Sugarland Says ‘Bigger’ Album Was Created by Instinct

Sugarland’s long-awaited album, Bigger, will be released on Friday, June 8. The 11-track album – Sugarland‘s first since The Incredible Machine was released in 2010 – is, according to duo members Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush, the best one yet.

“This album seems really special,” says Bush. “You say that about all of them, but this one really, because of the speed at which we’ve written it and the speed at which we’ve recorded it, it’s really given us the opportunity to almost stop getting in the way of it. So it exists naturally based on our instincts more than anything else. And when you boil it down to what an artist is, it really is whatever their instincts are.

“And Jennifer’s instincts to sing and my instincts to play, they drive everything else,” he continues. “It was amazing to be on the floor watching five, six people play at the same time and Jennifer sing down the version of the song you’re going to hear. Not many people do that anymore and that’s a real gift that we have that kind of talent inside this band. But it’s also really revealing emotionally. These songs are getting the very best they can get.”

Both Nettles and Bush pursued their own projects while Sugarland was on hiatus, which makes the release of Bigger that much more meaningful.

“It was comfortable because it’s someone you know. Then, it was exciting because the mystery of the years in between,” Bush tells Sounds Like Nashville of sitting down with Nettles to write their first single, “Still the Same.” “She’s like, ‘How about we write about what we’re in the middle of?’ The song kind of unfolds as we asked each other questions in a row like, ‘Where do we start?’ Right here.”

Nettles and Bush wrote ten of the 11 tracks on Bigger, with Taylor Swift and Pat Monahan writing the only outside song, “Babe,” on the album. For Sugarland, it was important to reveal their friendship in the songs on the new set of tunes.

“In a lot of ways, I think fans are able to hear into our relationship, which we never talk about much,” Bush says. “It was just a given because you knew us long after we already knew each other, so hearing us navigate coming back together is actually in the song. I think that’s cool; it’s also the truth, so it’s very convenient.”

Order Bigger at SugarlandMusic.com.

Photo Credit: Instagram/sugarland