It’s no secret that I’ve been a massive fan of Kip Moore for years now. He’s been one of those dream interviews for me. I’ve lived with his excellent debut album Up All Night for two years and in a way, it’s been the soundtrack of my life for the past two years. I caught his tour opening show at New York’s Best Buy Theater back in September and when I realized he’d be playing at Starland Ballroom in New Jersey, I knew I wanted to see him again. Luckily, this time I also got to interview him.
It was home turf for me as throughout college I’d attend shows at Starland Ballroom and even began interviewing a few bands then as well. After his soundcheck, I followed Kip backstage to catering and then to a room with a big screen TV and leather couches where his band was hanging out. In between dinner and watching the news–which was reporting on the massive snowstorm in upstate New York–Kip filled me in on his latest EP Soundcheck and what we can expect from his new album, due out next year.
He released Soundcheck, a five-song live EP featuring four brand new tracks, two days before his tour kickoff in September. The release was aimed at his fans, and he told me that he hopes the new music will hold them over until his sophomore album is released sometime next year.
“We’re pretty passionate about those songs. It was a cool way for giving the fans that have been waiting so long just a taste of what’s coming without actually exposing the record. A live version is not quite the same as a studio album,” he explains. “There definitely will be some of the songs [from the EP] that will make it onto the record.”
While some fans have put fault on his record label for not releasing his project sooner, he explains his record label isn’t to blame—in fact as he describes it, they’re “protecting” him.
“People need to understand this is not my record label’s fault,” he asserts. “To be honest, it all comes back on me. I wrote a song, ‘Dirt Road,’ that I thought was going to get further up on the charts and high enough to release a record around, but my label is protecting me in a lot of ways. In my own stubbornness, I just want to put the record out. They know what they’re doing, and it’s hard to release a record around a song that didn’t get past number 40 [Moore’s first three singles all reached No. 1]. And that’s just the fact of the matter.”
So, adds Moore, “hopefully we can come with something next time with some more traction and we can put a record out around it.”
Read more of my interview with Kip Moore on Radio.com.