Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
At b Now.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
It's He's all.
Speaker 4 (00:14):
Around gold to Rodi orb Now rooms, Babe, who's tipping you?
Pull me back?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hell?
Speaker 4 (00:20):
Yeah, that is he Baby Johnie caw Girl crazy, hear
you thing Houn cool? Cowboy Ou.
Speaker 5 (00:38):
Kayleie Bell is one of the most exciting and certainly
accomplished voices in New Zealand country music. She's not only
the most extreame female country music artist in Australasia, but
she's got a Country Music Award for Global Country Artists
to her name, collected by Kaylie herself in the home
of the genre, Nashville, Tennessee. Her new album, Cowboy Up,
(01:00):
comes out next Friday, and Kaylee Bell is here with
us this morning.
Speaker 6 (01:03):
Thank you for being here, Jack Tame.
Speaker 7 (01:05):
It's lovely to be here, lovely to be speaking with you.
Cowboy Up is out this week. How excited are you?
How the vibes at the moment?
Speaker 6 (01:12):
Yeah, I mean just to have a new album is
like It's one of the most exciting things as an
artist because it means more touring, it means you know,
new songs. New songs are always great to play and
to have fans discover and yeah, I just feel like
we're building a really cool catalog now of music that
we get to, like I said, get out on the
(01:32):
road and play live.
Speaker 7 (01:33):
And well there's that other thing too, is that you've
been working on it for ages. Yeah, and then it's
like you've got a hold a bat holder back, hold back,
holder back, and then finally the flag date it's are released.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
You know.
Speaker 6 (01:41):
I think that's the weird thing is that like none
of this is like new to me, because it's like
you said, like you start working on this stuff like
a year ago. This record was particularly fun to make.
I was about thirty four weeks pregnant when my producer
flew out from Nashville and it actually, yeah, he came
to New Zealand, which was amazing to bring a bit
(02:02):
of Nashville to New Zealand to make the record, and
we just kind of set up at the studio at home,
and I just loved the way we worked. It was
way more collaborative, you know, sort of get up, go
for coffee, come home, spend the day in the studio
at home, and it was really it triggered something in
me that I was like this is how I want
to make my records now, as opposed to previously, you know,
(02:23):
going to Nashville and it being very hictic and you're
kind of slotting in with people sort of schedules, whereas
this way it felt like my producer Tom also just
loved being in New Zealand, you know, around nature. Just
it just felt like such a wholesome way to make
a record.
Speaker 7 (02:38):
So do you think the pregnancy was a component in that.
I think so.
Speaker 6 (02:42):
I was definitely kind of just working right up till
I couldn't work. But it was twenty four weeks is like, yeah,
it was like we just got off the Cane Brown
tour around Australia, and I was kind of getting to
that point where it was like I think enough's enough now,
Like I think I need to sit still, but my
brain doesn't let me sit still. So it was cool
to be able to like just be at home making
(03:03):
a record and just slowing down a little bit from
a body sense, but also just like my mind still
being able to be incredibly engaged in what we were doing.
And then all the all the music was made back
in Nashville. The all the you know, players were Nashville
dudes that played on the record, and it just it
just shows how just another way of how things can
be made now, I think is so cool. You know,
(03:24):
nothing's like there's no one way anymore, and that's what
I loved about that.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (03:29):
Yeah, it's funny when you think about the kind of
origins of country music and then you think about the
ways in which you are like bringing together people from
these disparate parts of the world and then using technology
as well to be able to connect to me, it's
quite amazing. Do you reckon the Do you reckon? The
music that you wrote? Was was different because you were expecting.
Speaker 6 (03:52):
I think, Yeah, There's been a few songs that I've
written since having James and since finding out we were
pregnant that obviously very inspired by him, and that's been
so nice to unlock a different part of who I
am and just see the world a little differently. I guess,
as you know, you know, becoming a parent, it's like
you look at things quite differently. What will their life
(04:13):
look like? What is it like to raise a baby
in twenty twenty five?
Speaker 1 (04:17):
You know?
Speaker 6 (04:17):
So I feel like always kind of trying to grow
as an artist, but just through life you kind of
get forced to grow up, which is nice. So yeah,
there's a song on the record for that period of
time where we found out we were having a baby
and it was a real shock for us. I was
in Nashville and it just wasn't on the it wasn't
(04:38):
on the calling card for me. So it's nice to you,
like I said, show that side of me. And then yeah,
some of the other songs. I wrote one in New
York with a couple of dudes. I lived in New
York for a month last year, and yeah, just discovered
what that city is, you know, when you actually lived there,
and it was just like such an exciting time and
I was like, I need to be writing some songs
(04:59):
while I'm here. Well, I've got this kind of energy.
So there's a few songs from when I was in
New York. And then, like I said, I always love
to write like from the live perspective, because the goal
for me is always to play live and follow like
Shania Twain footsteps ideally one day and play these songs
and stadiums, and so I always love to have like
(05:19):
just anthems on the record, and I think we've got
a few of those as well.
Speaker 7 (05:22):
Yeah, congratulations on James. Let us really special. I think
we have babies about the same age we do. Yeah, yeah,
how does it react when you play.
Speaker 6 (05:32):
He loves music? For the first six weeks, I know
he's got no choice in this. But for the first
six weeks I just only played Tina Arena, and I've
slowly been opening it up to other female Yeah. I
mean he does though. Anytime I put on like a
faith Hill or like just a female like voice, he like,
(05:54):
you just see him kind of like, yeah, light up
and so yeah, he's very much gonna be I just
love that he listens to our music. You know, like
there'll be a time where we'll have to, you know,
put on the specific stuff that he likes. But until then,
it's like the radio and a lot of country music,
a lot of nineties and females. I grew up on
a lot of female music.
Speaker 7 (06:15):
So you've got that song with the Wiggles I do have.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
I know.
Speaker 6 (06:19):
I feel like he's going to grow up and think
that it's normal that your mum. I feel like I'm
just like waiting on that one.
Speaker 7 (06:26):
If it makes you feel any better.
Speaker 5 (06:28):
You know, baby's only seven months and we're not trying
to let him look at screens or anything yet. But
my wife sent me a little video the other day
of him watching me on TV. I know, but look confused.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
I mean right, it's like, but you would just yeah,
but hang.
Speaker 7 (06:43):
On a second, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:46):
How do people in Nashville think about your music? Like,
how do they react when they see a Kiwi girl
from way Mate coming to the kind of Homer country
music and performing as you do.
Speaker 6 (06:58):
That's a great question. I feel like Americans love Americans,
if I'm being honest, and so I think there's always
that a little bit of like, obviously we have accents
when we speak, but the minute you start singing, it's
like gone. And because I grew up on so much
American country, I sound American when I sing. So I
think there's that little bit of confusion of like about
(07:19):
how does that, you know, translate to that? So I
do get a little bit of that. I think when
people hear my music, they assume I'm American, right or wrong?
You know, Like I said, that's just how I sing,
That's how I grew up singing. And yeah, I think
I really do feel like we're starting to get to
a more global place with country music, like country music
is a genre, is the fastest growing genre globally, so
(07:42):
I think people are really starting to embrace that. And
I've probably seen a change in the last five years,
having gone back and forth to Nashville probably for about
fifteen or sixteen years now, but I've really feel like
the last five years, I've noticed quite a considerable change
of people's attitude towards the fact that you're not from America, right,
and they're embracing that a.
Speaker 7 (08:03):
Lot more to say, because of global moment, I think so.
Speaker 6 (08:06):
And country is very much mainstream now, as you know,
like you put on the radio station and you'll get
back to back country songs. I mean, growing up here,
I didn't hear any country music on the radio, and
so I think people were just like really celebrating the
fact that it's it's bigger than just America.
Speaker 7 (08:23):
And yeah, eachuron wants to wants to be country now.
Speaker 6 (08:27):
I was like, please, can you please?
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Like it's actually wild.
Speaker 6 (08:30):
I think anyone that spent time in Nashville as an artist,
you kind of can't help but fall in love with
the songwriting scene there. It's like I always like, it's
kind of like the respect Rugby gets in New Zealand,
I would say is the respect that songwriting gets in America,
particularly Nashville. It's people's day to day job, it's the
nine to five. Everyone's chasing a new song every single day.
(08:56):
It can't help but get swept up in that kind
of environment. And so I see why a lot of
these pop artists like each year and and there's been
so many that want to make country records and spend
a lot of time making them, even their albums that
aren't country in Nashville, because you can't help but just
be inspired by a town that loves it so much.
Speaker 7 (09:14):
I think it'd be interested for your thoughts. My sense
is that obviously there's the musicality, but I reckon the
storytelling music. Lyrics is like a really central part of it.
Like story is so central to country music one.
Speaker 6 (09:28):
I think that is the thing that differentiates it from pop.
You know, country music has still got a lot of
like pop melodies. Like you look at Keith Urban, He'll
be the first to say that he starts a lot
of his songs with a melody or a groove or
a feel, and he has a lot of pop sensibility.
But then the thing that always brings him back to
country is, as you say, the storytelling. And I don't know,
(09:51):
for whatever reason post COVID, I think people have just
got back to like wanting real stories and like connection
with people. And I think that is why, like country
is a genre is just popping off, because it's like
you feel something and you hear about someone else's life
and it can't help but make you feel something thing
whatever that is.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Right.
Speaker 7 (10:08):
Yeah, So Cowboy Up is out this week, You're going
to be touring. Yeah, James is coming on the road.
Speaker 6 (10:14):
He is coming on the road. He's he's a seasoned pro.
We've taken him a lot of places. He's got a
lot of stamps at his passport at the moment, and
we love having him out with us. My partner is
in my runs all the behind the scenes of the band,
and so it makes a lot of sense having him
with us. And I think that's again why I'm so
fortunate to be in a genre like country. We just
have such amazing fans and it's just such a feel
(10:37):
good time. It shows and I'm so happy to have
him there.
Speaker 7 (10:40):
You know, Well, we're delighted that you've come in to
see us. Thank you so much, And you're going to
perform for us today.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
I'm going to.
Speaker 6 (10:44):
Perform my my latest single actually if that's okay. Yeah,
it's a song called the Thing about Us, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
It's a sleeping on a suitings the WK home, take
the long way, laughing fast. There's in track of time
with you. It's the magic of the moment. It's the
dashboard when it's growing.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Here we go together, man, we know it. Everything is
better now. Baby.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
That's the thing about Sunshine, kids sitting on my shoulder
on a long drive.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
See the way you're looking over your rights, finding me
of something good. Baby, that's the thing about.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Those guy's feeding like your bloue jeans feels right, prahapter
ben your rittia. We know this is a forever kind
of love.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Baby. That's a thing about us. Baby, that's the thing
about us.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Because you're reading my mind when I lost it, keep
me on track when I'm off here, everybody's.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Looking before we got it. The sweetest thing I ever found.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Baby, that's a thing about Sunshine kissing on my shoulder
on it long drive.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
See the way you're looking over you all rise, finding
me of something good.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Maybe that's the thing about blue guy's fading like your.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Blue jeans feels right wrapped up in your rip tea.
We know this is a forever kind of love. Baby.
That's the thing about us.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Baby, that's the thing about us, because we're falling in seed.
Had the right place at the right time. Can't believe
I'm the one that's calling you mine the thing about you?
Love you really gotta show up and the hard times
(13:00):
think is never getting better? Long nights thing, can God beware? Together,
we'll say we know we got something good. Maybe that's
a pay about this. Guys, Yeah, they're gonna come and
go real laugh. Ain't nois an easy role.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
We know listens are for every kind of life.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Baby, that's a ping about us. Oh yeah, baby, that's
a thing about us. Whoa baby, that's a thing about it.
Oh yeah, baby, that's a.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Ping about us.
Speaker 7 (13:49):
That was amazing. Thank you, thanks, oh so good to
have you here. Congratulations on Cowboy Up.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (13:55):
Exciting That is Kelly bell Ah just my heart's singing
right now. That's just really, really, really special. Indeed, we've
got all the details for Cowboy Up on the News
Talk CB website. The album comes out next Friday.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Of course, for more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame,
listen live to News Talks EDB from nine am Saturday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio