Exclusive Interview: The Shires Discuss New Single 'State Lines', Touring And Making Chart History
Having broken records with their brilliant debut album 'Brave', The Shires are currently on the road for their very first headline UK tour. We caught up with the talented country duo before their very own concert in Manchester!
The Shires is a collaboration between Crissie Rhodes and Ben Earle. Since forming in 2013, the pair have been making headlines for all the right reasons and their outstanding harmonies have helped them receive backing from BBC Radio 2.
Ben and Crissie finally released their eagerly-anticipated album 'Brave' earlier this year and it impressively made chart history. The Shires became the first British country act to score a top 10 album here in the UK and we couldn't be happier for them.
In our exclusive interview, The Shires spoke about: their very first headline UK tour, their brand new single 'State Lines', which drink they'd choose if they wanted to 'get a little drunk on a Friday night' and much more.
Check out their answers to our questions below!
For people who haven't yet heard your music, how would you describe your sound?
Crissie: "Ooh well we're a mix between country and pop music so the sound's influenced by what we were brought up with in the 90's. It's just kind of well-rounded songs, right?"
Ben: "Yeah totally, we both love country music. That's our thing and we've been listening for different amounts of time. Crissie has been listening all her life really whereas I got into country quite late - sort of three years ago. I heard Lady Antebellum, their song 'Need You Now', and that just started it off for me. That song is pretty much responsible for us two getting together really. I put a thing out on Facebook saying I'd love for a singer to sing these songs with me that I'd written after Lady A had written that song and yeah, we got together after that basically."
You’re currently on your very first headline UK tour - how are you finding it?
Crissie: "It's a whole lot of fun. We've had great shows so far and we're looking forward to many more as well. The crowds have been amazing. We were in Glasgow last and they were all singing still even when we'd gone off stage. We said this is the end and they were just singing and chanting at us the 'Tonight' song."
Ben: "I've never experienced that before. It was absolutely crazy."
Crissie: "We got a little video and put it on our Instagram straight away because we were just blown away by that. It was like a football crowd or something. We're really proud and it was really good."
Would you say 'Tonight' is one of your favourite songs to perform live at shows then?
Ben: "That's always good because it ends the set and it's a big song. We're playing pretty much the whole album on this tour. There's songs like 'Jekkyl & Hyde', for example, that we couldn't play really well by ourselves but with our band we get all of that energy. When it's just us acoustically, an uptempo song like 'Jekkyl & Hyde' doesn't really work but with the band it's just been great. There's people dancing, people having a great time singing and also people singing back the lyrics to us for pretty much every song - all the album tracks as well. I think the uptempo ones we're really enjoying this time: 'Nashville Grey Skies', 'Friday Night', 'Tonight' and 'Jekkyl & Hyde'."
How did you come up with your name The Shires?
Crissie: "Ben turned to me and said 'right, we need a name and I need it now' and I was like oh gosh ok. I think it was the first one, if not one of the first ones, that we came up with. It's basically because we lived in different shires so I know that when I went to uni, I would always say to my friends that 'I'm going back to the shire' so it's British and it's easy to remember as well which is always good for finding us on the internet and stuff."
Ben: "It really represents what we think of us as English country. We really want to retain our Britishness and be British and English and what sums up that for us. I spent my time in Somerset growing up, you (Crissie) grew up in the shires so it really just sums it up."
You just recently filmed a music video for 'State Lines' in Los Angeles - what made you choose that as the next single?
Ben: "It was one of our favourite songs and we started out just really doing loads of ballads. We were all ballads."
Crissie: "It was really refreshing actually to meet someone who loved ballads as much as I did. I was a massive fan of ballads and then meeting Ben and knowing that he'd written songs like 'Black and White' and 'Brave' - that was exciting to be able to sing those songs. We've had three singles so far that have been really uptempo: 'Nashville Grey Skies', 'Tonight' and 'Friday Night'. We just wanted to strip it back to where we started and 'State Lines' seemed like the one to go for."
We love your single 'Friday Night’. If you were to get a little drunk on Friday night - what would your drink of choice be?
Ben: "We've been on a lot of whiskey this tour so far, haven't we?"
Crissie: "You have, I haven't." (*laughs*)
Ben: "We got given a really amazing bottle of I think it was 12 year old scotch."
Crissie: "What happened? Did it get drunk?"
Ben: "It's on the bus now; for a bit. We got given a 12 year old bottle of scotch for selling out Òran Mór and I've never really liked whiskey that much but trying this... it just tasted so nice. So I think whiskey at the moment for me."
Crissie: "Whiskey for you and I've just taken up red wine. I'm kind of enjoying that at the moment, it's a different kind of drunk state on a red wine so I quite like it. It's being a merry state really."
Have you got any pre-show rituals then?
Ben: "Yes, they're all secret." (*laughs*)
And, of course, you just recently made chart history with your debut album. Congratulations. How does it feel to be the first British country act to score a top 10 album here in the UK?
Both: "Thank you very much."
Crissie: "It's pretty surreal. It was a little bit crazy and I don't think it's really sunk in for the two of us. It was an amazing moment when we found out on the stage at Country 2 Country in front of all the country fans - well, all what 20,000 or so of the country fans here in the UK and there was so much support in that room that day. Our label Decca had said to us that there might be a chance that you could get into the top 10 and we thought 'oh no, that's not going to happen at all but we'll go with it and let's try'. We just couldn't believe that it actually happened. There was so much support from everyone in the UK to help us to get there so we're very, very grateful for sure."
Obviously you were 'Made in England' - but do you feel like you've now built your own Nashville here in the UK?
Ben: "I think it's happening. I mean we can't say it's all us by any means but it's great that in the short space of time that I've been in country, I've seen this huge rise. Especially with Country 2 Country."
Crissie: "So quickly as well."
Ben: "The year before we met, Crissie went and said that the difference in terms of ages but also the scale of it - from that year to the first year we went together and also we went obviously this year. It was huge."
Crissie: "And people were wearing their stetsons and cowboy boots whereas the fans that are turning up to our gigs aren't. They aren't wearing that kind of stereotype which is so refreshing. I mean I absolutely love seeing it, it's fun but it's almost like it doesn't need to be a stereotype genre of music anymore which is really refreshing here in the UK for sure."
There's lots of heartfelt emotions on the album - are there any lyrics that you're particularly proud of?
Ben: "I think in terms of what we're proud of, and what I'm proud of most, are the lyrics in 'State Lines'. Just the concept I thought was really clever (*laughs*) can I say that about my own songwriting? It's one of those sessions where we just sat down and it just worked. It was fully formed straight away whereas some ideas you go and change and they morph and they become worse or better. I think my favourite lyric would be 'Made In England' - the 'fish and chips' one."
Crissie: "Yes, getting 'fish and chips' in there and 'milk and tea' somehow."
What made you choose 'Brave' as the title track for your album?
Ben: "That again was actually Crissie mainly." (*laughs*)
Crissie: "It's been there from the very beginning really. Before we met, Ben had written that song and it seems to relate with a lot of other fans as well as us so it just seemed like a way of tying the whole album together."
Who would you say some of your musical influences are?
Crissie: "Growing up, for me, my nan would teach me the old songs so: Patsy Cline, Charley Pride and a bit of Dolly Parton. Then, as I grew a little older, I'd listen to: LeAnn Rimes, Alison Krauss, Faith Hill, Martina McBride... all of the big ballad/country singers. And then, more recently, The Civil Wars and Lady Antebellum."
Ben: "Yeah, mine was a lot more songwritery in terms of 70's and 80's so I listened to a lot of: James Taylor, Carole King, and Stevie Wonder. More recently, like Crissie said, sort of: The Civil Wars and Lady Antebellum."
Both: "Brad Paisley. (*laughs*) Jinx."
What does the rest of 2015 have in store for The Shires?
Crissie: "Probably minimal days off. (*laughs*) We love doing what we do so we have lots of festivals coming up which we'll be announcing on Facebook and Twitter. We're heading back to Nashville again; we haven't been there for nearly a year now so it'll be good to head back there. We have just got our debut Grand Ole Opry performance scheduled in so we're absolutely buzzing for that right now. Hopefully another tour later in the year and then the second album probably - we'll start writing."
And if you could leave a message for everyone who's supported you on your journey so far, what would you say?
Ben: "Just thank you, firstly, so much. We really are so grateful and it's just a really exciting time for country in general. I think people who've got an idea of what they think country is maybe should try and listen to it and I think they'll be surprised. It surprised me and we have a lot of people coming to our gigs who bring their friends along and it surprises them. It's not what you think it is and I think, you know, let's just keep going with this country thing."
The Shires will next be performing in Chatham on the 25th April and they have several dates left of their current tour so make sure you put your country boots on and grab tickets while you still can. Following that, they'll be performing at several festivals this summer and returning for another UK tour this October.
'Brave' is currently available on CD and you can also purchase it here on iTunes. With catchy upbeat numbers such as 'Jekyll and Hyde' and beautiful ballads such as 'I Just Wanna Love You', there really is something for everyone and it's easily one of our favourite albums this year. Country music has never been so cool.
