Five Questions with Kip Moore

CountryMusicIsLove recently caught up with the Georgia native to talk about “Young Love,” his upcoming album, touring with Lady Antebellum, and more. See what he had to say below.

CMIL: Tell us more about your current single, “Young Love”…

KM: I wrote it with Dan Couch and Weston Davis. It’s one of those ‘us against the world’ songs. We all had stories of being teenagers and feeling so reckless about our love for somebody. You would do whatever it took to get to that person – we all had stories of parents not liking us – and you would do whatever it took to get to that person, like sneaking out. I went four hours to Panama City to be with somebody when I was sixteen years old and I snuck out. You do crazy stuff like that. A guy like Dan, who’s in his forties, and has this amazing, amazing marriage, but all this struggle to get to this place and going so many years without having any success as a writer and her sticking beside him and now all the success is happening. It’s them standing beside each other and a lot of people thought they were crazy. It’s going to straddle so many age ranges because it’s just going to relate to so many people that did feel that.

KM: It’s very different. It’s an extension of my first record, but it’s much more in the present, covers more topics than the first, and it’s a much more gritty, intense record. There’s a lot more fiery passion in this one than the first one. The first one is a very moody, nostalgic, kind of looking back where this is tackling more of what my life is now.

CMIL: Fans recently had the chance to watch the ‘Burn the Whole World Down’ documentary, highlighting the making of the album. What was it like to be the subject of a short film like that?

KM: My best buddy went out with us on the road and we filmed it how it is. There was no sitting in front of some great lights and having an interview. It was very authentic and it’s about our life as a band on the road and how I go about things. It’s a very authentic portrayal of how my life is day in and day out and the journey it’s taken me to get here.

CMIL: In the past, you’ve had a chance to tour with artists like Eric Church and Toby Keith and next year, you’re hitting the road with Lady Antebellum. Can you talk about playing to such different audiences and what you’ve taken away from these tours?

KM: I think as a performer you have to pay attention. If you want to be great and you want to be better, you have to pay attention. You can learn something from each tour. Yes, they’re very different, but that’s the great thing about it. I can learn little ways that Toby did it, he’s obviously been successful, little ways that Eric does it, and little ways that Lady Antebellum does it. I’ll be out watching their show every single night. How do you keep a crowd of that size for an hour and a half or more in the palm of your hand? What does it take to do that? They’re very different, but that’s the beautiful thing about it.

CMIL: You’ve been quite the road warrior this year. Will you have a chance to take any time off over the holidays?

KM: I’ll go to Maui the day after Christmas. I’ll go surf for two weeks. I just got back from Costa Rica and I’ll go do two weeks in Hawaii the day after Christmas. It’s the only thing that makes me cut my brain off. It’s like this spiritual thing of being out there at six o’clock in the morning when the sun is coming up and then being out there when the sun is going down – there’s a stillness and a quietness that I never get to find when I’m on the road. So it just really cuts my brain off and I disappear.