We catch up with Jade Helliwell to chat about her new single out today ‘The Moment,’ being part of the UK country music scene and more.
Gosh, it already feels like a million years ago since the last time I saw you!
I know! It’s crazy.
How excited are you to get this single out into the world?
Yeah, I feel like with everything going on, it’s something good to focus on.
Yeah, it must be nice as something to talk to people about that isn’t coronavirus as well!
Yeah (laughs), definitely.
What was the story behind the new single?
So, I wrote it with Kaity Rae. When I went in to write with her she had this idea of feeling like you’ve missed your chance to make your move on somebody. I could relate to that, because when I started spending time with Luke – I always joke to him now – he walked me back to my tent at Buckle and Boots and I was like ‘he’s going to kiss me, he’s going to kiss me.’ Then he didn’t. (laughs) Afterwards, I was like ‘maybe I was supposed to kiss him.’ It all worked out in the end!
I love the fact that it all ties back into Buckle and Boots and the UK country scene…
(laughs) Yeah heart of the song…. I was like, yeah I’ve got experience where I can sort of relate to that as well. It all sort of fell out.
You guys have been so ingrained in the UK country scene, so it does feel kind of fitting that some part of the story is that. Can you talk about what the scene has meant to you, in terms of your growth as an artist?
Yeah, so I started coming onto the scene in like 2016, I released my ‘Forget the Night’ – EP, but that year leading up to it, I started going out to gigs and I noticed that more UK country gigs were cropping up around Manchester and stuff. I used to travel to Manchester and basically blag Pete Woodhouse and Luke to get on a gig, try and get into the scene. So I released my EP and then got a little more into the scene. Then I got booked for the first year of Buckle and Boots and then throughout those years the scene itself started to take off, you could see a lot of Americans coming over, more festivals cropping up, more opportunities to write with other UK artists. I think I was just in good timing, then I quit and went full time. I released more music and I’ve been able to get involved in a lot more gigs that are going on, and meeting a lot more people in the scene, and travelling a lot more as well. There’s a bit of scene down south, then in the North and Manchester, so it’s cool to be able to travel between the two and make friends in both.
It’s nice to be able to do that and have audiences everywhere, it’s kind of nice that we’re in that position that I don’t think we would have been in four or five years ago.
Like I say, when I first started going out to gigs, the only UK artists I could remember seeing were Laura Oakes, Gary Quinn, Luke and Mel. I used to go to those gigs in Manchester and see the stuff they were doing with W21 Music. When the world returns to normal, I think you could find a country gig each week.
How have you been finding your inspiration in quarantine?
To be honest, I think I’ve been quite lucky. I’ve got a little set up at home, so I’ve been able to record demos for things I’ve been writing. I’ve done a whole load of co-writes and I’ve done a couple of collaborative things, so I did the video with Tim Prottey-Jones. I’ve been pretty busy, I’ve kept writing and doing the recording. Now, with the single coming out I’ve been focussed on promoting that.
I’m glad you’ve continued to release music. I’m listening to music now more than ever, so I’m glad you are continuing to do that.
Yeah definitely, hopefully I’ll see that people are at home more than they would have been, so they might be more likely to tune in.
The last single you released was ‘Stay’ and honestly I feel like your vocals just get better and better with every track. How have you felt with the response to that one and ‘Stormchaser’?
Yeah it’s been really good, both of those were put on the ‘Wild Country’ playlist on Spotify, so that was really cool to see on such a big editorial playlist. The fans of the music, people seem to request them. We’ve been doing a livestream every Thursday, and those two are definitely the ones that people seem to ask for every week. It’s nice that people ask for it, and a lot of people say they relate to them as well, so that’s really cool.
That’s one of the things about your music is that it is immensely relatable, even you as a performer are very relatable. What are your plans after this release?
I changed my plan to the current situation, because I didn’t just want to not do anything – we don’t know how long it’s going to be like this. The original plan was to go into the studio in April and then release something in the summer to coincide with festival appearances, but then when we got put into lockdown we couldn’t go into the studio so I decided to release this song instead. This song wasn’t going to be the one I released yet, so we decided to release this. I think this worked so well, even just the demo of it just being a vocal and a piano I really liked. I knew that it was something we could do remotely, so we just went along with that. Hopefully, we won’t still be in this situation in summer, but the good thing about it is I have a lot of writing now.
Final Few
If someone created a biopic about your life, what would be the opening track?
I’d say Whitney Houston’s ‘Greatest Love of All,’ because that was the first song I sang in front of anyone when I was 9.
Wine or whiskey?
I would say neither, but today I’ve decided to become a wine drinker in lockdown. I asked Instagram Live what wine I should drink, so I’ve got a list now to try out.
Would you rather give up songwriting or performing?
Oh that’s awful. I’d probably say songwriting, can I trade it in for poetry.
What’s your favourite song you’ve ever written?
Right now, it would probably be ‘The Moment.’
Record you couldn’t live without if you were stuck on a desert island?
Taylor Swift’s ‘Fearless.’
Complete the sentence…
Music is… life.
Country music is… healing.
Jade Helliwell is… annoying.
Follow Jade Helliwell on Instagram / Twitter / Facebook
