Finding Positivity: Niko Moon’s Musical Journey from Electrician to #1 Country Artist

Episode Transcript
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Corey Berrier (00:01):
Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast.
I'm your host, Corey Berrier,and I'm here with my favorite
artist, Niko Moon.
What's up, brother?
Hey brother, how are you doing,man?
It's so great to be here.
I mentioned this before theshow, but the first time I saw

(00:22):
you was at Joel and Kat'swedding at the Biltmore Estate
about.
I mean, it was almost two yearsago now, just about a year and
a half ago, and I had no ideawho you were.
I had absolutely no idea, andfrom that day I you know, I've
probably listened to your musicevery single day since that day.

Niko Moon (00:45):
That's amazing, man, Isn't that?
To me, that's the beautifulpower of music right there.
You know how it's able to bringpeople together, connect them,
that maybe never would have ifit wasn't for the music.
So I'm so grateful for all theamazing connections music's
given me, and definitelygrateful for yours.

Yeah, music's given me and definitely grateful
for yours, yeah, well, and Ithink to you know, being in your
presence is different than thana lot of people.
Like your, your smile is, it'sjust ridiculous.
And like you, just you, you canfeel.
You know you can.
You know you can feelsomebody's energy.
You know I'm a, I'm an energyperson and, like you, know when

(01:24):
somebody's vibes are off, youknow when you can feel
somebody's energy.
You know I'm a, I'm an energyperson and, like you, know when
somebody's vibes are off and youknow when they're not off and
those are always on.
It seems like.

Niko Moon (01:32):
Oh man, thank you.
Oh man, thank you.
I wish I wish I felt that wayabout my vibes myself.
You know cause.
You know, I think people dosometimes think that I'm
perpetually happy at all times,you know, and that I'm living in
this state of perpetualeuphoria.
But you know, I'm just aregular dude and I think the
reason why I am so passionateabout positive music and

(01:54):
optimism is because of my ownlife and my own need for it and
my own gratitude for thepositive influences, positive
people in my life that, you know, keep me on the right path when
I'm needing it.

Yeah.
So tell me, Nico, take me backto a time when maybe that wasn't
the case.

Niko Moon (02:14):
Yeah, so you know, I think, my passion for positive
music.
Well, I'll start here.
I was raised by musical parents.
Both of my parents aremusicians, so I always was
having music playing in thehouse and so I've always had
this really deep connection withmusic because of that.
And I think I've known eversince I was little that I wanted
to be a part of music.
I wasn't really sure how.

(02:35):
I didn't know as to be anartist, but as a musician, as a
producer, as a music videodirector, I didn't know.
I just wanted to be a part ofmusic any way I could, because
when I was around it I just feltlove and I felt the magical
quality that music brings.
You know, it's to me one of thefew things that bring us close

(02:57):
to magic.
You might say I still don'treally understand how music
works on an emotional level, youknow, but I'm really grateful
it does.
And you know, growing up as akid, both of my parents were
just regular, you know, workingclass people.
My dad was a truck driverpretty much my whole life, and
then he would play gigs at nightplaying drums and different
like bands His main band that hewas in I love the name of this

(03:20):
band, but they were called thewhole damn band, and my mom was
a waitress for a while and shewas also worked at like a
temporary staffing agency aswell, and you know, just salt of
the earth people.
And you know we didn't have alot of materialistic things
growing up, you know, but we hada lot of love in the house.
But, having said that, you knowthere were definitely times

(03:43):
where I watched my parentsstruggle, make those payments,
keep the lights on and justwatching them as young people.
My mom had me when she was 19years old, and so they're really
young, trying to figure out howto survive, and I think a lot

(04:03):
of people out there can relateto that.
You're trying to figure out howto survive, and I think a lot
of people out there can relateto that.
Right, you know, you're tryingto figure out how to survive in
life and that can be reallystressful in and of itself, and
I think a lot of people thinkmental health might only be
relegated to people that havegone through extremely traumatic
events, you know.
But you know the daily grind oflife can wear on you over time
and I think I kind of watchedthat with my parents and was

(04:26):
really aware of it growing up asa kid.
You know when, when you'reshowing up to school and all
your you know a lot of clothesor thrift store clothes and
stuff.
You know.
You know sometimes you get madefun of and you all of a sudden
you get aware of the fact thatyou don't have the things that
maybe some of the other peoplehave and that kind of
realization for me was a littlebit shocking.
You know, when you're a kidbecause you just kind of think

(04:47):
you're all the same right.
But overall I had a reallygreat childhood, you know.
But I think I was also veryaware as a kid that I think
through my parents, that peoplego through things and that
they're struggling.
And I watched my parentsstruggle themselves and I think
that was kind of my firstexample of mental health.

(05:08):
And then, as I grew up andstarted chasing down my path of
music, I was doing it at nightsand always kind of working
odd-in jobs.
I was a steam cleaner for awhile and I worked at UPS on the
graveyard shift from 3 am to 9am and my main thing that I did
was I was a construction worker,I was an electrician no kidding

(05:29):
, and kind of found myself in asimilar place that my parents
were in when I was growing up.
In that, you know, just tryingto make it to Friday, make it to
that paycheck to keep thelights on, keep the food in the
fridge, you know, and I hadn'treally connected that that's
what I wanted to make my musicabout was to make music that
encouraged people.

(05:49):
I was, you know, I was stillkind of trying to find myself
musically at that time, but Iwas.
You know, I was doingconstruction work.
I was gigging at night, justlike my dad did.
I was playing these dive barsand honky tonks all across
Georgia for, you know, a hundredbucks a night and free beer,
and you know I loved it so much.
I love music.
But I was also, financially, youknow, having a hard time.

(06:10):
I ended up falling in love witha girl that was my high school
sweetheart, you might say.
We started dating my senioryear and we had like a seven
year relationship.
It was a really long-termrelationship and we even got
engaged and it ended up notworking out.
I ended up, you know, findingout that she was having a
relationship with one of myclosest friends who was going to

(06:34):
be the best man in my wedding,and that was.
That was a difficult experiencefor me.
I had.
She was my first love, for sure, and the heartbreak of ofbreak,
of losing that relationship,along with my relationship with
my best friend, was a tough pillfor me to swallow.
And because, you know, I lostmy romantic partner and I also

(06:55):
lost my best friend at the sametime through that experience.
And so at that time of life,you know, I was doing
construction work, I was giggingat night and I was having a
hard time processing all of that, you know, and looking back on
it, I just didn't have the toolsto mentally navigate myself

(07:16):
through that difficult situation.
So I found myself, you know,leaning on the things that I
think a lot of us lean on whenwe go through difficult times.
You know, and I think we allhave our own drug of choice, you
might say, and for me my drugof choice was a lot of different
things.
I found myself jumping fromrelationship to relationship.

Sometimes it was just, you know, a different
person every week, right, thatyou're hanging out with so let
me draw a line really quick withwhat you said Like I mean
completely didn't see thatcoming, and so one of the things
that your music has helped mewith is the song Better Days,

(08:11):
and so about a year ago my10-year relationship ended and
that song got me through thattime.
And just recently, since I sawyou last week, my last
relationship just ended, and soI use that tool, that song,

(08:39):
because it got me through thefirst one and it's going to get
me through this one.
The other thing that I use isbooks.
You know, the power of now byeckhart tolle is you know, if
you could stay present in themoment.
We don't have anything outsideof presence, we tomorrow's not

(08:59):
here, yesterday's gone, and Ithink a lot of times I get
caught up in forgetting that,thinking about what I need to do
next or what I need to do and Imissed the moment, and so thank
you for that.

Niko Moon (09:18):
Man, I'm sorry that you're going through that time
now, right now, and I'm here foryou and not just in through the
music.
You know, yeah, losing a reallyclose relationship is a very
difficult thing and I think wecan relate in this, right, and
that I don't know about you.
But when I was going throughthat situation, I felt really

(09:41):
lonely, you know, and theinteresting thing about going
through something that difficultis when you talk to someone
else who's also gone through it,you don't feel lonely anymore
because you feel this connectionthat someone else knows what
this feels like, and I thinkit's something that most
everybody knows what it feelslike, right, we have this in

(10:03):
common as human beings thefeeling of loneliness and loss,
and it used to be something forme that was terrifying.
You know, it was scary to feelthat feeling because it's
uncomfortable, you know, and ittook me a long time to embrace
the thought and the fact thatlife is uncomfortable at times

(10:29):
and that, you know, everyonefeels lonely from time to time
and that it's not an emotion torun from that.
It's another emotion on thekaleidoscope wheel of emotions
that we have as human beings,right there, with love and
connection, you know, there'shappiness and there's sadness,

(10:49):
right, and they're both therefor us as part of our human
experience and so and part ofthe journey right in part of the
journey.

This is.
You know there's a lot of, Ifeel you know a ton of pain.
You pain just even in thismoment, bringing that up, but
what I do know is this and I'dbe willing to bet you've
probably had the same experienceI know what I'm going through
right now is 100% going to makeme better for the next

(11:21):
relationship.
Make me a better man, make me abetter, whatever.

Niko Moon (11:25):
As long as I learn from this.

I mean, growth is painful.
Yes, Right, Never.
Growth's never easy.

Niko Moon (11:33):
It's always hard, right, yeah, it's always hard,
and the biggest growth that I'veseen in my life have come
through those painfulexperiences in my life, or
uncomfortable experiences, right.
And so it's interesting how,when I look back on that
relationship that I had and thatwhole experience, you know, I

(11:55):
think about all of the thingsthat I learned from it.
At first I was very angry andonly had it was like I was just
seeing red and all I could thinkabout was all the ways that I
was wronged, all the ways thatinjustice was done upon me and
it took me, yes, all you thoughtabout was self.

(12:16):
I just thought about myself andwas pitying myself and viewing
myself as a victim.
Yeah, and it took me a reallylong time and it took amazing
people coming into my life toencourage me and honestly just
dropped some knowledge on me andhelped me learn that there's so
much more, that there's so muchto be gained from this

(12:36):
situation than just being inpain.
If I allow myself to learn andgrow from it and when I allowed
myself to do that I did Ilearned so much about myself.
I saw a lot of ways in which Icould have been.
You know, how I could havecommunicated better in my

(12:58):
relationship and also how Icould learn from that situation
so that in the future I had abetter perspective on what the
right person does look like forme.
I was under the impression thatwas the right person, right, and
so I was wrong, and instead ofI think I was really bitter
about that for a long time.

(13:18):
And then, when I let that goand was able to look at it and
say, okay, what were thepersonality characteristics and
what were the things, thewarning signs that I could have
seen, you know, and what can Itake from this?
And so that not only I'm moreclear in what I'm looking for
that's going to make the rightfit for me, but also how can I

(13:42):
also elevate myself and grow asa human being to be a better
person in my next relationship?
Because, even though and I knowsome people might be listening
to that and being like, but yougot cheated on, man, how is any
of it your fault?
You know, it's never 100% oneperson or another, you know, and
I think when I was firstlooking at it, I was like, well,

(14:03):
you did that and so I'm rightand you're wrong.
Right, but there was a lot ofthings that led to us getting to
that place where she was feltlike that was the right decision
for her to make, you know.
And so when I started takingmore responsibility for myself

(14:23):
and realizing that, man, I havea lot of work to do on myself
and I mean, quite honestly, Idon't think, yeah, I wasn't
ready to get married at thattime.
I still need a lot of growingto do and also I have the most
amazing relationship now with mywife and I would have never met
her.
This whole beautiful life andfamily that I now have would

(14:46):
have never existed if it wasn'tfor that situation.
So, in a really weird way, I'mreally glad she did that and I'm
really glad that happened 100%Because life happens for you.

So Anna's your wife and you and her.
By the way, I love theChristmas song.
I don't have any songs y'alldone together but just like, and
I know she's home with a baby,probably doesn't have a, I mean,
I'm sure she could travel, Iguess, if she wanted to.
But yeah, you guys are greattogether.
So let me ask you somethingabout Anna.

(15:18):
So if I and correct me if I'mwrong, but I believe this is the
case so Anna helped you writeBetter Days.

Niko Moon (15:28):
Yes, yeah, we wrote Better Days together, all right,
so tell me.

I just need to know like what, because the song
has had such an impact and I'mjust going to go ahead and drop
that.
You know, part of the reasonthat I wanted you to come on is
because the Happy CowboyFoundation and I want to get
into that.
So I do encourage people to gocheck that out, because it's a
really, really great foundation.
You put a lot of work into it.
But I want to know about howthat song came about.

(15:58):
What were you thinking about,or what was she thinking about?
Because there had to besomething right.

Niko Moon (16:11):
There had to be something that we were able to
create that from.
Yeah, you know, I think itpartially came from both of our
personal experiences in life ofdifficulty, right, and I don't
want to speak on hers.

Sure.

Niko Moon (16:17):
That's her own personal story to tell, right,
Of course.
But you know, like that oneexperience, you know, that we're
talking about right now.
You know that's one of manydifficult experiences that I've
gone through in life, and manypeople have far more intense and
more difficult experiences thanI've had in my life, you know.

(16:38):
That's the interesting thingabout life, right is?
You know we've talked aboutbefore.
We're all on our own ride inthis life, you know.
You know we've talked aboutbefore.

(17:06):
We're all on our own ride inthis life, you know.
But the absolute guarantee isthat we all are going thing that
you can connect on it in a lotof different ways and, uh, you,
it can.
Music can encourage you to do alot of things, you know,
depending on what the message is.
And so I'm really passionateabout connecting with everyone
through music on the message ofencouragement, of optimism and
remembering that nothing lastsforever and that better days are

(17:31):
ahead always.
And it's kind of like whatwe're talking about right now.
In these moments, Sometimes ourbrain can deceive us into this
narrative that we're going tofeel like this forever, but we
never do.
And when we remember previousdifficult times and how hard
they were and how they felt likethey would never end, but they

(17:54):
did.
They did and we get better,right and wanting to, we both
felt so passionately that weneeded to write a song, not only
that we could donate to theHappy Cowboy Foundation so that
it could help raise money, butalso encourage people out there
if they were in a moment.
And I'll tell you, man, a bigreason why I'm so passionate

(18:15):
about this is because of my owndifficulty, my own need to
remember this myself when I gothrough difficult moments.
When I go through difficultmoments because I still do have
moments where I'm going throughsomething and I accidentally
start believing that narrativethat I'm not going to be able to
get out of this emotional place, this mental place that I'm in,

(18:38):
that's feeling like it's goingto last forever, and I really
lean on positive music to remindme that that's not true.
That's a lie that I'm tellingmyself and I love you talking
about being up in the future ofthat worry.

(19:03):
Is this going to go forever?
And if I can get myself intothe moment and into that state
of gratitude of looking around,of all the beautiful things that
I do have in my life, you know,those sorts of things help to
remind me that this feelingisn't going to last forever, and
I really wanted to have a songthat really celebrated that fact

(19:25):
, you know.
So I'm so glad that you connectwith the message of better days
, man.
That just really warms my heartup, and this is why I do music,
man.
This is why I'm so passionateabout it.
It's not about being up on somestage and getting any sort of
adoration or anything personallyfrom it, you know.

(19:45):
That's why I created the symbolwith the hat and the smiley
face and everything, because Idon't want people looking at my
mug when they think of the music.
I want them to look.
I created the symbol so that thesymbol, to me, represents the
message of the music, thementality of the music, and it's
just the message of optimism,of positivity, you know, in the

(20:05):
same way that Bob Marley andJimmy Buffett have, you know,
really encouraged me in life,you know, and helped me to
remember that every little thingwas going to be all right when
I was having a hard timeremembering it myself, Just
wanting to be another artistthat picks up that torch, you
know, and it takes way more thanjust one person, it takes a lot

(20:29):
of people to do that and a lotof different arenas.
And you know, for me, I'm justa musician, you know, and so I'm
so grateful to lock arms withother musicians, like Michael
Franti, you know, who is someonethat I love so much and is
another guy out there puttingthat message out there, and so
just to be another voice in thesea of positivity, like you're
doing, you know, through thismedium of podcasts.

(20:51):
It's just as powerful, it'sencouraging people, right, and I
think, at the end of the day, Ifeel like my purpose is and I
don't know if it's a purposethat's been given or that I've
made myself, but I do feel verystrongly that I'm here to
encourage others and what I'vereally noticed is that through

(21:13):
that encouragement I havereceived an immense amount of
encouragement back into my life,For instance, through this
music this community has formed.
I like to think of us almostlike a musical family of tens,
if not hundreds, of thousands ofpeople all across this country

(21:34):
and really across the world whoresonate with the music.
And now I have this beyond mywife and my daughter and my
immediate family, this hugemusical family now that I'm a
part of, and it's unbelievable,it's beyond my wildest
imagination.
I mean back then.
You know, when I was, forinstance, in that difficult time

(21:55):
of life, I was, you know, justplaying these little dive bars
and when I would play, I wasplaying like eight or nine cover
songs and then one original andjust hoping that people
wouldn't start booing me becausethey came to, you know, hear
something, they could sing to,sing something.
They know, you know, and youknow now.
I mean I was, I was 20, maybe23, 24 years old back then.

(22:20):
I'm 42 now.
So, you know, almost 20 yearslater, I'm in this new reality
that I never, ever, could haveimagined for myself.
That's far beyond, honestly, mywildest dreams, and it's when I
think of the beauty of life nowit has something to do with
like, I don't know, like a houseor a car or anything like that.

(22:42):
When I'm thinking about it,it's all the love that I got in
my life and for me that is thecleanest, cleanest burning fuel
when it comes to happiness forme, because, I don't know,
materialistic things are sofleeting.
I remember when I wrote myfirst number one song for
another artist or I'll say withanother artist, because me and
Zach wrote the song togetherwith another guy named Y Durrett

(23:04):
, but it's a song called Keep MeIn Mind for the Zach Brown.
Band and I remember when I gotmy first check.
It was the first real money Ihad ever gotten in my whole life
.
You know the royalty check fromit, you know.
And I went and got, I got somenice clothes and, you know, I
got a watch and I got thesethings that I had been pining

(23:25):
for, that I felt likerepresented making it and could
signify to everyone around meand to the world that I was
valuable, that I was important,that you were enough.
I had meaning I was enough, yes, and oh man, I was so excited

(23:45):
when I got all that stuff, youknow, and it was amazing to me
how quickly the value of it itjust became regular things, you
know, and it was just, you know,just the watch on, you just put
the jacket on.
You know it's just another thingnow, but that my relationships,
the people that are really highvalue people in my life, those

(24:08):
relationships are absolutelypriceless and they never stop
holding their value to me.
You know what I mean.
I never get used to it or itjust becomes just another thing
to me.
You know what I mean, and so Ithink that becomes more and more
true.
Every year that goes by, I leanmore and more into that and the
kind of just, the things oflife become less and less

(24:31):
important.
I think that's why I sing somuch about really elemental
stuff like fire and water, youknow, like getting by the lake,
getting by the ocean or gettingby a fire pit.
These are just, you know,they're just very basic,

(24:52):
elemental things that costabsolutely nothing.
But for me, I have found some ofmy best memories take place in
these environments that are verysimple but that involve people
that I care a lot about and thatcare about me and has given me
more enjoyment in life thananything else.
And I'm so grateful for theserealizations.
And they're not ones that I'vecome to on my own.

(25:14):
These are ones that I've comethrough from getting therapy and
through having positive peoplein my life, you know, like my
wife, for instance.
You know, after that heartbreakrelationship, I went through a
couple of other really seriousrelationships that lasted for a
few years and at times I wentthrough my second love

(25:35):
relationship like realrelationship was.
I think it was about a threeand a half year relationship.
And then the third reallyserious relationship of my life
was about a two and a half yearrelationship, and both of those
heartbreaks were very difficultas well, and I think after that
third one I went a little numb.

Do you think that those you know because you and
I have been together 10, 11years?
Is that right?

Niko Moon (26:07):
Yeah, we're about to celebrate our 10 in May.

Okay, yeah.
So do you think that you know,if you don't fix yourself before
you enter into anotherrelationship, me, I'm going to
bring Corey into thatrelationship and I'm going to
read you know, I'm going toreenact the same stuff that I

(26:31):
did in the previous relationship.
So you think, because maybe youdidn't take the time, because
you were trying to fill that godawful hole, that you know that
that the first one left left.
You filled that maybe with thesecond one, and I don't know
what the time frame was betweenthe three, but my guess is it

(26:51):
probably wasn't.
It probably didn't take a lotof time to figure out who you
were.

Niko Moon (26:58):
And so, after that third one, between the third one
, let's say in anna, is thatwhen you did the work, the
therapy, is that when you foundlike you, that's a great
question, man, and I would loveto tell you that after that
third one, I dug in deep and Istarted doing the work and I

(27:23):
started really growing andbettering myself.
But that's not what happened.
The truth of the situation isthat I got a little, I think,
worse off each time and becauseI wasn't dealing with it, I went
through the first difficult oneand I didn't really know how to
emotionally fix myself from it,and so I kind of just put it to

(27:46):
the side and was focusing onplaying the music and writing
the songs and going myself intothat, and I started getting
better in that way.
But personally,relationship-wise and
connection-wise with other humanbeings, I was getting worse and
worse, and because it involved,you know, not just that person

(28:09):
I was in a relationship with,but also my best friend, I
started having difficulty withguy friendships as well, and I
started realizing that, you know.

I wasn't able to really connect.

Niko Moon (28:21):
I wasn't able to connect with hardly anybody.
You know I couldn't trusthardly anybody.
And so that carried on into mysecond relationship because I
didn't do any work.
And so I brought all thatbaggage in there and then I
accumulated some more bad habits, you might say, after the
heartbreak of that one not goingright, and then I went into my
third one.
So by the time I had got out ofmy third relationship I was

(28:42):
complete and utter wreck becauseI was never trying to deal with
any of it.
So it just kept piling up, andpiling up and piling up until
eventually I was just I guessnumb might be the best way to
say it, but I was just numb torelationships period.
I was completely disconnected.
And I remember we met me andAnna met on Facebook.

(29:05):
She friend requested me and Isaw the friend request come
through.
So I slid into the DMs andinvited her out to the show.
And at this time of my life, youknow, like I said, this is
where I'm at.
You know, I was interested injust getting.
You know, just hanging out and,you know, having some drinks,

(29:25):
seeing where the night went,nothing serious at all.
Did not want to be in arelationship with anyone.
I trusted no one as far asrelationships go.
And she was my first therapist.
You might say Okay, because Iremember she came to the show
and she watched it and I was soexcited she was there and after

(29:45):
shows like, hey, you want to goto the bar and get a drink and
hang out?
And she was like no, and I waslike what?
And she was like, listen, I hada good time and I'm really glad
you invited me out to the show,but you know that's not me.
If you want to, if you reallywant to have a date and go on a
date, take me on a real date.

(30:07):
You know, and I have never beenchallenged in that way before
Made you level up.
Yeah, she made me level up andlooking back on it, I realized I
was like, given this in myrelationships and that's
something she helped me torealize about myself previously

(30:27):
is that I wasn't giving what Ishould have been giving in my
relationships.
And this is one of those thingsthat I was just steady, kind of
blaming everyone and everythingin my life for my problems.
Every relationship that wentwrong, it was their fault.
Every friendship that dissolvedwas their fault.
There was no personalaccountability and something

(30:48):
about the way she communicatedwith me.
It just inspired me to step mygame up, you know, as a man, as
a human being, and so sheinspired me, you know, and I'm
so grateful for her, that shecame into my life and something,
something in her saw somethingin me that was better than what

(31:14):
I was currently showingexternally.

And probably better than what she looked in
my eyes.

Niko Moon (31:19):
I don't know what it was, but something she saw a
better man inside of me, and I'mso grateful for that.

And better than you Did it happen overnight.

Niko Moon (31:28):
No, I was still a wreck.
I was.
I was living every day like itwas Friday night, and it's
really easy to do when you're anartist, when you're a musician.
Period, you know, because youknow most people when they come,
you know, go out to a show,that's like their fun thing
they're doing for that wholeweek or for that month or
something.
For me it was every single dayof my life.

(31:49):
Was that environment.
You know, I was living in aparty every single day and I was
allowing myself to, to be apart of the, to be a part of
that in every single way.
You know I was getting hammeredevery single night and you know

(32:12):
that's not healthy for with,you know, my emotional problems
that I was trying to navigate,while at the same time kind of
being in this environment.
That was like the exactopposite of what I needed, you
know, at the time.
And so it took me a long timeand she was really patient with
me and helped me to find my wayback to myself again and through

(32:36):
that I ended up coming to theplace eventually where I was
like you know what I need?
To go talk to somebody, to aprofessional who really knows
what they're doing to help mefigure out how to untangle this
knot inside of my mind, insideof my heart.
Because, you know, hannah issuch an amazing human being you

(32:57):
know, she's not like aprofessional, you know in that
way.
So, but the love that she gaveme and the understanding and
acceptance and the encouragementto better myself helped me to
get to the place where I was nowstrong enough to reach out and
really get the real help thatwas going to help me fully get

(33:18):
better.
And so I went to a cognitivebehavioral therapist because it
had gotten so bad as far as,like, my anxiety and stress
about my own inner turmoil, thatI was starting to have panic
attacks and anxiety attacks, andI've never had them before my
whole life.
You know, I was starting tohave panic attacks and anxiety
attacks and I've never had thembefore my whole life.
You know, I was grew uptypically, you know, pretty

(33:40):
happy-go-lucky kid, you know,and I was like getting this like
tightness in my chest.
I felt like I couldn't breatheand it just kept getting worse
and worse.
I remember one time I was justdriving down the interstate when
I was living in Atlanta, andthat was when I had my first
really big one, really big panicattack and I thought I was
having a heart attack or astroke or something.
I don't know what was happeningto me, but my whole body went

(34:02):
numb.
I couldn't feel my body and myfingers started curling in on
themselves and I was trying toopen my hands up and I couldn't.
My body was physically kind ofchecking out, locking up,
locking up, yeah, and I couldn'tdrive.
I had to pull over and I justkind of curled up like this in

(34:23):
the fetal position and went tothe hospital and I thought they
were about to tell me I'd hadsome, you know, cardiovascular
event.
You know some cardiac event,you know.
And they were like you had apanic attack man, and I'm like
what is that?
And I immediately was just feltalmost like embarrassed for
myself, you know.
And they were like you had apanic attack man, and I'm like
what is that?
And I immediately was just feltalmost like embarrassed for
myself.
You know, I was like there wasa little bit of like, you know,

(34:43):
like I'm a grown man, what am Idoing over here, having a, you
know, like a mental breakdown?
Am I, am I going crazy?
You know what's wrong with me,you know, and you know Anna
encouraged me a lot to to go andtalk about it, you know she's
like it's time, it's time to toto really figure this out.
And that's when I knew I waslike I'm not going to be able to

(35:06):
get on.
What if this happens when I'mon stage and I just like my my
jaw would lock up and I couldn'topen my mouth and I was like
what if this happens when I'msinging?
I mean this could ruin mydreams for my passion in life.
And I'm so grateful that sheencouraged me to do that.
And when I went and startedtalking and started digging in

(35:27):
and started getting down to whatwas really going on, I started
getting a lot better and I'mreally grateful for that and I
can't tell you the impact thatit had on me.
It was just, it was lifechanging and it's honestly
that's one of the big reasonswhy Happy Cowboy Foundation
exists, because I got that helpand therapy's expensive right,

(35:48):
it costs a lot, even if you'redoing it online with like a
better help and all these otherlike really cool organizations
that exist now and platformsthat exist now, because back
then that wasn't even a thingyou know, but still it's really
expensive and not everybody canafford it.
You know, and I am so gratefulfor getting that help to
untangle that knot in my mindthat I am just so passionate

(36:09):
about helping anyone else whofeels that way Because, like
we're talking about, I know whatit feels like.
I know what it feels like to beknotted up like that and I want
to do everything I can to helpanyone who's going through that,
and it doesn't matter to mewhat it is, because, like I said
, we're all on our own ride andwe're all going to have our own
situations that put us in thatplace internally.

(36:30):
And so, whatever it is,whatever it is, the Happy Cowboy
Foundation exists to help thatperson find their way back to
peace of mind again.

You know it's hard to explain, I think to get
somebody Well, I shouldn't sayhard to explain when you're in
that really dark place where itfeels like you can't move, it
feels like you really can't doanything.
I mean, it's almost like you'rementally paralyzed and a lot of

(37:05):
that's the thoughts that you'rehaving, but sometimes those
thoughts are uncontrollableuntil you figure out that there
are ways to control the thoughtsand you know, through therapy,
through books, through whatever,yeah, but when you're in that
place it's almost, it feelsalmost impossible to be able to

(37:25):
get any sort of traction to getsome relief.
So I think you know what I loveabout the happy cowboy
foundation is it's not.
You know, people can donate, ofcourse, but it's also there if
people can't afford to get help.
And I don't know what theprocess is, but I imagine you

(37:47):
just go on the website and clickon I need help, or something
like that.
Maybe you can walk us throughthat in case somebody is
listening to this that canidentify with what we're talking
about.

Niko Moon (37:58):
So, when we first started, we were looking at
partnering up with differenttherapeutic networks that have,
you know, like fast amounts oftherapists on staff that we can
maybe collaborate with and thatwe could help fund so that
people could go there.
But what we realized is that,through a lot of these companies
being for-profit companies,just regular businesses out

(38:20):
there that the Happy CowboyFoundation would need to do
financial verifications on ourend in order to be able to help
these people.
And you know, I'm always on theroad, I'm on tour, and so it's
just that I knew I wouldn't beable to structure the foundation
to operate in this way, and soI started looking well, how can

(38:41):
we make this happen?
And so what I started doing isI started reaching out to other
nonprofits out there who were inthis very same space, started
asking them what's your advice?
And what they told me waslisten, we'll tell you, we have
therapists on staff already.
We have all these therapists,but they're not enough.
We have so many people comingto us.

(39:02):
For example, an organizationlike To Write Love on Her Arms
it's an amazing organizationWounded Warriors, an amazing
organization that helps servicemembers struggling with PTSD.
So many amazing organizationsout there that are all different
.
You know sectors of thepopulation where they be, you
know, are young people, singlemothers, whoever.

(39:22):
It is right, there's all theseorganizations out there that
have therapists on staff, butthey're not enough.
There's just the need is toogreat, and that's you know.
It's something that I thinkwe're all aware of is that this
is like an epidemic of mentalhealth right now that we have
and so many people need help andthere's just honestly not
enough therapists on staff atthese places.

(39:44):
And that's when the light bulbkind of switched off for me on
how Happy Cowboy Foundation canbe of service.
Is that okay?
There's already all theseamazing organizations that are
set up that can provide the help, that have therapists.
They just don't have enoughtherapists.
So what we can do is we canfund all of these different

(40:05):
organizations so that they canhire more therapists, so that
they can knock these waitinglists all the way out, because
they were telling me we havewaiting lists that are so long.
The people already know whereto go.
If you're a service member andyou're struggling, you know that
you can.
There's some outlets where youcan go.
You know, a lot of people knowabout Toronto Loving Arms and

(40:27):
these different amazingorganizations, but unfortunately
, at times the waiting list canbe months and months long
because they literally justdon't have enough therapists.
So I'm like there's alreadythese great organizations set up
.
What I need to do is I need tofund them and bring money to
them so that they can hire moretherapists and get those lists

(40:47):
knocked down.
So that's what we do at theHappy Cowboy Foundation.
And to touch back on somethingyou just mentioned earlier, when
I first went to therapy, thebig aha moment for me and it's
funny because some people mightsay it's like how did you not
realize this?
And you know I don't have agood answer for it but when I
first sat down with it, I wasasked to kind of like, walk

(41:08):
through my typical day, mytypical week, no-transcript, and

(41:39):
you was going to fix me.
You know what I mean.
And then I could still justkeep, you know, getting
obliterated every single nightand just keep up.
You know I wasn't sleeping goodbecause you know, doing music a
lot of times, you'll be upreally late.
And so I was, you know.
And since I was getting, youknow, doing music a lot of times
you'll be up really late.
And so I was, you know, andsince I was getting, you know,
so hammered so consistently, Iwas getting really bad sleep.

(42:00):
I gave no thought to us,whoever, to how I was eating.
You know, there was a lot ofthings that I was doing, so I
was just eating like a lot.
I was addicted to reallyunhealthy food.
I was always on my phone.
I realized when I I got talkingto her and she was like how
much time do you spend on socialmedia?
And I realized I was spendinghours and hours and hours a day

(42:24):
on social media.
I was addicted to it withouteven really thinking of myself
as being addicted.
I just thought I loved socialmedia at the time.
She's the first person thatkind of like brought that to my
attention, you know, likebrought that to my attention,
you know, and I realized, ohokay, it looks.
I'm realizing now that, like Iam trying to cope with where I'm
at right now in life and allthese other ways, I'm addicted

(42:46):
to all these other things andit's only making things worse.
And therapy is and she was liketherapy is not the only, it
cannot be the only thing that'sgoing to get you better, you
know, because it just won't Ifyou continue doing all this
other stuff.
It's just, you know, we cantalk for one hour a week for the
rest of your life and it's justgood luck with that, you know.

(43:09):
You got to start doing the workoutside of here in other types
of ways and bring balance toyour life.
She's like I'm not telling youto completely, you know, abstain
or just stop doing some ofthese things in your life,
because you know that's notalways the right answer.
Sometimes it's about puttingeverything in its proper place,
putting everything in balanceand having moderation in your

(43:33):
life.
So, if you want, if you getonline, don't doom scroll for
five hours.
You know, make sure that you'regetting on there and you're
doing it in a reason, within areasonable amount of your day,
and then, while you're on there,make sure that you're following
things that you know, accountsthat encourage you.
You know, like you said, youknow you love to read.

(43:55):
You know, start reading booksthat are of encouragement.
Start listening to podcaststhat inspire you.
Start in taking this stuff intoyou.
That's making you feel positive.
You know, start thinking abouthow you eat.
You know, start trying to eatbetter.
It's amazing that when you feelbetter from the way you eat,
how much that's going to improveyour mental health.
You know, I didn't even thinkabout it, but I was really

(44:16):
dehydrated.
I ended up realizing because Inever drank water at all you
know, it just wasn't in mymindset.
You know, I was just drinkingsodas or a beer or something you
know, anything but water, youknow.
And when I started thinkingabout drinking water and making,
oh man, all of a sudden like Istarted feeling so much better.
And it's funny because Irecently saw Andrew Huberman

(44:39):
podcast where he talks about howwhen a person is dehydrated, it
raises their anxiety and stresshormones in their body.
Your cortisol levels willincrease when you're dehydrated
and I was like it was somethingthat I guess I had felt just
physically but didn't have likea.
I didn't know that untilrecently, but it totally

(44:59):
registered with me because whenI started eating and drinking
healthier, I immediately startedfeeling better.
And then when I started gettingbetter sleep and so the way she
kind of broke it down to me andI think it's probably because I
was an electrician for so longshe was like think of it as like
tools in your tool belt, andtherapy is just one tool, you

(45:22):
know.
But you need a lot of differentthings to get the job done.
You know You're going to needyou know you're going to need
your drill.
You know you're going to needyour hammer.
You're going to need all thesedifferent things right.
And when I started looking atmy life in that way and I
started applying it to my life,life started dramatically
improving for me and I became.

(45:44):
The better life got, the moreexcited I got about it and the
more driven I got to want tostart doing these positive
things, the better I startedfeeling and now I'm just all in.
Now I'm like I'm cold plungingevery day.

Oh, I was going to ask you about that.
Yeah, man, I even bring one onthe road man Every day.
I do it every day.

Niko Moon (46:04):
My man.
I got a portable blow up, onethat I bring out on the road and
I'm cooking all my food on theroad, all organic.

That was another question I had.
Are you eating carnivore?

Niko Moon (46:15):
I'm not carnivore, but I would say the majority of
the food that I eat is lean meat, and not to say that that's the
only way to eat.
You know, actually, during thisperiod when I was trying to
figure out what's the best wayto eat, I saw a couple of
documentaries on Netflix about Ithink there was one called

(46:35):
Forks Over Knives, oh yeah, acouple of documentaries about
veganism and being vegan, and Ithought it was really
interesting, you know, and I waslike I'm gonna give this a try.
And I went vegan for almost twoyears and at first I actually
felt pretty good, but after awhile I started noticing that my
energy levels was reallydropping during the shows and

(46:56):
that towards the end of my showsI would get lightheaded at
times and I just had a reallydifficult time catching my
breath as well.
I had a breath, a lot on stage,and so I went and got my blood
tested and I was extremelyanemic.
The doctor was like you're oneof the most anemic people I've

(47:18):
ever tested and I was just likeI'm eating, like as clean as you
can eat, man, and he was like,well, you might be, but you're
not getting in any iron, my man,and now I know a lot of people
might say well, you know, justtake an iron supplement, and you
know, there's so many differentways to eat and there's so many
philosophies on this, and I'vealways been the type of person

(47:38):
that has never really stood on aparticular way of eating to
advise other people to do.
I'm more of the type of personwhere I think get your blood
tested and eat whatever way isbest for your blood test.
When you get your blood back,your blood test back, whatever
improves that, just eat that way.

(47:58):
And so for me, I want to takeas few supplements as possible
because I want to be able to getthe best possible blood levels
from natural foods.
I personally have found thatfor my body personally and
everybody's body is differentFor me, when I'm eating and it's
not just any kinds of meat Idon't eat like really fatty

(48:20):
meats or anything like that.
I'm typically eating really leanprotein like topsoil loin or
ground round.
You know chicken breast, thingslike that, and then also you
know some veggies, fruits, stufflike that, and just a little
bit of you know things like riceand stuff like that.
You know.
But for the most part, themajority of my diet is meat,

(48:42):
lean meats, and healthy fats,like monounsaturated fats, like
olive oil, avocado oil, nuts,seeds, stuff like that.
And so for me, I have foundthat I feel the best when I'm
eating this way and that myblood work comes back the best.
So it's a variety of things thatI'm doing and I'll tell you

(49:06):
what, man.
It's funny because people wouldthink, well, oh man, you must
never feel any sort of negativefeelings or you would never feel
uncomfortable.
So, not true?
I mean, I'm, you know, thestresses of life are here for
all of us, right?
And there are times where Ijust feel completely overwhelmed
and like, oh my gosh, and I'mjust, you know, I'm like I've

(49:26):
got to go hit that cold plungebecause my hands are all sweaty,
you know, and I'm feeling theweight, you know.
And this is like no sort of likecomplaint or anything like that
.
But you know I have twodifferent companies, a third one
that I'm getting ready tolaunch this summer, a nonprofit,
you know an amazing family.
You know there's just a lot ofthings in my life, a lot of
beautiful things, butnonetheless a lot, you know, and

(49:48):
sometimes the weight of it canbe a little bit heavy, you know,
just wanting to make sure thatI'm doing my best in every arena
of my life and that I'm beingmy best, and sometimes that
pressure and I'm very hard onmyself, you might say.
And so for me continuallyproactively doing these things

(50:09):
is I don't know what I'd dowithout it.
I don't think I could possiblyhonestly live, have the life
that I have and do the thingsthat I'm doing on a daily basis.
If I wasn't doing all thesethings, if I started getting bad
sleep and I started just eatingjunk food constantly and just
started partying every night, ohman, it would all fall apart.

Yeah, so I'm curious, so I'm curious.
So we haven't really talkedabout this, but you have Happy
Himalaya.
Is that somehow connected toyou finding out that you were
super dehydrated, or was itparallel with that?

Niko Moon (51:03):
You know it was through launching Happy Himalaya
that I learned about that,because I started digging really
deep into the water industryand hydration as a science in
general.
So you know Andrew Huberman,peter Attia, rhonda Patrick all
these you know fantastic,brilliant minds out there on
this subject matter and on justgeneral health and wellness I
started immersing myself intopodcasts, and what I do a lot on
the road is I have a treadmilland when it's in the cold months
, like it is now, I'll put thetreadmill up in my green room

(51:26):
and I'll throw a podcast on myiPad and I'll just walk while
I'm listening to this stuff andjust learning.
You know I love to learn, whichis funny because in high school
the last thing I wanted to dowas learn Same here, dude, same
here.
And now it's like you know, it'smy drug of choice is knowledge.
Now you know.

Yeah, it is really strange, right?
Well, I have ADHD.
I think I had part of it, andit's almost like now that I've
found something that I reallywant to know about.

Niko Moon (51:58):
I can't get enough of it, but school wasn't that way,
it's funny how learning is thatway If you're interested in it,
you'll go to the deepest depthslearning about it.
You know, and sometimes Iwonder if maybe we could
implement that more into oureducational system.
You know, and maybe you know.
Of course there's some thingsthat we just need to know,
whether we like it or not, right, right?

right.

Niko Moon (52:21):
Math isn't something that I'm, like you know, hyper
passionate about, but we need toknow these things right.
But I think there can be somesort of a degree of leaning into
you know what our young peopleare really, really interested in
and just letting them go downthat rabbit hole as far as they
want to take it.
You know, I'm really glad that,really fortunate, my parents

(52:43):
let me go down the musicalrabbit hole right, whereas I
think a lot of times music isalmost kind of related sometimes
to sports, where it can kind ofbe relegated to the dream world
of like that one in a in amillion chance type of thing.
And let's be realistic and getthat accounting degree first.
You know that can be your planb, but I was always, as a as a

(53:03):
kid, encouraged to follow mypassions in music and I'm really
grateful for that, you know.

But yeah, it's uh , I've completely lost track
where are we at?
No, I didn't think we were just.
We were just talking about.
You know, I think we were justwrapping up with.
I asked you about the water andhow that had to do.
Oh yeah, great question greatquestion so no it was.

Niko Moon (53:27):
It was through, it was through launching or wanting
to come out with happyhimalayan that I that I found I
found that, and I found thatrecently too, which was really
exciting when I did.
Because, like I found that, andI found that recently too,
which was really exciting when Idid, because, like I said, it
kind of confirmed something thatI had felt but didn't have any
sort of like scientific supportor anything like that.
It really came from when Istarted getting interested in

(53:48):
eating better.
I kind of started to want to,like, get the sodas out, stop
like the constant, constantevery single day drinking and
putting it more into its properplace, you know, into more of a
moderative, you know adult way.
And as I started learning moreabout water and how important it

(54:11):
is into not just the way wefeel but into our mental health
as well, I also became aware ofhow toxic it is.
That's what I was going to ask.

I was going to ask you.

Niko Moon (54:21):
And a lot of how toxic our water supply is.
We know so much about our foodsupply and all the weird stuff
that's put into it.
You know all the differentprocessed chemicals and dyes and
all this stuff.
Like the average person, I feellike now has really kind of
switched on their awareness ofthis because of all these really
cool documentaries and podcastsand people who are sounding the

(54:44):
alarm, you might say.
And so now people know it'slike, if I get this thing,
there's all kinds of.
We turn the background.
We know that this is all crazystuff that's not good for us,
but when it came to water, I wasjust grabbing any water off the
shelf thinking this water'sgood, this is good water for me,
and it has a picture of amountain on it and like making
me think it comes from somecrystal clear spring, wherever

(55:08):
it's from.
And come to find out it's tapwater from Chicago's municipal
facility that's been just sentthrough some reverse osmosis
machine with all these likeplastic components that are, you
know, putting nanoplastics intothe water.
And then it's riding around ona truck.
You know all hot, and then I'mdrinking it, thinking I'm

(55:29):
drinking like life's.
You know.
Purest, you know element that wecan possibly, you know, put in
our bodies and it's just acomplete and utter joke.
You know it's a lie and when Ifound that out I was kind of
taken back and I was alsosurprised at how little
information there was.

(55:49):
I had only really kind of cometo learning about it through
deep diving on YouTube and goingdown these like weird rabbit
holes and finding people likeMartin Rees, who is one of the
world's foremost water expertsand water sommelier.
That's now a buddy of mine andI love him so much Learning from
people like that that our wateris not what we think it is.

(56:11):
And when I found that out itkind of became another mission
of mine, kind of like positivemusic to put out.
I guess you could call itpositive water.
So what was the most?

what was the most alarming thing?
What?
What was the most alarmingthing in doing all this water
research?
That you just couldn't believewhen you, when you started
researching and figuring outthat the things that were in the
water, was it the Chicago thing?
Was it toxins?
What was it?

Niko Moon (56:41):
For me and I guess I shouldn't have been as surprised
in it, but it's.
It's the trickery, the deceitthat a lot of these companies
have in their branding.
And it's not.
And it's also not just in ourbottles, it's in our municipal
water as well.
You know there's a lot ofwebsites out there and people

(57:04):
can look it up, where you cantype in your zip code and it
will tell you exactly what thewater quality is of your zip
code that's coming out of yourfaucets in your house and
exactly what's in it.
And when I put my zip code inand I live here in Tennessee and
you know I'm not in the city oranything, you know I'm kind of

(57:24):
out in the country and you wouldthink that the water here would
be, you know, great water.
You know.
Know, maybe not like someartesian water, anything but but
safe.
Come to find out.
You know the arsenic levels inin in the water in my zip code
are 90 times over the safelimits, uh for human consumption

(57:44):
.
It's insane, you know.
And it's not like I live insome unique zip code.
Almost everyone, if they were totype their zip code in, would
find out that there's somestrange chemicals that are in
their water that are well beyondsafe limits.
And we're constantly, you know,it's not just about drinking
water we absorb water throughour skin.

(58:05):
So when we take a shower, whenwe wash our hands, when we wash
our food, you know all of thisstuff gets into our food and
this was just a huge kind ofepiphany for me.
So I went and I got a waterfiltration system for my house,
which, just to let people know,they might say, oh my God, how
much was that?
That had to have been soexpensive.

(58:25):
It costs a little bit.
It was about $2,000.
So I got one of the nicest onesyou can get too.
It's got like a UV filter andall that and they make whole
they call them whole home waterfiltration systems, but you can
get ones that are somewhere inthat $500 to $1,000 range too.
So, yes, it is a little bit ofmoney, but it's not as much as I

(58:46):
think people might think it is.
It's not 10, 20, $30,000 oranything like that I think
people might think it is.
It's not $10,000, $20,000,$30,000 or anything like that.
For a couple of grand, you canclean the water in your house,
filter the water in your house,where all of that stuff isn't
coming through your faucets.
And I'll tell you what one ofthe filters on mine.
You have to change it every sixmonths, and I had forgotten to
change mine about a year ago andit had gone maybe like a month

(59:14):
over or a few weeks to a monthover, and I was giving my
daughter a bath and somethingsmelled funny and I was like
what's?
that smell and I'm like, and Iscooped up the water in her bath
and there was no soap in thewater yet I was just running her
bath and I smelled the waterand I could smell the chemicals
in the water in her bath.
And I smelled the water and Icould smell the chemicals in the

(59:35):
water and I immediately stoppedthe water drained the tub,
realized that I had forgotten tochange the filter, so I went
out to my garage, changed thefilter, let the water run for
like five minutes, filled thebathtub up again, smelled the
water.
No, smell none of that.
And so no, smell None of that.
And so that's a really big one.
That's a really big one.
I think nanoplastics is a bigone that people aren't aware of.

(59:59):
The University of I can'tremember if it was the
University of New Mexico or theUniversity of Albuquerque.

Corey Berrier (01:00:06):
It's in New Mexico.
It's one of those two Somewherein Mexico.

Niko Moon (01:00:08):
Yeah, somewhere in New Mexico, but all your
listeners, right now somebody goand do looking into this and
find it for me, since the exactuniversities eluding me, but
they've been doing studies onnanoplastics in the human brain,
I believe, since around 2016.
And they found that currently,the average person in America,

(01:00:31):
their brain, is 0.5% plasticBecause of the water.
It's not just water, it's a lotof things, but water is a major
contributor to this.
Now we're getting it throughour food, because a lot of our
food is packaged in plastic, soit seeps into our food.
We're getting it through theenvironment.

(01:00:55):
I mean, just, you know all ofthe things that are in the air
we're breathing that in,especially if you're living in
more urban areas.
This is an issue.
I mean, this is and I don'twant to make people feel
paranoid or anything like thatbecause there's no, I would say
right now, there's no way for usto 100% eliminate this, but
there is a lot of things that wecan do to minimize it.
And when they first did thetest it was, I think, back in

(01:01:16):
like 2016, the levels were much,much lower, and so that what
they're seeing now from thesemost recent tests is that the
increase of these nanoplasticsin our brain, of the plastic in
our brain, is increasingdramatically and if we keep
going on at this rate, we'regoing to be at 1% plastic in our
brain in the not too distantfuture.

(01:01:38):
And that's the thing.
The difference betweennanoplastics and microplastics
is these nanoplastics are ableto cross the blood-brain barrier
and once they get into ourbrain they're there.
It's almost kind of like theseyou know metals, these trace
metals that sometimes can crossour blood-brain barrier and get
stuck.
You know it's a really importantissue that people need to be

(01:01:59):
aware about, but it's, you know,it's just not out there as
easily.
As you know, as the foodindustry kind of informative
documentaries are out there, youknow.
So I'm actually working rightnow on getting up funding to
make a documentary so that I canget this information, you know,
out there to the public.
You know there are a few thingsout there already, but there

(01:02:21):
just needs to be a whole lotmore information so that people
are aware of this stuff.
I mean it's crazy.
I think one of the big ones too.
It's just the whole fact thatwe think a lot of our bottled
water is coming from thesebeautiful natural sources and
they're not For me personally, Idrank purified water because I

(01:02:41):
thought purified water meantthat it was, and I learned that
the last thing we need to bedrinking is purified water.
And the reason why is that whenwater is purified, it does take
out all of those toxic chemicalsthat can be in the water, but
it also takes out the bad.
But it takes out the good withit too.
So it takes out all of thetrace minerals that we need in

(01:03:04):
the water for our bodies toproperly absorb the water
Minerals like sodium, magnesium,calcium, potassium.
This is naturally found in ourwater.
When water falls from the sky,it's purified, it's pure water.
But when it hits the groundthose minerals in the earth the
water absorbs those minerals orit's.

(01:03:27):
You know, I'm not a scientist,so I'm not the proper word here
but those minerals get infusedinto the water.
That's natural water.
That's the water we have beendrinking for all of humanity is
natural water.
No one's ever drank purifiedwater throughout all of human
history.
Right, we've been drinking realnatural water.
When we started this wholepurified water thing, I totally

(01:03:51):
bought into the marketing of it.
You know what I mean, becauseI'm like oh man, it's purified,
but our body is not recognizingit the same way that it does
natural water.
So we need to be taking innatural water.
Purified water is good forappliances.
So if you got your iron, yougot a steamer.

(01:04:11):
You know something that youdon't want that buildup in.
Yes, you know, but things likesodium, these, these minerals,
they have been, you know,demonized in the past and I
think a lot of people arebecoming aware now that no, you
know, we need things like sodiumin in our water to properly
hydrate.
That's why Happy Himalayan isinfused with pink Himalayan salt

(01:04:32):
and all these trace minerals.
You know, pink Himalayan salthas 84 different trace minerals
in it.
So people are starting torealize now that that's so
important.
So what they do is they purifythe water and then, if you look
on, I'm not going to name namesbecause you know I'm not trying
to be that bad guy, but at theend of the day, a lot of brands
that are sold in these storeslook at the bottle of water

(01:04:54):
y'all, and when you see purifiedand then it says like with
added electrolytes for tasteyour typical natural water it's
called TDS total dissolvedsolids.
What that measurement is is themeasurement of minerals, of
trace minerals that are in thewater.
What that measurement is is themeasurement of minerals, of
trace minerals, that are in thewater Natural waters typically,

(01:05:15):
you're going to see it anywherefrom 100 to 200 TDS.
Sometimes you'll you know whenyou got really mineral rich
water it can even get up intothe thousands, like one, two,
three thousand TDS.
A lot of these purified watercompanies they're taking
municipal water, they're takingtap water.

(01:05:36):
They're purifying it throughreverse osmosis.
These reverse osmosis machineshave a lot of plastic components
and they're pushing that waterthrough these plastic components
that are introducing thesenanoplastics into the water and
then they're adding in minerals.
Okay, but they're big plasticbags of processed minerals.

(01:05:59):
They're not natural minerals.
You know there's a bigdifference between natural sea
salt and big old packagedprocessed salt, right.
So they're adding theseminerals back in.
But what they're not telling usis is that they're adding in
them in at very minuscule levels.
So natural water may have one200 tds.

(01:06:20):
These purified waters sometimesare only like at 10 tds instead
of 100.
So literally a tenth or a 20thof the levels of minerals are in
that water.
So it's really just branding,it's really just so that they
can.
They're putting it on therewith added minerals just so that

(01:06:42):
they can say that.
But it's all about maximumprofit, right?
They're just putting in enoughto where they can legally get
away with saying that they'veadded minerals into it.
So, as we know, it's a trickyworld we live in.
There's a lot of deceptiongoing on here.
We all need to be very vigilantwith our food and our water
that we take in.

(01:07:02):
I'm not telling people to goout and get Happy Himalayan.
What I'm saying is get naturalwater, any source of natural
water.
Happy Himalayan is artesianwater, which means that it's
underground, encased beneathreally thick and permeable rocks
so that toxins can't get to it.
But there's a lot of othergreat natural water sources out

(01:07:23):
there, like spring water.
So there's tons of companiesout there that have amazing
quality water, whether it'sartesian or spring, but just
make sure that you're gettingyour water natural.
Natural water is what you wantto have, y'all.

Yeah, the last thing I really thought we were
going to get into is that deepof a conversation about water,
but I'm pretty blown away.
I didn't really know all that.
I knew that water had a bunchof stuff in it that you don't
really want to put in your body.
All right, so I know we'regetting close on time, but I do
have one last question.
You're an independent artistand I think I I for me

(01:07:59):
personally, as, as you know, afan of yours.
That means a lot to me, becausemy perception and I could be
wrong, but my perception of ifyou decided to sign with a label
, is that you would lose a lotof control of your music and

(01:08:23):
really potentially lose controlof how.
Maybe I shouldn't guess, maybeI should just ask you why do you
stay independent?
Because you could.
Obviously, I'm sure you've hadmulti-million God who knows how
much money people have offeredyou to put you on a label.

(01:08:47):
To sign a record deal, yeahthere you go, but you haven't
done it.
Talk to me about that.
Yeah, man, that's a record deal.
Yeah, there you go, but youhaven't done it.
And so talk to me about that?

Niko Moon (01:08:54):
Yeah, man, that's a great question.
You know, when I first becamean artist, I did sign a record
deal.
I signed with Sony Records andyou know, when you're a brand
new artist, you just don't knowhow it all works.
You don't know how the businessof music works.
Don't know how the business ofmusic works.
I think it's a little bit of anissue with us artists and that
we're so right-brained that alot of us are lost in the music.

(01:09:19):
We're creatives by nature and alot of us aren't business
people.
We've also grown up watchingevery artist that we love be on
a major record label or to somekind of a record label, right,
and so there's kind of like thisnarrative in our mind that
quote making it means you getsigned by a record label and if

(01:09:42):
you're not signed to one, thenyou're not legit.
You know you're not real.
And how am I going to get onthe radio, how am I going to get
fans?
How am I going to do this or dothat if I'm not signed to a
record label?
You know, and it's definitely anarrative that I bought into
and believed, you know as manyartists do.
So you sign your record deal,as I did you know?

(01:10:02):
And what you immediatelyrealize is that money starts
getting spent on your record andon promoting you, and what ends
up happening is every singleartist on these labels.
All that money that's beingspent, you, the artist, have to
pay it back, but they'respending it in the way that they

(01:10:25):
want to spend it.
You may want to spend it muchless money or be a lot more
efficient with how it's beingused, and they may just be
throwing money here and thereand that's on you to pay it back
.
And artists can very easilyfind themselves millions of
dollars in the hole with arecord label, and so you can say

(01:10:46):
you end up finally gettingyourself a popular song and you
get yourself a hit and it goesbig.
All of that money coming in isgoing to go directly to the
record label, not to you,because they've put you into
this huge hole.
A lot of the things that gettacked on to what is called your
recoupment is shady at best.

(01:11:08):
You might say you know so.
Financially it can beabsolutely devastating and most
artists never, ever even get outof the red.
Very few artists are everprofitable, but the record
labels know this.
They're well aware of it, ofcourse right.
That's why they sign so many.

(01:11:29):
They sign a bunch of artists.
They don't need them all tomake it.
They don well aware of it.
Of course, right.
That's why they signed so many.
They signed a bunch of artists.
They don't need them all tomake it.
They don't need them all to bebig, they only need a couple.
You get a few of them and thosefew make them so much money
that it covers any sort ofminimal investments that they

(01:11:49):
put into their other artists.
Now, those investments, whileminimal to them as in, say, a
couple million dollars isminimal for them but to the
artists that's a lot, it's huge,and they're never able, unless
they get a hit, they're neverable to climb out of that hole.
And as long as you're not ableto financially get them paid

(01:12:11):
back, you're not able tofinancially get them paid back.
You can't leave.
They own you.
They own the music, everyrecord that you make.
So when an artist released it'skind of like why Taylor Swift
released you know Taylor'sversion of her records.
You know it's because thosefirst albums weren't hers, it

(01:12:31):
was the record labels you know.
And so when you're on a recordlabel and you make your record,
they own the record.
Literally, it's almost like ifyou're a painter and they
commissioned it, right, they ownthe painting.
Okay, so it can be.
If you're in debt, it can prettymuch be impossible to get
caught up and you just findyourself making all your music

(01:12:53):
for them and you're indebted tothem and almost kind of like a
slave to them for your entirecareer.
It's a really difficult placeto be in, especially when you
add in the fact that they have amassive amount of say in what
songs go on the record, whatyour message is.
Everything All they're reallyconcerned about is making money

(01:13:18):
right, I mean your business.
So if, for instance, you'redoing something that they don't
feel will be the mostmoney-making message or sound or
something like that, but that'swhat you're passionate about
they will change everythingabout you.
They'll change your sound, theywill change what songs go on
your record and what they wantyou to sing about and everything

(01:13:38):
.
They'll change everything aboutit to become profitable.
So you end up not even reallybeing yourself anymore, being
what you're about.
You're being what they're aboutso that they can make money
right.
So that is absolutely soulcrushing for an artist to do.
So you end up kind of findingout that when you peel back the

(01:14:01):
curtain behind Oz, it's not whatyou thought it was at all.
You know, the beauty is thatnowadays in 2025, you don't have
to do that.
An artist doesn't have to dothat.
You used to have to do thatbecause, in order to make a
professional sounding album thatreally sounded like the radio,

(01:14:21):
you had to go into amultimillion dollar recording
studio and record that music.
And that costs hundreds ofthousands of dollars to make one
album.
You know.
I mean, typically you'relooking at about a quarter
million dollars minimum to makea really professional sounding
album.
That's what it used to cost,you know, sometimes a million

(01:14:41):
dollars or more if you'regetting big features and a big
producer or something like that.
Right Now, a kid, you know, witha laptop and a microphone in
their bedroom, you know, likeBillie Eilish and her brother in
their bedroom.
Or you know, for instance, whenI made the Good Time album, I

(01:15:01):
made that whole album at home.
Me and my wife made the entirerecord at our house with our
home studio.
I recorded all the vocals forthe Good Time album in my
laundry Dang yeah.
And a lot of people do this now.
That's the thing A lot ofartists are doing this now
because, fortunately, technologyhas gotten so good.
Yeah, and all of that gear thatcosts all that money and all

(01:15:24):
those studios that cost all thatmoney now is all inside of a
laptop.
And now the power is shifting ina beautiful way back to the
artist.
Because now you had to soundwith the record label if you
wanted to have music thatsounded professional and sound
like the radio, because who'sgot that kind of money?

(01:15:45):
You also needed millions ofdollars to market yourself or,
at a minimum, hundreds ofthousands of dollars to get your
name out there and to get yoursongs out there.
Well, now we have social media,you know, we can directly, as
an artist, connect to the entireworld directly, and that scares

(01:16:05):
the ever living daylights outof them, because they were the
middleman you had to have themto get to the people in any sort
of real way.
I mean, there's no other wayreally to do it.
Back then, you know.
But now you can make yourrecord yourself for way less
money.
You know, you can take a fewthousand dollars.
Get you a laptop, get you alittle interface and a

(01:16:29):
microphone.
I record all of my music, allmy music, all my, my, my number.
You know good time, when it'striple platinum was recorded on
a $300 microphone.
Okay, so you don't need allthis crazy fancy equipment
anymore because the software isso good You're, as long as
you're willing to do the workand learn it.

(01:16:51):
Now I learned how to produce onYouTube.
That's the other beautifulthing is that you know you used
to have to go into the studio ifyou want to learn how to be a
producer and get on all thiscrazy equipment or hire some
very expensive producer.
Now you can produce yourself ifyou're willing to take the time
to learn Now.
Does it take years?
Yes, everything takes a longtime to get good at right.

(01:17:11):
But if you're willing to takethe time to learn Now, does it
take years?
Yes, everything takes a longtime to get good at Right.
But if you're passionate enough, you can go down the YouTube
rabbit hole.
You can learn how to produceyour own music.
You can learn how to playguitar on YouTube for free.
Everything is at our fingertipsfor free now, right, and then
you can make your own music athome, by yourself or with your
friends or whoever Right.

(01:17:32):
At home, by yourself or withyour friends or whoever right,
and you can release itindependently.
You can put it up on Spotify,apple Music all of that on your
own, or you can work with thesereally cool independent
companies that will help you getit up on all these platforms
and take a very, very smallpercentage.
Nothing like what a recordlabel will do, and you can go on
social media and you canpromote the music.

(01:17:53):
Now you can do everythingwithout them.
They're not needed anymore.
You know and it's somethingthat more and more artists every
single day are clicking ontoand realizing and that this
whole lie that you need a recordlabel is being debunked
constantly.
Now, with all these independentartists that are very successful

(01:18:16):
on their own, I mean, I'mriding around.
I mean I have an amazing crewof guys you know, a full tour
bus of guys and we travel allaround the world and we put on
these really amazing concertsand we are completely
self-funded and I'm not someunique anomaly.
There is tons of artists outhere doing that, and so for me
it's really important.
I'm so glad you asked thatquestion.

(01:18:36):
It's really important for me tospread that message, because
I'm hoping that there's someoneout there who's listening right
now, who is interested inwanting to become an artist, but
maybe thinking that, well, Idon't know how I'm going to be
able to actually like really getit out there.
I need all this help.
You don't.
You don't.

(01:18:57):
You can do this on your own, andthe funny thing is is now, when
artists are blowing up, now,like an artist will be on TikTok
and their song will just goviral, and now they're huge, and
here come the record labelsswooping in to sign them, yeah,
yeah, promising them that, oh,we can take this to the whole
other level, you know, but thefunny thing is is you've already

(01:19:21):
done it.
The whole world knows about you.
You are big, you are huge.
Now all you have to do is getout there, get on tour, you know
, and develop this thing andreally build your fan base.
Now that you have got a songthat's resonating, don't sign
with a record label and givethem a.
Now they own your song, youknow, and you may never get it

(01:19:44):
back.
And if you do, you'll sign somecontract where you don't get
the song back for like 15 years.
And you know most record labels.
You know a lot of times thesedeals will be split in a way
where it's like, even if you doget back to even, the split will
be 80% them, 20% you, 70% them,30% you.

(01:20:05):
It's crazy.
And when you're an independentartist like you can literally
flip that on its head.
And even more so where now youcan work with these smaller
independent services that willhelp put your music on the
different platforms.
They'll even help with thecollection of all the revenue
coming in from the songstreaming and all that.

(01:20:27):
And now the split is 90 percent, the artists 10%, these people
that are helping.
That puts the power back intothe artist's hands, and so a lot
of artists are thinking I wouldrather make a little less being
, you know, even they think tothemselves even if I do make a

(01:20:49):
little bit less beingindependent, I'm making so much
more because I'm actually making90% of it, or 80% of it or
whatever it may be, instead ofonly 20% of the pie of some
hopefully larger number.
It's just the times are changingand it's a beautiful thing, and

(01:21:10):
when you're able to nowactually have the money come
back to you, now you're able tofund yourself.
Now you're able to pay for yourown tours, your own tour bus
lights, all this stuff that doescost money.
You're able to fund yourselfnow and operate independently on
your own, and I'm so gratefulI've been able to figure this

(01:21:31):
out.
It's been a very difficultprocess for me because I'm not
the smartest individual and ittook me a lot of years to learn
how this works and how to do it,and so I'm really passionate
about helping other artistsbypass all of the kind of hard
roads that I've had to go downto finally get myself free from

(01:21:52):
that and be able to beindependent and hopefully, like,
let them not learn it the hardway and start off on the right
foot, independently, right fromthe jump all right, so I got.

I do have one quick last question, all right.
So how did you get out fromunderneath the Sony deal, like,
did you, were you, did you signwith him under a different name,
or how did you?
Or did you just get out of thehole?
How did you break away fromthat?
Because that couldn't have beeneasy.

Niko Moon (01:22:21):
I don't know if I can say that, oh, okay, yeah, I'm
trying to think of how to put it, but I'll say this you found a
loophole.
Yeah, I found a loophole.

Exactly.

Niko Moon (01:22:30):
I think it's very difficult man and I have a lot
of friends who are signed to alot of record labels that are
dying to get out.
They just dream about trying tofigure out how to get out of
this deal that they're in,because it was a big smoke and
mirror situation for them andthey can't.
They just can't get out.

(01:22:51):
It was just a big smoke andmirror situation for them and
they can't.
They just can't get out.
They're stuck and they're goingto be there for the rest of
their career or for another 10years, and for a lot of artists
that is their whole career,right.
So I'm so lucky that I was ableto find the loophole that I did
.
It's a loophole that not everyartist has in their availability
to use, but I'll put it thisway I had Get Out of Jail Free

(01:23:15):
card in my mind before I signedmy record deal that I had in my
back pocket so that if it wasn'twhat I thought it was and if
things didn't go the way that Ihoped they would, I could use it
, and so I had it going into it.

How did you have that awareness to think about
that?

Niko Moon (01:23:36):
The reason I had that awareness is because before I
became an artist, I was asongwriter for almost 15 years
in country music.
So I've been so fortunate towrite songs for Morgan Wallen
and Zach Brown Band and DierksBentley and all these different
people from Morgan Wallen andZach Brownband and Dierks
Bentley and all these differentpeople.
So, even though I had a lot oflearning to do about being an

(01:23:57):
artist signed to a label andstuff, I had a decent
understanding of how things workfrom being a songwriter in this
community and watching a lot ofpeople that I wrote songs for
sign deals sign bad ones, try toget out of them.
For signed deals signed badones, try to get out of them.
Some of them be able to, someof them not, and kind of getting
some you know vicarious wisdomthrough them.

(01:24:19):
And so, going into it, Ialready knew that there was a
possibility.
You know that I could be takenadvantage of or that I won't
even say take advantage of, I'lljust say it nice, I'll just say
that things wouldn't go the waythat I would have wanted them
to.
And so I set up, basically anace up my sleeve so that if it

(01:24:40):
went that way I could use it andit ended up coming to that
conclusion that this is not whatI wanted to be a part of at all
, and I used my get out of jailfree card and was able to to to
maneuver my way up.
I bet you caught, but it costsbut I'm going to tell you right
now I'm not going to say what mycard was, because it's
basically a relationships thingand and I don't want to like out

(01:25:03):
the people that helped me getout of it.
But but not every artist isgoing to have that sort of that
sort of ace up their sleeve andso please, please, please, like,
think hard about it before youdo it, because it's going to
look really shiny, really nice,and it's going to seem like, oh
my God, like next week I'm goingto, it's going to, they're

(01:25:23):
going to help blow me up and allthis stuff.
You know, the harder path isthe better path.
It might take longer to do itgrassroots, but it's so much
more worth it because when youbuild, when you build something
this way, it can't be taken down.
There's no record label.
No one can take this communitythat we built away from us, not
from me, not from you, right?

(01:25:44):
We have something real,something that's true, that's
built on real music, that has areal message, and no one no
publisher, no booking agency, norecord label, no, nothing can
take that from us, and I'm sograteful for that and I'm so
grateful for the amazingmanagers and booking agents that

(01:26:04):
I have in my life now and thatI'm working with.
They're all focused on theright things and they're all
good, genuine people.
And, yeah, I'm just grateful tobe in the place that I am now
and making the music that I'mpassionate about making, which
is, you know very much, this onelove mentality.

Yeah, amazing.
Well, nico, where can?
So can you give everybody wherethey can find the Happy Cowboy
Foundation?

Niko Moon (01:26:30):
Himalayan Water, where they can find the happy
cowboy foundation, himalayanwater, where they can find you,
uh, so yeah I'll put all thatstuff in the show notes as well,
yeah if you, if you, if youwant to come to a show, just go
to nicomooncom.
You can get your tickets there.
Make sure you bring your palmshirt with you.
I like to wear the palm shirtsbecause you know, hey, I've

(01:26:50):
always been really inspired byJimmy Buffett and for me, he's
always just taken me to paradisewith his music, and I want to
do the same thing with the musicmyself.
You know, I also like to think.
I like to think of the show asa vacation, and wearing the Palm
shirts just helps, helps me bein that mood.
It's also why I don't wear Idon't wear boots or shoes or

(01:27:12):
anything during the show.
I like to go barefoot becauseit just gets me into that
vacation mindset.
For the nonprofit, if anyone iscurious about donating or
looking at our resources on howto get help and where to go, you
can go tohappycowboyfoundationorg.
Cowboyfoundationorg.
And if you're curious about thewater and being a part of what

(01:27:32):
we call the Happy Humans, whichis like our fans of Happy
Himalayan, you can go toDrinkHHcom.

Nice, that's a great website.
I don't know how in the worldyou got that.
That's a short website.

Niko Moon (01:27:47):
Thanks, man.
It used to be Happy Himalayan,but I found out really quick
that no one knows how to spellHimalayan including myself
sometimes so I was like I need amuch simpler website name.
So I got Drink HH and it's muchbetter.

That's hilarious, all right, well, hang tight,
I'm going to stop the recording,I'll cut that out.
But man, dude, this has beenlike from my heart, heart to
yours, like, truly, this hasbeen a great conversation, as I
knew it would be.

Niko Moon (01:28:25):
And it allowed me to spend, you know however long
it's been with you not thinkingabout me, man.
I'm there for you, brother, andyou got this, you got this.
I can just tell from our littlebit of interacting that you
have a lot of resolve in you.
You're a very strong individual.
I can just feel that from youand there is a lot of beauty and
happiness and love on the wayin your life, and just know that

(01:28:50):
even right now you have a lotof it in your life right now,
and there's a lot coming from meyour way, bro.
So I love you, I appreciate you, my man, and I really
appreciate that you love thatyou connect with better days,
because better days ahead, man,you got.
This life is a beautiful thing.
Stay in the moment, stay inyour gratitude, bro, and I can't

(01:29:12):
wait to hang out with you,celebrate life with you again
real soon.

Yeah, and Astro most likely.
Yes, let's do it All right,brother.

Niko Moon (01:29:21):
I appreciate you.
You got it, brother.
All right, bro.
See you soon, corey, all right.

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