Jade Helliwell Discusses C2C, Her Fans and What the Future Holds
Last weekend (10th-12th March) saw the return of Country to Country festival which celebrated it’s 10th anniversary. UK Country artist Jade Helliwell performed across the weekend. Jess T caught up with Jade to discuss her performance, as well as to find out what the future has in store.
Jess T
Good Afternoon! It’s Jess T here for Bells and Gals. I am interviewing Jade Helliwell here at C2C. How are you doing?
Jade
Good. Thank you. I’m doing great! It’s not so cold now, so that’s good.
Jess
Yes, it’s been a rather C2C. But how have you found it? What have you been doing?
Jade
So fun! I came down yesterday, just to kind of take in the festival. I went to a CMA panel thing held here, which was really interesting; and then caught a couple sets at the icon. I went to check out the barrelhouse, I had some food and then I had an early night. I did not want to be tired for today (Saturday). It has been really good and then today I have just played in barrelhouse and I’m going to go and check out everybody else now!
Jess
Now you just played the barrelhouse and I have never seen so many people in one vicinity. You absolutely packed the place out and it looked like you were having a great time; because stage presence was awesome and everybody was completely engaged. How did you find that?
Jade
Thank you. Yeah, it was amazing. I had a dream last night that nobody was going to be in there. So, it’s really nice that wasn’t turning to reality.
Jess
Nowhere near. It was packed to the rafters and like I say everyone was having a really good time.
Jade
Thank you.
I just want to smash through the upbeat festival vibes songs. I’ve put up a post as there was people like play ‘telephone’ which is like a really sad song. So I cute it from the set just because I didn’t think it was the right vibe for a festival weekend.
Jess
It is a very, very emotional track. It’s a beautiful song. So well written. But yeah, you have to tailor your sets, and do you find sometimes you have to tailor your sets according to the to the audience?
Jade
Yes, sometimes I don’t tend to swap what I’m going to play, but I might, like, cut the song out to think, like, say exactly if I have had telephone in today, I would have probably cut that. Obviously, let’s not play it because feel like they should be having a party.
Jess
Yeah, that was a great choice because everybody was really, really partying towards the end. You know, everybody was really, really enjoying.
You have been busy prior to today, haven’t you?
Jade
Yes. I’ve just finished a tour with Kezia Gill, Demi Mariner and Jess Thristan. We did a tour called the ‘Girls Night In’ which was very different to this show. It was a writer’s round. But yeah, we had the best time just like playing different cities. Each night sharing stories and songs and stuff and drinking a lot of wine. It was great!
Jess
We saw that it was pretty much sold out across the country which goes to show that everybody needed to see and take part of that. I think it was something really, really unique. I don’t think anyone else has done that.
You guys are all friends as well because you had a laugh and that’s what songwriters rounds are about.
Jade
It is different show to what happened today for that reason. And I think it’s nice as well to have those moments to kind of show a little bit more personality and let the others get to know you a little bit more and time to See, like we say, like the friendship that we have. Because for example, if you’re doing a 30 minute band set, you want to play the songs, you want to get people in the mood. So, I couldn’t have sat in between each song and talk for 10 minutes.
Jess
I think that’s the most important thing is making everyone feel part of that part of something definitely. Yeah, and that’s, that’s clearly what happened now. So, you’ve released a new EP?
Jade
Yes, I released ‘The woman’ EP back in October, which I was very lucky to. It was a Kickstarter campaign, so thank you again to everybody who, you know put money in for the kickstart campaign because I genuinely wouldn’t have been able to do it without them. and it meant that I could record the dream EP that I wanted, use the producer that I wanted and the players and photographers, graphics and all that sort of stuff. So, it’s been really fun, getting to play those songs out now because I’d have them written and ready to go for like a year up until that point. So, it’s really nice. It’s actually good to get out and see people singing along.
Jess
You’ve got a great following and your fans really are dedicated to you. You know, being found the way that you were, on YouTube. Now it’s all about TikTok. You were catapulted into complete stardom, and it wasn’t country so much. How did that end up happening? You’ve got more and more country.
Jade
Yes. So I was already like gigging and writing and recording releasing music. I was doing country music and trying more to get my foot in the door. It was the first year I played C2C, I won the Yamaha competition, and then I went out, did the video with the busker singing ‘Hallelujah’. That kind of just got me a little bit more known. I was working as a teaching assistant at the time in a primary school. So, I left my job to do music full time and I could throw everything into what I actually wanted to do. So basically just kind of took off from there.
Jess
You are headlining quite a few festivals this year as well aren’t you? If not headlining, you are at least on, you know, top of the bills.
Jade
I am really excited. It has just been announced that I will play the British country music festival in September, which I have not played it before, I’ve been to it, love it. So, I’m really excited to be appearing. It’s in September as well. It’s just, when you think things are settling down. It’s always each one’s different from the last, they have all got their own vibe.
Jess
I say that you do a lot of country but you’re not just specifically Country?
Jade
I think my sounds very like, contemporary country pop so I cross into the more pop side of things with the sound of my music. I think that’s a great thing about country. There are so many sub-genres. Country-rock, Blues, Americana. You can be in the Country genre but have your own sound like a sub-genre of it and likely that means then you can press into other festivals and events and things. I think it means you don’t get so boxed in. It means that you can write, without trying to write specifically to that genre, so that you can write the song that you want to write.
Jess
So, what do you have coming up next? Have any more secrets?
Jade
Yeah, I’ve got a couple things I’m working on. These hopefully will be announced soon and then I’ve just some festivals and the next like month or. I also want to get back into the studio and get some more music releases this year. Hopefully, everything will just perfectly fall
Into place.
Jess
Thank you for your time. I can’t wait to see what you do next.
