FEATURE: Spotlight: Revisited: Nell Mescal

FEATURE:

Spotlight: Revisited

PHOTO CREDIT: Tia Johnson

Nell Mescal

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I am excited…

PHOTO CREDIT: Tia Johnson

to revisit an artist that I spotlighted in 2023. The terrific Nell Mescal is an artist I have been following for a long time now. Her incredible E.P., The Closest We’ll Get, was released on 24th October. It is a spectacular work from an unmistakable artist. Someone who very much has this distinct and incredible sound. Because I am updating my previous feature, I am going to bring in some recent interviews with Mescal. So we can learn more about someone you really need to know about. Before coming to 2025 interviews, I want to go back to last year and this from The Independent. Putting out her debut E.P., Can I Miss It for a Minute?, there was a lot of curiosity around this incredible artist. Born in Maynooth, County Kildare, Mescal relocated to London in 2021 to fully commit to and pursue music:

“When Nell Mescal was in her early teens, she dreamt of going to boarding school. Growing up in her small hometown of Maynooth, Ireland, she fell in love with Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers series of novels – their depictions of cosy dormitories, spectacular sea views and ivy-covered walls.

It was a far cry from the reality, where she struggled with bullying at her local school and eventually dropped out before taking her exams, aged 18. It was around this time that her eldest brother, Paul, was rocketing to international fame as the charming, sensitive Connell in Normal People, the BBC’s pitch-perfect adaptation of Sally Rooney’s debut novel. Four years since the show first aired, Paul is now a bona fide A-lister, nominated for an Oscar for his quietly soulful turn in Aftersun and soon to be stepping into Russell Crowe’s sandals as the lead in Ridley Scott’s keenly awaited Gladiator sequel.

Mescal, the youngest of three siblings, isn’t doing too badly herself. At 21, she’s released her debut EP, Can I Miss It for a Minute? and performed this month to a massive crowd on the same bill as Shania Twain at BST Hyde Park festival. It speaks to her clout that both Peter Mensch and the reclusive Cliff Burnstein – co-founders of the legendary management company Q Prime, to which Mescal is signed – were in the audience at her sold-out show at London’s Omeara in January.

PHOTO CREDIT: David Reiss

She moved to London not long after dropping out of school to pursue music. Her parents – a retired police officer and a primary school teacher – trusted her decision. “They’d seen Paul do it and were like, well, he’s survived it,” she recalls. We’re sitting in one of her locals in north London, where she shares a flat with her older brother Donnacha, who works in recruitment. (“We’re friends, too, which is so nice, but it’s also OK if I scream at him for not filling the dishwasher.”) She and Paul look remarkably alike: her eyes are huge and round, a bright blue ocean beneath thick Keira Knightley brows. She has the same aquiline nose, the same strong jaw. Her profile wouldn’t look out of place on a Roman coin.

It was a difficult first year, living in a strange city with no friends: “It was so scary – there were some fun moments, but it was very lonely.” She was placed in writing rooms and started playing live, which was when things changed. Mescal channelled her feelings into her 2023 single “Homesick”, which has something of The Cure’s “Boys Don’t Cry” about it in the yearning synths and racing guitar riffs. She struggled to find someone who could record her voice in a way that felt right, eventually landing on producer and mixer Duncan Mills (LCD Soundsystem, Florence and the Machine).

Songs on Can I Miss It for a Minute? sit comfortably in the indie-folk or folk-pop spheres; Mescal says her sound is indebted to artists such as Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker (she trails off before name-checking the third and final member of boygenius, her brother’s ex, Phoebe Bridgers). There’s a dreamy, romantic quality to “Yellow Dresser”, with its soft piano notes and Mescal’s lilting voice. “Electric Picnic” is wonderful, incorporating subtle Americana elements with a slide guitar and deft picking on the banjo.

“[London] definitely feels like home now,” she says, “which is weird – I’m always afraid of saying that. Obviously, my home is Ireland, but I’ve created a life here that I really enjoy.” She considers that chapter, a fraught couple of years trying to find her way in the city, closed.

What will she write about next? “I tend to get these emotional blocks,” she explains. “I could write about my mum being sick, but now is not the time.” (Mescal’s mother, Dearbhla, shared that she was in remission from cancer in June). “Writing about it is [still] too hard,” she continues. “But I also don’t want to feel like I’m avoiding it because of that.”

Mescal is charming in her candour. I imagine she’s had a few tips from Paul, who was equally frank in his 2020 interview with The Independent. There is that same polite but firm resistance to the more superficial trappings of celebrity, even if Mescal still loved accompanying her brother to the Oscars last year”.

I guess it was investable that there would be talk of her brother, Paul Mescal, and comparisons. The better known of the siblings, we need to instead focus on Nell Mescal and her beautiful music. An artist who will succeed in her own right and should not even be viewed as living in the shadow of her brother. Back in September, Nell Mescal sat down with Nouse on the first day of the Leeds Festival (where she was playing). She was asked about her upcoming E.P. I am going to end with a review for The Closest We’ll Get. For the Nouse interview, Alexandra Pullen asked the questions:

“AP: Who would you say are some of your lyrical or songwriting inspirations?

NM: I have so many. I think Adrianne Lenker is a huge huge inspiration for me. I actually got to work with her producer Philip Weinrobe on my next music which was the most exciting thing ever to be listening to a record I love so much and the lyrics I love so much and then getting to record something that just felt like something I would listen to was really really lovely. So, Adrianne Lenker. There’s so many people. I love Stevie Nicks.

AP: Love Stevie Nicks, she’s incredible. Off the back of that, who would be your dream artist to collaborate with?

NM: Maybe Stevie, you know. I keep on saying her today but she’s great. Maybe Stevie or maybe Amble, the Irish folk band. They’re really sick.

AP: You’ve got your EP coming out in October! Could you tell us a little bit about that?

NM: Yeah, so the EP is called The Closest We’ll Get and the title track is out now. It’s an EP about two people who are in the grey area of friendship and something more and not quite being brave enough but maybe sometimes trying to [be] and missing the mark a little bit. It’s a little bit sad but I’ve tried to bring the vibes up a bit.

AP: I love that! We’re from the University of York so do you have any advice for upcoming artists or student bands looking to get into the industry?

NM: I think, honestly, just keep going. Keep trying because it can be really difficult. I’ve been there. I started releasing music when I was 16. If you just keep on going you learn and you know yourself so much better. You become so much more confident. Just keep going.

AP: Thank you for that. Final question, last summer was notorious as ‘BRAT summer’, or ‘Chappell Roan summer’. So, what is your song of the summer for 2025?

NM: My song of the summer for 2025 is ‘Carried Away’ by Nell Mescal!”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Tia Johnson

I want to move now to a recent interview with Rolling Stone UK. We learn how Nell Mescal travelled to America to record her E.P. and discovered her voice in the meantime. Although her previous singles and E.P.s are tremendous, her latest E.P. is very much her most complete and extraordinary statement so far. One that sounds more like her than anything else. This is something that we observed in the interview:

“But it’s on her latest EP The Closest We’ll Get where Mescal comes into her own like never before. It’s her first release since signing to Atlantic Records and a sprinkling of star power comes courtesy of Grammy-nominated producer Philip Weinrobe and – a personal hero of Mescal’s – Adrienne Lenker.

“It was an amazing experience and one that was really changed the way we work,” Mescal explains.

Part of that, she explains, came from the fact that Weinrobe would work diligently between the hours of 10am-6PM on the EP and once those hours were elapsed, a day’s work was done. She says that working with Weinrobe felt like a “dream,” but it should also be noted that Weinrobe was preparing to pack up his upstate New York studio, Sugar Mountain, and head to pastures new. Such was the impact of Mescal’s music upon Weinrobe that he stayed around long enough for this EP to be the final project made at Sugar Mountain. “It was just the most magical experience,” Mescal beams.

Give the EP a single listen and you’ll understand what Weinrobe saw in the songs. Mescal tells me that the title track is a heart-rending listen, but there’s beauty to be found in the way she discusses situation-ships and the fizzling out of half relationships. “But if I’m only your half-drunk, sometime lover, Then I guess that’s more than nothing,” comes her emotional revelation.

Similarly, there’s a symmetry of sorts to be found in the searing ‘Middleman’, which she wrote it about a relationship she found herself in several years ago. It was only upon revisiting it for these sessions Mescal she realised that the person being addressed in the song, the one who needed to make bold decisions, was herself.

It’s heady stuff, Mescal explains, but it helps she’s found a pocket of North London where she lives with her brother Donnacha, a force of much-needed levity, she explains, and her A-List brother Paul. Though understandably reluctant to be drawn on the latter, she does tell RSUK that she’s been writing music with the actor, partly stemming from his need to inhibit the mindset of one of the greatest songwriters in history (Paul McCartney) for Sam Mendes’ Beatles biopics.

But the bottom line for Mescal on this EP, ultimately, is that it marks the rise of a star who can lift your heart and break it within the next couple of minutes. With a rising online fan base behind her too and a sold out UK tour, it’s an exciting next chapter for a truly unique voice”.

I am finishing off with a review from Northern Transmissions. If you have not yet discovered the music of Nel Mescal, then do go and follow her. I cannot wait to see what next year has in store for her! I have loved her music for years now, and I want to get as many people headed her way. Mescal is touring the U.K. at the moment, before she heads to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in December:

“If you were to look for Nell Mescal, you’d probably find her in nature, drawing inspiration from the beautiful scenery that surrounds that. There’s a sliver of undeniable mysticism which resides in her songwriting – the kind of attribute you’d be right to assume made Taylor Swift’s fans fall in love with folklore.

Mescal was born to be a storyteller, no doubt about it. Her latest extended play, The Closest We’ll Get, is a poignant collection of stories which feel like they were penned by a poet who yearns to be heard. The EP’s title track embraces its core theme of two people swaying between platonic kinship and the aftermath of it becoming something more. Accompanied by Philip Weinrobe’s folk-inflected production, which employs a captivating, somewhat orchestral string arrangement, ‘The Closest We’ll Get’ sees Mescal confess her unconditional devotion in a way that seems extremely intimate, but never timid.

In fact, you could argue that confessional lyricism is the Irish musician’s strongest suit, but it’s actually her gentle, mellifluous vocal that makes the lyrics work so well. The project’s lead single ‘Carried Away’ is a great example of this, with Mescal’s performance sort of guiding the song’s rather eager instrumental. Her voice pierces through the recording, almost as if she’s singing right in front of you – a folkloric quality that contributes to the EP’s charming character.

The only sticking point is that the record’s opener, ‘Middle Man’, doesn’t really benefit from its comparatively tame production. The musical arrangement here isn’t flawed by any means, however, it sounds slightly disjointed from the hard-hitting lyrical content, especially in the bridge (“Grow up, find a girl / From your childhood / White dress, she’ll get cold feet / You’ll get angry / It gets scary”). ‘Middle Man’ doesn’t quite take off as much as it leaves you hoping it eventually would – its composition appears better suited for a track that isn’t as lyrically daring as this one”.

Such a hugely talented artist with so many years ahead of her, go and listen to her music now. The Closest We’ll Get sits alongside the best E.P.s of this year. I can see an album and some big stages waiting for her very soon. In a packed scene with so many artists you can choose from and follow, Nell Mescal is…