INTERVIEW: Kaylee Bell releases new singles 'Me For Me' and 'Once In A Lifetime': "Songs belong in the world, and I love when you can release them and they exist in people's lives."

Aotearoa-New Zealand country artist Kaylee Bell is the biggest streaming female country artist across both Aotearoa and Australia combined, and her success continues to grow. Last year, she released her fourth album, Cowboy Up and it became one of her most successful releases to date. Peaking in the top 20 of the New Zealand Albums Charts, it also saw her receive her highest number of nominations in a single year at Australia’s prestigious Country Music Awards, with four nods including Album of the Year and Song of the Year. To top it off, this weekend she will be inducted into the NZ Gold Guitar Awards Hands of Fame at the Tussock Country Music Festival in Gore. One of the most significant honours in Aotearoa country music, the Hands of Fame recognises individuals who have made outstanding contributions to country music in New Zealand,

Today Bell releases not one, but two new singles: ‘Me For Me’ and ‘Once In A Lifetime’, both written by Bell with Tom Jordan (Seaforth) and Phoebe Jasper (Navvy). ‘Me For Me’ is an upbeat country-pop track with an addictive beat and some of the most gorgeous, sweeping melodies in the chorus you are likely to hear in country-pop this year.

The song is a both melancholic and joyful search for love. There is the pain and sense of loss when you can’t find your person - ‘All my friends keep settling down / I started losing faith…I hoped, I dreamed some day I’d find the one.’ - that turns into joy as Bell finally finds the one she loves. ‘Everybody said if I’d stop looking he’d show up eventually / Thank god he did, cause he loves me for me.’

“It’s basically about finding your person later in life after waiting, something a lot of my friends and females I know relate to. That age old story of these days you are better off being on your own instead of settling so you don’t get disappointed,” Bell says. “We wrote it over summer while Phoebe was back from London, where she is a full-time songwriter, and Tom was back from Nashville, and we wanted to write a love song that was about waiting for your person so that you’re not selling for less.”

‘Once In A Lifetime’ celebrates Bell’s recent performance at the opening of the One New Zealand Stadium in Christchurch, which saw her perform to an audience of 37,000. A more traditional sounding country song, with appropriately an uplifting chorus made for raising the roof at a stadium, Bell sings of her wonder at such an incredible achievement: ‘I dreamed my whole life for this…a night like this happens once in a lifetime.’

“I wanted something to mark the night - something that would outlive it. The song and the video together are a time capsule - a moment in time we can hold onto forever,” Bell says.

Next month Bell will perform at CMA Fest in Nashville, alongside Australian stars including Melanie Dyer, Racheal Fahim and Keith Urban, and international stars including Melissa Etheridge, Carter Faith, Alana Springsteen and Blake Shelton. 

It’s not hard to see why Bell has captivated local music fans and dominates country music streaming in Australia and New Zealand. Her music never fails to connect and is always the right mixture between fun and thought provoking with nuanced storytelling in her lyrics. We recently sat down with Bell when she was in Sydney to chat all about her new music and her creative process.

Hi Kaylee! We're here celebrating the release of your brand new single, ‘Me for Me’. It's been eight months since the release of your latest album Cowboy Up, how have things been going in that time?
Good, we've been to Europe, played some shows over there for the first time, played Berlin and Rotterdam as part of the C2C (Country To Country) festival, so that was really cool. We just opened a stadium in Christchurch, a lot of Kiwi sporting superstars joined us for that, it was one of those very special moments.

I’m really just getting the wheels in motion for what's next at the moment, being in the studio a lot and working on new music. The single is the start of a fresh batch of songs we wrote over the summer with a bunch of friends. I feel like I've written some of my favourite songs, so that's always nice. 

You collaborated with Tom Jordan and Phoebe Jasper didn’t you? Have you worked with them before?
Tom Jordan is from a band called Seaforth and he produced my Cowboy Up album. We've worked together a lot, but we've never actually released a song that we've written together. That feels criminal with someone like Tom, who's such a prolific and incredible writer. He was at home over summer, we've got a studio at home, so I was like, let's just see who else is around.

Phoebe, she's an artist who goes by the name Navvy, lives in London, she writes for Rita Ora and is an incredible writer. She was home for the holidays as well, so everyone just came around to my home and we just had these writing days. It was so fun, it was summer, and the doors were open. It was just so cool. Those two are my favourite humans, they're both hilarious and fun. It was our first time writing as a little trio, and I feel like we started something really cool so anytime we're in the same place, we'll definitely be doing more of it. We wrote something, ‘Me For Me’  that I feel is very me and very now, it's telling my story. We recently got engaged after 10 years, and it’s a song about self worth and waiting to find your person, which is a thing I stand by for all females. Everyone deserves the chance to meet someone that is their equal and lifts them up and supports them. There's a bit of tongue in cheek in there as well, too, which is nice.

There’s a line in the song ‘I’ll never fill up a gas tank by myself / He’d rather do it for me than have me ask someone else’. I have to ask, do you fill up your own gas tank?
I do! But do you know what, I never fill it to the top. I have a couple weird things, one is that I never finish my drinks, and the other thing is I never fill the tank. I don't know why, it's like a mental block! Half is fine for me, half is so fine. I always justify it with if someone ever stole my car, it would eventually run out of fuel, and then we'd catch them. But it’s  not a good theory, because the amount of times I've run the red fuel light, coming home from the airport, where you're stuck in gridlock, hour and a half traffic, and I’m like, this could be the day… this could be the day!

It's been a huge year for you. I just saw you were nominated for the Aotearoa Music Awards including in the Mana Reo category, for your collaboration with Troy Kingi and Rob Ruha on the song ‘Matariki Hunga Nui (Calling Me Home)’.
It is very, very special. I had the privilege of being asked to be part of a Te Reo song last year with Troy Kingi and Rob, who are just amazing artists. We were put in a room together, and basically told to write a song about Matariki, which is the Māori New Year. There's a lot of Te Reo songs that are very beautiful and slow and sad, and there's actually not a lot of songs that are very celebratory and it's a song that I'm so proud of, because it's the first time I've ever had the chance to sing in Te Reo. I felt like I was in such safe hands with the guys that I was with.

It was a beautiful experience, because we got to take our time with the song, and then go back into the studio a few weeks later, and do the recording of it. The music video is just so quintessential Kiwi, I love it. Kids backflipping off the wharf, and fish and chips, and just all the things that we grew up on. It is something that I'm just super proud of, because, you never make something like that thinking of awards, I was just so honoured to get the chance to sing in Te Reo.  

Speaking of music videos, you’ve recently filmed the music video for ‘Me for Me’. Tell us a little bit about what we can expect from that?
A lot of fire! I feel like I haven't shot a traditional music video for a while now, so a lot of pyro, a lot of dancers, a ot of boots, a lot of hats, just a lot of fun. It was something that's been playing in my mind for a long time that I really want a music video specifically filmed the way that we've shot it, and just female empowerment. I think there's something about a group of dancers together moving in the same direction that is just so powerful. I brought out my choreographer, Jane Strickland, she choreographs everything for me back home and helps me a lot with that world. We shot it with Jay Seeny up in the Caboolture at the Equestrian Centre, and I'm super, super excited for the fans to see it. I truly believe they're gonna love this one.

I can't believe how prolific you are. There is an enormous amount of work that goes into any release and I can really see how hard you work, and it's incredible that you find the time somehow to just keep releasing music.
I just love writing songs and I've really trusted my gut on this over the years, and it served me well. If I like a song, I put it out. A song like ‘Keith’ was a really good tester for me, where I didn't trust my gut, I listened to a lot of voices around me saying don't put that song out, and when I did, it changed my life. So that was a really good roadmap for me. If I like a song, nine times out of 10, I'm going to put it out now. If I relate to it, and if it makes me feel something, it's probably going to make somebody else feel something, and I would rather put that out than hold on to that now. 

Songs belong in the world, and I love when you can release them and pass them into the atmosphere, and they exist in people's lives, and they're no longer mine, they're everybody's. My percentage of how many songs I write versus how many I release is really high, but at the same time I don't write all the time, and I think that's part of it. I've tried to do the writing every day in Nashville thing, and it just didn't serve me well. I didn't feel like I was writing anything that meant or said anything. When I just let myself live and then go through my notes on my phone, I'll write that and nine times out of 10 it'll be something that I'm like we need to put this out.

That's just the way that I work best. It means that I probably put out a lot more music than I should, but at the same time, why would I hang on to it? People need songs, we need music, and you never know who that song might help or where that song might land. 

That’s a beautiful organic approach to songwriting. You're fully independent as well aren’t you?
Yes, absolutely. I've always been independent, and to be fair, before The Voice, I was probably embarrassed to be independent, because it was always something that was frowned upon. I think everything changed in Covid, in every part of the world, but I was very grateful to be independent during that time and to be able to put things out and just try things. Music has changed, the way people consume it has changed so much, it's very fan first now, and so to be independent is such a joy, and I really love that way of working. That freedom suits the way that I work, because, as I said, if I write a song, I probably want to put it out, and it's so nice to not have to go and get permission for that when it's my music and my fans at the end of the day. So I'm really proud to be independent now.

How are you handling the music life with motherhood? It doesn't seem to have slowed you down.
My baby has been on a lot of flights over the last couple of years! He's been a very easy and a very happy baby, and if anything, it's just given me more drive to want to do my thing, because I want to make him proud and show him that you can work hard and achieve things. I think that's a really good example to set, you can tell your kids all you want, but I think the more you show them, that's the stuff that's going to stick with them.It hasn't slowed me down, I'm still a very hands-on mum, I'm with him all week, we just have busy weekends,and that's how it is. 

Your partner Nick also works as your tech doesn’t he? How does that arrangement work?
Basically, I have a lot of ideas, and he turns them into reality, which is a perfect situation!. Last night he sent me a video, and he was bejeweling a microphone, one jewel at a time, and I was like, yeah, I think I'll keep you! He was in a band back in the day, they were signed to a label, and had a big moment for a few years, and I think now he just really enjoys being on the other side of it and wanting to see the best for all of us.

What's coming up next for you?
CMA Fest, it will be awesome to get back over to Nashville and get up on the stage during that week of just craziness, so that's a huge honour. Later in the year I'm actually touring the UK with The Shires, they're a huge band in the UK, and I've been a big fan of theirs since probably 2016 when they brought out their big record that kind of changed the landscape of country music in the UK. I've always said it, I want to be a global artist. Country music is a global industry now, and everybody's touring everywhere, and I don't think it should matter where you come from. You relate to people no matter what, and so the more we can travel, and the more we can just keep pushing it out, I want to keep doing that.

That’s incredible, but when's your next Australian tour!
I feel like the fans are about to probably strangle me, it's just been so long coming because I just want to get it right. And we're going to get it right, and it's coming. It's definitely coming, it's going to be special, and it's going to be big when it happens.

‘Me for Me’ and ‘Once In a Lifetime’ are out now. You can buy and stream here.
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