It was 55 years ago that Nektar first formed, pushing the boundaries of traditional rock music with their progressive songwriting, interstellar jams, and psychotropic stage productions. They’d quickly become pivotal to the development of space rock and progressive rock, although their influence would reach into the world of hard rock and heavy metal as well. 55 years later, and well aware of the band’s pedigree, founding bassist Derek “Mo” Moore stands tall as the sole survivor from those early days. Armed and ready with a brand new album in Mission to Mars (The first in a trilogy!), we sat down with Moore to discuss Iron Maiden, George Jefferson, and the infinite universe.
Greetings “Mo” and welcome to Defenders of the Faith! How are you doing today?
Derek “Mo” Moore: Good man! We just got back from the Nene Valley Rock Festival over in England. It was fantastic. It was really a great show.
Fantastic. I’d like to start by congratulating you on the new Nektar album, Mission to Mars. How soon after 2020’s The Other Side did ideas start coming together for this album?
DMM: Pretty much during COVID. COVID hit us in 2020. We were on the road and had to come off. Me and (singer/guitarist) Ryche (Chlanda) had been writing stuff. I would go up there to his house in New Jersey and we’d hang out and do different parts. We put it together over the last three years. Then, we got some parts from (keyboardist) Kendall (Scott) and we told him what we’re looking for and he did some parts which we really liked. The beginning, for instance, of “One Day Hi One Day Lo”, that was one part. We needed something to bring that in and that was really good. Also, the ending of “Mission to Mars”, the very end, that’s something that Kendall came up with. He was working with us on the other parts too. I really like the album. I think it’s a good album.
As do we. In the midst of arranging this new album, Nektar’s drummer, Ron Howden, passed away. Was there ever any hesitation over carrying on without Ron, or did this album subsequently become a mission to keep his musical spirit alive?
DMM: Well, what happened was we’d been writing the music, getting ready to record. Ron came up on a Sunday and he said he had got great news. He was just declared cancer free. So we said, “Great! We’re just running through some of the music for the new album. Do you wanna have a listen?” He said, “Yeah!” He came downstairs and he got on the drums a bit and played with us. He said he was feeling a little tired. He said, “Make me a thumb drive of it and when I get home, I’ll work out some drum parts for it.” That was on the Sunday. On Monday night, he had a brain bleed and he was gone, so he never got to work on it.
We knew that Ron would have wanted us to carry on. We started looking for a drummer. We put a call out for drummers. The second guy that came was Jay Dittamo. Now Jay had played with Ryche and with Kendall in Ryche Chlanda’s Flying Dreams, which was his previous band. They said that they liked him as a drummer. They thought he was a good drummer, so I said, “Let me see how he fits with me.” We’re the bottom end. We gotta lock. So he came and he played. I really liked the way he played. I felt comfortable with him right away. He told us that Ron had approached him in 2015 or 2016 or 2017, in that range anyway. He saw Ryche’s band at ProgStock and he said, because he told him the story of his cancer and whatnot, “If ever I can’t play, I’d like you to play for me.” Jay said, “This is your gig. You play it out as long as you can.”
When he told me that, I knew that he was gonna be the guy. We played a couple of days together and he felt really good, so we had him come up and we played the new music. We played it with him and it felt really good. We got the tempos down and we got it how we wanted to where he was supposed to play half time and that sort of stuff. Then, I called up Joe DeMaio at Shorefire Studio in Long Branch and I said, “Joe, wanna come down and do some basic tracks?” He said, “No problem.” He set a couple of days aside for us. We went down and in two days, we got the basic tracks down.
We always do the basic tracks live. Some bands will put the drums down, then they’ll put the bass down, then they’ll put the guitar. I don’t think you get the good feel for the band that way. You have to have that live feel. We’ve always done it that way, from day one. The first album, everything was live. In fact, Journey to the Centre of the Eye, the whole thing we had to do in one take because they didn’t have Dolby or DBX at that time, so you couldn’t stop it. You had to play the whole thing.
Anyway, we got the basic tracks down. Then, Ryche took the master and he dubbed all his guitars onto it. He had the basic guitar from the basic tracks, and then he put all his guitars down on it. I really like what he did. It really felt good. So I said, “Let’s give it to Kendall and let him put stuff down on it.”, and he did. I had Kendall add his parts to “Mission to Mars”, the ending, and “One Day Hi One Day Lo”, the beginning. It just took a form. It took a life of its own. It felt really good.
Then, we had to do a mix on it, which took a few days. We did that with Joe DeMaio. Joe DeMaio, we work very well with. He’s very, very good. He has a friend in Australia, Leon Zervos, who used to be the head of Sterling Sound in New York City. He worked with us with The Other Side, so he knew what we were looking for. I like to have one master for the CD and a second master for the vinyl, because the vinyl’s a lot warmer sound. You can’t get the CD sound on vinyl. It doesn’t work that way. Vinyl is all of the parts. CD, some of the frequencies aren’t on there because it figures your ears will put them in. That’s how that works. CD will never be as good as vinyl.
We especially kept the length down to about 32 minutes. 16 minutes a side is ideal. You can go up to maximum 19 minutes, and then you start losing frequencies because the groove is not big enough. The groove on the record, it takes up the time you got. We wanted to keep it at 16 minutes, or thereabout, so that the groove would carry the bass and the drums and the bottom end would be really solid. Also, by doing that, you can create little rooms around each instrument. You hear it and it’s really clear, but you’re able to follow any instrument. If your ear latches onto the bass, it’ll listen to the bass all the way through. If it latches onto the guitar, it’ll hear the guitar all the way through. It means that every time you listen to it, you’re gonna get a different feel for it. You’ll find that every time you play the new album, it sounds a little different.
When is the vinyl out?
DMM: It should be out for order by October 10th.
Perfect, because I’ve always been a vinyl guy myself.
DMM: We’ve always done the vinyl separate. The vinyl is a lot warmer than a CD. You’ll never get the sound of a vinyl on CD. There’s always something not quite right. It gets the sound out. It gets the songs out, but it doesn’t get the warm feeling that you get with vinyl.
Mission to Mars is the first installment in a trilogy of new Nektar albums. Will this trilogy be connected conceptually and do we know roughly when we can expect the next two installments?
DMM: I think, yes. I came up with “Mission to Mars” and Ryche right away latched onto it and said, “Yeah, let’s make that the theme.” We put this album together with that thought. When we talked about doing the trilogy, right now, the concept is gonna carry through. I’m not saying that won’t change *laughs* because as you develop songs, they have their own lives. That’s the concept right now. I was talking to Ryche earlier today. We want to do a Christmas song, if we can, before this Christmas, and we want to start writing for the new album. I really need to get this one off the ground and focus on it first.
How does this current incarnation of Nektar compare or contrast to the band’s original lineup of the ’70s?
DMM: Well, the original lineup was very prolific. We wrote a lot of music. We wrote our music as a band and the lyrics, Roye (Albrighton) would sing scat lyrics and Mick (Brockett) and I would write the lyrics for the album. There were three of us involved with lyrics. On The Other Side, it was me and Mick, and then we added Ryche because I work really well with Ryche. When we did Mission to Mars, it was just me and Ryche. We sat at his kitchen table and did all the lyrics there.
I think I like the new incarnation. I think it’s got a really solid rock feel. Going back to being a four piece from being a five with Randy (Dembo), who left to play in a Yes tribute band, it just felt instantly good being back as a four piece. I think that this band is more compatible with the old music. When we play concerts, we put a little bit of each album in the set. On this last tour, we played the entire Mission to Mars album. Nobody had heard it, so that’s how you can tell if people like it or not, when you’re playing something they never heard before. It went down really well. We got standing ovations for a lot of it. I had promised them last time we went out we’d have some new music. We decided we would do the entire album, which we did.
That’s a real lost art. Is that an approach Nektar took going back to the ’70s?
DMM: Always. We did a tour with Pavlov’s Dog. The opening number was “Recycled”, and we had not even finished writing it! It was just powerful without all the words and everything else that needed to be done. We just felt it was good. We wanted to play it, so we started off the concert with it. We would get there early and have a soundcheck, maybe put a song together. Invariably, that song would get into the set, even though it was really fresh and really in its basic stages.
We did one of the songs from The Other Side, “Devil’s Door”, we did it in a concert in 1974. When it came time to do the song, I played them the version that we’d done in ’74. I said, “This is how I feel. I want to bring the beginning in from the original song and then blend us back into it, so you get the original band locked in with the new band.” We managed to do that. The guitar was crystal clear. I said, “If we can get that onto the album, we should do it.” So we did. If you listen to The Other Side and you listen to “Devil’s Door”, the beginning is the original band.
Something I always found intriguing about Nektar is that there tended to be a funkiness and groove to the rhythm section, something that still shows today on the title track of this latest album. Being half of said rhythm section, what would you attribute this dynamic to?
DMM: I like to get into a groove. I like to sit the band into a pocket. One thing we found with the new band is we listened to all the old music and we realized that we had been playing it too fast. When you play too fast, you lose some of the groove, or pocket as it’s called over here. We slowed all the music down a little bit and it felt so strong. This band’s more rock n’ roll than anything else. It’s really, really strong. On the last tour, we did “Fidgety Queen” as a second encore. We had not played it for a long time, but we decided we were gonna play it and it was gonna be a little bit slower. Boy, it really kicked ass. I was really thrilled with the way it came out. I’m having as much fun with this band as I did the original band. It just feels right!
Some of the other bands didn’t feel right to me. I left the band in ’78 and Ryche was playing with the band when I left. He came and played a few concerts with us. He actually did a concert with Roye. Some of the music from The Other Side, we played that night. We played “I’m on Fire”, which I wrote for my wife before we were married. It all felt right. We took it into the studio. We had a studio that a friend, John, he let us use. We put all the music together and we put all the charts together so we knew what we were putting together. When it was time, we rented a house down the shore and we went back there every night playing. We recorded at Shorefire Studios with Joe DeMaio. That was the first time we worked with Joe, but Joe’s an awesome, awesome guy.
Despite having English members, Nektar formed in Germany. Both countries boasted burgeoning progressive rock scenes at the time. Did Nektar relate more to the English scene or German scene?
DMM: The German scene, for sure. The thing is, the German scene at the time, they weren’t interested in pop music. In England, all you got was pop music. There was no progressive music in England at all. I don’t know that we even called it “progressive” at the time, but it was more…I come from classical, so I like to have music that’s musical, gets in your ears, earworms! That’s what it’s all about. You could play new music for the German public and they just lapped it up. That’s what they wanted to here. We got a great following pretty much right away. Certainly, that allowed us to play what we wanted to play, the German scene. I don’t think we would’ve had that same thing in England at all.
That’s a good point about the term “progressive”. I feel it got attached to those bands and that sound later on. However, going back to that era, whether it was a band like yourself or Lucifer’s Friend or Eloy, the music you were creating was very cutting edge, and still sounds like it could’ve been made yesterday.
DMM: Right. We played with Eloy. We used to do a lot of festivals. Put four, five bands together and you had a festival. That really worked out well. We played with Eloy a lot. Tangerine Dream, we played with a lot. In fact, I got Tangerine Dream their first record deal with Virgin. I was in England talking to Richard Branson and Richard was really anxious to get a hold of them. I said, “I’m gonna see them next week. I’ll have a talk with them and I’ll have them give you a call.” They did, and they went with Richard. The scene was very good because the bands interacted. We were a team, if you like. It was good.
Nektar is regularly linked to the advent of space rock, helping pioneer the genre in the early ’70s. How do you feel about the term “space rock” and Nektar’s subsequent role in innovating the genre?
DMM: A lot of our stuff’s from space! If you go through our albums, Journey to the Centre of the Eye was space. Remember the Future was space. Recycled wasn’t space, but it was suggested. Certainly The Other Side was space, and now Mission to Mars, and probably the other two albums we do in the trilogy. It’ll be space based. You can write about space and you’re not copying anybody because not everybody’s doing that. I know that when we came to do Mission to Mars, a lot of ideas came from what we could about. It’s unlimited what you can write about! I like that a lot.
Right, because when you’re dealing with something as vast as the unknown or the far beyond, it’s never ending.
DMM: Right! Exactly that!
Nektar has always had a devout cult following going back to the beginning. Amongst these fans were Sherman Hemsley, star of The Jeffersons, which used a snippet of “Show Me the Way” in an episode. Did you ever cross paths with Hemsley and was the band personally approached about having the song used on that episode?
DMM: We knew Sherman well. When we played in L.A. and he showed up at the hotel, he was this bouncy guy. He was a real powerhouse. Then, we found out who he was afterwards, so we played the Santa Monica Civic and we invited him to announce us onstage, which he did. Then, we went to a party at his house, which was outrageous. He went on Hollywood Squares with a t-shirt that we gave him, the yellow Nektar t-shirt. I wanna say he had the Recycled shirt on when he did “Show Me the Way”, but he certainly helped us a lot. First of all, we got paid for doing it, which was great. He was just a super guy. Really outrageous guy. You can’t imagine the things *laughs*.
Having watched The Jeffersons with my family growing up, he seemed like an absolutely electric dude!
DMM: Yeah, really. He was a character. He was definitely a character, much like Robin Williams was a character. Some of the things that went on with Mork & Mindy were outrageous. Sherman would bring that to The Jeffersons. You never knew where he was gonna come from. That’s really how he was.
Another Nektar diehard is Steve Harris, who went onto form a little band called Iron Maiden. In 1984, Maiden would cover “King of Twilight” for the B side of “Aces High”. What are your thoughts on that cover and when did it occur to you that there was a rising crop of prog and metal bands who looked at Nektar as an influence?
DMM: Well, we were flattered. If somebody’s doing your music, whether you’re getting credit for it or not, it’s flattering. Iron Maiden gave us credit for it. Steve was at a couple of shows. Great guy. I know Pink Floyd copied some of our stuff. Ours was a full two years before theirs, and it was a note for note copy! I know they were big fans. Nick Mason flew to the New York show we did in 2002, when we got back together. There’s a lot of people over the years that have copied what we done, but we look on that, or me now as I’m the only one…I’m flattered that they do that. I’m not bothered about getting paid for it. I’m happy that it’s getting out there. I once went to a guy’s house when I was a contractor. The kid was listening to “King of Twilight”. I said to him, “You know I helped write that?” He said, “No!” *laughs* I said, “Yeah, look! Nektar, that was my band.” He was blown away, a young kid.
I think Iron Maiden helped “King of Twilight” to become bigger. I thought their version was theirs, but I thought it was a good version. I thought that they did a good version. They also took on “Nelly the Elephant” and a couple of other songs. I don’t think they ever played them on record, but I know that they were signed some of the publishing. They didn’t buy the publishing, they bought the right to be able to use it, which I thought was really good. They did everything right, and we got money from it. I appreciated that at the time because we were always broke *laughs*.
How would you describe Nektar’s relationship with the American market in the ’70s?
DMM: Outstanding. When we did Remember the Future, it took off in New York. Alison Steele got hold of it and she really did a job on it. It took off in St. Louis. Shelley Grafman of KSHE used to play us all the time. When we went to those two cities, we were huge. The first time we played in St. Louis, we did four concerts to 3,000 people each, sold out. 12,000 people! When we played New York City, it was the same thing, sold out. We did two shows. I think that helped the rest of the country. We were suddenly playing to 3, 5, 10,000 people. It was absolutely amazing.
We would play the same type of sets that we did in Europe. It’d be a couple of hours at least. The American audience was perfect for us. They were very similar to the early days in Germany, where they wanted to absorb everything. Some of that was due to the different pirate stations that you had that would pop up in Europe, but you couldn’t play music that they didn’t wanna like. They absorbed all of it. I think that that was very healthy for the band because, I don’t know if you realize it, but every album we do is a little bit different. We try to cover all different pieces of music.
I know A Tab in the Ocean is gonna be remastered next, and they’re gonna do that in 5.1, which I’m looking forward to hearing. I know that Down to Earth is the next one after that that they’re gonna do. Somewhere in the archives is a copy of P.P. Arnold, who played with Pink Floyd, singing “Little Boy”. She loved the song and said, “I’d like to sing it.”, so we recorded it. I’m hoping that we can put that out for her when the time comes to do that album. I know it’s in there because I know we recorded it.
What does the rest of 2024 and going into 2025 have in store for Nektar?
DMM: We’ve just come back from the UK. That UK show was supposed to be our last in the UK and Europe because we never had enough money to go over there and play. But there’s so much interest in us going over there and playing that I think we’re gonna try and put a tour together in Europe for next year. I wanna do a couple more tours here to boost the album. In fact, I’ve started looking at that now I’m back. I had a call from David Sanchez’s son from Pavlov’s Dog. They’re interested in doing some shows with us, so I’m gonna talk to them and see what they wanna do. I certainly remember it being a good mesh at the time. I’d like to find another one or two bands to play with so we could go out as two or three bands and each band will draw their own people and introduce fans to the other bands, which is how we used to do it in Europe. I wanna try that.
I’m based in Chicago. If I remember correctly, weren’t Pavlov’s Dog based in Missouri? That wouldn’t be a bad drive at all.
DMM: St. Louis! Right, I’m hoping we can do something. I obviously don’t want to be on the road all the time, but I’d like to do two or three tours next year, maybe 10-15 dates each. We’ll see. The furthest west we’ve gone is Kansas City and Milwaukee. I’d like to get out to the west coast, but it’s very difficult to get out there. Nobody wants to pay you to go there and we’re not in a position where we can draw a lot of people to make it worthwhile. Again, I’m gonna go for playing with other bands. That’s the plan, anyway.
We’re doing a lot of publicity. This new album is getting a lot of interest. “I’ll Let You In” is getting played heavily on Christian stations. All of it’s getting played on college stations, which is where we need to be. And it’s getting played on rock stations! It’s not even out on vinyl yet and it’s doing well. Deko Entertainment have been great. They’re really, really good. They have a feel for what they want, and they show up! They show up at gigs, they come to the rehearsals. They’re interested in the band. It’s not like you’re on a record label and they don’t even know who you are. We talk to them every couple of days. I think this album stands a chance of doing something.
The new Nektar album, Mission to Mars, is available now on Deko Music. For more information on Nektar, visit www.nektarsmusic.com.