Fresh from releasing their amazing album ‘Good Years’ last year, The Shires will be giving fans a special online concert on April 10th via Stabal tickets are on sale now. Ben and Crissie spoke with Music Promotions about their online concert, touring again next year, new music and lots more. Full interview below.
Tickets on sale via Stabal.com now.
You released your album Good Years during the pandemic do you wish you’d have waited or are you glad you released it? (amazing album) Ben: Good question, because so much would have happened had the pandemic not happened, we were lucky as the album came out the week before the national lockdown, the album charted at no 3 which we were over the moon with. It was hard but I am glad we did or it wouldn’t have come out.
Crissie: Knowing the songs that are on the album, they are all positive and uplifting, we haven’t been out on the road to see any one so we don’t know if it would give that uplifting feel but if you are feeling low or sad on a day you have that option to put the album on and lift your spirts and that’s all that we can ask for with the album, it would have been much nicer to write, record, release and then go out on the road and tour the album because we are still missing that live side of it at the moment.
Will you be releasing any more singles from it?
Ben: Maybe!! We are in discussions with someone about a calibration but we can’t say yet but it is looking positive, I am desperate to say who is featuring with us but we can’t just yet, there is potentially a big feature coming up very soon.
Crissie: The fact that Crazy days is a single, I don’t think either of us ever considered that, we both loved that song it was really honest, especially with Ben’s situation of being a dad and being on the road, missing family life and being crazy and hectic all the time and because it fitted so well and it wasn’t written about the pandemic at all but it summed the whole situation we were all going through and the fact that it came out and got some radio play as a single it was really nice that it got it’s moment.
You calibrated with Lauren on Lighting Strikes have you any plans to work with her again?
Ben: We would love to perform live with Lauren at some point, there are no plans as we don’t know how the world is going to be but if she is ever over here or we are over there we would love to make it happen, just being in the same room as her is so much fun, her voice just travels you know when you are with Lauren, without the pandemic I don’t think that collaboration would have happened as we would have both been too busy, we have our own show with Apple now and we spoke to her on the show and it’s amazing from a certain level how this pandemic has been because she said from the States they are out on tour maybe 300 days a year or 280 days and now they are mainly sat at home like we are and everyone is desperate to do stuff, just make some music, we would definitely love to do something with her in the future and hopefully a live performance.
Have you been working on your next album during the pandemic? How much would you say your music has evolved? Crissie: Ben is more of the songwriter in the duo, for Ben it just comes naturally, he has to do it all the time just to feel Sain.
Ben: it’s really exciting these days that people are releasing so much music I think that the old skool way of thinking where you get all your songs together for the album then you release it and then tour with it and then get your songs together and do it all over again, I think that way is disappearing now I remember Sheryl Crow saying recently she won’t release another album she is just going to do songs I think the world is moving that way and I don’t think we could get to the next tour in May and not have released some music I think two years without releasing something is to long now, I love to write so by the tour we should have some new songs.
Your live stream concert on April 10th what can your fans expect?
(Crissie) We are just so excited to perform again in person with our band it’s been a whole year since we have played a gig with the boys in the band so we are excited about that but obviously there isn’t going to be an audience there with us but we are going to play it like they are there in their living room, it’s like a front row seat to one of our shows, however we are going to change some of the songs to make them more acoustic and strip them back and let the lyrics talk to everybody at home, we are thinking about playing the songs a little differently and talk about them, giving a songwriters sound to the show, the look of the show will be amazing and so will the sound. It will be a really well produced show and we are hoping that everyone at home really enjoys it. We never thought we would be that band doing an online concert, because our fans are so lovely, they sit there and listen with some of the really quiet moments you can hear a pin drop and we have hated not being able to be out on the road so this is the absolute best we can right now and we feel that “Stabal” are the best in the business to bring that show to everyone at home.
Some bands stream their concerts through the cinemas is this something that you’d Like to do (when cinemas and touring are back)
Ben- I’ve always wanted to be on the big screen (Laughs) I can’t imagine going to the cinema at the moment, I love going to the cinema, when Crissie and I have been out in Nashville we have been to the movies out there that’s an experience in its self, I love the movies. We would love to but I can’t imagine it right now but hopefully one day that would be great, everything is moving into the lines between tv, film and music is getting a bit blurred doing that so yeah, I’d love to.
Would you like to do arena tours or are you happy with the smaller intimate shows?
Crissie: We have been pretty lucky we have joined other tours like Carrie Underwood and Shania Twain doing the big arenas they might not be our own shows but we love doing those big arenas but the theatres seem like a really happy medium there is still a lot of people in the venue with you but it’s really intimate and everyone is up close. We love doing the big sparkly shows they are really good shows, the ‘Accidently on Purpose’ tour the whole point of that was to create a much bigger stage show, we love those intimate moments as well like with our show on April 10th with Stabal it’s going to a little bit more intimate and if fans have been following up since the early days that’s basically us but a more grown-up version of it.
Ben: It’s still definitely a goal of mine to headline the O2 its funny we started out with very small venues like 50-100 people, then going up every step, the last big one was at the Royal Albert Hall with over 3000 thousand people and to just know that we did it, I’ll be in my 70’s saying we did the O2 once to the grandkids and wiping the Instagram out from 50 years ago (laughs)
Do you still get the same buzz performing the first songs you recorded now as you did when you first released them?
Crissie:Absolutely, even now just talking about getting back on stage I am already so excited and slightly nervous because it has been a long time, we love performing all those songs from the Brave album and My Universe, being able to perform the songs from the new album as well even though it’s not technically new anymore, just being able to perform the excitement is definitely there.
Ben: I can’t imagine how many times we have sang ‘Nashville Grey Skies’ it’s got to be close to a 1000 with all the radio shows we have done as well that song Ive never got tired of it ever I get excited singing that one definitely.
What is next for The Shires?
Ben: We are looking at putting out a small set of acoustic shows at the end of the year, that’s just an idea at this stage as we don’t know what the rules will allow. We just want to get out there and play to people and maybe some new music as well. This pandemic was originally day by day now it’s week by week I think in the next few months it might become clearer, we just want to get back out there and start having fun again with our fans because it feels like forever and keep our spirts high and make some music.
