Kip Moore’s Gutsy Wild Ones
Three years ago, Kip Moore burst on the scene with his debut album Up All Night. It was the best selling debut album by a new male in 2012 and 2013, and yielded three #1 hits including “Somethin’ Bout a Truck.” Kip could have rested on his laurels, and simply released more of the same. But that’s not who Kip Moore is. He began work on his second album in 2013, and was ready to release it last year, but it got delayed by his record label. On Friday, Kip Moore’s second album, Wild Ones, was released, and it’s a bit of a departure from the first. Country Countdown USA sat down with Kip to talk about the album:
How has this record evolved in the last three years? It’s changed a lot of times. Every time it stalled, I never stopped writing. I’m always changing, from day to day, my mentality, my head space. I couldn’t stay stagnant, so I was always trying to go in the studio and create and beat what I had. It was more about once the stall happened, I had a whole body of work, found out I had another year, so I went in and recorded more music, came up with a whole ‘nother thing, and I liked where I was at, at that particular time. I’ve created a whole body of work since that one, and it’s completely different from this one. For me it was more about creatively I couldn’t stay stagnant.
The other thing I noticed, you’re playing five songs live in your show, starting the show with “Wild Ones,” is a gutsy thing to do: I’ve never been scared to do that kind of thing. Some people are afraid to play new music, but I look at the fan base we’ve built, and they’re a true rooted fan base. They keep coming to our shows. Wild Ones is already a hit among our fans, because we introduced it to them. ‘Come & Get It’ is the same way. ‘Back Seat’ is the biggest song of the night. And it’s never been on a record or the radio, and it’s big because I’ve never been scared to introduce it to them, so I’ve always been that way with new songs.
Talk about the title song Wild Ones: It’s a smoldering thing, it’s a slow build, it sets the tone for the night every night, it’s got some interesting drum sounds in it. With this record, I tried to not just give you bass lines that follow the notes. In the old Motown records, the bass lines carried the songs, and with this record, we did that, that was the focal point.
The musicians stretched out the intros to the songs, so there’s a flow, not just a quick ten second setup: I wanted to create a body of work. Not just a group of songs. I wanted to weave it. Plus my live show is so important, I’m working around that as I recorded it, I wanted to set the vibe up. I think those things are very important.
The other song you’re not doing in your show is Heart’s Desire: I’ve done it before, but I’m waiting for the fans. There are certain ones I’m gonna keep, and I’m waiting for fans to notice them, and then I’ll break them back out.
I was also surprised by some very country-sounding songs on this album, such as “That’s All Right With Me:” Yes, and ‘That Was Us’ is a country story song. I don’t worry about labels. I just sing the music that comes to me. Something’s going right, when you look at my fan base. I do my thing and write the music that’s inside of me. ‘That Was Us’ was the best pieces of storytelling I’ve done on any record. Teddy is a fictional character, but at the same time he’s real to me. I protected his name with another name, but that song for me was we were just talking, and I sang the chorus one night. I immediately smiled, and we had this girl who hung with this pack of guys, and nobody messed with her, and that’s how the song started.
You also get credit for art direction, so you designed the cover? Yes, I let everybody send me ideas of what the cover was going to be, but I already knew. I’ve always had a strong vision of what I want to do. The thought of me just smiling on the cover didn’t me, and didn’t fit what this record was, so I said ‘I’m gonna do this cover.’ So we took a live shot, and that picture embodies everything I am as a person and as an artist, the passion behind the show, and the passion behind the Wild Ones, which we are as a band. Then, the colors, for me it was the reds, the blues, the yellows, I had the Braveheart thing in my head. I think about the fight William Wallace had, the fight he went through for what he believed in. I thought about that, and I wanted those colors to be the blood and the battle and the fight I went through to get the music to the fans. That’s what it was about. I felt like that picture by itself explained everything this record was going to be. Those things matter to me. It was about making something visually that stood out, represented about what we do and what I am.
Wild Ones, the second album by Kip Moore, is available now. It contains the current hit “I’m To Blame.”
Category: New Music
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