Kip Moore stopped by The Bobby Bones Show to talk about his new album Solitary Tracks.
Despite living in Nashville, Moore has been traveling a lot the last few years. He likes to spend at least once a month every winter down in Hawaii where he fills his day with bike riding, nature, coffee shops, and a whole lot of surfing. He admitted surfing is the only thing that helps him tap back into his carefree younger self. He can’t ever seem to turn off his brain and all of the thoughts besides when he’s surfing. He also spent some time in South Africa for a few shows and got to go off the beaten path to meet with some special individuals. He had heard about this woman running a soup kitchen for years, but it was an area the government wouldn’t let him go due to it being unsafe. However, Moore talked some of his bodyguards into taking him. Once he met the woman he knew he wanted to do something to support her work, she had told him she wanted to build safe houses to support the community. So this year, he’s working with her to build the safe houses. He met a kid in the community while he was there and the kid left a lasting impact on him that he hasn’t been able to forget.
As for his new album, Moore has been spending the last several years waking up every morning and working on new songs first thing. He’s spent a lot of his early mornings and late nights writing for the project, that’s when he felt the sharpest. He felt like this record was very much an unpacking of the closet for him because he felt like he compartmentalized a lot of things in his life. He wrote the songs “High Hopes,” “Living Side,” and “Solitary Tracks” in a week span, and that’s when he realized he was writing a record. He felt like he was saying a lot of “sorrys” in his heart for people he’s encountered in his life, and letting go of the times he’s been hurt by people. For “Flowers in December,” he was thinking about his dad and the chain event of things happening. He happened to be looking at a flower that wilted and that’s what inspired that particular song. He had planned for the album to be 13 songs, but he finished the record a couple of months early. So he went back and kept writing, and that’s when sides C and D came out and turned into more of eclectic vibes rather than unpacking the closet.
Moore admitted he spends a lot of his time alone, but that’s always something he’s done since he was a young kid. He loves companionship, but he also loves sitting in a coffee shop by himself jotting down thoughts or reading. He has also contemplated going to a temple and spending time with monks where he doesn’t have to talk for a month. For him, he doesn’t learn as much about himself when he’s surrounded by people like when he’s in Nashville. He feels like Nashville takes a lot of the warmth away from his life because there’s just so much madness everywhere he goes whether it’s the gym or sitting in traffic.
