{"id":2063919,"date":"2025-10-02T08:13:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T08:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2063919"},"modified":"2025-10-02T08:13:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T08:13:08","slug":"kaylee-bell-talks-new-album-country-music-in-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/kaylee-bell-talks-new-album-country-music-in-new-zealand\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaylee Bell Talks New Album &#038; Country Music in New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>According to New Zealand-born country-pop star Kaylee Bell, her new album, <em>Cowboy Up<\/em>, is her most personal to date.<\/p>\n<p>The fourth record from the Canterbury songwriter, who now splits her time between New Zealand, Sydney, and the home of country, Nashville, is all the more special because she found out she was pregnant ahead of getting back into the studio, something that was not originally in her plans.<\/p>\n<p>In an exclusive chat with <em>Rolling Stone AU\/NZ<\/em>, Bell discusses the journey to\u00a0<em>Cowboy Up<\/em>, globetrotting as a country artist, the genre\u2019s growth in Australia and New Zealand over recent years, and what\u2019s still to come.<\/p>\n<p><em>Kaylee Bell\u2019s <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/album\/4sf1VyilDtKqaduPSTXfet?si=W3JS0UXZSlSAet-uGi1ejQ\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cowboy Up<\/a> is out now.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rolling Stone AU\/NZ: The album has been out for a few days now. How has the reaction been on your end?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Kaylee Bell: An album sits with you for such a long time. We produced it in December last year. You live with these songs and you start playing them live, and I just love the day that it\u2019s time to hand it over to the fans. It becomes exciting again, you know?<\/p>\n<p><strong>You\u2019ve described this album as your most personal to date. Now that it\u2019s out in the world, is there a sense of relief? <\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"observer-sub-form justify-content-center my-3 p-0 d-flex align-items-stretch bg-dark text-white\">\n<div class=\"observer-sub-form-info p-3\" style=\"justify-content: start;\">\n<h2 class=\"h5 mb-0 observer-title\">Love Music?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"observer-desc mb-2\"> Get your daily dose of everything happening in Australian\/New Zealand music and globally.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"spinner d-none\"> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>I think the fear is gone. I think a lot of the fear came from just even writing some of the songs. There\u2019s some personal stuff on there. I didn\u2019t know that I could have children and then ended up finding out that I was pregnant in Nashville last year. And then I just kind of was trying to navigate that from a point of view of like, what does it look like to be a woman in music and also be a mother in music?<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s songs that kind of talk about that that were very scary when I was writing and deciding \u2014 you know, is this something you want to put out? I feel like I trust the fans, you know? I have always felt like the more vulnerable I\u2019ve been with them, the better they\u2019ve responded. So it\u2019s actually quite liberating, I would say, putting that out, and hopefully these songs mean something to people in different ways, even if that\u2019s something that inspires someone else in music to know that they can have a family and continue to do this, or whatever that looks like.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"op-interactive\">\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Kaylee Bell - &#039;Song For Shania&#039; Official Music Video\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/29gV6qTPhiI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p><b>You were born and raised in New Zealand, moved to Sydney for seven years, and are now based in Nashville. Can you talk about that journey literally globetrotting as a country artist, particularly as the genre has exploded here in recent years?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I started singing when I was four. So, I came through the industry [in New Zealand], like the talent quest circuit, but there was no country music in mainstream. Like, zero. So for 20 years, it was kind of missing in the mainstream, which essentially pushed me to move out of New Zealand and move to Australia.<\/p>\n<p>When I came over here, there was obviously its own thing, but it still wasn\u2019t anywhere near the mainstream, you know? It was still just getting ignored in a lot of ways. And so I started going to Nashville and had my mind blown. It\u2019s the biggest thing in America. There\u2019s been such a shift, I would say in the last probably five years\u2026 I\u2019ve really felt it since COVID, there\u2019s country music back to back on mainstream radio in New Zealand now. There\u2019s country music on mainstream radio here, the festivals that we play, the fans are showing up like they\u2019ve never showed up before.<\/p>\n<p>I think it\u2019s been a combination of a lot of beautiful things having to happen at the same time. There\u2019s been TV shows inspiring it, there\u2019s been the radio thing inspiring it. I think country music was really late to streaming just because radio was always king\u2026 it just blows my mind now to think where it came from to where it is now. Hopefully we never go back.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"op-interactive\">\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Kaylee Bell - &#039;Song For Shania&#039; Official Music Video\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/29gV6qTPhiI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p><strong>There\u2019s obviously been very contentious conversations around country music as the genre continues to grow. We\u2019ve seen mainstream acts like Post Malone and Beyonc\u00e9 release country albums that has irked some artists and fans. What\u2019s your take?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s always interesting when a pop artist or someone from a different genre has a take on country. It\u2019s like, how do they see it? I find a lot of artists in America have actually grown up on country music, and there\u2019s actually always been a lot of undertone of country [in] what a lot of different artists do, you know? You could look at Ed Sheeran and I would say a lot of his songwriting is very country stylistically.<\/p>\n<p>Post Malone\u2019s another one. When someone like Posty comes and does a full country record, and to me that was one of the best country records I\u2019d heard last year, it\u2019s exciting. I don\u2019t see how you can see it in a bad light because I think it\u2019s music at the end of the day, and the fans are gonna decide if they love it or not. And, [in] the industry, I just think we should be welcoming in people. I think that\u2019s a big part of how we grow as an industry.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You\u2019ve got a bunch of tour dates coming up, including playing the debut Strummingbird festival. Do you have any immediate plans or goals once that\u2019s done or will you get to take a breath?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I wasn\u2019t expecting to have children. I\u2019ve always been very career-focused, and then obviously that was a beautiful surprise and gift and it\u2019s been amazing. It\u2019s been a real mental thing though. I want to be the best mum I can be, but to be the best mum I can be, I actually also need to be doing what I love. That\u2019s been a really big thing to not feel guilt around that.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"op-interactive\"><iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: Cowboy Up\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"400\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/4sf1VyilDtKqaduPSTXfet?si=W3JS0UXZSlSAet-uGi1ejQ&amp;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n<p>For example, I was back up on stage after six weeks of having James. We played CMC Rocks, and to me that was way more the mental thing than anything, you know? Physically, I was not in a place of feeling ready to be back on stage, but more so mentally, I had to go and meet a movement coach that I see every week. We just would sit and talk through what that looked like, what that felt like to switch back into artist mode. I think that\u2019s something that I\u2019m really big on talking about because I think that, for me, that was probably the scariest thing \u2014 how do I do both and still feel like I want to chase a career? I\u2019ve got a beautiful child that I want to give all my time to. It\u2019s a constant push and pull, but I feel like I must be doing a good blend because I\u2019m just really enjoying both parts.<\/p>\n<p>I love being a mum, and I feel like we try and take him out on the road anytime we can. And if not, he\u2019s got family around\u2026 that\u2019s been a big thing. I\u2019m also still getting to put music out and make records. Maybe the last year hasn\u2019t looked what it was meant to [be] in my big year plan. But I think there\u2019s been some really cool ones that have happened, by just staying true to who I am and doing what I can do.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');fbq('init','243859349395737');fbq('track','PageView');fbq.disablePushState=true;<\/script><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source au.rollingstone.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to New Zealand-born country-pop star Kaylee Bell, her new album, Cowboy Up, is her most personal to date. The fourth record from the Canterbury songwriter, who now splits her time between New Zealand, Sydney, and the home of country, Nashville, is all the more special because she found out she was pregnant ahead of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2063920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[23849,385346,385347,385348,385349,385350],"class_list":["post-2063919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-country","tag-cowboy-up","tag-kaylee-bell","tag-kaylee-bell-album","tag-kaylee-bell-interview","tag-kaylee-bell-tour"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Kaylee-Bell-Talks-New-Album-Country-Music-in-New.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2063919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2063919"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2063919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2063921,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2063919\/revisions\/2063921"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2063920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2063919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2063919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2063919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}