1979 Interview With Moon Martin
For The German Magazine
Musik Express

November 1979 Issue
Of The German Magazine Musik Express
Featuring Moon Martin

ME: You're currently on a promotional tour to introduce your second record "Escape From Domination" to the American audience. How are the record and tour doing?

MM: Oh, I'm very, very pleased. The record will for sure climb up to number 90 on the US charts, and the single of it, "Rolene", reached number 30, so far. The tour, as well, started quite fine.

ME: How big are the halls you are playing at?

MM: Mostly, theatres with approximately 1000 seats if we're the headliners of the show. Personally, I prefer to be the supporting act for better known bands, which gets me the chance to reach far more people. We toured, for instance, with Cheap Trick and Joe Jackson. Each night we had 15,000 kids at the concerts, and they liked us. You have to have good relations with the headliner. In this case, it's more effective for a band like us to be the support act.

ME: Robert Palmer released a very successful cover of your "Bad Case Of Lovin' You". Did you know him prior?

MM: No, I haven't met him before, but knew all his records. To be very honest, he was and is my favorite singer and you can imagine how much I appreciated it that he covered "Bad Case".

ME: How were the critic's reviews for the new album?

MM: They were excellent throughout. I haven't read a bad one so far. Nearly each critic wrote that "Escape" is more compact than "Shots From A Cold Nightmare". Well, I'm really satisfied.

ME: Now, it's for sure your success in the States came via your European success. It's a strange development, isn't it?

MM: No, not at all. Look, if you want to bring a record here among the masses, especially as a newcomer, you have to prostitute yourself for the radio stations. In every bloody state, in each village, at each station, you have to bring your little record saying, "Hi, I'm Moon Martin and this is my new LP. It would be nice if you could play it. Blah, blah, blah." In Europe, it goes like this: the DJs have your record already and if they like it, they have played it already. You won't make any points here with the usual beggary. You could add here, a bit ironically, that a U.S. musician has to be successful first in Europe, before you're accepted in the states, but first, I like it and second, other bands and musicians share this experience.

ME: I know you'll hate the next question, but especially American critics tend to categorize each artist. What's the writing on your drawer?

MM: Mainly, they called it New Wave.

ME: What? New Wave?

MM: Yes, really. But, they don't mean Punk here (in the States), when they call it that way. The meaning is rather that we don't play any kind of sugar-pop or easy-listening-country.

ME: How would you classify your music by yourself?

MM: I would call it straight, earthy Rockabilly. But, these categories are a horror to me anyway.

ME: What will you do after this U.S. tour ?

MM: On November 17th, we'll start our German tour. Next, we tour Sweden, France and England.

ME: And will you bring the same band you toured with in Germany, in 1978?

MM: Yes, they are the old Ravens: Rick Croy, his brother, Dennis, and Jude Cole. This time, we do it without a second guitarist.

ME: What about your plans for a third LP? It's a bit early, but maybe you could tell us something already....

MM: Yeah, at the moment I'm quite happy that the second is doing so fine, but honestly, I wrote a few songs for the third LP already.

ME: One final question. Basically, you're regarded everywhere, in the USA too, as a newcomer. Only a very few of the so called critics and experts know that you played in the past, in a band called "Southwind". Could you please tell us a few words about Southwind?

MM: OK, we started around 1970 in Oklahoma. At that time, and in this area, there were only two kinds of music: heavy rock and country music. Maybe this was the reason that our music went totally unnoticed. You know, exactly at the wrong time, exactly at the right place. Nevertheless, we made two LPs. For that time, it was quite a mess, but in '72, we finally broke up and split. I moved to L.A., then jobbed as a truck driver for some time, and wrote songs in my spare time.

ME: Just one, final question. How did you get you nickname, "Moon"?

MM: They gave me the nickname after the split of Southwind. I jobbed by day and wrote by night, in the moonshine, of course. I have a special relation to this celestial body, as you may hear, in some of my songs. Well, then one day, suddenly, nobody called me John no more. Everybody who knew me, called me "Moon". I like this name.