Ian Harrison Talks Jealous, UK Crowds and Finding His Sound
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
Fresh off a run of UK dates with Cooper Alan and riding the momentum of his new EP Jealous, Ian Harrison is quickly becoming one of country-pop’s most exciting rising names. I caught up with Ian to talk touring the UK for the first time, unexpected fan favourites and just how many pints he managed during his Glasgow stop...
Right Ian, we traded places last month because when you were here in Glasgow.. I was in America. I can’t believe I missed you! How was being over this side of the pond?
That is so typical! The tour was so much fun. Not only was it my first tour, it was my first tour in the UK, so it was a total double whammy for me. It felt like tour boot camp and we had an absolute blast.
Whenever artists from America or Canada come over here, they always end up obsessed with the delicacies - Guinness in Ireland, deep fried food in Glasgow.. so be honest, how many pints did you have?
Honestly, I was there for a couple of days so it all blurred together! There were definitely plenty of pints consumed, that’s for sure. Glasgow was such a great city and somewhere I definitely want to come back to. I live in Nashville, so when it comes to pubs and bars on your doorstep, the UK actually felt pretty familiar - like home from home.
We’re only in May and it’s already been a huge year for you - touring, new music and now releasing an EP. After listening to it though.. Ian, who hurt you?!
(Laughs) This EP came from a season in my life where I didn’t really know what was going on. Everything just kind of pieced itself together naturally and honestly, I don’t think I could recreate it even if I tried. It’s the first project that’s really felt like me and it’s been so much fun making it. I’m excited to see how it grows with the fans.
There are seven tracks on the EP - how difficult was narrowing it down?
It was interesting because we actually had around nine or ten songs that we loved. Eventually we narrowed it down to seven and it just felt perfect.
I love that - very Nashville meets Craig David’s 7 Days.
Exactly!
How did it feel testing some of those songs out live before release?
I only played one unreleased song which was Jealous. At that point I hadn’t really performed it live before, so it was cool seeing how people reacted to it. I also played songs like Not Yours and of course Cigarette, which is a really fun upbeat track that got played most nights. I tried my best!
Well, I’m gutted I missed it - which basically means you need to come back over.
Oh trust me, I would absolutely love to.
People always say UK and European crowds are completely different to American crowds. What was your experience?
Everyone was super respectful, which is definitely different. In the US people start partying like two hours before the show! But I’ll tell you this - when UK crowds get into it, they really get into it. They get loud for every song. I was the opener, but it genuinely felt like people were getting down early to see me which was amazing. I definitely feel like I built a fanbase over there.
When it came to putting Jealous together, did you approach this project differently?
Definitely. This was the first project I really put together strategically. I released an independent EP a few years ago when I’d just moved to town and it was basically a collection of songs written with friends or on my own. That was fun, but over the last year I’ve really been trying to figure out who I am as an artist.
Around October I finally felt like I understood where I wanted to go creatively. From there we started building the EP properly. We actually worked with seven different producers - one for every song - which I probably wouldn’t recommend doing again! But it was a lot of fun and somehow it all worked out.
There’s definitely a storytelling element throughout the record. Songs like Nobody Else and Games feel like completely different emotional chapters.
Yeah, for sure.
Were there any songs fans connected with more than you expected?
Definitely Games. That one really surprised me. It came out shortly before the EP and hit around 100,000 streams in the first week. We went from around 40,000 monthly listeners to over 300,000, which is insane. Totally unexpected, but I’m really thankful people connected with it.
That’s always the way - it’s the song you least expect that takes off. What does the rest of the year look like for you?
A lot more touring and a few more releases coming soon. We recently recorded a live acoustic session for the EP which we’re getting online soon. We spent over twelve hours filming stripped-back versions of the songs with just two acoustic guitars, which was really cool. Hopefully we can get another tour going too.
So basically no time to rest?
Absolutely not. It’s all about spreading the music and telling your friends, “Ian Harrison is really good!”
I’m on it! One thing I always ask artists - who should we be listening to before they completely blow up?
That’s a great question. For me, Benny G and Ava Hall are both incredible. They were up-and-coming artists not that long ago and now they’re absolutely smashing it. I love what they’re doing and it’s amazing seeing them get the recognition they deserve.
Ian Harrison’s EP Jealous is out now.