With her gift for vivid, emotionally rich songwriting, singer-songwriter Nell Mescal could well be Ireland’s next great musical export.

At only 22 years old, Mescal is seemingly wiser beyond her years. The way she can pen the most heartbreaking and introspective lyrics paired with dulcet tones is a skill only some artists can hope for. Where does this seemingly innate ability come from? Perhaps it comes from her family dynamic. Growing up in Maynooth, Ireland, Nell is the only daughter of a police officer and a teacher. Sister to two brothers, Donnacha and Paul, she’s always had a tight-knit family who have encouraged her talents every step of the way.

As the surname suggests, many will know her older brother Paul, an actor leading the new generation of Hollywood A-listers—but Nell’s path has always been her own. She’s been nurturing that talent since childhood. As a child, she always loved to sing, even before becoming a songwriter. She was a choir and Glee club member, and Nell’s iPod Nano was filled with singer-songwriters from a mesh of different genres: folk, americana, musicals, indie and beyond. Even some of the artists on her iPod would inspire Mescal to start writing songs, such as Birdy. Around age 10, she would write songs about bullies at school, or when her own life lacked dramatic flair, she would write songs about her older brother and his relationships.

After being diagnosed with scoliosis a few years later and having subsequent surgery, Mescal didn’t rest on her laurels, she continued to learn about music. At 18, having more courage than most, she decided to drop out of college and move to the roaring heart of the UK’s music industry, London, to follow her dream of being an artist. Since that point, she has navigated the industry with conviction—hungrily learning wherever she can and constantly striving to better herself. Mescal’s steadfast commitment has led to supporting slots with artists she adores, ones who would act as the soundtrack on her iPod Nano back in school, such as Florence + The Machine, Phoebe Bridgers, and Birdy.

After releasing a slew of songs across the last five years, Nell is finally ready to release her sophomore EP, The Closest We’ll Get, which releases tomorrow via Atlantic Records. It’s a tantalising project full of folk influences with moments of pop sonics and gorgeous vocals, across six soul-bearing tracks. Thematically, it sees Mescal come to terms with heartbreak, the moments following it and an optimistic bookend, coming to terms with what has happened. With some of the oldest demos recorded nearly three years ago, the songs have become fully realised and reinvigorated after working with renowned producer Philip Weinrobe, who’s worked with Adrianne Lenker, Alanis Morrisette and Billie Marten, to name a few.

This year, in particular, has marked a sign of growth for Nell, she has gone from being an independent artist to one backed by a major label, she’s continuing to discover herself not just as an artist but as a person, and writing her best work yet. Time will only tell if her star will rise to the astronomical heights of Irish artists and bands like CMAT or Fontaines D.C.—but one thing’s certain: Nell Mescal is a talent that cannot be denied.

In conversation with 1883’s Cameron Poole, Nell Mescal discusses her new EP The Closest We’ll Get, signing with Atlantic Records, spending time in Nashville, angel cards, and how the Mescal family protect their peace.

Nell, thanks for chatting with 1883 again. It’s been three years since the last interview. What stands out as the biggest learning experiences you’ve had as an artist since then?

It’s funny, I often get asked, what’s the difference between me as an artist and me personally, and what’s the thing I do to separate them. Right now, I don’t have a separation. So I think the thing that maybe has been the biggest learning experience as an artist is also just as a human. It’s really just been trying to give myself patience to grow and not to worry too much about how, what or why I’m writing. And just think is it making me feel good, am I feeling good playing the shows in the way that I am, and is the way I communicate with fans how I want to communicate with them.

It’s the same in my personal life, I’m just giving myself time to grow into what I’m supposed to be doing and not rush anything. But I think that is kind of the answer in every spectrum of my life. I think that’s probably it. Just giving myself patience and time.

Sure, giving yourself time is the way to go. The music industry can be so pushy or can sort of put you in a state where you’re always thinking about the next thing, like I need to get to this stage by doing XYZ. I think you have said in the past there was one point where you were making music which didn’t really feel 100% like it was you. So, I guess just being more intentional as well now is the way forward.

Yeah, I would say now when I look back at the music that I was making, it’s still music that I absolutely needed to make, and it’s still music that I love so much, but I think I wasn’t ready to accept that maybe at the time. 

Whereas, now I feel I’ve caught up to myself a little bit and I’m not really reaching for anything because I feel like I understand my writing a bit more. I kind of think that I will be forever changing but I’m really glad in this moment to feel like I’m not chasing myself anymore. I’m just slowly jogging besides myself [laughs] and keeping myself with me on the way.

What makes this chat extra special is that it’s not just for your 1883 cover but also to celebrate the release of The Closest We’ll Get. What can you tell me about recording the EP in Brooklyn? Have the tracks changed much from their initial demos?

So the tracks are nothing like the demos at all. Some of them didn’t even have a demo because we wanted to do something that was extremely real and really live. And so we went to Brooklyn, and none of the musicians on the track, bar one, knew any of the songs pre-me showing up. So me and my guitarist, we played the songs live for everyone in the room, and then we would arrange them there and then. It’s funny most of the demos that we did were extremely pop, very rough and very ready. 

Philip, who was the amazing producer, he listened to them a handful of times, and that was it. So it was really just about going in and feeling what the energy was like in the room. I do think if we changed the order of how we recorded them, the songs would have sounded different. Like if I’d worn a different t-shirt, the songs probably would have sounded a little different on the day [laughs].

It was really about being there in that time and capturing that one moment, which was really lovely, because it was a huge learning curve for me. Even the demos that we did have, I had crazy demoitis over a few of them because they sounded so different. It was really challenging in a lot of ways and also so fun to really dig into what was going on, and trust people that I had never met before in a massive, massive way [laughs].

They sound nothing at all like the demos and “Sweet Relief”, which is the closing track, was literally just a tiny voice memo. I’d written it by myself in my room, and it now sounds better than I could have ever imagined. So, yeah, very, very different.

You’ve always been a songwriter unafraid to show vulnerability and speak from the heart. Listeners hear the finished songs, but as someone so close with your family, they normally are the first to hear your demos and ideas. Does it feel more daunting knowing they’ll take in not just the music but the lyrics too? I’m not a songwriter but I think I would find that more scary than strangers hearing them.

I have two answers. They hear everything else in my life, that’s not the music. But we’re all so close, I would tell them pretty much everything, which is a lovely thing. So then when I’m writing, sometimes it’s not scary, but definitely as I’ve grown up, maybe it has become a bit scarier just because I’m writing about things that maybe they weren’t the first to know. My best friend, Lucy, is probably the first to know a lot of things now [laughs].

But I live with one of my brothers, Donnacha, so he is first to hear a lot of it as well. Part of me is has become more scared because some of the things that I’m writing about I don’t fully understand yet and then the other part of me is like, ‘this is just what I’ve always done’ and how I communicate with them a lot of the time. It’s a bit of both, a little bit scary, but also feels quite natural to me to just want to share it with them first.

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The EP was produced by Philip Weinrobe, someone you wanted to work with but didn’t expect to meet so early in your career. Before meeting him, what did you imagine he’d be like based on his work, and how did the reality compare?

I think I expected it to be quite magic, and it was. I’d listened to so many of his podcasts, things that he’s spoken on, and I’ve read all these articles. Anything he was touching. I was trying to figure out what it was going to be like. I tried to talk everyone out of letting me do it, because I was like ‘I’m not ready to do this’ [laughs], ‘I’m not ready to work with someone that I admire so much’. I admire everyone I’ve worked with in such different ways.

The latest records that Philip has been a part of have really shaped me as a human, but also really as a songwriter and singer. I was so nervous, there was a lot of just trying to talk myself into going and being like, ‘do you know what? You actually just have to take this experience for whatever it’s going to be’. By the end of it, I had no idea. I did think it was going to be a lot of fun, but it was more special than I could have imagined.

I remember on the last day I was him, it was a really short amount of time but we went for Guinness in a pub in New York, and I had been quite emotional but quite private about it, which is very rare for me. I’m usually the type you could talk to me about something, and I don’t care, I could cry right now if I wanted to. But I was kind of trying to maybe keep it a little bit more cool with Philip. By the end of it, we were leaving, and I broke down in tears, and I was like, ‘thank you so much. This has been really life changing’.

It really, really was. It was such a special experience. I’ve never felt like that ever. It really brought me back to being younger and being in choirs, because his present for me was just, ‘you are to sing these songs, and that is your instrument, and that’s what you should really, really be completely focused on’, which was so lovely.

It took the pressure off. In a lot of ways, it put a lot of pressure on in other ways, which was something I kind of needed. And it brought me back to being like a choir kid, which was a really lovely feeling, because it was simultaneously the most grown I’ve ever felt, but also still felt I was a child again, and it was just so much fun. I started crying, and he was so sweet, he gave me the biggest hug [laughs].

Out of curiosity, was that your first time in New York and Brooklyn?

That was my third time being in New York. I love New York, and I know everyone always says it’s so special, but it specifically felt quite like a perfect place to record this EP, because the last song I wrote for it, which was “Sweet Relief”, I wrote about being in New York, coming home from New York, and the situation that I talk about throughout the whole EP. 

But it was kind of nice — the last time I left New York I was quite heartbroken, and then to come back and be quite healed from the situation, being able to look at these songs far more optimistically than I was when I was writing them, was a lovely kind of bookend, which felt really great.

It’s also quite an achievement to know your project was the last recorded at his old studio for Sugar Mountain right?

Yes, as far as I’m aware, which is very cool [laughs].

It is, I was trying to look up the studio on Instagram and just actually figure out if he’d moved yet or not. But if the old place gets turned into a museum, you might be the artist that closes that!

[Laughs] Totally. You know, I completely took myself way out of it when I was there. The experience was quite emotional for Philip, I think, to be making something there for the last time. It’s a very special place for him and so I was pinching myself just to even be there. He was so full of joy and I think that’s kind of how he approaches everything that he makes. Everyone there who had known him for loads of years or had just met him, kind of the same as me, I think there was a really special energy there. He was just so happy, and probably so sad to be leaving.

There were lots of photos on the last day, and we weren’t allowed to have phones in the studio, but we all kind of had film cameras and stuff like that. He was going around taking photos while we were recording and stuff. It was a really lovely thing to be a part of but it was very serendipitous. When I jumped on the first call with him and he told me ‘we’re gonna make this thing’, in my head I was going, ‘there’s absolutely no way we’re gonna make this thing together’. And he was like it’s ‘going to be the last thing I record here’ and I was like ‘yeah, yeah’. 

So when it was actually happening, I was quite shocked but just trying to take it all in. It was just so much fun.

Since signing with Atlantic Records this year, what have been some of the biggest changes you’ve noticed moving from being independent to working with a major label?

It’s funny because my management, there is a lot of people who work on my management team, and so it’s always felt like there’s been a lot of hands on deck and a lot of people helping. But I do think when a major gets involved, it’s just so many people. It’s been really lovely, because I think everyone on my team really likes music and they really care, and they have all these amazing ideas. A lot of pressure gets taken off you, and all of a sudden, instead of being told you have to do A, B, C, D and you never know what’s happening, it’s all laid out for you, and all you have to do is show up and do what you need to do.

Also it’s just the opportunities, I never would have thought I would be able to work with someone like Philip, and even that, being able to get connected with him in some way, was such a such an unexpected and beautiful thing. I’m just very grateful to have more hands on deck, more people that care and that want to help me get to where I really want to go.

I think a lot of readers and people who don’t know how it all works, they may have no idea how or why an artist chooses a certain record label. What was the main factor for you, was there a certain reason you wanted to join Atlantic?

There was a load of different options at the time. For me, I’m all about energy and really spiritual. I kind of go off that for most of my decisions for better or for worse. But honestly, it was just a gut feeling I had when I met the team and I remember leaving a meeting and crying to my manager and just being like, ‘I just feel different after that’, and I couldn’t explain it. You kind of hope that someone swoops in, makes a decision for you and luckily, no one allowed that to happen. Everyone was like ‘this has to come from you’. I would call people, and I was so sneaky. I was like, ‘Yeah, but I’m just so curious what you think’ and they’d be like, ‘no, no, it has to come from you’ [laughs].

It was a scary few weeks and months because you just don’t know. I think for me, I kind of just had to go, ‘no matter what, I’m going to still be making music, and no matter what, I’m still gonna be making the music I love’. So, any decision you make you can’t go wrong in it. At the end of the day, no one’s going to work as hard as you’re going to work, no one’s going to care as much as you care. So it really has to be led by you.

I think that’s kind of the only thing that made me happy with any decision. It was like ‘as long as I do this, other people can do their jobs’. So it was mostly just how much did I back myself I think really, and I decided I backed myself a good bit, so fingers crossed that doesn’t change [laughs]

As we know this project deals with a previous relationship, coming out of it, heartbreak, and that optimistic bookend, moving onto the next chapter. One lyric that really stands out for me from the EP is from “Lose You Altogether”. “That’s why you can break my heart forever, as long as I don’t lose you altogether.” What can you tell me about that song? It was the track that grabbed me the most.

Yeah, I think it’s one that grabs a lot of people, especially a lot of my close friends and my family. I think there was a huge part of me… I was literally talking about this in therapy today, there’s a huge part of me that absolutely understands the situation that I’m in and understands how I’m going to get out of it. But my heart, my whole body, will try and stay there for as long as possible.

With this song and this story in particular, there was a huge part of me that did think that I could stay in that sadness and the longing for this person for absolutely ever. I could have done it, and I would have probably been happy to do it. So I wanted it to feel dream-like and all of these big things, I’m nowhere near having kids, nowhere near picking out baby names, picking out schools and all these things. But I wanted it to feel dream-like but honest.

It was one of the final songs that I wrote, deep down, I knew it was ending, and I was ready to let it go, but it was kind of my final plea. I wrote it with two of my friends, Sam and Ben. I cried because everyone was giving such great ideas out of something that was so sad for me at the time. I think that line in particular really summed up a lot of the EP for me, of exactly how I said it. I’d be fine if this was the way it was forever, as long as we never stopped talking.

Then you get to the next song, which is the whole thing of okay, well, this is the decision we’ve made, and no matter what, it’s a relief just to still get to be around you. It’s a sad song for someone who was very sad at the time [laughs].

So the readers know, we couldn’t make it happen in the end, but we were hoping to meet in Nashville while we were both there. You were working on sessions and I was on holiday. What’s your experience of the city having been there twice now?

Yeah, I love it there. I have made some really amazing friends out there, which probably really helped my experience being there. The first time I was there, I wrote “Carried Away” on the EP,  and it was one of the defining songs for the trip, and for the EP for me. I found it to be such a special place and I think I went at a really perfect time in my life to go for the first time.

It was the last stuff I was writing for the EP, so I was kind of coming out of it. And the emotions were ever changing, and maybe I was getting less sad and a bit more angry [laughs]. The trip felt really cathartic and I just had the best time, made some amazing friends, and one of them is about to support me on my next tour, Cece Coakley.

I know a lot of musicians that are still growing, we spend a lot of time on other people’s couches, and this was one of those trips that was so formative. I remember writing them a letter after, being like ‘thank you so much for letting me sleep on the couch. This has been one of the two been one of  my two favourite weeks of my entire life, ever’ [laughs]. I meant it. It was just such a such a lovely trip and I love when I get to go back.

I was just there and wrote a new song that’s probably one of my favourite songs I’ve ever written, and we won’t hear that for a really long time, but it’s a really special place. Did you enjoy it?

Yeah I did thanks, I turn 30 later this year, and so it was just a trip with some of my close friends. We did some typical tourist things as it was our first time, went to Lynchburg for the Jack Daniel’s Distillery, went to the tourist trap Broadway area, the Johnny Cash Museum, walked about a lot, went to some bars, music row, and more. It was really interesting, we saw James Blunt walking down the street, so random [laughs].

[Laughs] yeah!

The history of the place was cool, I suppose you had a lot going on in music row? Given the music industry is based there.

Well, not even! My favourite thing about visiting cities isn’t the touristy stuff,  I try and do a little bit of it, but my favourite thing is literally just hanging out with someone from there and going to their favourite coffee shop, walking their favourite path and doing all those kind of things. I think, I went to Broadway once on the first trip. I went to the Broadway once on the second trip, and that was kind of it and did those things. I’m not a city person, when I go visit somewhere, I just really want to lie down somewhere [laughs] and just decompress.

So when I’m there for work, it’s kind of the same thing. I just want to go, write songs and then hang out in my friend’s back-garden. My favourite place that I ever go to in Nashville is Redheaded Stranger. It’s like the best Mexican restaurant, has such a cute vibe and so that’s where I go to be a tourist [laughs].

I just love how community driven it is, and how you can just turn the tap off and be there, just focus on what you’re writing and focus on being very there and in person. I think sometimes that’s a bit harder to do in London. As much as I love London, it’s my favourite city, I think, outside of Dublin. I do love it a lot over there.

I don’t blame you for only visiting Broadway once or twice, I did the same and had to get out of it, it was overwhelming.

It’s amazing but so loud!

Back in 2022, you mentioned wanting to manifest more live shows and support slots. Since then, you’ve supported Birdy, Florence + The Machine, Haim, and most recently Maisie Peters to name a few. What would teenage Nell say now, especially imagining her growing up listening to Florence, Birdy, and others on her iPod Nano?

She would just lose her shit. When I started writing, I only really started writing because of how much I loved Birdy, and I remember where I was when I realised I wanted to write music the way that Birdy wrote music. I was on a walk with my dog, and I remember having it on my iPod, and going, ‘Oh, I don’t know how, I don’t know when, I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I want to create this feeling that I’ve just felt, and I want to be able to do it for myself’. And then so when I got that call, you can imagine everyone in my family was crying.

It was the same for Dermot Kennedy. I had photos of him all over my wall and lyrics of his, I had all his merch. I queued up for his shows. I’d never queued up for anyone’s show in my life before, except for Dermot’s. So it was all quite just unbelievable. And then you support someone like Maisie, who’s now a friend of mine, and it’s so nice to have people believe in you and want you to do that.

Maisie will text me and tell me that she’s been thinking about the songs that I’ve written, stuff like that, which is such a lovely feeling. What I’ve loved about all of the supports is how sweet everyone has been. You never know what it’s going to be like, maybe it’s going to be really hectic, and I’ve been really lucky. Everyone I’ve supported has been so, so sweet with their time and their advice.

I don’t know what she would say. I think she would probably pass away on the spot, but I’m here [laughs], and I’m just happy to be able to have lived it. I’m excited for whatever else comes next.

More importantly, you’ve got a UK headline tour coming up next month. How are you perfecting the Nell Mescal live experience for it?

We just added a new player. We kind of mostly have a new band bar my guitarist, Charlie, who’s still with us. It’s really exciting. There’s five of us now, and we’ve taken a lot off track, changed a lot about how we’re going to play the new songs. We’re not in rehearsals yet, but I’ve got a few ideas on how to make it a little bit different, because we have been doing a lot of acoustic shows this year. So it’s still coming together, but it’s just nice to be able to play with five people, and have these songs sound a bit more like they do on the record than ever before.

My favourite thing about any of this process, other than maybe the feeling I get right after writing a song, is singing and singing for people. I grew up being a singer before I ever was a writer, so getting to sing, it’s my favourite feeling in the world. When you get to do that with people… I supported Maisie the other day, and I’m pretty sure someone who had never heard my music before was front row, and she started crying. It was such an insane moment, but it’s one of the nicest feelings ever. And even when they don’t cry and you can just see them smiling.

I played a show in Hamburg a few weeks ago, and at the end, I met these two girls, and they looked like they’d been best friends for life. And I was like, wow, how do you guys know each other? And they were like, ‘we just met in the queue’. Those are the best conversations and the best feelings ever. I’m so excited.

I bet and just to clarify for the readers, it was good crying right? [laughs]

Yeah [laughs], I think, well, it was actually to the song, “Lose You Altogether”, so however good you can call that cry [laughs].

I live an hour away from London and I have friends who have moved there, I get why people move, there are so many opportunities and things to do. What I’ve noticed from speaking with my friends it seems like it takes a few years to properly find your place there. You’ve been living in London for four years now. Do you feel you’ve found your community and made your home in the city now?

Yeah, and it takes about that time. It took me about two years to realise that I was comfortable in the decisions that I had made, and because I think I was so young when I moved and was doing stuff that I didn’t know anyone else doing it, so if anyone asked how it is, you say it’s good and you keep going. Unless I was talking to my parents, they knew how difficult it was and then I got to about two and half years in.

I’d made one of my best friends and I found an area of London that I really loved, I started to make music that I adored, and started playing with people that I just truly loved. It really opened my life and it really changed everything. I’m so grateful to still be here, and every time I leave and come back, I’m so happy which is a really lovely feeling, and I hope it lasts for a really long time. I really love it here.

If you don’t mind, I’m not sure if you’ve spoken about it much in interviews, but you’ve mentioned you’re a spiritual person. I know you read tarot and angel cards. Is there one you’ve pulled that has particularly resonated with you?

I think so. So I pull angel cards, I pull them every single day and I pull three of them. And no matter what they end up feeling like, I completely resonate with them during the day. It’s the thing that grounds me the most in my day. It’s the first thing I do, so I pull them and it immediately brings me to the now. I’m going to try and remember exactly what they were, but I remember when I jumped off the call with Philip for the first time. I was expecting it to just be like, Hey, how are you can chat? And that’s all I could have ever wanted. And then he started talking about making a project together, and I was like, ‘oh my God’.

And then after I pulled these cards, and the first three I pulled were creativity, expectancy, and celebration. I remember going for fucksake because I was like, ‘now I have to do it’, because it’s just told me that this is something worth celebrating, and it’s creative, and it’s something that I truly needed at the time. It’s stuff like that makes me feel like everything aligns, whether people believe in it or not, I really do. 

It’s something that really kind of grounds me, and so I try and pull them every single day.

I mean, the fact that you pulled those three cards after the call is pretty wild to be fair.

Yeah [laughs].

With your family’s life changing so much in such a positive way — especially given your working-class background, with your mum a police officer and your dad a teacher — they can now look at their kids and see incredible things happening: you’re signed to a major label and on the rise, your brother’s set to play Paul McCartney in a biopic, and your other brother’s in London doing his own thing. You’ve all got so much going on. How do you all protect your peace in this new reality that’s so different from what you grew up with?

It’s really difficult and it’s really it’s an ongoing conversation every few months. I’m really lucky, I live with one of my brothers and so we can keep each other grounded as much as possible. And we get weekends here and there where we’re altogether, but it’s far and few between. I honestly don’t know how we’ve managed to stay somewhat calm, I don’t think anyone who’s ever met anyone in my family has ever described us as calm.

But I think for us to still be as calm [laughs] as we are, I think, is really quite special, it’s just the communication that we all have. We just kind of at a certain point knew how important it would be, that we all just kept each other as grounded as possible. 

And I guess that just comes from two parents who worked their asses off our entire childhood and we’ve just been so lucky. It’s something that I think we continuously are pinching ourselves over that we just have two parents that really put everything on the line for us to be able to do everything we wanted to do.

One of my brothers isn’t in the creative industry and they sacrificed just as much for him as they did for us and believe in him just as much as they believe in Paul or me. You should see how much they loved my dogs. They are just two people that are full of so much love and hope. I think it’s all just a testament to them, really.

Following on from that, do your parents have a favourite track off The Closest We’ll Get?

My mum always loves the happier ones. She likes to think the happier ones are like “The Closest We’ll Get”m so I would say that is her favourite. I think my dad’s is “Carried Away” because he keeps saying it has got a real vibe to it [laughs].

If Missing You back in 2020 was about exploring your artistry and finding your voice, what snapshot does “The Closest We’ll Get” offer of you as an artist now?

I think “The Closest We’ll Get”, I can’t describe how raw that writing was because I had just found out something that made me throw open my mouth and then had to meet two people and write a song in like this space of five minutes. I remember it so vividly and I remember it was probably one of the first songs that I really wanted to be my most honest song at the time because I had never really written about this specific experience or something in as vivid of a way. I’m fully telling a story for the first time.

The purpose it served for me was just finally giving into the fact that this was an experience that I was having. And finally, getting into the fact that I was growing up, facing these romantic and horrible situations, because like it was one of those songs that I was afraid to show my family for the first because it felt like a part of myself that at the time, maybe I didn’t feel like I was ready to show them. “Missing You”, I remember writing that, calling my dad to listen to it, and I remember sending it to my granddad and I remember all those moments.

But it’s funny because I don’t even think these songs are any different to that song. Do you know what I mean? I still remember writing it, I remember exactly how it felt, I remember sharing it with people and I remember feeling like this was the best song I was going to write, and that it was like the start of something so special.

I’m lucky I feel that way about a lot of the songs even now, my dad was saying that to me the other day. I called him saying: ‘I’ve just written my best song yet!’ And he was like: ‘you’ve said that about every song you’ve ever, we always have the same conversation’.

Again, the thing I keep talking about, it serves a snapshot of my life in that exact moment, and something that I tried to capture as quickly as I possibly could.

I think it’s wonderful you’re still creating songs where you feel like ‘this is my best song ever’, like the track you did recently in Nashville. It will probably sit in a vault for years as the music industry works in such a weird way. Then time goes on and you continue to develop as a person and by the time you release it, you may be a totally different person to what you felt when you recorded the song. Anyway, it shows you are not just dedicated to your craft but you want to better yourself and it’s nice to see everything going in a positive direction. It feels this period of your career is an exciting place.

Thank you so much. Yeah, It’s like what I was talking about at the very beginning of this chat, it has just been so nice to kind of grow up with the music and to have been writing from a really young and important age to like now, where I’m still really young, and I’m still experiencing lots of things for the first time. And so it’s been really nice.

Especially with this EP, with “Middle Man”, I wrote two and a half years ago, so that’s been a really long time coming to have people hear it, but I think the recording of it in comparison to when I wrote it is so fresh now to me. And “Sweet Relief” I finished writing it a week before I went into see Philip. So it’s been very rapid, which is a lovely feeling.

As much as I’m over these songs emotionally, I’m still right there with the songs. I’m still gagging for people to hear it. I can’t wait. It’s been nice to just grow with it.

Finally, this EP comes at a time of personal evolution, with therapy, mental and physical health, and early twenties discovery, just getting out there and experiencing things. What’s next for you? Surely after an EP or two more, we’ve heading into album territory…

I’m hoping an album is coming a lot sooner. I’m just loving writing at the moment, and figuring it out what the next part is. I really do think for the next few years and maybe it is silly to say, or maybe it’s been said before, I just want to continue to grow into the person I am supposed to be coming. Do you know what I mean? I just want to be able to still capture these years as they come and not worry too much about what’s going to happen in the future. I think long-term, all I really want to do is be able to keep touring and keep playing rooms that are bigger than the next, then going back to smaller rooms, and trying loads of different things out.

I’m just excited for more people to listen to the music and for more growth which maybe sounds a bit airy-fairy, but it’s been the most exciting part of the past six months. There’s been getting over past things, learning what new things are upsetting me, shaping me, and making me happy.

Figuring all that out is really nice, especially when you’ve got an outlet like writing to to catapult from.

To jump on a zoom call with a random stranger and have to chat about these things can’t be easy, interviews aren’t always easy. I’m very aware of that. So thanks for your time, Nell, it has been fun.

I’ve loved all your questions. It’s been really nice to talk to someone that has definitely done so much research but also clearly cares. So thank you so much, I really appreciate it.

Nell Mescal’s new EP The Closest We’ll Get is out tomorrow.

Follow via @nellmescal

Interview and shoot production Cameron Poole

Photography Yoshitaka Kono 

Styling Molly Ellison

Hair and Makeup Jemima Greenhalgh at Makeup-junkies International