Exclusive interview: Kaylee Bell on why “life evolves & we evolve with it”

The 13-date run, which kicks off at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow on November 3rd, comes after an excellent 2026 for Bell. The artist performed at the 37,000 strong sold-out Once In A Lifetime concert - the first ever show at Christchurch’s One New Zealand Stadium, she was inducted into the NZ Gold Guitar Awards Hands of Fame, Bell also received five Aotearoa Music Awards nominations, including Album of the Year and Best Country Artist, and in June became the first female artist from Australia or New Zealand to be featured on the CMA Close Up Stage, appearing at CMA Fest in Nashville for a special discussion hosted by Apple Music Country’s Ty Bentli.

It also marks the 10th anniversary of her breakout single, ‘Getting Closer’, which was written alongside Morgan Evans. But what was the experience of collaborating with Evans like? “Morgan's been one of my friends for a really long time. I moved to Australia when I was 20 and did my first show in Western Australia with him and his band,” she explained. “So I got to know him very early in my career. And he's always been one of the most genuine, kind and talented humans that I've ever met. So yeah, it was really fun to write that back in the day we wrote it over in Nashville. And that song was kind of like my first sort of, I guess, like, I don't know, flag in the sand kind of song. This is who I am. This is my sound,” Bell finished.

Bell’s most recent album - ‘Cowboy Up’ - comes after a period of change for the artist from New Zealand. In January 2025, Bell welcomed a child, James, into the world, which saw her blend her trademark high-energy, arena-ready country-pop with vulnerable songwriting inspired by navigating life as a touring, independent working mother. Shania Twain, who Bell paid tribute to on ‘Song for Shania’, was a big influence on Bell. After listening to Twain’s music, Bell was encouraged to pick up a guitar and also taught her that she could be a mum and a rock star simultaneously.

“She did it all,” Bell explained. And yeah, I feel like that's where I'm at now. I've got a one-year-old son and I'm still trying to juggle it all, which is challenging at times. But I think it's really nice to be able to look at people that have come before and be like, well, if they've done it, you can do it. And we're not doing anything out of the ordinary. We're just wanting to have careers and also have families, which I think is, if there's anything I've learned in the last year, it's like things that I do now are very intentional and intentional with my time and have a higher expectation of what I'm doing, because it's like any time away from my family is important.

“It just gives you a bigger perspective. Even when I think about working on the next lot of music, I'm writing from just different places now. I can talk about different things and I can connect with particularly women, I'd say, on things like being a mom is a big thing to go through. And you don't get it till you've been through it. So it's been really nice to be able to talk from new learnings. Life evolves and we evolve with it,” Bell finished.

Remarkably, Bell went on to perform at the CMC Rocks country music festival in Australia, just six weeks after giving birth. It was an opportunity that Bell stated was beneficial from a mental standpoint in terms of dipping her toes back into the water and performing once more, and this time was in front of a new audience member - her son, James.

“He was side of the stage with his little headphones on and my sister was out with us,” Bell said when revealing her son was in attendance for the performance. “I look back and yeah, like it feels kind of crazy. But also it felt like it was a really positive thing for me to do at the time. I remember feeling you go through all sorts of things after you have a child and there's a lot of different postpartum and emotions. And I think for me, knowing that I had to get back up on stage and just find that piece of myself again was actually so positive.

“And I'm really grateful I did that. It was a really important piece of getting back to being who I am and realising, like, I love being a mom and that's like always going to be really important. But it's also really important to do things that make you feel like yourself. And that was definitely what that kind of reminded me of, which was great. And it was one of our favourite shows we've ever played. So again, it just shows it was like back on stage, a brand new baby there. It felt very fulfilling,” she concluded.

Kaylee Bell will join The Shires across the UK for 13 dates in November. Tickets are available here.