Ben Earle and Nina Nesbitt may seem an unlikely combination at first – but they’ve actually got more in common than you might think.
The two have them previously written together for The Shires’ album ‘My Universe’ and remained in touch ever since. With the band currently on hiatus following the birth of Chrissie’s twins, Ben’s now embarking on a solo project. His first single, ‘Make It Easy’, is out today and features Nina as a duet partner.
Ahead of the single’s release, I caught up with Ben and Nina recently to chat about the song, their experience working together, plans for 2023 and more.
I guess the obvious place to start with is ‘Make It Easy’ – tell us a bit more about that…
Ben: Well, yeah, this is a song that I’ve just loved for years. I’m a songwriter primarily, that’s how I consider myself. But yeah, I was sent it like three or four years ago. And I just fell in love with it and always wanted to release it. And it was never right for The Shires. So having the chance to release my own solo record, I just was like, “I have to release this song. The song needs to be out in the world. I know I didn’t write it but people need to hear this song.” And yeah, I Nina and I are friends. We’ve been friends for years. I sent her an email saying, “please sing on this song with me ’cause I love you” and she did. And here we are. It’s taken. I think that was August last year, we sort of had that email. And yeah, now we’re here. I’m so excited.
What was it that particularly drew you to this song? As you said it’s not one that you wrote yourself, so what was it that struck us special about this in particular?
Ben: It’s the storytelling, isn’t it?
Nina: Yeah. I think so. I feel like yeah, I’m the same as you. I want to write everything I sing. But when you sent me the song, I was like, “Oh, this feels like something I’ve experienced.” And I just felt like that kind of classic country lyrical twist, just how it lands at the end of the chorus. And country’s something I haven’t really fully ventured into before. So yeah, just felt like a good moment to do it.
Nina, as you’ve mentioned you’ve not really ventured into country before – how was it for you going into that as a performer? And is it something you’d want to potentially explore more of in the future?
Nina: I’ve always said I’ve got a country album in my back pocket [laughs] ready to go one day. But yeah, I think nowadays, you can just sort of dip in and out of genres. And it’s weird that people are always like, “Oh, didn’t expect you to do country or write country.” And, you know, I grew up with country music. I discovered Taylor Swift when I was 15. And from then on, I was like, “I want to be a songwriter.” So for me that that kind of Nashville, lyrical storytelling, writing has always been kind of at the core of everything I do, even if it’s pop music. So yeah, I’ve just always been a huge fan. And it’s nice to do it properly.
Ben: I think it’s weird as well, when you meet someone… what I find is musicians that I put on the same level, we do the music for the same reasons. And there are some people who want to be famous, totally get that. I’ve never been one of those people. I just love songs. Some people love performing. I do like performing, but songs are what I love. And Nina and I were hanging out in Nashville about four years ago, I think it was, and we went to a writer’s round in a place called The Listening Room where you know, four songwriters sit and they play their songs live. And one of the writers was Josh Kerr, I think it was him, he played this song. And the end of the first chorus had that classic Nashville kind of twist. It was amazing. And Nina and I both turned to each other and whispered “what a b*****d!”. [Nina laughs] And it was one of those moments where I knew we just do it for the same reason. We just love songwriting, and we were just in awe of that one chorus he had written so yeah, it’s nice that we get to do it together.
Nina: Yeah, when you get that lyric, it’s like a magical moment, for sure.
You’ve mentioned guys have written together before. How did that feed into working together as performers on this song?
Nina: Yeah, I think it kind of just cemented our our love for country music. And obviously, I’ve known you [Ben] for how many years? Maybe eight years, something like that. And, and we wrote three tracks on ‘My Universe’. And since then, we’ve just always shared a love of country music really. So yeah, I think when Ben sent me it, I was like, “I know this is gonna be a good song”, because like you say, we both got the same taste to country music, and lyrics and stuff. And and when I heard it, I was like, “Yeah, you don’t need to sell it to me, love it”.
Ben: I’ve gotta say Nina’s one of those people that always replies as well. You know, I’ve got a lot of people that I know through music and a lot of them don’t reply. But Nina, we will have like these little chats – maybe once every three months we’ll just sort of chat for like half an hour on a text message about something. And then, you know, I sent the song and I sent the song to a couple other people before, country artists I thought would be more appropriate. And you know, they sort of said yes, but then no, they didn’t get back to me. But with Nina, I knew that even if she loved the song but it wasn’t right or if you didn’t like it, she’d say straightaway. And that kind of honesty and that, you know, just openness with each other, and just the respect as well, you know. It’s hard enough doing what we do, but if people don’t reply to you it can be really hard.
What do you feel that you’ve learned both on working on this song, and also your wider work together?
Nina: Well, I think I’ve learned that I’ve never actually heard my voice over, like a country instrumentation. You know, I’ve always sung country songs on the guitar – that’s the music I listened to. But yeah, like hearing my voice over country music, I’m like, “Oh, that’s fun, and exciting”. So yeah, I think I’d definitely like to do more in the future.
Ben: I think the thing I learned from Nina was, when we first met, Nina had just been dropped from her sort of major record deal. And I had a similar experience when I was 17, as well. I was dropped from a solo deal. And Nina then sort of went on to do a more modern deal at the time, I think about a year or two after we wrote, and at the time, I thought she was crazy. It was a very different deal to what anyone else was doing at the time. And watching her kind of rebuild her career, and sort of do it herself and be in charge and all that, to where she is, now you’re getting to like, you know, well over a billion streams. And she was the main driving force behind it. She’s got a team, obviously, but she’s really driven it. And I think it really showed me that these days, it can be done anyway. And I think it’s tough, but watching Nina do it is really inspiring. I’ve often said to her in the past, “I’ve been like, “gosh, you really smashed it”, and she really has smashed it. And I think that going forward for this solo release, there’s not as many rules anymore, you can kind of make the rules you want. And Nina’s kind of showed that to me.
Nina: Yeah, I’ve definitely felt like that with you guys as well, The Shires, picking country music and bringing that to the UK. Like I was saying, I didn’t know any UK country band or artists before that, and seeing how you’ve created such a line for so many others as well. I think it’s really inspiring and, yeah, very cool.
Ben: Oh, we like each other.
Ben, you mentioned about this being your first solo project outside of The Shires. How have you found that transition from being in a group to being solo (albeit temporarily)?
Ben: When we did the content day and the video shoot and stuff, I did feel a bit sort of cheating on a girlfriend at one point [laughs]. I turned around and there’s a different person next to me! But now I think, I’ve been in The Shires for 10, 11 years now, and I’m very much a creative person. I like to do stuff that I want to do and be inspired. And, you know, we’re extremely lucky to do what we do. But, you know, sort of five albums in 10 years, and you stop doing things for the first time a lot. You know, like, I remember when we were coming up, you play your first 100 seater venue or then you play Shepherds Bush Empire for the first time. You do your big firsts and then the firsts kind of plateau off and kind of stop. And I think having a new challenge is just really exciting. It makes me appreciate what I have with The Shires more. Because you know, it’s definitely harder starting again in a way but that’s also really exciting, to have that challenge I think. So yeah, I’m really excited to get this this song out, definitely.
Is there anything from your experience with The Shires and your other work, like hosting at C2C and your radio show, that you’ve applied to this project?
Ben: I think it’s a confidence really, and I think you know, when I first got into music, I felt if you’re an artist, you should be an artist, if you’re a radio DJ you should be a radio DJ, etcetera etcetera. And I think that it’s an exciting time because you can do a bit of everything. And they all feed into each other – you know, doing the interviewing on the radio with Shania Twain and all these people, it really inspires me, you know. Because their stories are often very similar. And all the big people particularly, you know, they the reason they do it is still the reason I do it and I think the reason Nina does it, because we just love music, and we just love songs. And I think you’re getting to do all of those things has definitely helped remind me that, you know, it’s awesome. What we do is awesome. You know, I think having those fingers in the pies is a good thing to do.
Nina – I also wanted to ask you about your song with ILLENIUM [Luv Me A Little] that you’ve just done recently. How has that been? And how has it fed into this project and other stuff you’re working on?
Nina: Yeah, I’ve had that song for about six years. I wrote it with another artist actually. And it just sat on a hard drive. And then ILLENIUM wanted the production and all that. It was a piano ballad, and then he turned it into this like huge, anthemic dance track, which is really, really cool. And then it came out – I don’t really know much about the DJ world if I’m being honest. But I liked it and I was like, Yeah, go for it. And it came out, and then it’s gone to number one on US dance radio, which is great. So I’m like, “that’s exciting”. And obviously, I’m not there. I haven’t heard it. So I thought it wasn’t actually real when someone told me the other week, and then I looked and it was so that’s very exciting. I feel like I need to come over and put the radio on now. But yeah, it’s just nice. Like when you’ve had a song – like we say, you write so many songs and sometimes they they sit on a hard drive for years. And then they finally just find their home with the right person. So yeah, it’s been cool to see it come out.
What song do you wish you could have written?
Ben: I mean, there’s the ones you want because they’re just huge hits and you’d never have to work again! [laughs]
Nina: Happy Birthday? I think ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’, you know. That’s a classic.
Ben: Wow, yeah. I think ‘Fairytale of New York’ – I love that song. Just as a song, just the pictures in it are beautiful.
Nina: The royalties as well. You know every year it’s coming back. [laughs]
What does the rest of the year look like for you both?
Ben: Yeah, we’ve got quite a few festivals coming up which I was surprised about, with The Shires. And part of me going on this solo thing was because I didn’t want Chrissie to feel any pressure to come back quickly – she’s had twins, you know. But we have got I think about 10 or 12 festivals on the way. I genuinely love England in the summer for festivals. I think we do them better than anyone else in the world, even little ones as well. So that’s gonna be lovely. And then going back to Nashville – I was there a couple of weeks ago doing loads of writing in Nashville, so I think I might be doing Bluebird on the Mountain there which is a songwriters festival thing. So yeah, getting out there. But then like just going with the flow with this release. And then hopefully next release as well. And, you know, not trying to put too much pressure on it and just enjoying it for what it is. I mean I’ve got three kids now so any chance to get out and not have to do bath time and bedtime every night is a nice excuse [laughs]
Nina: Yeah, I’m just working in the studio at the moment. I’m working on lots of artist projects, which has been really exciting. And some new stuff for me as well, but it’s a little bit of a way off. So yeah, just the hermit in the studio basically.
Ben and Nina’s single ‘Make It Easy’ is out now on BMG.
