Keeping It Honest: The Shires Talk 'My Universe' And The Rise Of Country Music In The UK
Monday, 05 December 2016
Written by Simon Ramsay
When it comes to British country duo The Shires, the word remarkable seems apt. After only three years as a band the achievements and accolades they’ve accrued are impressive enough, but considering they’ve done it playing a style of music that, not so long ago, was about as welcome on this side of the Atlantic as a fox in a hen house, their story is all the more interesting.
Then there’s the way they formed. Inspired by American country, struggling singer-songwriter Ben Earle, desperate to find a like-minded UK singer to team up with, reached out via an SOS message on Facebook. His plea was answered by Crissie Rhodes, a former wedding singer and X Factor contestant with a million dollar voice.
The pair have since become the first UK country act to have a top 10 album with 2015’s ‘Brave’, headlined Glastonbury’s acoustic stage and even appeared at the home of country music, The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. With the band currently in the middle of a tour of the UK and Ireland in support of their sophomore record ‘My Universe’ we caught up with Earle to get the lowdown on the most successful country act these shores have ever produced.
How did making this LP differ after the success of 'Brave'?
The actual process was identical. We made it with the same producer, same studio and same band, apart from the bass player. Going back in there we felt more comfortable and confident as artists and musicians. In some ways it’s easier. We weren’t overawed by the whole thing like on ‘Brave’, but we did think about why ‘Brave’ was so successful. The core of what we do is honesty and the storytelling. That’s what we believe makes us country: the way we write our songs.
I’m not gonna lie, there are moments when you go: “Right, maybe we need a song like Friday Night, Brave or State Lines.” And then you go: “Hold on, the thing that made those songs so successful was the fact we just wrote them from a really honest place.” So then we had to start again, in a way. Once we did that Daddy’s Little Girl and Everything You Never Gave, which are really personal songs, came out. We just thought we should be honest. That’s what makes the songs universal.
‘My Universe’ retains what fans loved about ‘Brave’ but also takes you in a few different directions.
Yeah, the other thing was we supported the Corrs and Little Big Town, playing really big arenas and festivals. Your ambition for the sound changes. We wanted to fill those arenas up and have big, big moments. And My Universe, particularly, but also A Thousand Hallelujahs, they’re just big songs because it’s great to look out and see people really happy. That’s what we wanted to achieve.
When you’re writing those arena-ready tracks do you begin with the choruses or do the lyrics still come first, which has always been the traditional country way of writing?
It’s still mainly about the lyric. My Universe, the original demo, was nothing like what it ended up. It was a ballad, just a guitar, and the producers were like: “No, we hear this as a big Coldplay kind of song.” I think that’s the great thing about country songs, you can take them anywhere because they’re very classically constructed. So we didn’t approach it differently in the writing, it’s just in the back of your head. That’s when it sort of comes in, towards the end when you’re like: “Yeah, this can be a moment when we can get everyone involved.” Or have a big ‘hey’ or ‘yeah’ or whatever.
Tell me about writing Everything You Never Gave To Me. It captures a real sense of sadness about your father, but also hope with regards your newborn son.
That was a song I had wanted to write for years. I sat down and told Crissie about being a kid and the experience I had with my dad. I say I remembered sitting by the window, I’d look out at the cars and hope that each one was my dad. And obviously I added a bit of poetic licence to get a few rhymes in there. Once I did that and played it, it just came out. But I wrote it when we didn’t know for sure if we were going to have a boy or a girl.
We were just convinced that we were having a girl. That’s why it says: “She’ll never be waiting by the window.” I didn’t want to change the lyric, even though we ended up having a boy, because at the time it was just really honest. It’s been cathartic and I think Crissie’s had the same with Daddy’s Little Girl. It’s made us look at those things. Like you say, there is that sadness but I turned it around and said: “Everything you didn’t give to me I’m going to give to my son.” I feel lucky to be able to say that and finding the words has almost given me a bit of closure.
You recorded both your albums in Nashville, which has a mythical aura to it. How would you describe what it’s like to someone who has never been there?
If you’re working there and meet loads of people it’s a great place. Also, there’s literally music spilling out on every street. You go to Broadway and from 10am til 2am and there’s just music everywhere. The people are what makes the city and I honestly believe that the most talented musicians I’ve met are in Nashville. Everyone just loves making music. That’s all it’s about and you feel that when you’re there. It’s just the most magical place.
Crissie said: "We're very much influenced by American country, but we've put a British spin on it.” How do you think your Britishness comes across in your music?
On the first album we had Made In England and Nashville Grey Skies. Writing for ‘My Universe’, it was like: “Should we have another song about being English?” And it was like: “How can you say that again and say something new about it?” That’s why we didn’t have a song like that on this album. We just write what we’re feeling at the time and when we first got together that’s what really mattered for us. It still does because we love where we come from, but at the time we want to build our own Nashville over here. We want country music to have a presence and be big.
Which, in hindsight, was very prophetic.
Yeah, the amazing thing is that’s kind of happened now. In the four years we’ve been together the whole thing has grown and it’s just crazy if you look at us and Ward Thomas and Country 2 Country, which is just huge. I think every major record company has a UK country act signed to it, which is fantastic because four years ago there weren’t any. It’s just really exciting and maybe on album three we’ll be writing another British or English song again.
Why have country bands become more popular in the UK?
You can plot all the different points of it. Dolly Parton at Glastonbury was a huge one. Nashville, the TV show, was massive and Spotify, Apple Music and all the streaming stuff has made it really easy to find great music. I heard Need You Now by Lady Antebellum and then I could literally, on Spotify, go ‘related artists’ and find all these other songs I absolutely loved that I would never have listened to.
For me, Lady Antebellum were kind of the gateway drug. They were singing about pretty normal, relatable things and then I remember hearing Gary Allen and was like: “You can’t sing like that.” His accent was so strange. Hearing Watching Aeroplanes for the first time, I was running and it came on a Spotify radio thing, and I literally stopped in my tracks. And that’s how people are discovering music now. A lot of people who thought they wouldn’t be into country are getting into it because of that.
In America there’s been the Murder On Music Row movement driven by older acts who are unhappy with modern elements being brought into the country genre. Has that been the same over here? Has there been any resentment towards you from the traditional crowd?
There definitely has been. I don’t wanna say it was a backlash, but we had a couple of people who, I think, found it difficult to deal with success. But that’s more of a British thing than anything else. People like to go: “They’ve changed.” It’s understandable, but I think the really exciting thing is the genre’s doing so well and music does change.
For example, with country in America, you can say ‘everything’s so produced now’ but there’s still loads of great traditional stuff coming out. Look at someone like Chris Stapleton, who smashed it and sold over a million records at a time when people were saying Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line are the main thing. So it’s growing massively and we’ve been part of that. If a couple of people want to moan then that’s fine. It’s great to be in a position where enough people know about us to moan about us.
What do modern country bands need to do in order to retain some sort of connection with the genre’s roots?
In Nashville, it’s the song. So Sam Hunt, for example, people go: “What makes that country?” And it’s like: “Every song is a story.” You look at Break Up In A Small Town, that is just a great country lyric. That’s all it is. In Nashville they talk about paying your dues, writing a song a day, or trying to write a song every day, and everything else falls into place with the song. And what you do production wise, if you want to move stuff on, I think it’s good to experiment and push the genre forward. It’s such an exciting time now because people are doing that.
Is there anything you won’t do on an album, either musically or lyrically?
We won’t do the Sam Hunt talking. We’ve tried that a couple of times and it definitely doesn’t work for us. It’s interesting where we’re gonna go next because we could go more traditional sounding, we could go even more pop, take influences from anywhere, but the base always has to be the lyric. If we have a great lyric and can play the song on a guitar or piano, and sing it just the two of us, there’s no boundaries after that. But it has to be about the song.
What was playing at the Grand Ole Opry like? It’s country music’s hallowed turf and the place where your credibility will be scrutinised and hopefully validated.
It was unbelievable. It’s all new wood on the stage, but they kept the original circle from the Ryman. Think about all the people that have walked on that piece of wood. Obviously Dolly and Johnny Cash, even Elvis. You step on it and can literally feel it coming up through your legs, this energy. What was amazing for us was that quite a few Brits had flown over. So when we got up they were holding their flags and it was a moment we’ll never ever forget. I do think it was kind of that validation, like you say, of what we do. We’ve just done a deal with [record label] Big Machine too and we’re hoping we’ll get to break in the charts, or maybe have a chance there. That would be the biggest validation, if we can actually make a splash out in the States
I like the fact you want the band to be huge. That’s very un-British, but also refreshing. Who wouldn’t want to be massive?
It’s funny you say that because it’s something we’ve almost learnt from the Americans, being out there in Nashville so much. It is OK to have an ambition of being really big. What’s wrong with that? I know it’s not a very British thing, I know we’re supposed to be very self-deprecating, and we are, but at the core we want as many people to hear our music as possible. When we hear stories of how much the songs mean to people - Brave, Daddy’s Little Girl, Other People’s Things, even the happier ones like A Thousand Hallelujahs - that’s a real privilege, to be in that position where your songs mean that much to people. You look at Chris Martin and Coldplay, I’m sure everyone has a story about at least one of their songs and how much it means to them.
Finally, you’ve met and toured with some huge country artists. Who have you learned the most from?
Little Big Town, in terms of learning stuff, was definitely the best one. They are so humble because they’ve been through a lot. They had a really tough time at the start and struggled to get going. They had a couple of successful records but then Girl Crush came, and they’d been working at it for a long time, and that song catapulted them to absolute stardom. But you would not think they had the biggest country song – I think ever – online by meeting them. They’re so normal, so chilled out, cool and welcoming. We learned so much about stagecraft with them, just making people happy. That’s why they’re so amazing, because you go to their show and come away really happy. That’s what we’ve been trying to achieve with these tours and our music.
The Shires Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Mon December 05 2016 - GATESHEAD Sage One
Wed December 07 2016 - GLASGOW O2 ABC Glasgow
Thu December 08 2016 - YORK York Barbican
Fri December 09 2016 - LIVERPOOL O2 Academy Liverpool
Sun December 11 2016 - LONDON O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire
Click here to compare & buy The Shires Tickets at Stereoboard.com.
We don't run any advertising! Our editorial content is solely funded by lovely people like yourself using Stereoboard's listings when buying tickets for live events. To keep supporting us, next time you're looking for concert, festival, sport or theatre tickets, please search for "Stereoboard". It costs you nothing, you may find a better price than the usual outlets, and save yourself from waiting in an endless queue on Friday mornings as we list ALL available sellers!