NIKO MOON’S DEBUT ALBUM GOOD TIME AVAILABLE NOW
PERFORMING ON ABC’S “GMA3” MONDAY
RCA Nashville breakout rising star Niko Moon’s debut album GOOD TIME is available now. Listen here.
“Y’all, my debut album is OUT! I wanted to make an album for folks to play when they want to enjoy the good times in life,” said Moon. “GOOD TIME was made with my wife, Anna, and brotha, Josh Murty, and is truly from my family to y’all’s! GOOD TIMES ONLY!”
Already being touted as “full of positive vibes and set to be the soundtrack of the summer,” (Entertainment Focus), GOOD TIME includes the Platinum-certified title track, which topped the Billboard Country Airplay and Hot Country Songs chart simultaneously this year making it the first debut single to achieve this feat since 2014.
Fans can expect more of Moon’s trademark positivity and the “one-man party” (Billboard) to continue on his highly anticipated full-length project, as HITS lauds, “Moon has found the sweet spot for intriguing rhythms holding small-town values in a roots-music vat that expands modern country.” Accented by banjo forward, swaggy back beats and guitars that tang as much as twang GOOD TIME evokes an old school sort of country along with evident influence from Michael Franti, John Prine, the Eagles and Outkast through songs that simmer, stir and sizzle. Moon produced the project with close collaborator Joshua Murty.
To celebrate the release, Moon will perform on ABC’s “GMA3” Monday alongside Grammy Award-winning reggae icon Shaggy.
So before I started making the album, I took a couple of months to just kind of think about what I wanted it to sound like, which has a big part of me thinking also about who am I? What are my influences? If my life was a sound, what would that sound sound like? And so I took a really, really long time to think about that, and then started working on the music. And the main thing I wanted the music to be, is I wanted every song to make you feel good. I wanted it to feel positive. Even so I was like, Drunk Over You, which deals with the breakup, there’s redemption in it in the end, you know, I’m always looking for that. I’m always looking for the light at the end of the tunnel. I just think it’s a it’s a better way to live life, you know, to look at it. with, you know, a positive outlook, you know, we can choose to look at life any way we want to, and that’s how I like to look at it and I hope when people hear the album, that’s how they think of it so I wanted it front to back to just be glass half full.
Artists’ I think we obsess over every little thing about everything. I’m like listening. Oh, is that one little hi hat? Little team, right? Should it be there and should it be here and, and so when it comes to the order, it’s something that I labored over for weeks and weeks and try it out like 50 different order options, you know, because I want it to feel like it takes you on a ride. And I wanted to start out in a certain place and kind of it needs to ebb and flow. I don’t want it to feel like it’s the same thing the whole time. And the order has a big impact. If you do listen to it top to bottom, which I hope people do. It’s important to take them on the right kind of ride, almost like how a roller coaster would be, you know, and the way you order it has a huge impact on the journey that they’re going to take. So I feel really good about the order. Let’s find out how everybody else feels about it.
GOOD TIME TRACK LIST:
1. NO SAD SONGS (Niko Moon/Anna Moon/Joshua Murty/Steven Lee Olsen/Alysa Vanderheym)
“No Sad Songs” The inspiration for that song came because I was driving down the road one day, and I heard like three sad songs come on in a row. And it was like a nice day and the windows were down. I was feeling good. And I just thought to myself, like, I don’t want to hear no sad songs right now. Like, this is not my mood. You know? Sometimes that is the mood but in that moment, it wasn’t. So yeah, I was like, you know what, I’m gonna write a song that kinda like is for that moment when you don’t want to hear no sad songs.
2. WAY BACK (Niko Moon/Anna Moon/Joshua Murty)
“Way Back,” I wrote about my three best buddies, we grew up together. And we live in all different parts of the country. Now, some of us are married, some of us even got kids. But every year we get together, we do a road trip together. And when we do, it’s like, no time has passed. It’s like, boom, we’re right back in high school again. So I wanted to write a song that made people think of their best friends, those kind of friendships where every time you see them, no time has passed. You’re right back to being kids again. That whole thought, you know, we go way back.
3. PARADISE TO ME (Niko Moon/Anna Moon/Joshua Murty)
“Paradise To Me.” I was listening to some kind of beachy-er music one day and I got to think and I’m like, Is there any like lake songs because where I grew up I didn’t live by the beach. I live next to the lake though. And so all my memories of growing up by the water for the most part was was at this lake. And I was like, I realized that there wasn’t really like a lake song and I was like, You know what? I’m gonna write a song for my lake people.
4. LAST CALL (Niko Moon/Anna Moon/Joshua Murty)
“Last Call” is such a fun song. It makes me think of my wife. Because the tag at the end of the chorus says if lovers are like alcohol, then you’re my last call. And it’s kind of like finding that person when you’re saying, you know what, I’m good. This is it, you know, but wrapping it up and kind of this bar metaphor, and my wife is who actually came up with the line, you know if lovers are like alcohol, and then you’re my last call.
5. DANCE WITH ME (Niko Moon/Anna Moon/Joshua Murty)
“Dance With Me” is the song that I hope will make you want to kind of like grab your person and do a little slow dance in the kitchen too. And we use, I use, the Vegas concept, because love is kind of like a gamble. As far as when you got, at some point really put yourself out there and roll the dice and lay it all on the line to someone else and say, Hey, what do you think I’m into this? Are you into this at some point? You got it, you got to take that leap of faith, you know, and so I got thinking, you know, it really is it’s kind of like rolling the dice and, and, you know, there’s a line in the song that says, you know, when you came walking up as soon as I saw you walkin up, I was laying them down. You know, you’re like you’re laying your hand out saying this is it. I’m putting it all on the line.
6. GOOD TIME (Niko Moon/Jordan Minton/Anna Moon/Joshua Murty/Mark Trussell)
Yeah, “Good Time” to me is if the album is a tree, “Good Time” is the trunk. It’s the foundation of the record because the song is just, it’s really simple. It’s just talking about enjoying life, just having a good time. And that’s what the record is all about when you really boil it down to like one or two sentences. That’s what it’s all about. That’s why I knew that “Good Time” had to be the name of the album and the first song to come out as well.
7. LET IT RIDE (Niko Moon/Anna Moon/Joshua Murty)
I wrote “Let It Ride” during, when music live music stopped and everything was kind of starting to get a little stress stressful, you know. And I wanted to have a song that people could kind of use as inspiration to say, you know what, I’m going to take my stress, and I’m gonna ball it up in a little ball, and we’ll knock it out of here, I’m gonna let it ride because sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the small things, or let the little things like that person that cuts you off or, you know, or I burnt dinner or whatever, like little stuff kind of like get you’re frustrated. And in the scheme of life, it’s not a big deal. You know? So like, the lyric says, Let it ride, let it roll, feels good just to let it go. I ain’t got time to think about the things I can’t control. And I think this past year, there was a lot of things that had a stress, but there were things that we really couldn’t control, you know, and kind of getting to that mental place of saying, you know, at some point, it’s important to make sure that I’m not letting this stuff override my personal just enjoyment of life, because who knows how long I got, you know, and it’s important to not let that stuff, you know, ruin your day.
8. SHE AIN’T YOU (Niko Moon/Anna Moon/Joshua Murty)
So “She Ain’t You,” is kind of like this, super kind of like swaggy take on. Sometimes a person can be everything you could have ever asked for on paper. But life doesn’t work that way, you know. And in real life, it just for whatever reason doesn’t click, you know so much of what makes a relationship work. It lies in the magic of it in the unexplainable with the X Factor, you know, if you will, and for whatever reason, sometimes this other person, they just work in, you can’t even put your finger on why. And people may say, Oh, no, no, no, this is the right fit for you. This is everything you said you want to say. I don’t know. I want I want them though, you know, and they are just the perfect fit for you. So that’s what the song that’s what that song is all about. You know, she ain’t you she don’t love me like you do, you know, try to move on with someone new, you know, but at the end, she ain’t you.
9. SMALL TOWN STATE OF MIND (Niko Moon/Anna Moon/Joshua Murty)
“Small Town State of Mind,” I travel a lot. And a lot of times I’m playing in cities. And sometimes it’s good to hit the reset button and go to a place that is just a little out there, where life is a little slower and simple. And that’s a song that when you know, when sometimes I get like, you know, feeling like I need to hit the reset button. You know, I like to go back to my hometown, or go to my wife’s hometown or just go to a place where life is easier pace, you know, and sometimes when I can’t, that’s that small town state of mind. I’ll just get into that like frame of mind of like, like the hustle and bustle of life sometimes, you know, it’s like, Hey, you know, let me just put my mind back into my hometown, that small town state of mind where everything is just rolling a little bit easier. Life ain’t got all the stresses, you know, that sometimes city life can have and, you know, moving at an easier pace.
10. GOOD AT LOVING YOU (Niko Moon/Blake Bollinger/Anna Moon/Joshua Murty)
So “Good At Loving You” is like a little bit of a dig at myself, and a love song at the same time. I think it’s important. You got to be able to laugh at yourself. How are you gonna laugh at other things in life? If you can’t laugh at yourself? Can you take yourself too serious? And so in that song that’s kind of talked about, you know, I got a six pack, but it’s chilling on ice and went fishing all day couldn’t get one bite. It’s all these things. It’s like, you know, I wish I was better at it. You know, I wish I was in better shape. I wish I could cook good. I wish I could do this. I wish I could dance, you know, and I’m not so good at these things. But one thing that I’m pretty good at is loving, you know, so that’s where real good at loving you is all about. It’s kind of like a love song of a self-deprecating love song.
11. WITHOUT SAYIN A WORD (Niko Moon/Anna Moon/Joshua Murty)
So “Without Sayin a Word” is a song I wrote for my pops. And yeah, he, you know, kind of raised me up with more of like, the way that he lived was the example instead of what, what he said. And so that’s why the first line of the chorus is, is what you do not, what to say, you know, and I think that’s a that’s such a simple lesson to learn but an important one. So the whole song all the verses are like all these lessons that I picked up along the way from just the way he lived his life. So like in the first verse, it’s like, if you go and do it, do it right, 15 early is right on time, and you’ll catch more flies with honey. Don’t forget, save your money. So it’s just like all these little things I picked up just from kind of observing him as a kid.
12. DRUNK OVER YOU (Niko Moon/Anna Moon/Joshua Murty)
“Drunk Over You” is about a relationship that I used to be in that, you know, turned out to not be so good and kind of ended in a ball of fire. And the the aftermath of it, I kind of had a hard time getting over, it was kind of how it went down. And I found myself drinking a lot heavier than I should have been, you know, I was trying to, you know, I was a cliche, I was trying to drink the pain away. And, you know, come into my own little self-realization that a lot of us do that you can’t drink your way through heartbreak, you know, you got to do with it. What I love about that song, though is the redemption of it in the end, and finding out that or the realization that you know what this ended now, that just means that that’s because that wasn’t the right fit for me. And now I got myself opened up for what is going to be the right fit for me, who knows, it might be just around the corner. So when I think and what that’s all about, you know, in that moment is, you know, then I found my wife, you know, and it’s was a way better, you know, fit for me as my best friend now. And that would have never happened if I hadn’t… if that hadn’t happened, you know, so sometimes what you know, like we were talking about earlier, looking at a tough situation, what can seem like a bad thing in the moment can actually be a blessing in the long run.
13. DIAMOND (Niko Moon/Anna Moon/Joshua Murty)
“Diamond.” You know, if you haven’t caught on yet, you know, I got a little bit of a like hopeless romantic in me I guess a little bit. I think I will first look at me and my music you may think, Oh, this dude’s like, you know, he just loves making like party fun songs you know, in which I do. I love making good time music, but a lot of the music too has a romantic tinge to it. You know, I’m somebody that is very happily in love, and I love singing songs about love. You know, I think it’s a big part of life, you know, and an important part. So that song is all about all the experiences I’ve had traveling, doing music, you know, I’ll talk about everywhere I’ve been I’ve been all over the country. I’ve been to Tokyo, you know, played in Japan, all over Europe, Australia, and I talk about all the amazing things that I’ve seen all the amazingly beautiful things that I’ve seen, but nothing is as beautiful as my wife, you know, and the way that she shines is brighter than you know, the Hollywood sign is brighter than those New York City Lights is brighter than anything you know. And so I just hope it’s a song that like people can kind of like think about the person they love and agree with me on it.
14. IT’S A GREAT DAY TO BE ALIVE (Darrell Scott)
So “Great Day To Be Alive.” I think I’m gonna start this little, little tradition where I’m always going to have one song that isn’t mine, but that I cover on each album, one song that is an influence of mine that I really love and that has it has impacted me in my life, you know, and then do my own take on it. So, Travis Tritt lived right down the road from me. He was one of my favorite artists growing up. “Great Day To Be Alive” is probably one of my favorite country songs all time growing up. And it’s a song that really inspired me to like, look at life on the bright side, you know, it’s a great day to be alive, regardless of situation, ‘hey, I’m alive.’ It’s a great day, you know? And so I feel like it just fits me so well. And he was someone that I have always looked up to. He made it real that you could be from where I’m from and like make it in music. You know, I kind of sped it up and did my own take on this classic hit song.
ABOUT NIKO MOON: RCA Nashville breakthrough recording artist Niko Moon kicked off 2021 by topping multiple charts with his Platinum-selling debut single “GOOD TIME.” With more than 325 million on-demand streams, “GOOD TIME” helped catapult Moon to No. 1 on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart and has been lauded as “a bottle-passin’ campfire daydream” (Tennessean ), solidifying the genre-defying entertainer’s reputation as “One of the most genuine and creative artists in country music right now” (THINK Country Music ). Born in Tyler, TX, Moon relocated to Douglasville, GA at age 10, equidistance from hip-hop hub Atlanta and country breeding ground Newnan, GA, inspiring his artful persona: a mix of hooky melodies, shrewd wordplay and edgy, electronic beats. With six songwriting No. 1 hits (Zac Brown Band’s “Loving You Easy,” “Homegrown,” “Beautiful Drug,” “Keep Me In Mind,” and “Heavy Is The Head”; Dierks Bentley’s “Gone”) plus co-pen credits on singles by Ashley Monroe, among others, Moon continues to turn heads and has been named an artist to watch by CMT, Amazon Music, MusicRow, Country Swag, and more. His debut album GOOD TIME is available now.
Media Contacts:
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Sony Music Nashville
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