s going to be Halle and Callie, that’s the cutest!”
How had that not even clicked with me ha-ha. The headline shows mean you get to play longer sets but there is part of me that wonders if you just end up playing the same amount of songs in an hour set as you do in a thirty minute show because you just end up talking too much between songs and you don’t have to rush as much.
“You might know me too well at this point because I love telling a story and I love to talk so, they might end up being close the same length ha-ha. I like the talk back too with the live audience like conversation and that sort of thing, then these rooms will be small enough to where I think we could have like a more intimate kind of call and response type of vibe then if people are coming to both they can hear different songs.”
You'd sort of said that people asked for the deep cuts and stuff when you were here before, is it almost the case of you just get a complete blank canvas in terms of playing these shows here? Is it like, you know what? I can just do things and not even have to think about it.
“Absolutely, I don't have to just necessarily be promoting just the newest stuff, I can be cutting back as far as I want to and just follow where my artistry is at now. There are some songs that I'm like, I still relate to that through and through, even though it was four years old, I feel like that I can really sense that same headspace. I mean, there are songs that maybe I'm not so much in that place anymore but It'll be cool to just kind of dig in and play whatever's just true right now, you know.”
Do you have any go-to covers as well that you pull out?
“I do, I play a lot of 90’s country covers as that's what I was raised on. I love The Chicks, that's usually like a go to or like “Strawberry Wine”. I kind of just look at my set and whatever's missing as far as vibe goes, I'll just like fill it in with a fun little cover. I love Jo Dee Messina, Le Ann Womack and all the stuff like that too.”
I’m here for that vibe! A lot of people come over and particularly with the fact they're back touring again now, get sucked into thinking like I've got to play Oasis when they’re in the UK but “Wonderwall” is like the equivalent of doing “Wagon Wheel” over there, it’s the one that all people that play in pubs or at functions hate doing here!
That’s so funny, I feel like I should whip it out for a couple of lines to see how people react.”
Well Manchester is where Oasis are from so it would probably go down better there. Anyway, thanks for the chitchat and can’t wait to see you but lastly I’ve got a very important question from one of your big fans.
“Ha-ha, is this from an Irish friend of ours by any chance?”
It might be but both myself and Brendan of undisclosed age from Cork would really like to know: Halle Kearns, what is your favourite ABBA song?
“Oh, no ha-ha.”
You are so going be on the naughty list if you haven't got an answer for this!
“I mean it’s probably “Dancing Queen”. I want to go a little more unique, but it’s so great.”
What's been quite funny is that over the last year or so, we've ended up going to random shows with an ABBA tribute band playing, which after a lot of alcohol, they are the absolute best but then when me and my other friends went to see Sabrina Carpenter last weekend, she had “If It Wasn’t for the Nights” as her walk on track so we have ended up down this rabbit hole of deep cuts in a group chat between the three of us.
“You need to add me into that! If think if I only had one that I could listen to forever, I think it would have to be “Dancing Queen” really.”
The new track “Wish You Gone” from Halle Kearns is out now and available HERE. Halle returns to the UK in August for shows in Manchester, Brighton, London and at this years The Long Road festival in Lutterworth where you can find dates and ticket information available on her WEBSITE. In the meantime you can keep up to date with all that Halle is up to ahead of the tour by following her socially on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK or FACEBOOK.
The Long Road Festival takes place at Stanford Hall in Leicestershire over the weekend of August 22nd to 24th where you can find ticket details and further information on their WEBSITE and you can be the first to know all updates ahead of the event by checking out their socials on INSTAGRAM or FACEBOOK.
“You might know me too well at this point because I love telling a story and I love to talk so, they might end up being close the same length ha-ha. I like the talk back too with the live audience like conversation and that sort of thing, then these rooms will be small enough to where I think we could have like a more intimate kind of call and response type of vibe then if people are coming to both they can hear different songs.”
You'd sort of said that people asked for the deep cuts and stuff when you were here before, is it almost the case of you just get a complete blank canvas in terms of playing these shows here? Is it like, you know what? I can just do things and not even have to think about it.
“Absolutely, I don't have to just necessarily be promoting just the newest stuff, I can be cutting back as far as I want to and just follow where my artistry is at now. There are some songs that I'm like, I still relate to that through and through, even though it was four years old, I feel like that I can really sense that same headspace. I mean, there are songs that maybe I'm not so much in that place anymore but It'll be cool to just kind of dig in and play whatever's just true right now, you know.”
Do you have any go-to covers as well that you pull out?
“I do, I play a lot of 90’s country covers as that's what I was raised on. I love The Chicks, that's usually like a go to or like “Strawberry Wine”. I kind of just look at my set and whatever's missing as far as vibe goes, I'll just like fill it in with a fun little cover. I love Jo Dee Messina, Le Ann Womack and all the stuff like that too.”
I’m here for that vibe! A lot of people come over and particularly with the fact they're back touring again now, get sucked into thinking like I've got to play Oasis when they’re in the UK but “Wonderwall” is like the equivalent of doing “Wagon Wheel” over there, it’s the one that all people that play in pubs or at functions hate doing here!
That’s so funny, I feel like I should whip it out for a couple of lines to see how people react.”
Well Manchester is where Oasis are from so it would probably go down better there. Anyway, thanks for the chitchat and can’t wait to see you but lastly I’ve got a very important question from one of your big fans.
“Ha-ha, is this from an Irish friend of ours by any chance?”
It might be but both myself and Brendan of undisclosed age from Cork would really like to know: Halle Kearns, what is your favourite ABBA song?
“Oh, no ha-ha.”
You are so going be on the naughty list if you haven't got an answer for this!
“I mean it’s probably “Dancing Queen”. I want to go a little more unique, but it’s so great.”
What's been quite funny is that over the last year or so, we've ended up going to random shows with an ABBA tribute band playing, which after a lot of alcohol, they are the absolute best but then when me and my other friends went to see Sabrina Carpenter last weekend, she had “If It Wasn’t for the Nights” as her walk on track so we have ended up down this rabbit hole of deep cuts in a group chat between the three of us.
“You need to add me into that! If think if I only had one that I could listen to forever, I think it would have to be “Dancing Queen” really.”
The new track “Wish You Gone” from Halle Kearns is out now and available HERE. Halle returns to the UK in August for shows in Manchester, Brighton, London and at this years The Long Road festival in Lutterworth where you can find dates and ticket information available on her WEBSITE. In the meantime you can keep up to date with all that Halle is up to ahead of the tour by following her socially on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK or FACEBOOK.
The Long Road Festival takes place at Stanford Hall in Leicestershire over the weekend of August 22nd to 24th where you can find ticket details and further information on their WEBSITE and you can be the first to know all updates ahead of the event by checking out their socials on INSTAGRAM or FACEBOOK.
