In this interview for KGNU, DJ Umo 1 speaks with Zee Desmondes, singer-songwriter and one half of the R&B/soul duo The Jack Moves. Zee reflects on his musical beginnings, from childhood guitar lessons to self-taught piano and recent vocal training. He shares how he met bandmate Teddy Becks through New York’s skate and music scenes, eventually forming The Jack Moves and releasing their debut single independently. The conversation highlights the group’s DIY roots, their blend of soul and hip-hop influences, and their recent recording experience in Mexico City. Zee also touches on his creative process, musical inspirations—from Marvin Gaye to obscure soul acts. (Interview: 3/20/25)

DJ Umo 1: My guest today is singer-songwriter and half of the R&B/soul group The Jack Moves. I’m on the phone with Zee Desmondes. How are you doing?

Zee Desmondes: I’m great.

DJ Umo 1: Let’s start by talking about you. Did you go to school to study music?

Zee Desmondes: I only started taking guitar lessons when I was maybe around 10 or 11, and I did that for maybe three or four years. I put it down for a while and then picked it up again when I was like 18 or 19. After that, I was just teaching myself guitar and a little piano — and that’s pretty much it. Only in the past couple of years have I had any formal music education — I’ve been taking vocal lessons to help with live performance initially, but it’s really helped all around. I go to a really great vocal coach in New York that I was lucky enough to be put in contact with. And that’s pretty much it.

DJ Umo 1: So, The Jack Moves have been around for about 15 years now. Could you talk about how you and Teddy, the drummer from The Jack Moves, met and how it all became a band?

Zee Desmondes: Yeah. Well, when I got out of high school, I moved to New York City with an older friend of mine who was already living in the East Village. He was a skateboarder, and Teddy was a skater too. They connected through skating, but they were both also into making beats. Teddy had been making beats on a PC for a couple of years at that point, and he was already really good at it. He would come by our apartment, and they’d mess around with the MPC, listen to records, and from the minute I first heard some of those early Teddy Becks beats, I really responded to them. They were really good. As I got more into beat-making and music, I just started hanging around Teddy more. We were working on different projects — mostly his stuff. He was also rapping at the time a little bit. I had gone to film school, so I was making visuals for him. We were spending a lot of time together on that stuff. Eventually, that transitioned into us jamming on instruments, covering soul songs and stuff we had gotten into — like rare soul singles. Eventually, we recorded a cover that we felt good enough about to release. That was our first single, “Fool for You,” which is a cover of The Legends. We put that out in 2010.

DJ Umo 1: Nice. That was on the Wax Poetics label, right?

Zee Desmondes: No, actually, we put that out on our own label. We made up a label called Full-Time Records and pressed it ourselves through this pressing plant that used to exist in Newark, New Jersey — I think it was called Sun Plastics or something like that. We made like 500 records and just biked around New York City with a box of them, going store to store trying to get shop owners to listen and take a few. It was actually pretty successful because one of the stores we went into a really good record store in the East Village, I think on Seventh or Sixth Street was called Good Records. The guy, John, who ran the place, was really knowledgeable and into soul and R&B. He had another guy working there, Tom, who was also a producer. We left a record with them, and they gave us that classic record store vibe — “we’ll listen to it, not sure if we can accommodate you.” But they ended up calling us later, or maybe wrote an article on their blog — and they were blown away by the record. They were really digging it. That kind of kickstarted everything — it got us a little attention from a distributor, a guy who worked at KCH Records, and eventually people from Wax Poetics got hip to it too. That was our first little bit of buzz. From there, we eventually signed a deal with Wax Poetics. I mean, there were a few years between that first 45 and when we did a full record with them, during which we were doing other stuff and working with some old-timers. But more or less, that was the highlight.

DJ Umo 1: Nice, man. So, you recorded a new album in Mexico City recently. Can you talk about that a little?

Zee Desmondes: Yeah, yeah. This new album we’re about to put out was produced by musician and producer Don Joe Doki. We had lightly known Don over the years — we were label mates at Everloving, though not really at the same time. He had put out some records there a few years back, and that’s how we ended up on each other’s radar. When we were releasing our last record, Cruiserweight, he reached out to me through Instagram and said, “Your songs are beautiful. I’d love to produce an album for you.” That sounded like a great idea to me — he’s a really talented dude, and I knew he was based in Mexico City. I’d always been kind of romantic about the idea of recording somewhere outside your usual environment to get inspired. So I was trying to figure out how we could go down there, work at his studio, and make it all make sense. Thankfully, our label was into the idea too, and they sent us down for a month to work on this record. It was an incredible experience.

DJ Umo 1: Can you describe your creative process when composing or arranging music? You mentioned traveling gives you inspiration, but what else?

Zee Desmondes: It unfolds in different ways, but one way I think about it is that songs are kind of just out there in the ether, and you just sort of discover them. They come at random times, and for me, it’s about staying open and receptive. Little ideas — not full songs, but the seeds — will come while sitting at the end of a street looking at the ocean, or when I was painting someone’s house, or just sitting at a piano fumbling around with chords. We’ll take those little seeds and Teddy and I will get together and play with them — he’ll lay a beat, we’ll try different rhythms, listen to the changes, and just nurture it to see if it becomes something. Same with him — sometimes he’ll come to the studio with a bassline in his head and hum it to me. We’ll play around with different chords on top and just experiment. A lot of times you’re just waiting to see if something blossoms. Then maybe lyrics will come, or they’ll emerge organically. More lately, we’ve been working with other musicians who bring in their own ideas too. It’s the same process — we jam on it, nurture it, and see if it grows into something. A lot of times, half the stuff doesn’t fully connect. Some songs sit in a folder for years, and you come back to them and hear something new. I think that’s interesting — maybe it just wasn’t the time for that idea to sprout. Doesn’t mean it won’t.

DJ Umo 1: So I noticed hip-hop has influenced you guys — you keep mentioning Teddy making beats. I like how you’re a soul/R&B group but you’ve got hip-hop elements in there. Was that intentional from the start?

Zee Desmondes: I don’t think it was planned. Nothing about the start of our band was planned. When Teddy and I first started, we were just messing around and having fun. At that time, there wasn’t really a soul/R&B scene like there is now. Maybe the only person putting things out even close to what we were doing was Mayer Hawthorne — and even that was after we had already started. There was no blueprint for what we were making, but hip-hop is just naturally part of our DNA. I wouldn’t say I’m a hip-hop head, but I love it — I grew up listening to it. Teddy is definitely a hip-hop head, and we connected on that. Hip-hop takes so much from soul and R&B through sampling and drum breaks — it’s a recycling circle. We take it from hip-hop and ring it back through the soul/R&B lens, with some attitude and sensibility. So, no plan — but it was definitely inevitable.

DJ Umo 1: What musicians or artists inspired you to make music?

Zee Desmondes: The obvious heavyweights — Marvin Gaye, Bob Dylan. I’m speaking for myself here — I’m sure Teddy would have his own list. I was really into Jeff Buckley for a while. I love classical music — Tchaikovsky, Ravel, Chopin. I’ve been an obsessive music listener since I was a little boy. But in terms of The Jack Moves, what really inspired that project were the obscure, semi-unknown soul/R&B musicians — most of them don’t even have Wikipedia pages. Artists like The Implements or Top Shelf — these one- or two-single groups that Teddy and I discovered — were so influential. It’s sad because they deserved way more recognition and praise than they got.

DJ Umo 1: All right, man. Well, thanks for calling in. Do you have any final words for the interview?

Zee Desmondes: Yeah — shout out to Denver for always being receptive to The Jack Moves. Shout out to my partner Teddy Becks, to my family, my lady — shout out to everyone, man. It’s crazy times. I’m hoping everyone has a prosperous and peaceful year. Shout out to the Almighty.

DJ Umo 1: Right on. That was my interview with Zee from The Jack Moves. Once again, thank you for letting me do that interview, Zee.