Kelleigh Bannen is a singer-songwriter and radio presenter from Nashville, Tennessee. She’s toured with huge names like Little Big Town and Luke Bryan, has been writing songs since her twenties and even landed herself a recording contract. As she’s grown into her space, Bannen has chosen to produce her music independently, continuing to deliver impressive bodies of work. Her critically acclaimed album, ‘Favorite Colours’ was her first independent album with her latest track, ‘Nothin’ On’ with Charles Kelley.

Established as an artist, Bannen has also been quietly carving out space in the country music media field and is now a household name. Bannen is the title host of the Kelleigh Bannen show on Apple Music radio as well as Today’s Country Radio. Here, she has held the most interesting conversations with country music icons like Dolly Parton, Miranda Lambert, Post Malone and many more.

Bannen’s reputation precedes her, with recognition from Billboard, the Country Music Association, the Alliance for Women in Media and was recently nominated for an Academy of Country Music award.

Taking back the narrative of ‘having it all’. Musician, presenter, host, mother, wife and all-round girl’s girl, Bannen talks to Building Our Own Nashville about her new music, her experience as a woman in the industry and which side of the mic she prefers to be on.

Your ACM award nomination for ‘on air personality of the year (national, weekly) – congratulations!

This just happened yesterday actually while we were on the air, it was so much fun.

Oh wow! So how does that feel?

You know, it’s funny, you kind of want to say “I don’t care about awards, I love what I do” but there is something really gratifying about being recognised in any form or fashion by your peers. I think it’s human nature to kind of look for the validation – am I doing this right, does anybody think I’m good at this – so it just felt really sweet, honestly. Even just my friends and artists that I love working with that were popping in the comments and saying congrats was really sweet too. It felt great.

You were the first female global radio anchor host in country music – such a huge accolade!

Isn’t that wild? I mean I think just mostly because of how country radio works, some of it is just Apple Music has an unmatched reach really, globally, so in some ways I already had that leg up, being a part of that Apple team, we were already, you know, places that my peers don’t necessarily have the opportunity to be. And that is some of what we’re so excited about – the growth that we’re seeing in Europe, specific to country, and in the UK is just so incredible to see what’s happening over there.

Of course. And with the growth over here in the UK we have so many independent radio shows and podcasts popping up – what’s your advice for us as it’s all taking off over here in the UK?

I think take a stand about artists and what I mean is, have a take, have artists that you take risks with early that you go out on early and then you build this credibility with fans because you’re gonna prove to them that you have the predictive power of knowing what is going to be important and shortcutting them to the next cool music. I think some of it is maybe my own backlash to the experience of being a new artist and feeling how hesitant people were to take a risk. You never forget the people that step out for you early so I think it’s a great way to make the brand with artists but also with fans.

What’s your experience like having been a woman in the industry in terms of hosting and presenting.

There are very few female decision makers in radio across the board. There are of course women in radio fields, hell, similar to the way we’re represented often as artists. In radio shows themselves I think it’s a similar amount of disparity and so for me I think it’s just the invitation that the team here at Apple gave me when I got hired into this role was really one about being able to curate, being able to be inclusive and diverse in our playlist in a ways that felt just really free and open and bold compared to what we were getting to see on the traditional radio side. But, as you know, get a woman in the room and those perspectives can change and the programming can change, and I think it’s just a matter of having more women in those seats.

Talk to me about your latest song with Charles Kelly? Where did that song come from?

OK I wrote this with one of my best friends. She has this sexy little apartment – I call it the Paris apartment – it’s this sexy apartment, mostly white with gorgeous antiques and amazing windows and the light in there is so amazing and I love writing in that room. That chorus just fell out of the sky. It was like, Claire Douglas, she said the idea – hey what if it was like this person’s got nothing on…you, and you’re kind of playing with this sexy scene and what they’re actually wearing (she giggles). And then I just opened my mouth and the chorus kind of fell out. Our friend Will Bohen was writing with us and he was literally filling in the lyric gap…it was all happening. And then we had to figure out what are these verses? We’d originally written it honestly from a male perspective because we couldn’t see as clearly the female perspective and then after trying to get that song cut because we thought it was such a smash, finally I was like well damn, maybe we need to make this a duet. We loved the first verse but we could never write anything that we loved more than that first verse so it was like, OK, a man will sing the first verse and we’ll rewrite the second verse for me to sing. And then Charles signed on and he sounds so amazing

What are you doing to celebrate that song at the moment?

OK that’s a great question. You know, we did have a little champagne and dance party the week that it came out just with my girls. Charles and I have been sending virtual high fives back and forth, especially when we see our friends share about it, it’s just really really sweet. I don’t know, we are going to – it’s not completely firm – but I think we are going to be able to do live version of the song. It won’t be released until probably early summer.

Favourite song to play and hardest song you’ve ever written?

Ooh OK. Hardest song I’ve ever written is one we’ve recorded and are still so trigger shy about like, is it done, did we capture it right. It’s because of the material. It’s a song called past tense and it’s about… I lost my younger brother in 2008 and it’s really about the idea of how do you talk about somebody in the past tense and what that feels like and it honestly just describes so much of what early grief feels like, too, you know, standing in a grocery line as surreal moments. I’m out living my life and just how disorienting that can be so I feel like that’s one that can be very powerful and means so much to me that I really want to get it right so that’s the most difficult.
Favourite to play – you always love to play the songs that are easiest to play (she laughs) or the easiest to show off on sometimes. I love performing a song of mine off my Favourite Colours Album, it’s called Diamonds. It’s just soulful, it’s almost always pretty easy for me to flex on that song so that’s always a fun one.

Which side of the mic do you prefer to be on – as an artist or an interviewer?

Honestly, I think the reason that I’m a decent interview is because I’m actually an introvert and so I love turning the conversation back. So I think – if I’m psycho analysing myself – this is how I hide, is being the interviewer. I can keep you talking about yourself and I don’t have to talk about myself…I might need to do more therapy about that!

We all need to do more therapy! Which artist that you’ve interviewed has surprised you the most?

Umm…ooh that’s good. Well, this Friday, we will have an interview with Chappel Roan that comes out. In some ways, she was exactly what you’d hope she’d be and she was unpredictable in some really beautiful ways. I don’t mean that in that she was hard to work with, she just was herself and so I couldn’t necessarily guess where the conversation was going and that was lovely. She surprised me in some really fun and lovely ways.

In your interviews you ask your artists about a no that has really fuelled them – what is a no that has really fuelled you.

Oooh OK. Umm, you know, I think mine is almost more of a big symbolic no. I think as a kid, I just didn’t feel particularly seen and so, so much about my career is really like ‘ah, so maybe we’re still looking for the answer to this, like, does anybody see me?’ type question. Of course, somebody that didn’t feel like anybody noticed them goes into a field that’s literally standing in a spotlight (she laughs). So I think that in some ways, I am an introvert, I’m very relational but I’m an introvert and being shy as a kid and loving music but not really knowing exactly what to do with it and a lot of ways I felt like an outsider looking in on a lot of life so I really think it was that – whatever I felt was the no that was being said about me as a little kid is kind of what I set out to prove to myself in my adulthood.

Kelleigh Bannen’s shows on Apple Music Country

Today’s Country Radio with Kelleigh Bannen (Fridays)
Available HERE
The Kelleigh Bannen Show (Mon-Thurs)
Available HERE

Tune in and listen to Apple Music Country 24/7 live for free at apple.co/am-country