The Shires talk country music revolution: "Country is cooler and a lot more relatable nowadays"

It's a really exciting time right now for Ben Earle and Crissie Rhodes.

The Shires made history last year when they became the highest charting UK country act ever on the Official Albums Chart with their debut album Brave. Fast forward 12 months and the duo are on track to better their previous success as their new album My Universe looks set to enter the Top 5 tomorrow (October 7).

We sat down with the history makers to discuss the diverse sound within their new album My Universe, the evolution of the country genre, and their thoughts on Ward Thomas' recent impact when they went all the way to Number 1.

Your debut album was the first by a UK country act to go Top 10 – how does it feel to be eyeing a Top 3 placing for My Universe? Your fan-base must be growing…

“We are so happy. The number of sales is the thing that blows us away and just how many people that is in reality. It really hits home when we play live. We remember playing to 10 people in the corner of a pub. Now we’re playing to over a thousand people a night, which when you’re looking out from the stage, is a LOT of people. Then you think, ‘wow, we sold 150,000 on Brave’, and it’s almost hard to process how many people that is.

“The midweek chart sales for My Universe were much better than we could have dreamed of, and hopefully people will keep on discovering us like they did with Brave.”

My Universe is also on track to be the fastest-selling UK country album of the year so far. It's like you're at the heart of a revolution here in the UK!

“It’s such an exciting for country and we are so proud to be part of its rise right now. It makes us so happy that the music we love so much is getting recognition and so many people are listening. When we first met three years ago, we felt like the only country fans in the UK!”

Ward Thomas made history as the first UK country act to hit Number 1 earlier this year. How does it feel knowing you’re not alone flying the flag for UK country?

“We actually did a co-headline tour in 2014 and it’s absolutely incredible to think how far we’ve both come since then and what we’ve achieved. We are so happy for the girls, it’s a great achievement. Our first album Brave was also the best-selling country album last year in the UK including the US acts, which is another great calling card for UK country.”

With mellower acoustic songs like Daddy’s Little Girl alongside rockier songs like Drive and Not Even Drunk Right Now your album is a good introduction to the breadth of the country genre, isn't it?

“Country is such a broad genre and our album definitely shows the variety the genre has to offer. Honesty and storytelling is the thread that connects every song on My Universe. We only ever write and sing what is real for us, which is probably the most important factor in country music.”

Why do you think country music is finally starting to take off in the UK?

“There have been so many big country moments in the last few years, particularly Dolly Parton headlining Glastonbury, that have pushed country into the limelight.

"The biggest factor though is that the music has changed so much. Country is cooler and also a lot more relatable nowadays. You only need to look at artists like Sam Hunt and Florida Georgia Line who are literally rapping in songs, to see how far country has come. With the internet it’s so easy to find all these artists now too.”

You mentioned other artists there, so what about collaborations? Is adding another iconic voice or two something you'd like to do in the future?

“We ended up with 3 songs co-written with Nina Nesbitt on this album, who is an absolutely amazing talent. We also had Sam Palladio (Gunnar from the TV show Nashville) sing with us at our first Glastonbury performance. Our fans absolutely loved it. Dolly Parton would definitely be a dream collaboration one day.”

You have a UK tour coming up in November. What's the one song from the album that you’re most excited about performing?

“Thousand Hallelujahs is going to be great fun, we can’t wait! We played it at our album launch, and we got everyone in the crowd singing out ‘Hallelujah!’ as loud as they can. The atmosphere was electric. Playing live is always so great, especially when you have such awesome fans like we do.”

The Shires' new album My Universe is available now.