Keith Urban‘s long-awaited The Speed of Now Part 1 album is out! The diverse record, released on September 18, was started before the coronavirus pandemic, but finished while much of the world was still locked down — forcing the superstar to be extra creative.

“It feels like the last 25 percent, maybe 30 percent, of it was done through this period,” Keith told Billboard. “Finishing out the scope of the sonic picture that I was trying to paint took not only the time that I ended up with, but the reason for the time, which also informed those missing songs, like ‘Out The Cage,’ ‘Say Something’ and ‘Live With.’ All of that came not only in that time, but from that time as well.”

“Out the Cage,” which Keith sings with Breland and Nile Rodgers, kicks off The Speed of Now Part 1 — an intentional decision by Keith.

“I always sequence my albums like it’s a show,” Keith explained. “I think if anybody were to go back and listen to the first song on every one of my albums you’d be like, ‘Yeah, that’s how you’d open a show; that would be the first song on the set list.’ It just had all the energy and propulsion and genreless-ness that I wanted to open this particular album as well. And then I want a thematic connection that was relative to the time and for a lyric [quotes] ‘Don’t know just how long / But I’ve been trapped in here quite a while / Wonder if I’ll make it out / I miss my friends, I miss the sky / Feel like I just live to die.’ That can’t be what life’s about.’ That was it. That was what I wanted to say.”

“Out the Cage,” along with many of the other songs on The Speed of Now Part 1, started in Keith’s head, with him trying to mimic the sound he hears when he gets in the studio.

“I can hear [the song] before it exists,” Keith said. I can hear a lot of my records and then I just set about trying to manifest them the way I hear them. They rarely come out that way.”

Keith got to perform at the 2020 ACM Awards, singing his new duet, “One Too Many,” with Pink during the live broadcast. The Aussie performed one show at a drive-in theater, near the start of the pandemic, but is more than ready to play all of these songs, and more, in front of his fans.

“There is acceptance of it and this frustration about it,” acknowledged the singer. “There’s curiosity about what, when, how and then there’s a little bit of satiation from doing shows—whether it’s a virtual performance, a one-off situation, or various TV performances that are pre-filmed, but you get to play, you get to actually play.”

Purchase The Speed of Now Part 1 at KeithUrban.net.