Kip Moore Recorded a New Album and Picked Up a New Hobby in Quarantine
Kip Moore made excellent use of his time while in quarantine this year. Not only did the country singer record a brand new album — not this spring's Wild World, but another one that nobody's heard — he also learned carpentry while whipping up some home renovations.
That's what the "Payin' Hard" performer shares with Rolling Stone during a year-end chat that emerged this week (Dec. 27). In the interview, Moore covers everything from his well-documented affinity for Bruce Springsteen to his most-returned-to movie this year. (It's 1997's Good Will Hunting). Not to mention that unheard album and his woodworking skills.
Asked what activities he completed in 2020 that, thus far, have been mostly under wraps, Moore says, "I got more creative than ever, put a studio in my house and made a record no one has heard."
But that's not all — he also picked up the carpentry hobby thanks to his friend Dan Couch, a fellow country songwriter and a man who knows his way around a couple of pieces of wood.
"I renovated my house this year during quarantine," Moore explains. "[Couch] is amazing and taught me a ton about putting in walls, ceilings, building bed frames. You name it, we did it."
But what about that new album? It's actually something the singer's mentioned before when discussing his quarantine home studio setup.
"I've written a whole 'nother project that no one's heard," Moore revealed during a media event earlier this year. "I set up a studio at my house, and for a month straight, that's all I did, was write and record. … I was writing every single morning and mountain biking and rock climbing during the day."
But it's not all sunshine and roses — er, biking and climbing — for the singer. Fessing to Rolling Stone his criticisms for the year, Moore admits to a feeling of helplessness regarding humanity. Clocking his current state of mind as "dark at times with a forced hopefulness," the musician clarifies: "I feel our phones have taken us into this really strange antagonistic approach to everything," he says, "and I don't know how that gets better if it's only going more that way."
Still, staying confident about 2021, Moore says he hopes our current culture can "stop with our antagonistic approach to every situation. We stop canceling each other. We stop feeding into the bullshit division. We do our research on what the news, Instagram and other social media outlets feed us before we start spouting off. We learn empathy and realize we are all from different walks of life."
"We will never all see eye to eye on every matter," the singer adds, "and that's okay."