This record is exactly what the modern pop world needs right now! Following the releases of “Little Blue House,” “Average Joe,” “OOPS!” and beyond…Moody Joody has delivered their highly anticipated debut album Plain Jane, via Photo Finish Records…and it is anything but plain.
Nashville trio Kaitie Forbes, Kayla Hall, and Andrew Pacheco have been dreaming of this record, in all of its raw sincerity, for years. And that dream is now a reality.
Hall says the record “was born from a place of longing to take up space, unapologetically and boldly, as a woman in the world. It’s about showing up in full, authentic expression with reckless abandon, even if it means you have to burn it all down to the ground to get there.”
Forbes notes, “We started scheming up this album in 2020 and, in a way, it feels like us as a band and as individuals grew up alongside Plain Jane. We wanted the album to be a stepping stone for anyone out there who feels like they don’t belong, or have big dreams, or just imagine something different for their life that they might not feel brave enough to make happen yet.”
Certainly, every listener can find something to love about Plain Jane, from its vintage grooves to its authentic storytelling and beyond.
idobi Radio had the pleasure of chatting with the trio about their most unusual LP inspirations, pushing boundaries on a full body of work, and their recent tour with labelmates The Maine. Check out the full interview below and secure your physical copy of the record here.
What is the most exciting thing you learned from your years of work as a group that you applied to your first full-length? Or even, specifically in the span of time from your 2024 Dream Girl EP to Plain Jane?
Kayla: We really lay it all on the line in Plain Jane. We’ve always been huge album people, so Dream Girl allowed us to somewhat dive into creating something conceptual and thematic, but not fully. When we got to build out the world of Plain Jane, we got to really dive into how we wanted to tell her story from start to finish and how we hoped that would make people feel as they listen alongside hearing a woman finding her voice and deciding a life for herself.
Andrew: I think we’ve just gotten bolder and more confident, both sonically and in our writing. From a production angle, when we first started the band, I had an obsession with everything being super polished and tight. Once we started playing live, I started craving more of that energy and imperfection in the recordings. I think I now know when to let the songs breathe a little more, which was especially important on this record given a lot of the subject matter.
Kaitie: I’ve learned so many lessons, but I think most importantly, I’ve found the confidence to be myself, say what I want to say, and be the artist I want to be. No more making artistic (or life) decisions just to make others happy and to avoid disappointing people!
Speaking of learning…what is one of your biggest takeaways from your recent tour with Photo Finish friends The Maine?
Andrew: They are so kind and generous with their fans. I’ve never seen a headliner in rooms of that size jump into the crowd to talk to fans after their set. It was really inspiring to watch, and it’s no surprise they’ve been able to keep growing as a band after all this time.
Kayla: There was a specific moment where they brought out all of the tour openers to sing a song toward the end of their set. Singing with your friends, getting to be together and present in the moment is what it’s all about.
What track(s) from Plain Jane allowed you to experiment or push boundaries the most as artists?
Kayla: Having the space to have songs that we’d consider deep cuts hasn’t been something we’ve been able to do yet. “Geraldine” is one of the songs that we got to create knowing we were creating space for it within the album. It’s an ode to our grandmothers that started as a lullaby to my grandmother, Geraldine, after watching the complications she had with Alzheimer’s and dementia. The album created the landscape for us to have that softness on the record.
Andrew: Doing a song as intimate and soft as “Geraldine” was definitely new for us. Even with the poppier songs on the record, sonically I tried to find even subtle ways to do things differently from how I normally would. There’s a lot of live strings on the record, which is something I’ve always dreamed of having. I truly can’t think of a single song on the album where we didn’t push ourselves in some way.
Kaitie: “Little Blue House” & “OOPS!” both felt like a new side of the band. Maybe more carefree, unpolished & a little weird! It definitely felt good to release that energy into songs.
Obviously, you are deeply inspired by ’80s and ’90s as a collective. What was your most surprising source of inspiration for this record?
Kayla: The three of us grew up in the suburbs in different parts of the country. I think that shows up in a lot of different ways on this album, from the stories, to the music, to the inspirations. It’s a through line for all of us.
Andrew: We genuinely pull from so many different places. “Genius of Love” by Tom Tom Club is what originally inspired the tempo and feel of “Little Blue House.” And on the flip side, there’s definitely some Midwest-emo influence in “Suburbia.” I was also listening to a lot of Nanci Griffith around the time we wrote “Geraldine.” It’s fun finding ways to weave in all of our different tastes.
