Kristian Bush is an acclaimed American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer, best known as one half of the Grammy-winning country duo Sugarland. He first gained attention as part of the folk-rock duo Billy Pilgrim in the 1990s before forming Sugarland in 2002 with Jennifer Nettles. Together, they achieved significant commercial success, with hit songs like ‘Baby Girl' and ‘Stay' and became known for their dynamic performances and heartfelt lyrics.
Outside of Sugarland, Bush has also pursued solo projects, showcasing his versatility across various genres and solidifying his reputation as a prolific and talented artist in the music industry. He most recently produced both of Megan Moroney's albums and is appearing at this year's Long Road festival in the UK next weekend followed by a run of his own shows featuring his multi-instrumentalist brother, Brandon. We were thrilled to catch up with him to talk all about it.
Thank you for your time today, Kristian, it's always a pleasure to spend time with you and pick your brains about about music.
It's my joy, man, I'm glad I'm coming back to the UK.
We last spoke in 2022 when you were right in the middle of your '52' project. (Kristian released 52 songs across four releases to celebrate his 52nd birthday.) What a mammoth undertaking that was! Did that project leave you with a sense of fulfilment or was it a bigger task than you were expecting?
You know, it was a bit of an experiment to find out what the new landscape of creating music and releasing it looks like now. It was a dig into trying to create at the speed of consumption. I was fascinated by how doing something like that would impact of my relationship with the fans – did I do enough? I got the feeling, and I still feel like that today, that the part of the system that is my job, which is being the creator, the promoter and the performer, has changed and I wanted to see what it had changed into.
Was what I was being told by a major label about the way the industry has changed and the way releasing music has changed is true or was it still the same as it was in that the failures were my fault and the successes were theirs? (laughing)
And so what was your conclusion?
The one thing that I found to still be true is that you must respect the fans. That is absolutely the truth. The new learning was that no matter when it is that someone discovers your music, it is new to them. The old system of withhold, withhold, withhold, put a single out, create demand then release an album is no longer a requirement in order to present music. As soon as you release new music and it's out there, it is considered old.
And so, what I've learned, thanks to the streaming platforms, is that all music is new if I've just found it. I'm 54 now and I got my first record deal in 1992 so the thing I've learned or the only truism I know is that you are gonna need to re-learn everything! (laughing) The relationship with the fans is still true and hasn't changed but everything else has, right down to labels having to make concessions now because the artist knows their fans better, it used to be the other way around.
I changed Sugarland songs because I knew we were going to be playing in arenas and I couldn't communicate 1 to 20 or 1 to 50 anymore it was going to be 1 to 20,000 and I knew that relationship with the fans was going to need to change. I had to change the throughput because the music was going to be coming through a giant speaker with no subtlety but we still needed to create intimacy and keep that relationship between artist and fan as strong as it could be, that hasn't changed.
Music is still a very personal experience, it still saves people's lives on a daily basis or inspires people to achieve – that hasn't changed although everything around it has. If anything, it is more personal and true now because everyone listens to music on headphones through their phones which makes the experience even more intimate. Everyone has their own personal soundtrack to life now, it didn't always used to be that way.
You are a man who wears many hats, in both senses of the meaning! Between your solo career, Sugarland, Dark Water, Billy Pilgrim – and you are also a producer! What you've done on Megan Moroney's two albums is exceptional, in terms of the lush sound – which sounds fantastic on my headphones, I can tell you! What is it about Megan and her music that you love so much?
Good question. I'm talking to you from my studio here in Atlanta which looks impressive but it used to be a hair salon! (laughing) We're a block away from Eddie's Attic, the famous songwriter club, and Megan was our intern for the studio but Covid hit and she could never get here. I'm sure she had to do some terrible chores! (laughing)
What I love about her is two-fold. She's passionate about what she's got to say and she's learning the language of songwriting in order to tell what she wants to say. The other thing that I admire is the way she uses her voice to tell the stories she has. Megan can control where the break in her voice is and it functions in a lot of the ways that I love about Jennifer's (Nettles, Sugarland's vocalist) voice. When you close your eyes and hear one of Megan's songs you instantly know it is her – it's the same with Jennifer.
Before Jennifer was in Sugarland she was a solo artist and she used to open for Billy Pilgrim here in town. She was a very distinctive vocalist and you always knew it was her when you heard her – and that's the most important part of making commerce out of art, it's branding but it's built in. One of one. Megan is the same. She is also an incredibly intelligent and quick study, she absorbs things quickly and learns fast, she's super smart. Smart girls are my thing, man! (laughing)
Talking of smart girls, then, it's lovely to have Sugarland back in action again with new music and a tour. Last time we spoke you said that you had Sugarland songs recorded and you were just waiting for Jennifer – are these those songs or are they newer songs?
No, these are the ones. It was literally about four or five weeks ago, I was out on tour here in the Pacific north west and we had just been asked to appear on a morning TV show with the guys from Little Big Town. I went back and listened to the songs we'd recorded a couple of years ago and I sent Jennifer a text saying that I was actively producing Megan Moroney's stuff and I thought that these songs were right in the mix as to what sounds appropriately commercial right now.
Even though we'd recorded them a number of years ago, the songs sounded fresh and new to me. Jennifer said she'd go listen to them and texted me back to say, ‘let's put them out!'
That begs the question, then. Does this release empty the Sugarland reserves or have you still got some songs left in the tank?
(laughing) No, we've still got some stuff left in reserve! This was an experiment that was intended to bridge the gap between the record we put out in 2018, ‘Bigger' which was a return to us touring again, and another project. We had a lot to say back then, about things going on in the world and about us being adults and parents too. Sugarland has always been very truthful about where we are in our lives, very much like Megan Moroney is. But here we are in 2024 and we've just put it out! (laughing)
Where do you see you and Jennifer's position in the market and the industry now. This touches upon what you were saying at the start, in terms of these days of TikTok and Morgan Wallen – where do you see Sugarland's position in it all now?
(laughing) Regardless of what we think our self image is, I think that a lot of fans are fully hugging us now as a nostalgia act. The reason I know this is that we've just put Billy Pilgrim back together. We haven't played since 1998, it's been that long! We did a run through the mid-west and south-east and it was amazing to look out into the crowds and see people aged 55 and older becoming 24 again in front of my eyes. I'm watching them remember who they were at that time and it was because of the power of the music. I think Sugarland lives in that space too, regardless of what we think Sugarland is supposed to do, right?
I would kill for a new record from one of my favourite artists like The Police, right? I'd stab someone in the neck for new music from them! However, I'm not sure most fans want to hear new music from nostalgia acts but because we just put out new music that kinda doesn't suck, I wouldn't count us out! (laughing) Jennifer and I have a lot of creative outlets between the two of us, which is different to a lot of bands, it's not like I have an unexpressed part of my creative self that I'm having to ignore or compromise right now! We have such a creative spark together when we are in the same room that is too strong to ignore and not produce any new music.
I know it's like asking you to choose between your kids but do you have a favourite song on the new Sugarland EP? I think mine is ‘Georgia is Yours.'
Ahhhhh. I think the sneakiest song on that EP is ‘Temporary Feeling.' We didn't write these songs – I'd gone through the previous 5-6 years of learning the language of being a producer in Nashville. That language has a dialogue with songwriters and publishers where they come to you with loads of new songs and ask you to place them on the projects that you are working on. When I asked for Sugarland songs, the writers and publishers didn't know what to send me because Sugarland had never accepted outside songs before. We obviously cut one of Taylor Swift's songs once, which was Taylor's song, and we loved covering ‘Life in a Nothern Town,' which ended up with a Grammy nomination, right? (laughing)
So, the idea of getting songs from other people was a whole different language for us. I trust my hooks and I know when I'm going to hurt you in a song and I can tell you which parts of the song you are going to remember because of Jennifer. ‘Georgia Is Yours' is that song on the EP but ‘Temporary Feeling' is the ‘Stuck Like Glue.' It's the one you are going to hate me for tomorrow!
Although I will say, we were sitting at the CMT awards this year after playing the Phil Collins cover with Little Big Town and we were watching what was happening. Lainey Wilson came out, who Jennifer hasn't seen a whole load about given she's been making TV and movies for the past few years, and I said, ‘Watch, this, you are going to love her.' Halfway through I leaned across and said, ‘You know that ‘There Goes the Neighborhood' song that we cut a while back…………….we are right on time!' It sounds like a current Lainey Wilson hit.
How did you settle on the cover of Phil Collins' ‘Take Me Home?' Was it them or you? We did the idea come from?
(laughing) It was me! Their manager reached out to me and said ‘what if we tried to re-create what you did with ‘Life in a Northern Town?' I was, like, ‘I can't do that again!' (laughing) He wanted all of us to sing together again but this time in a studio rather than a live version. I started throwing songs at him, from Echo and the Bunnymen to all the things I love………..
Which seems to be mainly British bands or artists from the 80s!
……..Right!! My language………I know every song that The Clash ever recorded but I couldn't tell you a George Strait record to save my life! It's my age and how I discovered music. We ended up on Phil Collins but my favourite track was one buried on the back end of a record, one that even big Phil Collins fans wouldn't even be that aware of. He said he'd take a listen to it which prompted me to make a singer-songwriter / folk version of it on my guitar and we went from there.
We recorded it one morning whilst I was making the newest Megan Moroney record and it turned out great. It's a fun song to sing, with loads of vocals on it, which is what you do when you have Little Big Town at your disposal! (laughing)
I saw you on American breakfast television earlier in the week with Hoda. Is it hard dragging yourself back onto the promo train or do you look at things with a little wisdom and experience now – must be very different to back in the early 2000's when the pressure and the zeitgeist was on you.
That's an interesting question. My enjoyment level is way higher now and it's easier to do it now because we don't have to question our relevance anymore. The Megan Moroney stuff is so popular right now which means I can use the skills I've acquired over the years in the industry, from recording to promoting and producing and it means I feel like I'm kinda sitting comfortably in the spotlight right now without a great deal of self doubt or anxiety.
We did a red carpet as Sugarland fairly recently and some people who were interviewing us didn't really know what to ask us because I'm not sure they were out of kindergarten when we had our first hit, you know? It's fascinating. The pressure is mainly off our shoulders these days although this new kind of wild west we are working in right now means that success does beget success and people expect you to be able to replicate achievements but that's so much harder to do in such uncertain and unpredictable times. You are only as good as your most recent thing these days.
I feel very much like I'm head of a teaching hospital right now and I have to be very aware of what I'm doing because there are a lot of people around the industry watching what I'm doing and wondering whether they should be doing the same. It's like I know something on the inside and they want to be in on it too, in the same way that I would be if I got the chance to kidnap and talk to Brian Eno (famed producer, most notably with U2) for two weeks! (laughing)
We've got you back in the UK for the Long Road festival very soon (August 23rd to 25th) and some shows of your own too. How the hell do you put a setlist together given your extensive and varied back catalogue?
(laughing) I think there's a certain amount of surprise that happens when I arrive on a microphone. The first thing is that everyone is a little bit nervous because they are not sure what I'm going to sound like! They are accustomed to the ‘Sugarland-version' of me being there. I like to take the Springsteen approach which is for the first 15 minutes I'm going to give you exactly what you're asking me for but after that the set belongs to me and I can play whatever I want. My brother, Brandon, is coming out with me and our only rule is that if I wrote it, I might play it – other than that I don't have that many rules – I can be bought if there's a song you need, don't be shy.
Tickets to see Kristian Bush at the Long Road festival can be bought here and for his solo tour of the UK right after you need to click here.
