Kristian Bush Says He’s ‘Ready’ for Another Sugarland Record

Though Kristian Bush and Jennifer Nettles have both embarked on separate solo careers, their duo Sugarland still has a future. After all, they have more music to make.

In an exclusive interview, Bush tells The Boot that Sugarland have a contract to fulfill with their label, Mercury Nashville, so it's only a matter of time before fans will hear some new tunes from them. However, the decision of when that will happen, exactly, is on the other half of the duo, Bush says.

"That project's beginning time is really up to Jennifer," Bush shares. "That's really [because of] the nature of how radio works: Her voice, as the lead singer of the band, is the voice that kind of defines it. And if she's working a solo project, it's very difficult, probably for a listener, to tell the difference [between a solo single and a Sugarland single]. So we as a band can't do anything until Jen decides to do it."

Bush isn't exactly sure where Nettles is in terms of promoting and working her newest solo album, 2016's Playing With Fire, but, he says, "I am ready whenever it's time to hit the Sugarland button."

"And I've always been ready when it's time to hit the Sugarland button," Bush adds. "It's my favorite band; I love that band."

In the meantime, Bush is staying busy with some "amazing opportunities" and "unlikely successes," one of which finds him in a different role: producer. Bush is working on Lindsay Ell's record right now; it will give him his first major-label production credit in Nashville, outside of work with Sugarland.

Bush says that he takes his role as producer seriously, of course: "You're making a definitive emotional stamp on these songs and these performances," he notes, adding that his goal for Ell is to move her into "the space where people start to identify, from the very first moment, from here on in, no matter when you hear a song from Lindsay Ell, it sounds like her."

Bush is a firm believer in the power of women's voices and songs, and he says that he hopes to make music that will make his 11-year-old daughter "a better person, or bring her comfort, or let her fricken' dance all over the room."

"I think the conversation of women in America, right now especially, is important," Bush continues.