Interview With The Moons Of Jupiter… By Tzina Dovve (DJ Lady Davinia)..
The Moons Of Jupiter… A brand new duo emerges on the UK dark alternative scene in 2023… Based in Birmingham these boys have taken the scene by storm with their catchy synth wave melodies and uplifting shows… Vocalist James Harris talks about the duos early start, new music, upcoming shows and future plans… An interesting interview on what these British boys are all about… The Moons Of Jupiter… By Tzina Dovve (DJ Lady Davinia)…
Tzina: Welcome to Absolution.. The Moons Of Jupiter is a new band on the UK alternative
scene.. When and how exactly did the band/act come to life and who are the members?
The Moons Of Jupiter: We’re a duo with Nicky Rowe composing the music and James Harris as vocalist and lyricist. We have known each other since primary school and actually grew up living on the same street too. We’ve both worked independently on various musical projects over the years and back in 2007 when MySpace was the place to be online, Nicky uploaded an instrumental track called ‘Ghosts’, I really liked it and immediately felt it resonated with me and the lyrics for the song came to me. I sent Nicky a demo which he liked and the idea of us working together as a duo was born then. I also came up with the name ‘The Moons Of Jupiter’ then too. It just seemed to fit our music. That was the genesis of the band but nothing much else happened then for another 16 years! We’d long said that one day we would work on the duo, but the time had never been right. Then as fate would have it, in early 2023 it finally was the right time to work on the band. We then started writing and the first album came to us and took shape easily over the course of a few weeks. We haven’t looked back since!
Tzina: The name ‘The Moons Of Jupiter’ is quite a unique name for a dark/new wave band..
What is the story behind the band’s name? Why this name in particular? Does it have some sort of
symbolic meaning to you? Can you elaborate…
The Moons Of Jupiter: Well, I touched on that in my previous answer, but to elaborate, it kind of has the right mood for our music, and if there’s any of meaning to it, I guess it’s about having a more universal perspective on life and our place in the cosmos.
Tzina: Your music is very melodic with catchy lyrics very reminiscent of the early 80s synth era..
Who is the main songwriter in the band? How is a Moons Of Jupiter creation brought to life? What
inspires you most to write such melodies and what are your main musical influences?
The Moons Of Jupiter: Thank you for saying that. Nicky and I both write all the songs together 50/50, there is no main writer as we jointly compose all our material. The way we work is Nicky composes the music on his own, then gives me the tracks to listen to. I like to do this while driving in my car and I just see which ones inspire me and then just start singing to them. I then go home and record a demo of the track. Nicky’s music is already arranged and I never need to ask him to make any adjustments, the vocal parts that come to me just fit right in with his music. It’s like we’re both tuning into the same thing. You’d have to ask Nicky about writing the music, but for me with the vocal parts I guess I’m simply inspired by Nicky’s music and I just see what comes to me. It’s a bit like being a medium really, you’ve just gotta let the song come through. It writes itself. That’s something I’ve learnt over the years, songwriting should be easy, almost effortless. Some of Nicky’s big influences are Talk Talk, Marillion, No Man, VNV Nation and The Birthday Massacre. Mine are Adam & the Ants, The Beatles, Tears for Fears, Kate Bush and Queen and we’re both fans of Depeche Mode.
Tzina: After some singles and an E.P., The Moons Of Jupiter released their self-titled debut full
length album online last month.. How has this album been received by your fans and music press so far?
How happy are you as musicians with the outcome of this album?
The Moons Of Jupiter: We’ve been really touched by how well our debut album has been received. We’ve had some wonderful reviews and also a lot of positive feedback, so we’re very happy with the album and the response to it and look forward to recording and releasing our second album which is already written.
Tzina: As I understand The Moons Of Jupiter have a number of live videos released on YouTube
from various performances around the UK.. Are there any plans in the pipeline for other music videos?
How important are videos and the visual side to you as a band? Do you believe it is as fundamental as
the music ? Can you elaborate…
The Moons Of Jupiter: I think we’d both say that for us the music is by far the most important thing. With visuals we just try to compliment the music and frame it in a way that hopefully does it justice. With regard to music videos, we have a few videos with space themed imagery, like the one for our cover of Duran Duran’s Planet Earth, but we do also plan at some point to shoot some music videos with us in them, but that’s probably a while away. We might start making music videos like that after album two is completed.
Tzina: As a very active live band with a vast number of shows across the UK under your belt so
far do The Moons Of Jupiter have any plans to play across Europe in the near future? Are there any
particular cities you would like to visit? What upcoming shows can fans expect throughout the rest of
2025?
The Moons Of Jupiter: Yes, we’d love to tour across Europe and also America, Japan and many other places one day. I think we’ll look to push the gigs more after album two is released. As far as 2025 goes we have quite a few gigs booked including an open air festival in LLangollen, North Wales in August, our first London gig which will be at The Dublin Castle, Camden in September, and it’s not yet been announced but we have also been booked to perform at Whitby Goth Weekend in November.
Tzina: As I understand you released an E.P. with the title ‘Planet Earth’ with some cover versions
(Duran Duran, Depeche Mode) last summer.. What are your views on cover versions? Are there any
other songs in particular that The Moons Of Jupiter would like to cover?
The Moons Of Jupiter: It’s nice to occasionally do covers and we plan to record more. Our main focus is on our original songs but the Planet Earth – EP, which is free for anyone on our emailing list, is going to expand over time as we record more covers and will eventually be a free album. We already have a few more covers in place for that EP/album but we’ll see how they turn out and there are lot’s of other songs we may try covering one day like John Lennon’s ‘Jealous Guy’.
Tzina: As a new band/act on the alternative music scene how difficult do you believe it is for any
band to survive in this new digital streaming world? What are your ambitions for The Moons Of Jupiter?
What do you enjoy most about being in a band?
The Moons Of Jupiter: I think it’s easy for a band to survive, but it depends on your outlook and expectations. For us, we feel that if we’re making music that we love and if other people like it to, then for us that’s success and we can just carry on doing that. There’s nothing to stop us. Of course, we’d like to push the music as far as we can, but we make music because it’s part of who we are, it’s what we do, so we have no intention of ever stopping creating. We have to just embrace the times we live in and the opportunities that they present, so we appreciate the fact that we can release our own albums on platforms like Bandcamp etc. and get our music out there potentially to an audience of people all over the world. It’s all about the music for us so I’d have to say that that’s what I enjoy most, simply writing and performing songs that we’re proud of and believe in.
Tzina: How do you view the dark/ goth/ alternative scene of today in your home country? Do you
think it differs from the rest of the world? Can you elaborate…
The Moons Of Jupiter: I couldn’t really comment on how the UK scene compares to other countries as we’ve not been there yet, although we’d love to perform in other parts of the world, which as mentioned before, is something that’s in our longer-term plans for the band. We’re not actually goths but we just felt that our music might fit the goth scene and we’re really pleased with how it’s been embraced by DJs and promoters. We’ve found the goth scene here in England to be so friendly and welcoming, it’s a wonderful community.
Tzina: Thank you for your time.. Anything else you would like to share with your fans? What can
they expect from The Moons Of Jupiter in the near future?
The Moons Of Jupiter: Thank you, Tzina! We have an upcoming single that’s gonna be free on Bandcamp which will be a re-recorded and extended version of our song ‘Tomorrow’. That will be the final release in the orbit of album one. We’re also working on a new cover of Tears for Fears ‘Woman In Chains’ and we plan to release the first single from our second album in October. We have a lot of songs written already so there’ll be plenty more music from The Moons Of Jupiter.
The Moons Of Jupiter are on Facebook / Instagram / Bandcamp
