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Featured interviews

FRANK TURNER: He's a sensitive soul. [Read more]

CANCER BATS: Chaos tastes like beard-bro sandwiches. [Read more]

ANGELS AND AIRWAVES: Tom DeLonge believes Modlife is the future of music. He might be right. [Read more]

ILAN RUBIN (THE NEW REGIME): The new Nine Inch Nails drummer is planning a coup of his own [Read more]

MARK HOPPUS: Musician, podcaster, producer, non-believer in unicorns ("They break my heart.") [Read more]

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Thursday, June 21, 2007

IMExclusive: JET interview @ the New Majestic Hotel, 19 June 2007

Lesson #1: Know your audience.

For all the flimsy comparisons made to Australian rock outfit Jet -from their 'garage' sound to their looks- just because they supposedly "ripped off everybody's favourite old school rock bands" on their 2003 debut album "Get Born", you'd know better than to tread on topics that have been discussed to death. Especially when the Oz sensations are clearly tired of being compared to Brit contemporaries Oasis for simply having brothers in the same band. Or if both sets of siblings happen to be huge Beatles fans.

"Lazy journalism" is what they call it. Can you blame them?

"Hello ladies", drawled a very polite Nic Cester, as we took our seats in an ultra-hip, cantonese restaurant across Chinatown. Piercing blue eyes, stylishly decked out in his grunge rocker garb, the frontman appeared not to have enough sleep. The result of partying too much? Jet lag? (I make the worst puns.) We first do a little catch-up with Cester: how has the band progressed since the infectious "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" was featured on an Apple iPod advertisement back in 2003?

"I think...in confidence? And in life experiences. In the past years of how much we've been together as a band, the experiences that we've accumulated are quite perhaps, 12 years, you know? 'Cos everything is so condensed, and the speed at which we move…we've been around the world 6 times, we've seen a lot of crazy shit and we've been to a lot of amazing places. There's a lot to be seen, a lot to be drawn from. I think we've matured a lot as individuals, as people and as musicians and as songwriters."

Though Jet's 2006 sophomore effort "Shine On" saw lackluster album sales, coupled with the fast-shortening life span of the sad compact disc, the band is in no hurry to get back into the recording studio - at least not until after the UK leg of their exhausting 11-month tour schedule and a few gasps of fresh air in between. "[We've got] some little bits, but touring takes up so much of our schedule that it's so difficult. And when we focus on something, 100% of our attention goes into whatever we are doing at that point. If it's touring, [then] it's touring. There are always some ideas floating around but…until the eye of the band shifts on that, it'll remain as ideas and concepts rather than finished songs."

Speaking of concepts, given the popular trend of "concept" albums with bands subjecting themselves to the extremity of suffering in order to be, uh, creative (hello Gerard Way), would it be something the band might consider bringing to the table for album no. 3? "It's interesting. I was...I have to think about this 'cos I'm not really sure. I hope for my own sake that no is the answer. But...(long pause) I don't know. I think it depends on the style. I mean, if you're a…um, balladeer, if you're writing very emotional kinds of music, then I think...(looks thoughtful) I don't know. I think there's something about human nature that you always tend to remember unhappy times rather than happy ones. You have more unhappy memories than happy memories. It's something about human nature. I don't know why that is the case but it is unfortunate (chuckles uneasily). Yeah. So to answer your question, I do find it easy to draw on personal, trying circumstances and I think that's the challenge, you know? It is through the overcoming of challenges that a lot of advancements are made on…you're pushing yourself and maybe that's why..." He gives up thinking. "That's an interesting question. I don't really know..." Guess we'll just have to wait and see, then.

Where bands on major labels are concerned, it's often a case of "if you can't beat them, join them", hence the term selling-out. For a band breaking into the US market, it can be hard to keep themselves grounded and not whore themselves out in a place flooded with endless opportunities. Not Jet. Not Cester, who has learnt an important lesson from a good deal of time spent working with egotistical industry creeps: "It's easy to become caught up in your own success, but it takes a bit of strength of character to recognize things for what they are. The fundamental lesson that I've learnt the last few years is that in the pursuit of what we originally thought was greatness, happiness isn't necessarily going to come along with that. But in the pursuit of happiness, it is quite possible to achieve greatness that way. Not vice versa, you know?" He pauses before adding on -as if confounded to what he just said-, "That's pretty fucking philosophical."

Throughout the interview, Cester displayed none of the rockstar attitude we were expecting initially. He was surprisingly obliging even, considering the handful of daft –and I'm putting it nicely– questions from the rest of the table. Get a hint, people. And like the typical rock musician, he litters his at-times choppy sentences with a fair amount of the F-word. Cester is evidently still searching for answers, but he's doing just fine figuring out life’s mysteries on his own. Thanks for asking, anyway.

Throw a stone into the pool of musicians hogging the music centrestage today and there's a high chance you'll hit indistinguishable [insert popular band names] wannabes who are really the ones ripping off each other’s sound. But you know Jet from that iPod commercial. And that was four years ago. One hit single that got millions up on their feet. You'd think they'll be grateful for the plug? Think again. Once, they were lucky. But they didn't sell out. They could have, but they did not. This band is not about shiny multi-platinum records. This band is not about being cool by following the latest trend. This band had to work hard to get to where they are now. Ever wonder why hard work is seldom mentioned? Because music isn’t what it used to be anymore. A sick world, isn't it?

Read the lyrics on "Shine On". Every song has a real life experience behind it. Read again. The fact is, nobody has the balls to make an honest, rock n roll record anymore. Is it so wrong to be influenced by AC/DC in your music? If you elitists still think they have no identity of their own, then go ahead and jump on the Pitchfork bandwagon. This band is too busy rocking out to care.

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Much thanks goes out to Evelyn for making this possible! We owe you one :)

Labels: Exclusive, Interview, Jet