Q&A: Moody Joody’s “Ground Control” Inspires a Rebirth from Burnout
DELIVERING A MUSICAL ESCAPE – Nashville-based indie alt-pop group Moody Joody has just released their latest single, “Ground Control,” a radiant and hopeful anthem that encourages listeners to rise above burnout and rediscover joy in life’s everyday moments. Fueled by vibrant melodies and clever rhyme schemes, the song channels a sense of catharsis, offering an invitation to find light in the mundane and keep pushing forward, even when life feels stuck in a repetitive cycle.
“Ground Control,” written in collaboration with Scott Harris in New York City, serves as a shiny reminder to take risks, aim high, and keep looking ahead beyond the present struggles. The track captures the delicate balance between feeling lost in the monotony and daring to dream big, offering listeners a melodic push to break free from stagnation.
Vocalist Kayla Hall opens up about the inspiration behind the song, saying, “Somewhere along the line it turned into an upbeat anthem about being burned out from the monotony of working side jobs, stuck in a loop of dissociation and being dissatisfied with your current circumstances.”
Vocalist Kaitie Forbes echoes this sentiment, saying, “What’s more therapeutic than writing a rock bottom banger? ‘Ground Control’ is for anyone who has hit their wits end in whatever artistry they are pursuing.”
In a world where the grind can feel never-ending, Moody Joody reminds us to take a step back and seek moments of joy, even in the mundane. They offer a sense of solidarity to those stuck in cycles of monotony, while simultaneously urging them to find inspiration in the smallest moments. Through their refreshingly honest and uplifting approach, the band navigates personal struggles with grace, providing listeners with an anthem for resilience and transformation.
LUNA: Thank you for talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar with you yet, what inspires your artistic style and sound?
KAYLA: Katie and I were writing “The Heat” a few years before we brought it to Andrew. We weren't a band yet or anything, but one of the big influences when we wanted to get that song produced by Andrew, was Bleachers.
ANDREW: The band started in this 80s inspired, new wavy thing, and then has evolved off of that. That's always the core element of what we do, but it's evolved into more of a mesh of all our different tastes. We all grew up on different things, but we have so much overlap.
KAYLA: I grew up on country music and like The Eagles and Tom Petty. I moved here to do country music, and then that evolved for me as a sound. Katie grew up in such a different world, and Andrew grew up in such a different world. We have found a lot of different genres and influences that all sprinkle their way in. We'll put out music that has country influence, or then we'll put out an indie-rock song. We don't have a specific sound that we follow, but it’s how we're feeling in the moment that we're writing.
LUNA: What kind of atmosphere or emotional space do you aim to create for your listeners?
KAYLA: It's all over. It's in the name. We're very moody. I feel like lately, we're pretty high energy, and I think the cool part about the versatility of the band. We're putting out an EP called Dream Girl and there's songs that range from a song where we want you to roll your windows down, or scream at a live show. Then there's songs that have a much deeper meaning to us when it comes to depression or just our experience as what it's like to be women in their 30s. There's light heartedness, and then there's ways that we want our audience to feel seen or incorporate into their life, so that they feel seen, or if they come to a live show, that they can still connect and have fun. We'll mix those deeper songs with a high energy production.
LUNA: You’re part of Nashville’s music scene, so what do you love most about this scene? How would you describe the energy and the people that go to your shows or listen to your music?
ANDREW: There's not a scene like this where any of us are from, in terms of how much creativity there is in one space, and just how influential that is to be surrounded by.
KAYLA: It brought us together. Katie and I got thrown in a random group text, and that's how we met, just through other female writers or artists in Nashville. Andrew and I met at a Pale Waves concert. It's so accessible, easy, and convenient, and there's a community here. I feel like the indie and alt scene has grown quite a bit since we got here.
LUNA: Are there particular moods or themes you find yourself gravitating towards when writing and performing? How do you channel these into your music?
KATIE: We definitely love a high energy show. When we perform, we want to be running around the stage, so that's definitely always a thought when we're writing, it's just like, how will this translate to the live show?
LUNA: You just released your newest single “Ground Control” which is also your first single of the year and huge congratulations! What is the inspiration behind the single and how did your personal experiences shape its creation?
KATIE: It's very much about what it's like being a musician in Nashville and having to work several different jobs and just try to stay afloat financially while also pursuing your dream. It's very much just about the burnout that we have felt in the city of Nashville.
KAYLA: We had a session in New York when we wrote “Ground Control.” We wrote it the day after we wrote “Velvet Connection” with Scott Harris. We recorded both of those songs in the studio. It was this way to explore these feelings or moods that we were having almost in the moment. Especially working with Scott, and having an outside collaborator, which we'd never really had before, just being able to lean into how can we capture this feeling now that we're already in this session? I think that “Ground Control” is definitely really relatable in the way that it's the amount of times I've been in a job dissociating, like stealing cold brew from the fridge. Just things where you're pursuing your dream. Like Katie said, and that can at times, be really defeating, and trying to remember the purpose behind it all.
LUNA: I would love to talk more about the creative process behind “Ground Control.” Can you walk us through how the single evolved from an initial idea to its final stage?
ANDREW: That day in the studio, I remember Scott wanted to go in the live room and experiment and mess around on a bunch of different instruments. We started the song on piano. It was almost this Elton John piano ballad. We fleshed out the chorus idea and brought it back into the control room of the studio. I started trying to build out a track and then we were like, ‘what if we double time it?’ It became this fast driving, almost punk-y beat. It totally changed the game of the song. We had the groundwork that day at the studio in Brooklyn, and then I took the files back to my home studio here in Nashville and flesh out a demo. Then that was fairly close to what the final song turned out. It was a little bit different of an approach to the way that we did vocals.
LUNA: “Ground Control” also has an accompanying music video. What is the inspiration behind the video and how was your experience filming it?
KAYLA: We didn't have the budget for it. We actually made the “Velvet Connection” video and “Ground Control” with our friend in town. Since the song is so conversational, it feels like a therapy session of brain dumping on somebody. We wanted to capture that feeling in the video, and we play our own therapist as well. It's this internal battle between these things that will help me, but I'm fighting against myself and I'm my own worst critic at the same time. The verses definitely feel almost like ruminating or looping thoughts, and it was just cool to be able to capture that and translate that into video. There’s an element of daydream behind it with music, where it's like we've all found solace in healing and music and being able to create that together. That was the idea behind it, like you're in a therapy session, daydreaming and this music is the thing that can take us all out of it.
LUNA: What advice do you have for other creatives and musicians who are pursuing music as a career who also have to balance side jobs?
KAYLA: It's simple and cliche, but it pays off. Keep going because it pays off in some way or another.
ANDREW: I think you just have to live with the idea and the delusion that it's going to work out and definitely just push through.
KATIE: Even when Kayla and I met six years ago, we would fantasize at coffee shops together and be like, ‘one day we're gonna be on a rooftop New York.’ Delusional positivity. It's embracing the journey and really making sure to take care of your mental health along the way. “Ground Control” is a song about that. It's just the ebbs and flows of life and life's always going to throw you a high and a low. It's a theme for the duality of life for Dream Girl too. There's always going to be highs accompanied by lows and just making sure you're taking care of yourself through that.
LUNA: I would love to hear anything you would like to share about the upcoming EP. What can listeners expect from this new era of yours?
KATIE: Like Kayla said, there's this duality to the EP where one part of it is very romantic, ethereal, positive and very daydreamy. It's a lot of fantasizing, and then the other side of it is very raw and about depression and the lows. It's very much about the highs and lows.
ANDREW: I think sonically too, this being our first body of work as a band, we've been releasing singles for four years now, and a lot of those singles are more indie leaning. Some of them are more pop leaning. I think four years into this, it was important for us to make sure that all of those sides of the band were represented in it. There are the poppy, fun, lighthearted moments, as well as a darker side to the project that we wanted people to see as well.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like for you that you would like to share with Luna?
KAYLA: We’re like full steam ahead right now. We are excited. We leave for tour with MisterWives. We have a music video we're shooting. We just did a photo shoot. We're doing a headlining show in Nashville, November 8. November 8 is our first headlining show ever. After that, we're going to go into full album mode, which will be a new experience for everyone. We've been talking about the album for years, and so to finally have the time and resources to make it, we cannot wait.
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