Sam Hunt Wants to 'Break Down Walls and Barriers' With New Music

If Sam Hunt's latest single, "Sinning With You," seems to break the mold of country music a bit, then he has achieved at least some of what he set out to do. The Georgia native, who also released "Kinfolks" from his upcoming sophomore project, wants to include a "nod to tradition" in his next set of tunes, while still not limiting himself to just one style of music.

"I feel like it's important that we break down some walls and barriers when it comes to social groups we align ourselves with, and also the music we listen to," Hunt told Rolling Stone. "I've never wanted to not include a reference [to classic country] because the group that I belong to thinks it doesn't fit. The less we genre the music, the less we genre ourselves as people."

Part of the message behind "Sinning With You" is Hunt encouraging listeners to stop adhering to rules and regulations that have been passed down to them by previous generations, and instead embrace those who may have felt burdened by certain aspects of their faith, especially those in the LGBTQ community.

"You hope that we can evolve out of some of the naiveté that may or may not have been necessarily rooted in right or wrong, but more tradition that's been passed down," Hunt explained. "I think it's important we think about these things and don't accept rules because they are rules. We should try to understand the 'whys' behind the things we do, and the moral structure we apply to our lives. It takes some living and learning, but I'm always in pursuit of that."

Hunt released his freshman Montevallo in 2014 but hasn't released a full project since then –– a lapse of time that he feels was necessary if not intentional.

"It was a crazy time, in the political world," Hunt explained. "All the bumps in the road as we progress as a society. I needed to figure out what part I was going to play in all that, and how I wanted to go about it. Is music the right direction? I had to sit and think about those things, because the world tells you that if you have this opportunity to make music and be on the radio and be rich and famous, you should do that, because people would kill to.

"But that's not enough of a reason," he added. "I wanted a deeper understanding of what I was doing, and why."

Photo Credit: Getty / Boston Globe