A musician's journey through songwriting and a mentor's impact

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The day that I get married, that's when you'll know about my love life. Are you killing her off? Oh, it's not a it's not a this isn't a TV show, man. It's just kind of, [laughter] you know, we're not this isn't trash TV, man. I don't know if I had ever had that kind of believer in my corner. He was only offering me [music] $27,000. That was my salary to write songs. Man, I just miss everything about [music] him. He was my brother. He was my best friend. He was he was uh the biggest champion I've by far ever had in my corner. This is your third full album in three years. Yeah. Before that it was four albums in 10 years. What changed that has led to the boost in productivity per se? Well, I mean I've always if Universal would have let me I'd have put out a record every six months. I mean I'm I I write every morning. I've got probably I probably have a thousand plus songs that no one's ever heard. Wow. I would say that my my complete catalog of songs is probably somewhere I'm just guesstimating because I mean I was writing two songs a day for when I was writing for Warner or Cornman for four years in that deal, five days a week. Um and I've been writing every single day of my life ever since. I'll write, you know, anywhere from 60 to 80 songs in a year. I've been doing that pretty consistently for, you know, and that varies. It might be 51 year, then 71 and and you know, so there's so many songs that that no one's heard. But, um, you know, with this new situation, I've just they're they're all about whenever you want to make a record, just make it. So, I've already made another one. This one's coming out in May, and I'm almost finished a whole another one. So while I feel this way and while I'm this fired up about writing and cuz I know that one day my life will look a little different and things will change and I'll have different responsibilities and cuz I do want to have those gardens one day but I've been so manically focused on this one thing for so long and I know at some point that's going to shift. So, while I still feel the way I do and as connected to what I'm doing as I do and I'm I'm I'm probably on fire more than I've ever been just about music in general and the production aspect of things is where I've just become a maniac about. So, I love it so much that I just keep kind of going and I'm I'm I'm in a completely different It's like the minute I finish a record, it was like my whole It's kind of for me I'm I'm a little more closed off in person. um people that are really close to me I can be open with. But um when I pick up a guitar, there is a piece of me whether it's like the darkness from this record where I'll I'll unveil myself in a in a very I'll peel it wide open, but I'll never talk to you like that in person. Um, so but when I finish something, you know, whether it's a cathartic process or whatever, my brain is already kind of in my headsp space too becomes a different thing where this next thing I've been working on is a completely different animal than the record that's about to drop. And what inspired the darkness? That's kind of like the thing I like about that is it's kind of like like an anthemic like the music is so powerful and big and but it's so dark. It is. And and and I'll do that at times. You take like Bittersweet Company from the Slowhe heart record. I will purposely take a very heavy heart ripping lyric and I'll put a feel to it that gives you a complete juxosition. You know, I'll do a completely different It's like a counter melody to this that um almost plays a little trick on your mind. you're jamming out and singing and you it feels like euphoria then you're like wait a minute what did he just [laughter] say you know so it's um but you know I I had a guitar and a crazy kind of Johnny Resnik type goood dolls tuning that day and and it just was you know I I I was I can remember specifically that day with Luke Preston and Andrew Roberts um most of this record much like the last one I would I like to start at least the first half of the song by myself and like kind of get the blueprint going and then I would call Luke or call Dan or call Andrew and I would go in. But the darkness kind of started was one of the only ones that started from nothing. And Luke and I I I feel a kindred spirit in him a lot that he struggles with a lot of the same things that I do. Um and I think we were just both in that headsp space and I think a lot of times I'm trying to shake it. I'm trying to run from it. I'm trying to get it off my back and I'll I'll get it off my back for a second, you know, I'll feel good and catches back up to me and I think that that the night before I was writing with those guys when I started the chorus through the darkness and it was just um like I said, if someone calls me and says, you know, you good? Everything good? I'm Yeah, man. Everything's cool. I can and I can seem fine, but um but it's the minute I pick up my guitar a lot of times is when an honest emotion comes out. out. And I can remember standing on my back porch at probably 1:00 a.m. and strumming that chorus of the darkness and just kind of getting that all that melody in place. And and some of the lines that ended up sticking and when I brought that in, it's you know, you know, Luke, we could see each other right away. It's like, I can see you, he can see me. And and um we were off to the races. And Janie makes another appearance in the song. She shown up a few times. Hey, Janie Blue. Um, what uh I know you're not going to tell me who she is. Um, unless you want to talk about your love life today, which we ask you every time. Yeah, cuz our listeners really want to know. Yeah. Something I'll always keep to myself, man. Is there there's no update? So, you you'll have an update the day that the day that I get married. That's when you'll know about my love life. And that'll be one post and that'll be it. [laughter] That'll be it. Yeah. Does Janie Blue appreciate the songs? I do wonder that. I don't know. I don't know because we don't know who Janie is. Okay. Well, you do, you know. I You know, so I get it's one of those things that I've I I've purposely made of a connective character. I got you. Throughout records, throughout the records. So, it's not one person and it might be, might not be. Dang, you're good. But um you know with this thing that I' that I'm about to finish now, this is the uh this is the final hurrah of Janie. Oh yeah, I've just kind of I'm kind of going to um seal that up with the next thing. So are you killing her off? Oh, it's not a it's not a this isn't a TV show, man. It's just [laughter] kind of you know, we're not this isn't trash TV, man. Um no, it's just kind of like a conscious decision of being like this is, you know, this is kind of this is kind of that. So Okay. Um, but it's been a good news throughout. And I know you were good friends with Brett James. He's got a couple songs um on the record. Um, what did he help you understand about life, would you say? I wouldn't even know where to begin and end with that. Brett was larger than life in so many ways. And I think for me, what I've kind of settled on the last couple months is Brett was so crucial for me at the time that he came into my life because I don't know if I had ever had that kind of believer in my corner. And I felt it from him and it felt honest. Nothing about it felt disingenuous. And it was, you know, the the life talks that we we were inseparable for four years. Like we were together every single day and every weekend we would go down to his lake house and we'd ride and we'd hang out and he was just the best of us. Um what a amazing soul. Um the way he made the newbies in the room feel like seasoned veterans and made everybody feel valid and he was the king. He was the king Tut. you know, guys had more hits than almost anybody in this town, you know, and um I just look back at I I think about like I was so close. I didn't have anything going on in town. Couldn't get a meeting. Couldn't get in the door for for years. And I'm playing a songwriter night one night and the next day my phone rings and it's a a big producer who was having a lot of success at that time and running a record label and that record label was successful at that time. They had two or three massive artists and wants me to meet with him and I go in and meet and there's a record deal on the table. There's lawyers in the room and I'm like what's going on right now? You know, and I think about that time in my life and I was 27 and that was everything that I wanted was sitting in front of me right there. But something in my gut was like, can I can you give me a day? I remember saying that in the room. Can you give me 24 hours? And it was kind of this pause and it was like, yeah, we'll give you 24 hours. And I left and I sat in my truck and I was like, Kip, what are you doing? Go sign the deal. They want to make a record on you right now. And and I think back, I didn't have any of those songs yet written for Up All Night. I don't know what that record would have even been. I'd written a lot of songs, but I don't know what that record would have been, but I got a good feeling it wouldn't have been Up All Night. And as I'm leaving the parking lot, now I'd had nothing going on four years. Couldn't get a meeting. I would get a meeting. I'd show up excited about that meeting. Been thinking about that meeting for three, four months. And I finally get there and they're like, "So and so's got to cancel. They're going to move it three or four months." and you're just devastated. You're leaving, you're riding back to your construction job, riding back when I was doing golf course maintenance, riding back to working in that school and and all those jobs are great, but was like I wanted to write music and um just the devastation that comes with trying to make it in this town, especially back then. It was just, man, it was a different animal. Um, and the the hole to get through was a lot smaller back then, you know, with social media and the way you just everybody can just jump through the hole and it's like anybody can, you know, you can do whatever, you know, you can create your own thing. And so, um, I can remember pulling out of the parking lot and on the same day I got offered the record deal, Brett James called me and he says, "Hey, Kip, this is Brett James." And I'm just like, "What?" you know, because I knew all the I I did my homework, even when I got to town, I learned all who all the big writers were, what they'd written. Um, I'd go to songwriters nights and and watch these guys and Brett was like at the top of my mountain and got a call from me and he was like, you know, my friend Joe Fischer, who was working at Universal MCA Records, saw you play and said, I I needed to meet with you. Cuz he had just started his own publishing company. Can you come here, you know, right now? And so I drove over to his publishing house same day and um played a verse and a chorus of a song that I'd written called Thinking and Driving. He I played a verse in a course and he stopped me right after the first chorus. He said, "I can't offer you a record deal, but I think that you you have all that raw potential that I've been looking for that I've been looking to sign." And he says, "If you trust me and you sign here, you're going to get to write every single day and you're going to get to find who you are as an artist, and I'm going to help you on that on that journey." And he says, "I promise you the record deal is going to come, but I need you to trust me in this." And I just something about it and I think about that like he was only offering me $27,000. That was my salary to write songs. And I quit my job and that was a full-time thing. And I crashed at the publishing house. Slept on the couch. I was barely getting by with that for two years writing for him. Then it jumped to 29. I mean, it was, you know, it's peanuts, you know, but it's like that's what you do. You grind like that. But it was like I got to write every single day. I had enough money to buy my food, right? And I'd crash at the publishing house. And he was everything he said he was going to be. You know, we would dissect all my songs. He let me record whenever I wanted. He let me fall on my face when I would record things that he was like, "I don't think this song's it." And I'd record and sometimes I'd win and sometimes I'd lose and be like, "You're right. This song wasn't what we thought it was." But we would we would dig through those songs and he was he was just such a voice for me. And um [clears throat] and uh man, I just miss everything about him there. He was my brother. He was my best friend. He was he was uh the biggest champion I've by far ever had in my corner. What do you think is the biggest decision in your life that had the biggest the decision in your life that had the biggest impact of your career and your life? Absolutely. The one I just said. I think about that. Yeah. Like I mean there's so many, but that one cuz this town is so um and it's so ridiculous, but it's, you know, there'll be a new shiny toy that comes through and everybody's like, "Ah, this is the greatest thing ever." And then like that gets old in a year and it's well this is the new shiny thing and then you forget all about that one. And and God help you if you're that new shiny toy that um it becomes damaged goods. And that's the way this town, it's such a copycat follow town a lot of times. And people will not have the backbone to say, "No, this person's got it. We just we messed up here and we need to get this back." They're like, "Okay, let's just throw some more putty at the wall. Let's move on to this thing over here, and now this is considered damaged goods." And it's I mean, it's that way with a lot of things. Um, you know, um, so I think about if id have made that record, there's no way it would have been up all night. If they were going to get me to go in the I would have been cutting outside songs, which could have been good, but it also could have been a forceful thing. Yeah. Where Brett allowed me to write that record that had Crazy one more time. It had Reckless. It had everything but you. It had Faith When I Fall. Truck is what got everybody in the room. And then that record sold over a million physical copies. So it was like people got the record and then they heard Crazy more time. And then you heard and then I was playing these shows where the volume was louder in the room for Crazy and Faith than it was for Truck. Like it was like that's what built the fan base. But I wouldn't have had that record and I wouldn't have turned into the artist or songwriter I feel like if I hadn't spent that time with Brett. I mean, he was he was so crucial in in every way of letting to have a publisher that lets you find yourself and doesn't say, "Well, you need to be writing more of these kind of songs and more of these kind of songs and this is what's happening right now." I was writing left to center stuff than what the town when you listen to that up all night record it was so different than any of the records that mainstream were happening at that time and he just let me go for it. But he helped me refine the tools. So that was the most pivotal decision I made was not signing that deal and signing with him and taking the long route. Yeah. And finally, man, hey, it's been uh 15 years. I just need to know, do we know what it is about a truck yet? [laughter] I did not know what we were about to ask. Um, but I I I do not. I'll tell you this. I just bought a old 97 [laughter] and there's just something about it. And I don't know what it is, but it's a feeling when you get the right one. It's It's like you're hanging out with a buddy. These new ones don't do it for me. Okay, that's interesting. They don't do it for me. I need to I need to feel it. It It can't drive like a Cadillac. Yeah. I need to smell it. Like that's the thing. I want to smell the gas coming out. Turn the key. Yeah. Yeah. No push button. Yeah. And when the And when the government tries to cut my car off, I can still fire it up. Yeah. You going to be cruising your Tesla. I'm going to go ride by my 97. [laughter] I'll pick you up on the way back. Yeah. Hold on. I'm downloading my update. Yeah, dude. Yeah. Well, thanks for coming by, man. Congrats on the new record. You bet. Cheers. Thank you.