Kip Moore is BACK with his fifth studio album, Damn Love, and it is “emotionally raw and thick with epiphany, a tug of war emerged between adventurous wanderlust – a love that keeps him writing music and traveling highways – and that basic human craving for someone to share it with.” It is truly a one-of-a-kind!
Earlier this month, Kip released the title track as a teaser into what Damn Love would have in store, and fans have counting down the days until it hit all music streaming platforms TODAY (April 28th). The single was such a success, that it will be sent to country radio this Monday (May 1st), but it is not the only track within the project that is a banger.
The rest of the album consists of 12 more phenomenal songs — which were all co-produced and co-written by Kip himself — ultimately allowing him to be vulnerable within the project and show his true emotions.
When speaking about Damn Love as a whole, the Georgia native shared, “I’ve always had a nomadic spirit, at the core of me that’s what I am, and it’s a beautiful life I lead. I don’t take that for granted, but I still crave that companionship down deep in my DNA, and that’s where ‘Damn Love’ comes from. There’s a reason love and relationships have been written about so much, and why they continue to get written about, because at the core of us, that’s what we desire the most.”
This statement captures the epitome of what Damn Love is all about, and with just one listen, we know you would wholeheartedly agree.
Celeb Secrets reporter Melanie Rooten got to sit down with Kip Moore prior to the release of Damn Love to ask the country legend a few burning questions, and his responses were nothing short of incredible.
Keep scrolling to read our Q&A, and be sure to let us know what you think of talented singer-songwriter and his brand new project by either leaving a reaction at the bottom of the post, or by sending us a tweet at @CS_Country.
Want to stay tuned on everything Kip Moore has on the way BEYOND Damn Love? Be sure to connect with him on Instagram @kipmooremusic so you don’t miss a thing.
Celeb Secrets: Naturally, each song on the album tells its own unique story, but it comes together to create a cohesive project. From hearing the album from top to bottom, what is one thing that you think listeners will take away from it, or a feeling that they will be left with after listening to it from start to finish?
Kip Moore: “Man, great question. There’s different things this record does for me specifically, but I’m just aware that I’ve always tried to be honest with myself when I write, and I’ve always felt like if I do that, it’s going to connect with people because we’re all kind of going through this journey, a lot of us the same kind of way. It’s all our first time, we’re all trying to figure it out and navigate. It’s why we get it wrong so much.
I have no idea what somebody’s gonna feel listening to this. All I ever hope with any record that I make is that I do make you feel something, that I do make you feel something internally, that I do strike some kind of emotional chord with you. I believe when you do that, even when someone’s grieving and you write something that makes them grieve even more. I think that’s all a part of the cathartic process where you have to get those things out.
We have this idea, I feel like sometimes in radio, that we have to keep everything light and everybody just has to stay in this place of like, ‘Everything’s fine — We’re still partying,” even though the world’s freakin’ so scary right now, we’re still drinking beer and we’re still partying, and I don’t think that’s real. I don’t think that’s a real emotion.
I know for me, when I’ve been really sad about something, you know, when I still struggle with my dad being gone, I struggle with him being gone all the time because he was such a magnetic human I’m missing. Not long ago, [Bob] Seger was his all time favorite, and I got off the road and he was on my mind and I walked into Kroger late night, because they’re the only ones that are open, and the minute I walked in I heard, you know, ‘It seems like yesterday, but it was long ago. Janey was lovely, she was the queen of my nights,’ and I just started weeping, just weeping uncontrollably. I said, ‘Nope, not tonight, Kroger,’ and I walked out, got my car and I went home, and I’m glad I felt that.
That’s the power of music, you know, so I just hope that I strike a chord with people, and I help you tap into whatever it is you got buried. Whatever it is you’re trying to release, whether it’s happiness, sadness, whatever that is, I just never want to be one of those artists that you turn on the record and it’s just fodder. It’s just music. It’s not something that’s making you feel one way or the other.
I’m okay if you hate me, as long as you got strong emotions about what you’re hearing, and it’s not just background noise, we’re good.”
Celeb Secrets: I always love knowing the stories behind each song and how the creative process varies from track to track, so do you have a story behind the one of the songs on the album from either writing it, recording it or producing it, that is kind of unique?
KM: “I would say that ‘Silver And Gold‘ is one. ‘Silver And Gold’ is such a rock and roll tune on the record, but my demo, I wrote that song probably two or three years ago and had completely forgotten about that song, like gone from my memory. I’ve got probably over a thousand that way that I’ve written… I’ll have my publisher call me sometimes and be like, ‘Hey man, what about this song?’ and it’s something I wrote 12 years ago that I had completely forgotten about. I’m like, ‘You’re gonna have to sing it to me. I don’t remember it,’ and then once I hear the first line, I can usually remember.
I had written the song probably three years ago, and completely forgot about it. I never even made a work tape for it on my phone, but I made this little demo that was just a banjo roll with a little kick drum, and I recorded it super slow, and we used an upright bass, and it just had this total like earthy, indie, organic kind of thing. Once I got into the studio, I just said ‘Eff it. Let’s make this a rock and roll tune,’ and I started hearing a whole other way.
I started hearing that, you know, opening thing that happens, the opening melody, and I started hearing, you know, Jaren had a really dirty sounding guitar dialed up and I said, ‘Man, just ride those eights,’ and it ended up becoming something completely different than the demo, and it was just a very spontaneous thing in the moment of ‘this song can have so much energy to it, if we give it that life,’ so that’s one.
‘The Guitar Slinger,’ I think that was interesting in a sense of it’s over six minutes, so in a world that doesn’t like things in more than 15 second increments, that was a bit of a gamble, but the records that I love growing up — Pink Floyd, Dark Side Of The Moon. If any of y’all have never done this, take a ride. Take a ride somewhere at nighttime, maybe have you something left-handed. Take a ride. You can ask somebody else to drive you. Put on that record, and it’s such an experience.
For me, I wanted certain songs like ‘Micky’s Bar‘ and ‘The Guitar Slinger’ to be what they were and not have somebody tell me they needed to fit in the confinements of three minutes, because I was hearing it as this completely, more anthemic journey with the music than the lyric.I already knew how dark the lyric was, and I wanted to make sure the music took you on a heavy journey, just like the lyric, and that was getting in there and being like, ‘If we’re gonna do it, let’s do it. Let’s go all the way, and make it what it is, and make it this long, drawn out six minute thing.'”
LISTEN TO DAMN LOVE BELOW:
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