SNL Alum Kyle Mooney Just Released a 20-Minute-Long Album: Hear "The Real Me"
"I don't want to be a clown anymore," the former Saturday Night Live cast member says in a video promoting the release.
Kyle Mooney is ready to introduce you to The Real Me.
The Saturday Night Live alum, who was a cast member from 2013 to 2022, has released a new project. No, not a comedy special, or a new streaming series: It's a debut album of original music — The Real Me, out on streaming and vinyl via Stones Throw Records on Friday, March 21.
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Fans are loving Kyle Mooney's music album, The Real Me
At 20 minutes long, the collection contains 11 tracks. And while the lo-fi LP includes songs about not wanting to shower after gym class and living in a "House That's Haunted," Mooney — or "Kyle M.," the moniker he released the album under — insists the project is sincere.
"Hey everybody, I feel like I don't usually talk directly to you all, but I wanted to share some news. So the last couple years have been pretty crazy for me, personal stuff and career stuff," he said in an Instagram video, teasing the album. "I've decided that I want to put something out there that I've been working on that a lot of people will not like, which is scary. But it's who I am. It's the real me, and I want to be okay with showing this side of myself, and not caring what people might think or they might say."
The day The Real Me dropped, Mooney posted a video to his YouTube, in which he returned to his hometown of San Diego. "I don't want to be a clown anymore," he says the clip, where he visited his childhood home and explained that is first love was music.
"One day the music thing just ended. All of a sudden I was at college, got into comedy. Eventually I found myself in some pretty amazing projects as an actor," he revealed in the video, which featured him stopping by a local record store. "I'm not a character, I'm not a sketch. I've written and recorded my first album. I've sang every song, played every instrument, and it's all there: rock, country, R&B, dance."
"I promise this is art that's earnestly me. There's no walls, there's no boundaries," he insisted. "I'm sure this all feels like a joke, I get it. I promise there is nothing comedic about the Kyle M. project I've poured everything into my music."
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On Stones Throw Records' website, Mooney's The Real Me, is described as "a singular artistic vision unbound by genre — you’ll find rock, country, dance, R&B, and more. Stones Throw is proud to usher in this new era of Kyle M’s artistry, hoping that the world will find this album incredibly creative and poetic."
As Mooney wrote on his Instagram on March 22: "It's all lead to this."
Regardless of the artists' intent, many Mooney fans' reactions on social media were supportive (if perhaps tongue in cheek in a few cases).
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"Every great artist reveals themselves eventually, and 'The Real Me' is that moment for Kyle M., née Kyle Mooney," one wrote on X (formerly Twitter). His new album is 11 tracks of pure, unfiltered, raw emotion, and I’m still flabbergasted from my first listen."
Another supporter replied to his album announcement on the platform, "A little bit Daniel Johnston with a splash of Mark Linkous, but it's all 100% Kyle Mooney. Pure Americana."
Take a listen to Kyle Mooney's The Real Me on Spotify or wherever you stream.
