WORDS / Bri Ng Schwartz PHOTOS / Catherine Powell
It’s a big day for Nashville’s Moody Joody, who just released their new single “Suburbia” alongside the announcement of their debut album Plain Jane, set to release October 30th. The latest single from the trio is a tale of a lost friend who traded the city streets for the suburban silence, an overarching theme for the upcoming album. As a fellow former-suburbanite, the sonic world shaped by Kaitie Forbes, Kayla Hall, and Andrew Pacheco is all too relatable: curiosity about what lives beyond the confines of a hometown, making memories with good friends, and growing up. Despite having come of age in different suburbs across the country, the three have come together to create a sound that is both familiar and fun.
Kaitie, Kayla and Andrew haven’t wasted a second of 2026, with release after release of singles like “Little Blue House,” and “Loretta’s Last Call.” This Spring, they opened for The Maine on select dates of their I Love You, But I Chose The Maine tour. With today’s release and album on the way, there was much for us to discuss with the group during our time together. We learned more about the origins of their partnership and sound, projects over the years, inspirations and what is down the pike with live performances and even more new releases.
How did Moody Judy come to be?
Kaitie: Moody Judy came to be in 2020 after a few years of Kayla and I writing together and talking about starting a band. We finally had the time, and we were bored in 2020. Kayla had been working with Andrew on her solo stuff.
Kayla: Andrew and I met at a Pale Waves concert, and then we wrote a song and ghosted each other for a year before working together again with Kaitie. We had started “The Heat” which was our first single. We brought it to Andrew and we all finished the song together. He produced it in a very short amount of time. We put it out and the universe kind of just took care of the rest. It randomly got playlisted and people started asking us, “What is this? Is this a project?” And we didn’t have any other songs. We’d just write a song and put it out. Then we got an agent and everything just kind of organically spiraled from that point on.
Andrew: It was kind of an accident.
Kaitie: We always say we started the band as a joke, and here we are six years later.
Six years is a long time. How has your collaboration evolved since 2020?
Andrew: When we started the band it was so spur of the moment. It was a studio project. There were no ideas of playing live. We were just having fun making music, so since then we’ve been able to tour a bit which unlocked this whole other side of the band. The energy of the live shows and all of that had a subconscious influence on our music going forward and introducing more organic elements. Just taking that feeling and putting it into the records. In a lot of ways, it’s still just the three of us doing pretty much everything like it was in the beginning. Having the live element is a new chapter.
Kayla: We’re all really, really big album people. So that was something we always wanted to do, but because of how we started and trying to just keep up with the pace and momentum or shows, we would just put singles out. “Dream Girl” was the first time we got to really touch on doing a project, but we wrote some songs and it kind of came together conceptually. But having where we are now, having the space to create a full length record, we really had kind of a blank slate. We had the concept early on and then kind of built around it and into it and had the time to really build a whole world and create a whole album. So that’s been something we’ve been able to have the privilege of doing after being in the band and fighting to get to the point to have the space to do it.
You just did a bunch of Dates with The Maine on their most recent tour. What were some highlights from those shows?
Kayla: Getting to play new music. We hadn’t toured in a year-ish, and this was eight shows, but it was great getting to play the new songs, see the crowd reaction, and getting to talk to new people. We played a lot of new markets too, so that was really fun.
Getting into the singles a bit, was “Little Blue House” inspired by a specific place or places? Or was it more of a concept?
Kaitie: It was inspired by all of our childhoods. We all grew up in the suburbs in very different parts of the country. When you grow up in the suburbs, everybody has this routine and path for their life. In my hometown, it was to get married in your early 20s, have kids, and then buy a house. So the idea came from my teenage years when I got really into indie music and realized, wait, I could be an adult in a band.That could be what my adulthood looks like. So the idea just came from the idea of how people are living their lives, and wondering what else is out there? There’s more than one way to do things, and you can just be in a band.
Are there any bands that originated from suburbia that you listen to and love?
Kaitie: My favorite album of all time is “The Suburbs” by Arcade Fire.
Andrew: New Jersey music inherently has a quality of the suburbs, or trying to get out of that lifestyle. Springsteen, Bleachers, and The Gaslight Anthem are some of my other favorite bands. When we started the band, one of the first things that we really bonded over was the first Bleachers album and “Rollercoaster.” Those were the vibes that we wanted to go for when we first started the band.
A song of yours that also reminds me of suburbia is “OOPS!” The video reminds me of doing karaoke with my best friends in our hometown bar. What are all of your go- to karaoke songs?
Kayla: “Your Love” by The Outfield.
Andrew: When I was in college, I used to do “Mr. Brightside” . It’s such a cliche choice, but I feel like over the last five years it’s had such a resurgence. It was always a massive song. Now, I think I would go with “Friday I’m In Love” by The Cure.
Kaitie: I used to always do “All Star” by Smash Mouth. Crowd favorites. The classics.
What do you all think makes a great pop record? What sets apart a good one from a great one?
Kayla: I just feel like authenticity really makes any specific song be what it is, and the artist putting it out. I just immediately thought of “Midnight Sun” by Zara Larson because I just think that it’s so perfect, but it’s also her.
Kaitie: Having real storytelling I think is an underrated part of pop music. A song with a story and a unique perspective is what I love.
All of your music videos are so playful and fun to watch. What goes into your creative process of creating a narrative for those?
Kaitie: It starts with a little seed of an idea. We tell Luke Rogers, who is our creative director, our ideas and then we all brainstorm together. We love just stepping outside the box a little bit. The quirkiness in “Little Blue House” comes from us really wanting to lean into that Y2K comedy vibe. And same with “OOPS!”
The video for “Loretta’s Last Call” was awesome. I’m always impressed when an artist can pull off a shoot in New York because there’s so many moving parts and so many people on the streets. So are there any memorable moments from that shoot?
Kayla: It was a torrential downpour. It added to some of the ambiance for sure.
Kaitie: Yeah. We were all sopping wet by the end. I could ring out my pants by the end of the day.
Andrew: Gosh. I didn’t think I was going to make it. We were on the Williamsburg Bridge. It was a freezing, cold, rainy night.
Kaitie: All of our socks were wet.
Kayla: But we also got to take over MTV’s Instagram stories for that shoot. Just growing up watching MTV and VH1, that was just such a special moment for all three of us.
Kaitie: It was a pinch me moment.
You have a New York show coming up in July. Do you have anything planned yet for that set?
Katie: There will be new music for sure. It’s our first headlining show in New York, which is exciting. We get to play for a longer amount of time, which is fun for us to be able to build out our own show because usually we’re just doing little sets as openers. So there will be some fun surprises for sure.
Your album Plain Jane is coming out this Fall. What can you share about it?
Kaitie: We’re going to be putting out singles this Summer and just start to introduce the album world to people. We’ve had that album title in mind since we started the band. It’s largely just about leaving your hometown and becoming the most authentic version of yourself. The album takes you through that journey.
Kayla: We’ve always talked about our band ethos being owning your humanness. Conceptually, it was just born from a place of wanting to take all these different human experiences and emotions from us growing up in the suburbs, and what that looked like: shedding these layers or versions of yourself, and showing up in full authenticity with reckless abandon. If you’ve got to burn it all to the ground to get there, then you do. It’s also all of the fun parts too, going out with your friends and being able to own even those little moments.
This summer is sure to be a defining chapter in the story that is Moody Joody. With respective performances in New York and LA this July, we can’t wait to see these playful earworms come to life and the world of Plain Jane to come together. With its October release date, it is set to be the perfect soundtrack for holiday hometown trips and neighborhood dive bar karaoke nights.
Connect with Moody Joody Instagram // Spotify // Apple Music