Nell Mescal: "When you meet someone who’s getting emotional while they’re talking to you, or is telling you how important a song is to them… There’s no way of describing that feeling"

It shouldn’t come as a major surprise that Nell Mescal has always been drawn to the deeper, more spiritual side of things.

The emotional range, candid vulnerability and quiet confidence of her earliest singles, released back in 2022, belied her years, immediately marking her as a special talent – and inspired a remarkably devoted fanbase, when the Co. Kildare-raised singer-songwriter was still just a teenager.

Now, following millions of streams, signing to Atlantic Records, lauded headline shows around the world, and high-profile support slots for the likes of Florence + The Machine, The Last Dinner Party, Shania Twain, Dermot Kennedy and HAIM – and still aged just 22 – she’s launching a crucial new chapter in her career, with the release of her second EP, the captivatingly tender and intimate The Closest We’ll Get.

But when it came to making the decision to record the project with renowned New York-based producer Philip Weinrobe – famed for his work with Adrianne Lenker – Nell tells me she needed to consult forces somewhat more divine than managers and label people.

“I was excited, but also so scared,” she recalls. “ I just felt like, ‘I can’t do it, I’m not ready!’ Because he was a hero of mine, and I really wanted to work with him – but I hadn’t been sure that I was at a point where he’d want to work with me. So, after my first call with Philip, I was like, ‘I’ll just ask the angels…’”

The ‘angels’ being her angel cards – a type of oracle deck not dissimilar to tarot cards.

And the result?

“It was all ‘celebration’, ‘birth’ and ‘creativity’,” she smiles. “So I knew I had to do it – they told me to!”

Nell Mescal. Copyright Abigail Ring/ hotpress.com

Back on this side of the Irish Sea for her latest run of headline shows, Nell tells me there’s “always” been an element of the spiritual in her life.

“My mum was the one leading that charge when I was growing up,” she nods. “I would go to reiki really young, and then I got my reiki certification when I moved to London – because I was like, ‘I’m going to need more facts on this when I’m away by myself.’ I also use those angel cards every single day.”

From a young age, it was clear Nell was someone who was seeking out the deeper meanings in life.

“I was always reading, and I think that was a huge part of it,” she resumes. “My imagination was always there, and always reaching. Also, my mum was very much like, ‘Dream as big as possible.’ And when you do that, you’re going to look for meaning in everything – because you’re looking for the sign that what you’re dreaming about is a real thing, that can happen.”

Those instincts haven’t let her down yet – particularly not when it came to working with Philip Weinrobe.

“He’s a wizard – that is the only word to describe him,” Nell remarks. “He just has some sort of magic. You walk into a room, and you know something special is going to happen.

“But I don’t think there was a day when I was working with him where I didn’t cry!” she adds. “I wouldn’t let him see me cry until the very last day when we were saying goodbye. I was like, ‘I have to cry now – you have to see how much this has meant to me.’”

Philip – who’s also recently worked with other folk-leaning Irish acts Amble and Ye Vagabonds – played a major role in shaping Nell’s approach to one of the EP’s stand-out tracks, ‘Middle Man’.

“Other than my singing teacher who I had from when I was eight onwards, I had never really let someone I worked with go near my voice,” Nell says. “I’d be like, ‘We can talk about the writing, we can rearrange any other part of the song – but my voice is my voice.’ That’s the thing that I’ve worked really hard on, more than anything else. But Philip would be like, ‘Everytime you want to go louder, go quieter’. If it had been any other person, I would have struggled – but it was purely trust.

“So it was difficult for me to do that, but in a really wonderful way,” she continues. “I was pushing myself completely out of my comfort zone. By the end of that song, I was shaking, because there was so much adrenaline going on.”

Getting to record the EP live was also important to Nell – and something she doesn’t think she’d have had the confidence to do at the outset of her career.

“I realised that I’m so much more comfortable doing something like that, than sitting in a booth for hours, trying to get one word to not sound weird! It’s just so cool to be able to do a completely live song. Being there in the room, it felt quite physical.”

She got the chance to see fans’ live reactions to the project on her November headline tour.

“Playing shows is the only way to properly see that, and see how the songs affect other people,” she notes. “You can get very into your own head, and be like, ‘Oh my God, these songs feel very personal – how can anyone relate?’ But of course people do.

“My highlight of the tour has been when I’m at the merch stand after the show, talking to people,” she adds. “Comments online can be so sweet and lovely, but you’re reading things online all the time – so it’s hard to conceptualise what those comments actually mean, or who they’re coming from. But when you meet someone who’s getting emotional while they’re talking to you, or is telling you how important a song is to them… There’s no way of describing that feeling.”

The Closest We’ll Get follows the relationship between two people, caught in what Nell describes as “the grey area of friends or lovers.”

“Everything I write tends to feel like a concept,” she reflects. “It’s like, this is a story, and it happened to me – and so it makes sense to put these songs together. It was the same with [her debut EP] Can I Miss It For A Minute?. All those songs just tied up in a way that felt like a beginning, a middle and an end. With this one, it’s about me and this person, and every song feels like a realisation that I had in that friendship and relationship. So it ended up being a sort of concept as well.

“I have both vinyls of the two EPs side-by-side in my kitchen,” she continues. “It’s funny, seeing them – because the first vinyl is an entire four years of my life, and this is the next two years. When I was releasing music first, I was like 16, and now I’m completely different. I’ve probably changed every few months since then.

“But I also felt very sure of myself back then,” she adds. “All of those years, I was like, ‘I’m right where I needed to be.’ But I feel I’m right where I need to be now – though I’m sure that will change in a couple of months again!”

When she was starting out in the music industry, Nell says that living with her close friend, and fellow Irish artist, Lucy Blue was key to keeping her grounded.

“Lots was going on in my life then,” Nell recalls. “Having a friend like that, who’s also doing the exact same thing – and who also dropped out of school and left home at 18 – was really lovely. We were both just trying to give each other as much advice as possible.

“I also remember getting a text off Maisie Peters, who I supported recently,” she adds. “I was such a fan, so things like that were really sweet – especially when it’s genuine. When you get a really nice message from someone, it’s like a nice pat on the back that helps push you a little bit further.”

HAIM, who Nell recently joined for their UK arena tour, have also been supportive.

“I’ve known HAIM for a couple of years now,” she says. ‘They’ve always been so lovely to me, and they’re very gracious with their time. That tour was such a buzz – me and my band were looking at each other like, ‘I can’t believe this is happening…’”

Nell also has plenty of up-and-coming talent on her own radar – including some Irish ones-to-watch for 2026.

“Lucy Blue, because I can’t not say her name, at all times!” she laughs. “I also think Dove Ellis, another Irish artist, is really incredible. And I’ve been loving KhakiKid and Curtisy. I’m obsessed with them, and I’m obsessed with their Instagrams – they’re so funny. Also April – she has a song called ‘Stretch’, and I’m just completely obsessed.”

While overseas publications continue to hail the serious moment Irish music is having on the world stage, Nell says she feels “so unsurprised by it.”

“For me, it’s always felt like some of the best music was coming out of here,” she resumes. “So I’m just like, ‘Yeah, of course!’ Most of the artists on my playlist, that I look to for inspiration, are Irish – which is a very tell-tale sign. Everyone’s just killing it.”

Could she see a return to Ireland on her horizon?

“Very, very far into the horizon, if I squint!” she laughs.

What could be coming closer down the line, is her full-length debut.

“While working towards an album, I think there’ll be a lot more music in 2026 – while I try to live some life, and figure out what I want to say in that scary first album!

“One of my highlights of this past year is the growth I feel I’ve had, personally,” she continues. “And the thing I love about that, is that I’m writing so rapidly, and it’s changing constantly. The vibes are changing, the genre’s changing… There’s so much going on that I just want to release as that’s happening for me. I definitely won’t leave it as long as I left it between Can I Miss It For A Minute? and The Closest We’ll Get. Whether that means EPs, or songs – I’m excited to keep putting out what I’m writing.”

• The Closest We’ll Get is out now.