Colorado-born Americana artist Anna Moon & the Stars celebrates the hard-won exhilaration of coming back to life on “Oh my god! It’s a resurrection,” an achingly beautiful, stadium-sized anthem charged with the passion and promise of a second chance. Ahead of her forthcoming debut album of the same name, Moon sits down with Atwood Magazine to discuss the road trip that sparked the record, reclaiming heartland rock through a female lens, and the creative community helping her step fully into herself.

“Oh my god! It’s a resurrection” – Anna Moon & the Stars

I thought I might die getting here, and I think part of me did. But I resurrected better than f***ing ever.

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Coming back to yourself deserves to sound enormous.

On “Oh my god! It’s a resurrection,” Anna Moon & the Stars makes rebirth rise and roar, channeling the rush of hard-won freedom into a stadium-sized heartland rock anthem built for the moment survival gives way to possibility. Achingly beautiful and fiercely alive, it surges with the passion and promise of a second chance – the kind of exhilarating song that makes you want to throw the windows down, turn the volume up, and believe in your own next chapter.

Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “Oh my god! It’s a resurrection,” the radiant, larger-than-life title track off Anna Moon & the Stars’ forthcoming debut album. For Anna Moon (aka Anna Kate Nelson), this arrival has been years in the making. The independent Americana artist from Colorado first began developing the Anna Moon project in 2021, and the years since have steadily brought her closer to the music she always wanted to make. Now surrounded by a creative community in Los Angeles and performing as Anna Moon & the Stars, she arrives at her first full-length with a clearer sense of self, scale, and purpose than ever before. Her songs have already found audiences through placements in Grey’s Anatomy, Love Is Blind, General Hospital, and other film and television projects; Oh my god! It’s a resurrection is where all those roads finally converge into a world entirely her own.

“This record is the thing I’ve been trying to make my whole life but hadn’t figured out how to do until now,” Moon tells Atwood Magazine. “This record is a full embodiment of me. The good, the bad, the complicated.”

Her musical lineage helps explain the album’s breadth.

Moon names Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, The War on Drugs, Waxahatchee, Fleet Foxes, and Medium Build among her north stars – artists whose work became inseparable from particular periods of her own life. Oh my god! It’s a resurrection is her attempt to create that same lasting connection on her own terms: heartland rock filtered through the perspective of a woman who has spent years figuring out exactly what she wants to say, and how loudly she wants to say it.

Fittingly, the song that gave the album its name was the final piece to fall into place. Most of the record was already finished when producer and longtime collaborator Ryan Hughes brought Moon an instrumental track she couldn’t shake. The pair worked on it, stepped away, and eventually enlisted Daniel St. Black to help finish the song. A line Moon and Hughes had written down – “my god, it’s a resurrection” – suddenly became the key to the whole thing. Until then, Moon had planned to call the album ‘Mother.’ By the time they finished “Oh my god! It’s a resurrection,” another title was impossible.

The scale of the song is earned by the cost beneath it. “Sometimes healing feels a lot like dying before it starts to feel like freedom,” Moon says. “This song is about realizing you’re still standing and you’re better than ever.”

Moon and her band throw themselves into that realization with thrilling abandon. Roaring electric guitars stretch wide around driving drums while layered background vocals keep lifting the arrangement higher, creating the kind of arena-ready sweep that lives somewhere between Springsteen’s heartland grandeur, The War on Drugs’ forward momentum, and the ecstatic rock release of The Killers. Through the center of it all comes Moon’s spellbinding lead vocal: Poised one moment and practically tearing through the speakers the next, climbing toward each refrain with soul-stirring force.

Sometimes healing feels a lot like dying before it starts to feel like freedom.

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The lyrics begin much closer to the ground. Moon opens with confrontation – “Keep it to yourself babe / All of the shit you’ve been talking” – before staring down the exhaustion of spending too long headed in the wrong direction. Time disappears. The road runs out. Holding on becomes its own form of damage.

“That’s the thing about killing time
Is you don’t really know it
Barreling down a dead end road
And you’re running
Running on empty
That’s the thing about holding tight
To what ain’t mine
Hands worn down from holding on for dear life
Trying to make it all right”

Those images make the chorus hit harder. Moon has spent the verse wearing herself down, gripping what no longer belongs to her; when “resurrection” finally arrives, it lands as an act of reclamation. The guitars swell, the voices gather behind her, and she announces herself with a line that carries both swagger and earned conviction: “Standing on my own / Only way to know / What you’re made of.” The song’s transformation happens in real time, exchanging depletion for self-possession without pretending the road between them was painless.

Moon understands the title in similarly visceral terms.

“If you’d met me five years ago and met me again today, I think you’d probably say exactly what the song says… ‘oh my god! It’s a resurrection,’” she says. “This time period I’m in feels like the first time that I’m really living. Making the art I’ve always wanted to make. I’m becoming the person I’ve always needed. It’s a god damn full on resurrection over here.”

By the closing lines, even pain has become kinetic: “There’s a fire and you dance / Come on give it a chance / Hurts like hell but we’re coming back to life.” It’s an extraordinary final image for a song so preoccupied with release. Moon doesn’t wait until the fire goes out; she dances inside it.

The accompanying live video gives that combustion a body. Filmed in El Sereno with Moon and her band, the performance was captured in a single take with every part tracked live. The camera stays close, trading polished distance for the immediacy of musicians fully locked into one another; the huge sound suddenly has faces, gestures, eye contact, and sweat behind it.

“I’m biased, but I think we kick ass live – so I wanted to get it on camera for the world to see,” Moon says. “I’m the luckiest to get to play music with these guys. They make me feel like anything is possible for me and for us.” And then, with exactly the kind of ambition this performance warrants: “Someone at Red Rocks please see this and book us for the love of god.”

There’s nothing like coming back to life after years of sleepwalking.

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That collective energy is embedded in the artist’s name as well.

Moon says “the Stars” encompasses the collaborators, supporters, and listeners who have helped build this chapter with her – an evolution from the more guarded artist she was when she began the project five years ago. The album is hers, but she no longer understands making music as a solitary act. “I see Anna Moon & the Stars as an ecosystem where we all rise together,” she explains.

The record itself began far from a studio. Two Septembers ago, Moon took a solo road trip back toward Colorado after years spent working through grief and unlearning the survival mechanisms she had carried with her. Somewhere amid the long stretches of highway, rivers, desert, and a full moon rising over New Mexico, the shape of her debut arrived with startling clarity. Lyrics poured into the journal sitting beside her, and when she returned to Los Angeles, she began building the record with Hughes, Andy Toy, and eventually St. Black.

The resulting album is designed for motion. Moon wanted a record capable of slipping naturally into a long drive and then, without warning, pulling the listener deeper – a lyric suddenly cutting through, a chorus demanding to be shouted out the window, a familiar experience coming into sharper focus. “My favorite records are more of a feeling than anything else,” she says. “And I finally figured out how to make my version of that with this album.”

Anna Moon & the Stars’ debut album ‘Oh my god! It's a resurrection’ is out September 18 — Anna Moon & the Stars’ debut album ‘Oh my god! It’s a resurrection’ is out September 18

Within that larger vision, “Oh my god! It’s a resurrection” remains its most electrifying statement:

The song that most completely captures the discovery that the life waiting on the other side of upheaval can be bigger than the one you left behind. For all its larger-than-life force, Moon stays unmistakably present at the center. Every guitar crash, stacked voice, and pounding drumbeat serves the same revelation: she made it here, and she intends to live accordingly.

Moon hopes listeners leave the album carrying some of that momentum with them. “I want it to empower you, convince you that anything is possible, because the truth is – ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE,” she says. “I want it to help you fall in love with life again.”

Few songs could make that invitation sound this convincing. “Oh my god! It’s a resurrection” is exhilarating heartland rock at its most openhearted – impassioned, immersive, and unafraid to reach for the rafters because Moon has lived the distance between losing yourself and getting yourself back. She makes the latter sound glorious.

Stream “Oh my god! It’s a resurrection” exclusively on Atwood Magazine, and dive into our full conversation with Anna Moon & the Stars below as she opens up about the road that led to her debut album, the people who helped her build it, and the life she is stepping into now.

Because coming back to yourself really does deserve to sound enormous.

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:: stream/purchase Oh my god! It’s a resurrection here ::

:: connect with Anna Moon & the Stars here ::

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“Oh my god! It’s a resurrection” – Anna Moon & the Stars

A CONVERSATION WITH ANNA MOON

Atwood Magazine: Anna, hello and thank you for your time! For those who are just discovering Anna Moon & the Stars today, what do you want them to know about you and your music?

Anna Moon: Hi! Thank you so much for having me. My name is Anna Moon and I’m an independent Americana artist from Colorado. I want people to know that I make music that makes you feel alive and like anything is possible, because it is. 🙂

Who are some of your musical north stars, and what are you most excited about the music you’re making now?

Anna Moon: North stars for me would be Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, War on Drugs, Waxahatchee, Fleet Foxes, Medium Build. Artists who have all made deeply authentic and captivating music that transcends time. I love Springsteen for his timelessness and feel, Medium Build for his honesty and emotion, Tom Petty for his sonic genius, Waxahatchee for her lyricism and authenticity. Fleet foxes made me fall in love with music and records. I also have been heavily influenced by artists like Brandon Flowers, Ryan Adams, Ruston Kelly, Kathleen Edwards. I think the thing I’m most excited about with the music I’m making is that I’ve really tapped into a feeling. The reason I love all the above artists is because their music encapsulates a time period in my life, core memories, nostalgia. My favorite records are more of a feeling than anything else if that makes sense. And I finally figured out how to make my version of that with this album.

Your debut album Oh My God! It’s a Resurrection arrives in September. How do you feel this record introduces you and captures your artistry, especially as your proper debut album?

Anna Moon: This record is the thing I’ve been trying to make my whole life but hadn’t figured out how to do until now. This record is a full embodiment of me. The good, the bad, the complicated. It’s the highest iteration of me at this moment. I listen to it and I feel so happy. It’s just so honest, so real, it’s so me. I think I took all the things I’m best at and then I surrounded myself with the right people who could support me in what I wasn’t great at and the end result is a record that I am f***ing obsessed with. I loved every minute of making it. It’s been such a joy. I think that really comes through when you hear it.

The album has been described as heartland rock reclaimed through a female lens. How do you understand it?

Anna Moon: Yeah, I wanted to make a record in the vein of all my influences… War on Drugs, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Medium Build, Fleet Foxes but from my unique perspective as a female singer-songwriter. I wanted to make something that I would listen to if I wasn’t me lol. And honestly, I did just that. I genuinely love the record so much. While I really hope other people feel the same way, at the end of the day I think I’ve already succeeded because I made something I’m so genuinely pumped about. I was able to explore so many things lyrically that I hadn’t really had the capacity for previously.

I was very conscious during the process to stay true and authentic to who I am and what I have to say. So it really is my take on all my favorite records. This album feels like my own coming of age story. A girl from Colorado with hopelessly big dreams, who went through so much pain – made it out – now she’s better than ever and she got her chance to make the thing she’d always wanted to make. I’m the main character of this movie and I’m having a great time.

You’ve said “Oh my god! It's a resurrection” was the last song you wrote for the record, and that it unlocked what the album had been trying to say all along. What’s the story behind this song?

Anna Moon: It was last September, most of the album was finished at this point. I knew I wanted to write one final song that felt expansive and free, something cinematic and energetic. My producer Ryan Hughes came into the session with this track he’d been sitting on and I was instantly obsessed. It had the same bones to it that you hear on the record, just no top line yet. We started it, got stuck, moved on for a while, but I couldn’t get it out of my head, it was unforgettable to me. After letting it breathe for a while, we brought in Daniel St. Black to help finish it, and suddenly everything clicked. I keep journals full of lyrics that I weed through when we’re working on a song.

At one point Ryan and I had written down the lyric “my god, it’s a resurrection.” That line shaped the whole song. Until that day, I was planning to call the record “Mother” (for a multitude of reasons) but the moment this song was finished, I knew the record already had its title. I feel like I’ve died a million times to get to where I am but I just keep resurrecting better than ever. This record is that. The story of my life, death and resurrection.

The title feels so big and immediate: “Oh my god, it’s a resurrection!” What does that phrase mean for you?

Anna Moon: If you’d met me five years ago and met me again today, I think you’d probably say exactly what the song says… “oh my god! It’s a resurrection.” It is big and immediate because that’s how my life has felt. This time period I’m in feels like the first time that I’m really living. Making the art I’ve always wanted to make. I’m becoming the person I’ve always needed. It’s a god damn full on resurrection over here.

I love the way the song moves from exhaustion and survival into this full-bodied return to life: “Barreling down a dead end road / and you’re running / running on empty,” and later, “Hurts like hell but we’re coming back to life.” What were you trying to capture there?

Anna Moon: Exactly that. I spent so long on dead end roads, giving away my power, my magic. Then I had a long period of time where I felt really alone and I experienced a lot of pain, pain that almost killed me. And then I did the really brave thing- I faced it all, looked it in the eye, felt it, died a little bit, and now I’m here. Back to life. It’s really been a trip, but I highly recommend it. There’s nothing like coming back to life after years of sleepwalking.

This song has the sweep of a road-trip anthem, but it also feels intensely personal. How did you want the music to hold both scale and intimacy?

Anna Moon: I wanted the entire record to feel like the perfect road trip soundtrack. I wanted to make something that you could easily have on in the background for vibes but also something with versatility to it where you could put it on and end up sobbing to a lyric or cathartically screaming out the window or understanding yourself/an experience in a new and deeper way. Those are my favorite kinds of records- the ones with depth and realness but delivered in a sweeping soundscape that really defines a moment. I think music is so powerful in that way. You can ignore the lyrics if you want but you’ll still kind of understand the energy behind the song- at least if it’s done in the right way.

We’re premiering the video for “Oh My God! It’s a Resurrection.” What did you want the visual world to bring out of the song?

Anna Moon: This video is a live in studio recording of Oh my god! It’s a resurrection filmed here in El Sereno with my amazing band. I’m biased but I think we f***ing kick ass live so I wanted to get it on camera for the world to see. I’m the luckiest to get to play music with these guys. They make me feel like anything is possible for me and for us. We shot this video as a one take, everything is live tracked, and the camera stays up close and personal so that the viewer feels like they are in the room with us or maybe front row at a show. Someone at Red Rocks please see this and book us for the love of god.

The album was inspired by a solo road trip through the American Southwest. How did that journey shape the songs you ended up writing?

Anna Moon: Yes, I did in fact take a fated solo road trip back home to Colorado two Septembers ago which was the catalyst for this entire record. The truth is, I had just come out of a decade-long journey healing my trauma, fixing my brain, navigating the grief of it all and unlearning so many coping skills I developed against my own will. My career was finally starting to take shape and I was wild and free on a solo road trip back home. It was on this journey that I got the out of body and quite spiritual download to make my first full length record. And when I say I got the download, what I mean is that I knew exactly what I wanted to make, what it would sound like, most of the lyrical content, plus I knew who I’d make it with.

Picture me, driving for hours and hours on the wide open road, scribbling lyrics in a journal on the passenger seat because it was all just pouring out of me. The trip was honestly something out of a movie. Full moon rising over the new mexico desert, stopping to swim in rivers along the way, I felt complete and total freedom for the first time in years. I returned back home after this wildly life changing road trip and gathered with my closest collaborators (Ryan Hughes, Andy Toy, and eventually Daniel St. Black) and began writing and recording what would become Oh my god! It’s a Resurrection.

So many of the lyrics used came to me in poetry form on that fated solo road trip across the county. A Jesus statue in a hotel parking lot, going back to Colorado, resurrecting fully back to myself, remembering who I was before the world got to me. The past informing the present bleeding into the future. I thought I might die getting here, and I think part of me did. But I resurrected better than f***ing ever.

You’re now fully embracing the name Anna Moon & the Stars, with “the Stars” representing the collaborators, supporters, and listeners who have illuminated your path. What does that name mean to you in this chapter?

Anna Moon: Anna Moon has evolved so much since I started her in 2021. I’ve lived a million lives since then and changed a million times. As I love to say, I just keep getting better. I used to be really scared of letting people in on my process. But over the last few years, as I’ve settled into my creative community/family here in LA I’ve really fallen in love with collaboration. This record that I made and love so dearly wouldn’t have been possible without my co conspirators, my divine counterparts, my stars. The stars symbolize everyone who plays a part in what I do and make but they are also a symbol of my fans. Those who have been here from the start, those I’m meeting now, and everyone who will find me through this record. I see Anna Moon + the stars as an eco system where we all rise together. That includes the people listening and consuming my art. I think I finally understand the kind of leader I want to be- the kind that pulls everyone up with me. I am nothing without my beautiful abundant community.

You’ve also built a career writing songs for film and television. How has that side of your work shaped the way you tell stories in your own music?

Anna Moon: Writing for TV and film is something I sort of fell into. I never tried to pursue it and to be honest I still don’t. I think I organically write in a way that works for TV + film. Some of my friends and I will joke that being raised on worship music helped us be able to write music that is TV-friendly, because worship music is very emotionally driven and cinematic. I’m so grateful that my songs have been used in various TV shows, films, and trailers because it’s really helped me build my career. So many people have discovered my music through TV shows, and I learn so much the more I do it. It’s definitely made me a better writer and it’s also introduced me to a lot of my favorite collaborators. It’s really fun to write songs knowing that they might be the soundtrack to a cinematic story at some point.

What do you hope listeners take away from “Oh my god! It's a resurrection” and the album, and what have you taken away from creating this music and now putting it out?

Anna Moon: My absolute dream is that people feel lighter because of this record. The world is so noisy. I want the music I make to leave people feeling better. Maybe they’ll feel seen and understood through some of the lyrics or maybe they’ll just feel free and expansive like I did while I was making it. I want it to empower you, convince you that anything is possible, because the truth is- ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. I want it to help you fall in love with life again, convince you to go on a road trip because this album will beg you to be listened to in that setting. Making this record changed me. I’ve become a version of myself that I am so proud of. It’s made me fall in love with the process and I just feel this deep devotion to my craft and what I’m building. It’s weird to be putting it out into the world where it’s going to have a life of its own but I’m excited to see where we go from here.

In the spirit of paying it forward, who are you listening to these days that you’d recommend to our readers?

Anna Moon: I have my favorites that I listen to over and over again: War on Drugs, Fleet Foxes, Waxahatchee, Bleachers, Medium Build. But some new artists I’ve recently discovered who I’m loving would be CMAT, Tin Angel (indie band from LA), Johanna Samuels, Jadea Kelly (indie artist from Canada). I also love what I’ve heard from Brandon Flowers’ new record. <3

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