Burning Bright: Jet

Apparently, absence makes the heart grow fonder.  However, often, this is sadly not true.  Stelios the Greek barman you were going to marry?  A fortnight back in England’s rainy reality made this all a distant, hazy, vodka fuelled dream.  It’s much like music.  This week’s Kaiser Chiefs are next week’s Shed Seven.  When Jet stormed Britain with no nonsense, good old fashioned rock n roll, we welcomed them with open, air guitar-ed arms.  Two years out of the limelight, and it’s suddenly the all too familiar state of ‘oh, the one’s who did… ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl?’’  Well, brace yourselves once again.  Quoted once as claiming they want to ‘reclaim this country piece by piece’, they’re back, they more than mean it, and if Gigwise’s reaction is anything to go by, you can forget everything you think you already know about them.  Cam sums it up: “That’s how we feel about everything we do, we wanna be a massive, massive rock n roll band”

In a swanky Soho bar, illusions are shattered.  Totally unwarranted expectations of beery loudmouths (perhaps a hideous ‘Walkabout’ pub experience is to blame) pour away like the band’s delicately requested peppermint tea refills.  Jet has a dignified poise, stunning eloquence and holds a gravity of wise words and worldly understanding.  As Brits, we’re supposed to love the underdog, ushering could-do-betters and runners-up into our collective, Dunkirk spirited bosom. Jet, on the other hand, appears to have been slightly overlooked in this union-jack blazing tradition.

Cam explains:  “There’s always an element of wanting to be accepted and loved by everybody.  We’ve been critically adored and despised in equal measure, so we’re used to being underdogs I suppose.”  Chris further explains their fruitful yet quiet spot away from the public eye:  “We’ve been gone for so long and we took a long time to get this record together.  It was just because it wasn’t ready and we didn’t wanna come out with something that was kinda half baked.  I think a few bands have made that mistake in the past and we’ve learnt from that.  We raised the bar, and so that took time.”

This is a clean slate: forget ballsy, no-brainier rawk n roll misconceptions.  Ballsy?  Very much so.  As Mark says, typically to the point, “If a whole scene just starts sounding the same people are gonna want something different as well. That’s what we bring to the table.  We’ve always had an attitude of just going out there and just fucking it up” All the rest?  Think again.

Jet are refreshingly open.  Shunning chair shifting, cryptic Doherty avoidance techniques and brazen question dodging, they speak with acceptance on the effect drugs and grief had on their progression when they were making the album.  Chris explains:  “When mine and Nick’s father died there was a little bit of derailment.  We went off the tracks.  From so high to so low in such a short time, how do you deal with that? We definitely had a problem with it for a little while.  We’re not wearing it as a badge of honour as some people do.”  Rather than parading vacant eyes and spinning tabloid yarns, Chris took a dramatically mature stance on their troubles and turned them more than ever to their favour.   “I think the record’s all informed by all the things we’ve gone through, and the music sort of saved the band in a way.”