Nashville-based singer-songwriter Joseph Shipp is a Renaissance man of sorts, adept at an array of creative fields: a musician, of course; an award-winning graphic designer; an accidental archivist; and a photographer who grew up around his parents’ photography business. After spending six formative years in the Bay Area, he and his wife moved back east to start a family—many of the songs on his new album Free, for a While (due out October 28th) center around the confusing, isolating time that followed.
Shipp, a 40-year-old Centerville, Tenn. native, had moved back home—or at least to nearby Nashville—after several years in northern California. Amid a turbulent time in the South, he found nothing really resembled what he had left. The 11-song Free, for a While, co-produced with Grammy-nominated Andrew Sovine (Ashley McBryde), offers Shipp’s own brand of Americana and is a catharsis that wrestles with his feelings of coming home, becoming a dad and the isolation and fear that followed.
Today Glide is excited to premiere the standout track “Turned Into Someone Else,” which follows a main character who desires a bit of freedom for himself. The song finds Shipp merging his folk and Americana-approach to lyricism with a big rock and roll sound that brings to mind Tom Petty at his finest. The lyrics are thoughtful and resonate in a universal way while the guitar-driven approach makes this a big-hearted rocker that truly soars.
Shipp describes the inspiration behind the song:
Like most of my songs, this song started with the first few lines of the first verse: “It was a simple plan / Have our talk and leave.” As I started working on the song, I began to craft this narrative of this guy who had this honest desire to take a moment for himself by calling it off with his girl—hoping it would set him free. He makes this clearly selfish decision without really thinking it through. I think we can all relate to that just a little. But in the song, this guy’s plan kind of backfires.
This is a tale of thinking you know what you need, going for that thing, and then realizing you have no clue what you need. The guy in the song is trying to stay true to himself, but in that process ultimately hurts himself and finds there’s no way back. His desire for momentary freedom made him alone and sad. It’s a cautionary tale for all the self-prescribed lone wolves out there.
Production-wise I had a clear vision for this one: Make a good car driving song.
LISTEN:
