August 6, 2019 • 16 mins
Niko Moon is turning heads and volume dials. Today he joins Cody Alan to talk about his new music, what it’s like to write hits with Zac Brown, and he shares what his hopes are for the future of country music.
Plus, what’s Niko doing with a dobro slide and a banjo? Reimagining country music and the sound he creates has never been heard before.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Cody Cast. This Cody Allen's podcast. I'm so
excited toot hitters to a new artist. I just heard.
Nico Moon is his name, And so what are you
doing to a lot of like radio and podcast today
or what? Man, I'm actually in the studio for the
rest of the day everything for you with this. Well,
I'm still doing. I'm still doing sowriting. Okay, cool, still
(00:22):
doing for artists. Yeah, tell me about that because you've written.
And I didn't know this when I contacted you last
week because I heard the song and I was like,
holy shit, to get this guy in. This is really
really good man. Yeah, I was really surprised. I was like,
you know, because I've been ever since the music has
come out. I'm you know, I'm checking my d m
s and trying to hit everybody because I try to
(00:42):
hit everybody back myself, you know, um and just tell
him thank you for for the love that they're showing,
you know. So when I saw that, I was like, oh, yeah,
in case you don't know, I slipped into Nico's d
M last week and because I heard slid In slid In,
I heard drunk and her good Time, and I thought
both the songs were so great that man, we have
(01:03):
to get you know, someone like you, your caliber into
uh into our studios. Thanks for coming by, um, And
then I realizing all this stuff you've done. Let's see
you co wrote with Zach so many songs, Zach Brown, Homegrown,
keep Me in Mind, Loving You Easy, all these like huge,
massive hits. So let's talk with those songs first, UM,
(01:26):
what's it like writing with Zach? How does that process?
How does that day go? You know, It's been an
amazing UH learning experience being able to work with him.
I felt like I gained so much inside and wisdom
into I feel like when I first met him, I
knew how to write a good song, and he showed
me the difference between good and a hit, and it's
(01:46):
it's it's a lot bigger than I thought it was,
you know, but really breaking down everything about an analyzing
every little line to where it's just perfect. Does he
show up in the afternoon or the morning to write.
So the way we wrote all those songs is he
only likes to write on the road and after he plays,
(02:06):
So we would start writing at midnight and we would
write from my midnight to six and that was like
our typical schedule. So he well, I can get it
to some degree because you're perform and you're so amped
up you just want to like use that energy to
do something. Yeah, exactly, So I I get that part
of he'd get done performing, then he'd go work out,
then we'd write. Wow, I can't believe those songs are
(02:27):
written at like three am. Yeah, yeah, because most you know,
it happens in Nashville this way, and of course Zack
is not typical Nashville by any stretch. And naturally, you know,
these writers will show up before what they call writing session,
which you know so many of our fans and listeners
don't even know what that even means. But I mean, basically,
as you show up at ten o'clock in the morning,
ten Levin is typical, and we usually write it's about
(02:48):
four five maybe, and nothing wrong with that, but it's
just it's kind of like routine. I think people get
in whether it's Zach's routine, which seems very different from
what I'm used to hearing, so that's for sure, and
it and and almost kind of my clock would get
really messed up because I would go on the road
with him, right under that schedule and then come back
to town and write, you know, a typical right here
(03:10):
in town. But in my mind, I'm just like my
my clock's all messed up. But it was, it's, it's, it's.
It was a lot of fun writing those songs with him.
And usually what I would do is while they're performing
on stage, I would be spit all the ideas around
in my head trying to think of something that would
be really cool. And I love writing for other artists
because to me, it's almost like, um, losing yourself in
(03:31):
a way. And when I would write with him, I
put on my imaginary beanie and my imaginary vest and
acts and five kids and his whole life, you know,
because in order to really write something great for someone,
you have to try to become them as much as
possible and think that. Then think to yourself, what's important
to me? What do I care about it? And then
you and Zach teamed up and did Sir Roosevelt, which
(03:53):
um was a great it was a trio by them, uh,
And then you put out a whole I guess, this
whole album of work, and there's lots of songs and
they were all like so interesting and different, and I
love that whole project, and then I realized you were
part of that, and so I sort of connecting the
dots to why you're so great. Oh man, thank you. Yeah,
that was that was a lot of fun, you know,
it was it was like an experimental project. It's kind
(04:16):
of how I look that in and we love all
different kinds of music, and that was a way to
kind of really go left the center and honestly just
kind of get weird a little bit and see what happened,
you know, without any sort of like pre notions about
what what, what it's supposed to, what we wanted sound
like or anything. Let's just let's just get weird writing
some songs and see what happens. And exact kind of
(04:37):
your approach even now what you learned from the Sir
Roosevelt and these sort of the Zach projects that you thought, okay,
I need to because I would think you would then
take all of that and go, Okay, I'm just gonna
I'm gonna be weird and do my own thing, and
that different will make me different and great. Well, you know,
when you're in a group, it's it's it's so much
different than being on your own because writing my music,
(04:58):
it's completely about my life. All the songs are all
real songs about my real life experiences that I've had,
and it's a very cohesive thing. And that it's this
exact sound that, to me is if my life had
a sound, this is it. It's the music that you heard,
you know. But when you're in a group, it's different
because now you've got two other guys who have completely
different life experiences and completely different passions of different types
(05:23):
of music, and so you're all kind of coming together
like a like a vultron, like creating almost like power
rangers coming together and creating a super robot, and you know,
and and so when you're doing something like that, it's
it's like a piece of you and it's a piece
of them, and you're trying to create a painting together.
And Georgia is where you're from, and what part of
Georgia by the way, So I'm from Douglasville. It's about
thirty forty five minutes west of Atlanta. It was a
(05:45):
really cool place to grow up because I was out
in the country and listening to Alan Jackson and John Prime.
My dad's a super John Prime fan, so huh. I
grew up with like this real love for country music.
But I was also so close to Atlanta. I was
getting that a t L influence of Outcast and Ying
Yang Twins and t I and all that. And that's
(06:06):
what I loved about the songs when I heard them,
was that they had some bump to them, but also
like your voices so to me, you know, at least
so distinctly country. Also like you had that sort of
you know, you obviously hear from your speaking voice, kind
of gruff, sort of like grit to it, which I,
you know, I hear as being more country and therefore,
but but I love the beat too. It was like
it was a good combo of both. So that's why
(06:28):
I think you're extra special. Thanks man. Well, you know,
when I was growing up, like and I was riding
to school, I was listening to country music because they
were telling my life through lyric. I wanted, I mean,
it was literally my goal to blow up the speakers
and my little less end that I had. And unfortunately,
at the time, you know, country music couldn't do that
for me. So then I would put on you know,
(06:50):
something like uh like Outcasts or something, you know, to
really get that hit in the chest. And I've always
wanted to make music country music that did that. So
when people ask me, is is this country, It's like, yeah,
this is absolutely country music. It just hits. It just
hits a little harder than than than your dad's country.
You know. I definitely heard that way, and that's what
(07:11):
I think makes it so cool to hear coming out
of the the speakers. Um, I love the story about your
dad who passed up a chance to be a drummer
on tour when you were born. Um, tell me that
story and sort of sort of when you learned about
that sacrifice he made. Yeah, my dad is my hero
and I've always looked up to him and him being
(07:32):
a drummer and he's a songwriter as well. Just watching
him and uh play drums was just so mesmerizing as
a little kid, and I was like, how are you doing?
That's like patting your head and rubbing your belly time,
you know, and it looked like magic. And I always
wanted to figure out how to do that, and so
that was the first instrument I learned, was drums, and
I think that's why my music has such a drum
heavy influence to it. But when I was maybe ten
(07:55):
years old, he told me about that, you know when
when um, when he met my mom and and you know,
all that happened and he decided to make that sacrifice,
And in a lot of ways, I respect him so
much for for doing that so that I could have
the opportunity to chase down my dreams in life. And
now I just want to reach the highest possible level
(08:17):
that I possibly can with my love for music for
myself and also for him, to show him that your
sacrifices were worth it. You have siblings, only child, only child,
so it really is. Yeah, that was a huge moment
then for him to make that decision and say, all right,
I'm gonna you know, devote my time in life to family,
which absolutely that's so awesome. Man. What did you learn
(08:38):
from him musically? Obviously the drums. Yeah, I learned how
to play guitar from him too. So he had a
guitar and he would always play it. And that's how
I learned to write songs, was just watching him and
my mom right together. And uh, I started catching the
bug when I was like fifteen years old to want
to learn how to play guitar. But he's right handed
and I'm left handed, but I'm the top of personality
(08:59):
that once I want to learn how to do something,
I've become obsessed with wanting to learn how to do it,
and I have no patience to wait. And so I
told him I want to learn how play guitar. He's like,
all right, I'll get your limp hand to guitar for Christmas.
But this was like July. I couldn't wait all the
way to Christmas. So when he go to work, I
sneak into his room, you know, it's trying to figure
it out. And and he he found out pretty quickly
(09:20):
that what I was doing, and he kind of thought
it was cool that I had two guts to sneak in,
and you know, because that the guitar was off limits
because I was a kid, didn't know what I was doing.
But by that point I had already started figuring it out.
So I just learned how to play that way, and
it's the only thing I do right handed. He lives
in North Atlanta now, but he's actually getting ready to
(09:41):
move to Portugal, of all places, really, he's retiring to Portugal. Man,
he's he's been driving a truck his whole life, and
he was like, man, I want to have an adventure.
I want to I don't want to just like sit
on my porch and just look at the house across
the street. I want to go do something crazy. So
he's just getting out of his box and moving on
to the other side of the world. That's awesome. I'm
happy for him. You do a really cool thing with
(10:02):
the doe bro in a drunk over You, which is
sort of like wow, like I can't do it. You
do it. It's like it's just that's it. That's it,
And I love that riff, uh, and I love that
you're sort of experimenting with instruments. And so to tell
me how that riff came about first. Yeah, So what
I like to do is I like to take country
(10:23):
instruments and flip them and do something with them that
you wouldn't normally do, Like maybe take the slide that
you would use on a dough bro and play it
on a banjo. What would that sounds like? You know,
there's two country things, but you're doing something with it
that's never been done before. So on that song, we
were going through a bunch of different uh potential riffs
(10:45):
and just this one string, one sound with two notes.
It's just sounded so cool, and it was just like, well, well,
so we stacked it like four times over so it
sounded almost like a choir of dough bro's playing one
string each, which is weird. I mean, has never heard
anything like it. And then I'm like, maybe what if
we chop it too, almost like a pop producer might
chop a vocal, So that would do this well. Well,
(11:09):
you know, I'm always looking for ways to take a
country instrument and do something brand new with it. Does
start for you with the song lyrics or start with
the music for what usual? I mean what usually comes
first for you? Just from a creative step, it starts
with the concept. To me, the idea of the song
is half of the song itself. So I may spend
(11:30):
two weeks just thinking of different song ideas until I
land on an idea that I say, oh, that's a
special idea, and then I think of it as the
root of the tree, and then everything else, the lyrics
and the verses and the music, those are all the
branches of it. But it all starts with that because
if you don't have that, then you don't really got anything,
because then you're just building on weak foundation, so you
(11:51):
really need the full idea of the song, Like, yes, exactly,
I love the full idea of the song, and then
I'll work out then I'll start working out the melodies
and the lyrics and then the music it comes. And
how much is that songwriting a piece of the pie?
Your wife? It must be a big piece, right. We
wrote the whole album together. Yeah. So she's a pop
artist with Sony and she grew up about forty five
(12:13):
minutes north of Atlanta, so she grew up in a
very very similar way than I did. And my co producer,
Josh Murdy grew up five minutes south of Atlanta, so
we all grew up in like different towns but the
same town, if that makes any sense. And I knew
when I wanted to make this, I wanted to keep
the team small, and I wanted to produce it myself,
and I brought Josh on and went on to uh
(12:35):
And to co write it and Josh to co produce
it with me, because I knew that they knew what
I was going for, which was this country music with
this Atlanta thing to it. And it's a hard thing
to explain unless you're from there, and they're from there,
and they get it what I was going for. And
Josh is one of my best friends and as my wife,
So who knows me better than these people? That's so cool.
(12:56):
Socie album done. It sounds like you're it's done. I
and An what's her last name? What's her name? And
so in the pop world known as animal as well,
you have a tattoo for her, I'm sure somewhere. Yeah,
you got a lot of tattoos. I got a bunch
of tattoos for her. These swallows are actually represent me
in her So swallows mate for life, and they got
(13:16):
this insane ability to be able to go thousands of
miles from their from their mate and still find their
way back to each other. So they're travelers, but they
always got that sense that home is is there? Is there? Mate?
So um, I got them to represent us. And good Time,
you've got what where's that at? It's somewhere on your
(13:37):
and I love that you have jeans on, but the
holes in your jeans are right over Good and Time. Yeah,
it's kind of like my mantra. And when you hear
the rest of the music on the album, all the
songs are very glass half full, because good Time to
Me is more than just this one song. It's like
a way of life and the way I like to
look at look at life, which is glass half full.
(13:57):
Even on a song like Drunk Over You, it's taken
like kind of maybe a sad situation like trying to
get over a breakup, but thinking of it in a
more of a glass half full type of way, like
you know what, Life's too short to drown your sorrows
away on somebody, and you need to be able to
look forward and realize that it didn't work out because
it wasn't supposed to, and that just means that something
better is waiting for it. So I love the album
(14:18):
is done and I can't wait to hear the rest
of it. And I wanted to introduce you to everybody
early here because before things get really popping from you
here the next a few months. Thank you so much
for having me. Of course, what's do the next few
months hold for you? Are? Yeah? So I got a
tour coming up with Fillmore. It'll start August twenty nine. Yeah,
and so I haven't got the meet him yet, but
we're supposed to be linking up here really so I'm
(14:39):
really excited to get out with him. I feel like
he's also pushing pushing the genre. Ford and I, you know,
I think that we would make a good fit on
the road. So I'm excited to get out good do
you have a band together or is it all? So
it's gonna be a drummer And then I got two
guitar players that'll be playing with me. Most of the show.
(14:59):
I'm just to be on the mic because I like
to jump around, get out in the crowd, have fun.
But some songs I'm gonna like in the middle of
the show, I just want to break it down, just
me an acoustic guitar and kind of play some songs
that I've written for other artists and kind of show
that side of myself to everybody. And Nico, thank you
for coming in. By the way, where does the name
come from? Yeah, so Nico means uh, it means new beginnings.
(15:22):
I like to. I like to. I like to think
of this music is like, in a way, refreshing, almost
like hitting the reset button on on how you can feel.
So if you're in a bad mood, hopefully this music
puts you in a good mood. If you're in a
good mood. Hopefully it puts you in a great mood. Yeah, well,
it definitely put me in a good mood when I
heard it on like a Saturday apterning a couple of
weeks ago. So thank you, Come come, I really appreciated
(15:43):
Nico Moon right here, y'all. Hey, Hey, this has been
Cody cast. Subscribe now on iTunes, listen any time on
the I Heart Radio app. Cody is heard on hundreds
of radio stations across America and seen on CMT Hot
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dot com
Welcome to Cody Cast. This Cody Allen's podcast. I'm so
excited toot hitters to a new artist. I just heard.
Nico Moon is his name, And so what are you
doing to a lot of like radio and podcast today
or what? Man, I'm actually in the studio for the
rest of the day everything for you with this. Well,
I'm still doing. I'm still doing sowriting. Okay, cool, still
(00:22):
doing for artists. Yeah, tell me about that because you've written.
And I didn't know this when I contacted you last
week because I heard the song and I was like,
holy shit, to get this guy in. This is really
really good man. Yeah, I was really surprised. I was like,
you know, because I've been ever since the music has
come out. I'm you know, I'm checking my d m
s and trying to hit everybody because I try to
(00:42):
hit everybody back myself, you know, um and just tell
him thank you for for the love that they're showing,
you know. So when I saw that, I was like, oh, yeah,
in case you don't know, I slipped into Nico's d
M last week and because I heard slid In slid In,
I heard drunk and her good Time, and I thought
both the songs were so great that man, we have
(01:03):
to get you know, someone like you, your caliber into
uh into our studios. Thanks for coming by, um, And
then I realizing all this stuff you've done. Let's see
you co wrote with Zach so many songs, Zach Brown, Homegrown,
keep Me in Mind, Loving You Easy, all these like huge,
massive hits. So let's talk with those songs first, UM,
(01:26):
what's it like writing with Zach? How does that process?
How does that day go? You know, It's been an
amazing UH learning experience being able to work with him.
I felt like I gained so much inside and wisdom
into I feel like when I first met him, I
knew how to write a good song, and he showed
me the difference between good and a hit, and it's
(01:46):
it's it's a lot bigger than I thought it was,
you know, but really breaking down everything about an analyzing
every little line to where it's just perfect. Does he
show up in the afternoon or the morning to write.
So the way we wrote all those songs is he
only likes to write on the road and after he plays,
(02:06):
So we would start writing at midnight and we would
write from my midnight to six and that was like
our typical schedule. So he well, I can get it
to some degree because you're perform and you're so amped
up you just want to like use that energy to
do something. Yeah, exactly, So I I get that part
of he'd get done performing, then he'd go work out,
then we'd write. Wow, I can't believe those songs are
(02:27):
written at like three am. Yeah, yeah, because most you know,
it happens in Nashville this way, and of course Zack
is not typical Nashville by any stretch. And naturally, you know,
these writers will show up before what they call writing session,
which you know so many of our fans and listeners
don't even know what that even means. But I mean, basically,
as you show up at ten o'clock in the morning,
ten Levin is typical, and we usually write it's about
(02:48):
four five maybe, and nothing wrong with that, but it's
just it's kind of like routine. I think people get
in whether it's Zach's routine, which seems very different from
what I'm used to hearing, so that's for sure, and
it and and almost kind of my clock would get
really messed up because I would go on the road
with him, right under that schedule and then come back
to town and write, you know, a typical right here
(03:10):
in town. But in my mind, I'm just like my
my clock's all messed up. But it was, it's, it's, it's.
It was a lot of fun writing those songs with him.
And usually what I would do is while they're performing
on stage, I would be spit all the ideas around
in my head trying to think of something that would
be really cool. And I love writing for other artists
because to me, it's almost like, um, losing yourself in
(03:31):
a way. And when I would write with him, I
put on my imaginary beanie and my imaginary vest and
acts and five kids and his whole life, you know,
because in order to really write something great for someone,
you have to try to become them as much as
possible and think that. Then think to yourself, what's important
to me? What do I care about it? And then
you and Zach teamed up and did Sir Roosevelt, which
(03:53):
um was a great it was a trio by them, uh,
And then you put out a whole I guess, this
whole album of work, and there's lots of songs and
they were all like so interesting and different, and I
love that whole project, and then I realized you were
part of that, and so I sort of connecting the
dots to why you're so great. Oh man, thank you. Yeah,
that was that was a lot of fun, you know,
it was it was like an experimental project. It's kind
(04:16):
of how I look that in and we love all
different kinds of music, and that was a way to
kind of really go left the center and honestly just
kind of get weird a little bit and see what happened,
you know, without any sort of like pre notions about
what what, what it's supposed to, what we wanted sound
like or anything. Let's just let's just get weird writing
some songs and see what happens. And exact kind of
(04:37):
your approach even now what you learned from the Sir
Roosevelt and these sort of the Zach projects that you thought, okay,
I need to because I would think you would then
take all of that and go, Okay, I'm just gonna
I'm gonna be weird and do my own thing, and
that different will make me different and great. Well, you know,
when you're in a group, it's it's it's so much
different than being on your own because writing my music,
(04:58):
it's completely about my life. All the songs are all
real songs about my real life experiences that I've had,
and it's a very cohesive thing. And that it's this
exact sound that, to me is if my life had
a sound, this is it. It's the music that you heard,
you know. But when you're in a group, it's different
because now you've got two other guys who have completely
different life experiences and completely different passions of different types
(05:23):
of music, and so you're all kind of coming together
like a like a vultron, like creating almost like power
rangers coming together and creating a super robot, and you know,
and and so when you're doing something like that, it's
it's like a piece of you and it's a piece
of them, and you're trying to create a painting together.
And Georgia is where you're from, and what part of
Georgia by the way, So I'm from Douglasville. It's about
thirty forty five minutes west of Atlanta. It was a
(05:45):
really cool place to grow up because I was out
in the country and listening to Alan Jackson and John Prime.
My dad's a super John Prime fan, so huh. I
grew up with like this real love for country music.
But I was also so close to Atlanta. I was
getting that a t L influence of Outcast and Ying
Yang Twins and t I and all that. And that's
(06:06):
what I loved about the songs when I heard them,
was that they had some bump to them, but also
like your voices so to me, you know, at least
so distinctly country. Also like you had that sort of
you know, you obviously hear from your speaking voice, kind
of gruff, sort of like grit to it, which I,
you know, I hear as being more country and therefore,
but but I love the beat too. It was like
it was a good combo of both. So that's why
(06:28):
I think you're extra special. Thanks man. Well, you know,
when I was growing up, like and I was riding
to school, I was listening to country music because they
were telling my life through lyric. I wanted, I mean,
it was literally my goal to blow up the speakers
and my little less end that I had. And unfortunately,
at the time, you know, country music couldn't do that
for me. So then I would put on you know,
(06:50):
something like uh like Outcasts or something, you know, to
really get that hit in the chest. And I've always
wanted to make music country music that did that. So
when people ask me, is is this country, It's like, yeah,
this is absolutely country music. It just hits. It just
hits a little harder than than than your dad's country.
You know. I definitely heard that way, and that's what
(07:11):
I think makes it so cool to hear coming out
of the the speakers. Um, I love the story about your
dad who passed up a chance to be a drummer
on tour when you were born. Um, tell me that
story and sort of sort of when you learned about
that sacrifice he made. Yeah, my dad is my hero
and I've always looked up to him and him being
(07:32):
a drummer and he's a songwriter as well. Just watching
him and uh play drums was just so mesmerizing as
a little kid, and I was like, how are you doing?
That's like patting your head and rubbing your belly time,
you know, and it looked like magic. And I always
wanted to figure out how to do that, and so
that was the first instrument I learned, was drums, and
I think that's why my music has such a drum
heavy influence to it. But when I was maybe ten
(07:55):
years old, he told me about that, you know when
when um, when he met my mom and and you know,
all that happened and he decided to make that sacrifice,
And in a lot of ways, I respect him so
much for for doing that so that I could have
the opportunity to chase down my dreams in life. And
now I just want to reach the highest possible level
(08:17):
that I possibly can with my love for music for
myself and also for him, to show him that your
sacrifices were worth it. You have siblings, only child, only child,
so it really is. Yeah, that was a huge moment
then for him to make that decision and say, all right,
I'm gonna you know, devote my time in life to family,
which absolutely that's so awesome. Man. What did you learn
(08:38):
from him musically? Obviously the drums. Yeah, I learned how
to play guitar from him too. So he had a
guitar and he would always play it. And that's how
I learned to write songs, was just watching him and
my mom right together. And uh, I started catching the
bug when I was like fifteen years old to want
to learn how to play guitar. But he's right handed
and I'm left handed, but I'm the top of personality
(08:59):
that once I want to learn how to do something,
I've become obsessed with wanting to learn how to do it,
and I have no patience to wait. And so I
told him I want to learn how play guitar. He's like,
all right, I'll get your limp hand to guitar for Christmas.
But this was like July. I couldn't wait all the
way to Christmas. So when he go to work, I
sneak into his room, you know, it's trying to figure
it out. And and he he found out pretty quickly
(09:20):
that what I was doing, and he kind of thought
it was cool that I had two guts to sneak in,
and you know, because that the guitar was off limits
because I was a kid, didn't know what I was doing.
But by that point I had already started figuring it out.
So I just learned how to play that way, and
it's the only thing I do right handed. He lives
in North Atlanta now, but he's actually getting ready to
(09:41):
move to Portugal, of all places, really, he's retiring to Portugal. Man,
he's he's been driving a truck his whole life, and
he was like, man, I want to have an adventure.
I want to I don't want to just like sit
on my porch and just look at the house across
the street. I want to go do something crazy. So
he's just getting out of his box and moving on
to the other side of the world. That's awesome. I'm
happy for him. You do a really cool thing with
(10:02):
the doe bro in a drunk over You, which is
sort of like wow, like I can't do it. You
do it. It's like it's just that's it. That's it,
And I love that riff, uh, and I love that
you're sort of experimenting with instruments. And so to tell
me how that riff came about first. Yeah, So what
I like to do is I like to take country
(10:23):
instruments and flip them and do something with them that
you wouldn't normally do, Like maybe take the slide that
you would use on a dough bro and play it
on a banjo. What would that sounds like? You know,
there's two country things, but you're doing something with it
that's never been done before. So on that song, we
were going through a bunch of different uh potential riffs
(10:45):
and just this one string, one sound with two notes.
It's just sounded so cool, and it was just like, well, well,
so we stacked it like four times over so it
sounded almost like a choir of dough bro's playing one
string each, which is weird. I mean, has never heard
anything like it. And then I'm like, maybe what if
we chop it too, almost like a pop producer might
chop a vocal, So that would do this well. Well,
(11:09):
you know, I'm always looking for ways to take a
country instrument and do something brand new with it. Does
start for you with the song lyrics or start with
the music for what usual? I mean what usually comes
first for you? Just from a creative step, it starts
with the concept. To me, the idea of the song
is half of the song itself. So I may spend
(11:30):
two weeks just thinking of different song ideas until I
land on an idea that I say, oh, that's a
special idea, and then I think of it as the
root of the tree, and then everything else, the lyrics
and the verses and the music, those are all the
branches of it. But it all starts with that because
if you don't have that, then you don't really got anything,
because then you're just building on weak foundation, so you
(11:51):
really need the full idea of the song, Like, yes, exactly,
I love the full idea of the song, and then
I'll work out then I'll start working out the melodies
and the lyrics and then the music it comes. And
how much is that songwriting a piece of the pie?
Your wife? It must be a big piece, right. We
wrote the whole album together. Yeah. So she's a pop
artist with Sony and she grew up about forty five
(12:13):
minutes north of Atlanta, so she grew up in a
very very similar way than I did. And my co producer,
Josh Murdy grew up five minutes south of Atlanta, so
we all grew up in like different towns but the
same town, if that makes any sense. And I knew
when I wanted to make this, I wanted to keep
the team small, and I wanted to produce it myself,
and I brought Josh on and went on to uh
(12:35):
And to co write it and Josh to co produce
it with me, because I knew that they knew what
I was going for, which was this country music with
this Atlanta thing to it. And it's a hard thing
to explain unless you're from there, and they're from there,
and they get it what I was going for. And
Josh is one of my best friends and as my wife,
So who knows me better than these people? That's so cool.
(12:56):
Socie album done. It sounds like you're it's done. I
and An what's her last name? What's her name? And
so in the pop world known as animal as well,
you have a tattoo for her, I'm sure somewhere. Yeah,
you got a lot of tattoos. I got a bunch
of tattoos for her. These swallows are actually represent me
in her So swallows mate for life, and they got
(13:16):
this insane ability to be able to go thousands of
miles from their from their mate and still find their
way back to each other. So they're travelers, but they
always got that sense that home is is there? Is there? Mate?
So um, I got them to represent us. And good Time,
you've got what where's that at? It's somewhere on your
(13:37):
and I love that you have jeans on, but the
holes in your jeans are right over Good and Time. Yeah,
it's kind of like my mantra. And when you hear
the rest of the music on the album, all the
songs are very glass half full, because good Time to
Me is more than just this one song. It's like
a way of life and the way I like to
look at look at life, which is glass half full.
(13:57):
Even on a song like Drunk Over You, it's taken
like kind of maybe a sad situation like trying to
get over a breakup, but thinking of it in a
more of a glass half full type of way, like
you know what, Life's too short to drown your sorrows
away on somebody, and you need to be able to
look forward and realize that it didn't work out because
it wasn't supposed to, and that just means that something
better is waiting for it. So I love the album
(14:18):
is done and I can't wait to hear the rest
of it. And I wanted to introduce you to everybody
early here because before things get really popping from you
here the next a few months. Thank you so much
for having me. Of course, what's do the next few
months hold for you? Are? Yeah? So I got a
tour coming up with Fillmore. It'll start August twenty nine. Yeah,
and so I haven't got the meet him yet, but
we're supposed to be linking up here really so I'm
(14:39):
really excited to get out with him. I feel like
he's also pushing pushing the genre. Ford and I, you know,
I think that we would make a good fit on
the road. So I'm excited to get out good do
you have a band together or is it all? So
it's gonna be a drummer And then I got two
guitar players that'll be playing with me. Most of the show.
(14:59):
I'm just to be on the mic because I like
to jump around, get out in the crowd, have fun.
But some songs I'm gonna like in the middle of
the show, I just want to break it down, just
me an acoustic guitar and kind of play some songs
that I've written for other artists and kind of show
that side of myself to everybody. And Nico, thank you
for coming in. By the way, where does the name
come from? Yeah, so Nico means uh, it means new beginnings.
(15:22):
I like to. I like to. I like to think
of this music is like, in a way, refreshing, almost
like hitting the reset button on on how you can feel.
So if you're in a bad mood, hopefully this music
puts you in a good mood. If you're in a
good mood. Hopefully it puts you in a great mood. Yeah, well,
it definitely put me in a good mood when I
heard it on like a Saturday apterning a couple of
weeks ago. So thank you, Come come, I really appreciated
(15:43):
Nico Moon right here, y'all. Hey, Hey, this has been
Cody cast. Subscribe now on iTunes, listen any time on
the I Heart Radio app. Cody is heard on hundreds
of radio stations across America and seen on CMT Hot
twenty Countdown every weekend. For more, go to CMT todi
dot com
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