Moon X | Interview | Jerry King
Moon X is a new band formed in 2021 after the demise of Moon Men. They recently released a new album, ‘Zap!’.
Moon X are Dave Newhouse (woodwinds, flute, keyboards, voice), George Newhouse (drums) and Jerry King (guitars, bass, trombone, voice). Previously there were Moon Men, a four piece ensemble which also included Dave Newhouse and Jerry King along with two others. Moon Men released five albums in the years 2017 thru 2020 but came to an end as the year 2021 rolled in. Rather than continue with the same name and in the same direction as the previous group, Newhouse & King decided to alter course, rename the project and add George Newhouse on the drum kit. The result is what you hear from the songs on ‘Zap!’.
In 2015 Jerry King released his 1st album and has recorded with rock legends Ric Parnell (Atomic Rooster, Horse, Spinal Tap), Fred Frith (Henry Cow, Art Bears), Richie Castellano (Blue Öyster Cult), Dave Newhouse (The Muffins), Sean Rickman (George Duke), Pete Thompson (Robin Trower) and has released two albums with Blue Öyster Cult lyricist John Shirley. He’s been featured on more than 30 albums and continues to make music with Cloud Over Jupiter and his new group Moon X with Dave Newhouse.
Would you like to talk a bit about your background? Where and when did you grow up? Was music a big part of your family life?
Jerry King: I grew up in central Wisconsin in the USA. Cold climate and harsh winters, so staying indoors in the winter would lend itself to practicing an instrument. I came from a very poor family but my mother did her best to see we got a good education. My older brother George was my primary inspiration for being a musician. He could play guitar and sing, and in school he excelled in choir and orchestra as he played the saxophone and clarinet with great aptitude. He won many awards for his musical abilities. He talked my mother into buying my first guitar for Christmas. It was a mid-60’s Kay bass guitar with a single pickup, which I still have today. Then a year later, I got a bass amp for Christmas and that’s when things started getting serious musically. I was 11 years old.
Was there a certain moment when you knew you had to pick up guitar and play?
I recall learning songs from albums, picking up the needle on the phonograph and placing it on records over and over again to get the parts correct. There were no books, no internet, no music teachers anywhere so it was all trial and error with some coaching from my older brother. By the time I was 13 years old, I could jam with the older kids in the area and hold my own. I would work on music night and day at that point. I had no interest in playing a six string guitar until I was about 20 years old. One of the earliest guitars I can remember having was a Gibson SG with a single pickup.
What were some of the artists you enjoyed early on and consequently influenced the music you make?
In the early days I listened to a lot of Grand Funk Railroad. Their first three albums were critical in my learning. The first album by the band Soup, from the early 70’s, was another main inspiration. And Jack Casady from Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna as well. When I started out with the 6 string guitar, everything was Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton in Cream, and attempting to emulate their guitar playing. I would listen to a lot of bands like Yes, Emerson Lake & Palmer, King Crimson, Todd Rundgren, Blue Öyster Cult, Flash, Roxy Music, Be Bop Deluxe, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Genesis, Captain Beyond, Jukka Tolonen, Focus, Gentle Giant and a bit later discovered bands like Gong, Gilgamesh and Brand X.
What are some of the first bands you were part of?
I lived in a small town where there apparently was a shortage of bass players, so I got asked to gig with all sorts of groups in the area: Classic country, 50’s & 60’s and pop groups. So I was keeping busy playing out and making a little bit of money here and there, but the first “real” band was called Felix. A 5 piece group and while I don’t recall, I assume we performed the usual radio hits of the time but we did throw in a few tunes by bands like Uriah Heep and Ten Years After as well. The band was short-lived and so were several bands that followed; one or two shows and then someone would quit the group and the band would fold. Typical drama like that.
What’s the story behind Zany Starblaster?
Me and a buddy of mine that I grew up with were trying to start a band for years. Funny thing is, he started out on 6 string and I was on bass but by the time Zany Starblaster was formed we had switched instruments. I was around 20 or 21 years old by then.
We found a drummer and decided to be a power trio playing songs by Black Sabbath, Mountain, Cream, Hendrix…..We even played a track or two by the Pink Fairies…! Somewhere along the way we decided we were going to add another guitarist to expand the sound and we placed an ad in a larger city about 60 miles away.
A guitarist answered the ad and we hit it off. At this point we were still a 100% cover band but slowly started working in some original material.
Did you try to get a record deal back then?
We did have an agent who would book us all over the Midwest. We performed shows in 7 different States around the Great Lakes area.
The band was on the road for at least 2 years before its demise. At many of the venues where we performed we would see posters of other bands that had shows there the week before and among the names was Cheap Trick.
We were playing all of the same circuit as they were and our agent said that we were the “next Cheap Trick”.
We did two studio sessions and recorded a handful of originals that eventually got released recently on CD and is available on Bandcamp as a download now as the CD’s are sold out.
As far as a record deal, we put our trust in our agent and nothing ever materialized. But he got his cut of our earnings from shows. Apparently that’s all he cared about.
What were some of the bands you shared stages with back then?
I don’t recall ever playing any festivals where there were several bands that shared the stage so there’s very few to mention. I know we backed up a band called Crossfire which later became the semi-national band called Bad Boy. And then we did back up Bad Boy later as well. I remember at the Bad Boy show, Zany tore up the stage and the crowd was wild for more Zany. The roadies from Bad Boy had to cut the power to the stage to prevent us from playing an encore. Hilarious! Later we backed up Ruby Starr’s band. Ruby rose to fame by singing the background vocals on the hit song ‘Jim Dandy’ by Black Oak Arkansas. At that show we used their sound system and the roadies cut out our monitors so we couldn’t hear each other. Another cheap sabotage by the headlining act.
How come that you waited for so long to finally release your first album?
After the demise of the Zany band I moved to Los Angeles to play in a group with Iggy Pop’s former road manager, Eric Haddix. But it never materialized into anything as there were too many distractions with women and drugs. From there I moved to Florida for a few years and then ended up back in Wisconsin playing in a 70’s cover group for many years. Once that disbanded the next group was an all female group with me on guitar playing acoustic folk music. I grew tired of it all and purchased some recording gear. We built a new house in 2011 and the first room we worked on and completed was a studio in the basement complete with sound barrier insulation in the walls and ceiling. The time was ripe for me to learn the new gear and finally make the music that I heard in my head.
But that doesn’t really matter as you recorded so much in such a short period of time. So your first album was recorded with Ric Parnell (Horse, Spinal Tap), Fred Frith (Henry Cow, Art Bears), Richie Castellano (Blue Öyster Cult), Dave Newhouse (The Muffins), Sean Rickman (George Duke), Pete Thompson (Robin Trower). What’s the story behind it and how did you get such an incredible lineup of musicians?
It was around 2013 that I recorded my first original song. I tracked all the instruments to a drum machine and it ended up being not too bad for a first try. The second song I recorded was done in the same fashion with a drum machine. Around this time I was on Facebook and adding some friends and I came across Pete Thompson, so I sent him a friend request. We interacted online a bit and I finally got the courage up enough to ask him if he would listen to a song of mine. He said he was busy but would spin it when he had a chance, so off it went to him. Remarkably, I heard back from Pete in about 10 minutes and he was crazy about the song…! He asked if he could track it and replace the drum machine on the recording. The song ended up on the first album by Cloud Over Jupiter where the title of the song is ‘That Red Guitar’, my homage to Jimi Hendrix.
A local band here, called the Lizardz, are friends with members of Blue Öyster Cult. Not sure how the connection was made early on but no matter. The musicians in the Lizardz are all friends of mine for many years and so I inquired about whether I could get one of the members of BÖC to track one of my songs. Richie Castellano was interested so I sent him the song ‘Beyond the Oort Cloud’. I had met Ric Parnell on Facebook as well and asked if he’d be interested in tracking a song with Richie. I also enlisted Henry Howard on bass guitar for that track. My first album was progressing…!
Once the album was done and released, I had a bit of help from Nova Records in getting it noticed. Also Progression Magazine out of the USA east coast reviewed it and did an interview with me as well in a subsequent issue. It was a sweet feeling getting the album noticed but it was still on my shoulders to do the marketing and sales. I sent the album out wherever I could to get radio airplay. One of the radio stations that aired some of the music was 88.3 FM out of Cleveland, Ohio on a prog-rock show called “Somewhere Between Sunset and Sunrise”.
What about Moon Men?
One person who heard the Ohio radio show was Muffins drummer, Paul Sears and another person was David Roberge of Nova Records. David reached out to Paul about the band he just heard on the show and they did some detective work to find out who it was. I became friends with both of them after they contacted me and that led me to having Paul track some of the songs on the second Jupiter album. But even more importantly, it led me to The Muffins’ Dave Newhouse. We started working together in 2017 with a group called The Moon Men and have become good friends in the process. Moon Men were Dave and I, along with Bret Harold Hart on guitar and Bill Jungwirth on the drum kit. I was primarily the bass guitarist in Moon Men but did appear on 6 strings on some of the music. Moon Men made 5 albums from 2017 thru 2021. Bill began having some issues with the nerves in his wrists and had to discontinue drumming. Bret felt we couldn’t go on with a different drummer and so the band folded.
Your latest band is called Moon X, a new band formed in 2021 after the demise of Moon Men. What was the main reason for the formation of this project?
Dave and I were not ready to hang up the partnership and we were having way too much fun. That was the biggest thing about Moon Men, is that we had a lot of fun making the music. We would often inject a bit of humor into the music and it kept it a bit zany and motivating.
So rather than just call the new band Moon Men, we morphed the name into Moon X and are proud of the connection we have with the Moon Men band. Dave’s son, George, took over the drumming duties and I took over all of the guitar and bass requirements, while Dave handled the horns and keys. We’ve tightened up the sound a bit from where Moon Men was while still keeping the experimental edge.
Can you elaborate on Cloud Over Jupiter formation?
Recording in my home studio with my wife, Michele, led me to asking Bill Jungwirth, a long-time friend, to track drums to my songs. We hit it off right away working on songs for the first album. Cloud Over Jupiter was really just the three of us in the beginning, with guests appearing on different songs.
You have three albums out? Who are other members of the group?
Later, the band became just my wife and I writing the bulk of the material, tracking most of the instruments but still having guests appear. There’s a 4th album coming out later this year in 2022 and we’ll be revisiting some of the kinds of sounds that made the first album a classic. Much of the material is done already. There will be some guests coming back and some new artists as well.
You also have two albums released with Blue Öyster Cult lyricist John Shirley.
I came to know John through the connection that I have with the Lizardz band. I was aware of his writing but not his music, so just on a whim I sent him a song that I was working on and asked if he would listen to it and he accepted the invite. From that was born ideas for the album ‘Spaceship Landing in a Cemetery’, our first album together. It’s an eclectic blend of prog, rock, jazz and experimental music, alternating between John singing his lyrics or John doing a “reading” of his material. I’m quite happy to say that the album is sold out and we received some nice reviews of the music from PROG and other reviewers.
For the second project together, John was the guest artist on the second Jupiter album, ‘Short Stories for Tall Aliens’. We tightened up the sound, had fewer guests and John sang or read almost all of the songs on the album. A track from the album was featured on the PROG magazine covermount CD for that month and we had favorable reviews overall by several magazines and online reviews.
We’re currently working on a third album together and hope to have it released in 2022. There are also two movies coming out in 2023 that will have some of our music together as part of the soundtrack. It’s quite exciting to expand the distribution of where the music is being featured.
The band consists of Dave Newhouse (woodwinds, flute, keyboards, voice), George Newhouse (drums) and you (guitars, bass, trombone, voice). Can you share some further words about your latest release, ‘Zap!’?
I really think this is some of the best work I’ve ever done. Dave and George make writing new music so easy. It’s like we’re all connected telepathically and just know what the song needs. Some of the songs were started by Dave and some by me. We share ideas and add to the songs. Then we discuss and decide if there’s anything more we should do. It’s all democratic and there’s no ego trips or drama which makes it all fun and enjoyable.
We keep a bit of the humor in the project that we previously had in Moon Men. The music is serious but there’s a bit of levity in the project overall, starting with the fantastic cover of the album by Eric Kearns. Speaking of Eric, I would like to mention that Eric is joined by Ian Beabout who mixed the album, and the five of us are the team that made the album. Both of those guys have been with us since the days of Moon Men. We couldn’t have done this project without them. They are experts at what they do.
Is there still any unreleased material that you would like to see released?
I don’t think there’s that much of it lying around. I try to use every piece and part of every track for my songs. There was an unused guitar track that I did for someone else. They didn’t feel it fit their song. So when we started working on ‘Zap!’, there was an ending of one of the songs that we felt needed something yet. I dug around in my archives and here was this guitar track that was never used. I plopped it into the Moon X song just to see if it would work and lo and behold..! It was in the right key and fit like a glove…!
John Shirley and I have a couple of songs that were supposed to be on the ‘Spaceship’ album but didn’t make it (long story) on the album. These will be featured on the upcoming album later this year.
You have been featured on so many albums. What are some of the highlights in your opinion?
The highlight? Working with Dave Newhouse, composing songs with him and interacting with my friend. He’s a fantastic artist that, in my opinion, has yet to receive his due. A very talented man with unlimited musical ideas and a big heart to match. Being able to work with my wife is a blessing also. She has an amazing ear for melody and a wonderful voice. And working with all of the talented people I’ve met and recorded with. These people are not only great artists but good people and it’s been rewarding in so many ways just knowing them.
As far as musical highlights, I’d have to say being a part of so many groups that make albums: Cloud Over Jupiter, Moon X, Manna Mirage, Moon Men; and being invited to play on someone else’s album is a special honor. On my Facebook page for Cloud Over Jupiter, I have a post pinned to the top of the page showing all of the albums I’ve tracked on since I first started in 2015. I’ve enjoyed every bit of it and hope to do much more. I recommend anyone reading this to check out these albums, pick up a few online and support the artists that made the music. Most of this music is available on Bandcamp.
Thank you for taking your time. Last word is yours.
I always say, if you buy the music and you spin it more than once, then my job is completed. An album that deserves a second spin is one that is worthy of keeping. If I can get my listeners to do that, well, that’s all I hope for. Thanks for asking me to do this interview. Honored to do so…!
Klemen Breznikar
Moon X Facebook
Cloud Over Jupiter Official Website / Facebook / Bandcamp
Moon Men Bandcamp
