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JET |
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 On this page:
*Jet interview
*Jet Discography (all available on Whammo)
*Jet International Tour dates
JET- THE WHAMMO INTERVIEW - AUGUST 28, 2003
I watched Jet play an early gig at Sydney’s Hopetoun Hotel and marvelled at the strange people who stood among the enthusiastic crowd; people wearing leather or denim jackets, badges on vests, long matted hair and pointy shoes. They looked familiar. I was sure I’d seen those folks before, sometime back in the late 80s. These strange punters were smiling as Jet slammed skins and strings to arrive at their trademark, unashamedly rock n roll sound. Comb-overs and bald-spots nodded appreciatively, joining the youngsters who had begun to recognise that the inner-city could, once again, be a place where rock thrived; an environment of attitude, snarls and beer rather than the bastion of plastic fashions, fake love and chemicals. The rebels who had suffered a self-imposed exile through dance music’s dominance finally found the courage to join society again and proudly raise their glasses to live music. That gig was a microcosm of the global resurgence of rock n roll and it’s fitting that the same band, Jet, now bears the flag of a long forgotten genre. But the hype – including the alleged $3 million record deal – is a double-edged blade that injects their name into the music media while also threatening to attract severe reactions. While the worth of Jet, the band, is an open and topical debate, the four lads of Australia’s most talked-about act are oblivious to the hype. Firstly, they’re way to busy with constant touring and secondly, their down-to-earth attitudes act as a shield to the transient whims of the media. I recently had the pleasure of talking to Chris Cester (drums). If I’ve ever spoken to a more relaxed, openly honest and charming character, years of self-destruction have erased the memory…
Whammo: Well, it all begins now. I’m sure you guys have been impatient a few times while waiting for this album to come out.
Chris: Yeah, still impatient now, man. It seems to have taken f**king forever. It’s a real drag but that’s the way it goes. What am I gonna do about it?
Whammo: Are you nervous about it?
Chris: Nah, we got over the whole nerves thing a long time ago. That’s been one benefit of having it take so long, that we’ve gone through a lot of the bullshit that other bands have to go through when their record is released. Things about nerves and press and what other people will say: we got that off our chest really early in the piece. In the beginning, definitely, but we’ve been doing it for too long to worry (laughs). You get to a point where you realize you can only do what you do and people are going to buy it or not buy it.
Whammo: Has it been difficult to put the blinkers on and think about the music, with all the hype that’s going on?
Chris: Not really ‘cause we’re generally not the type of guys that believe their own hype. It’s just not in our nature. Me and Nick are brothers and we were brought up in the same house and we have pretty similar opinions about that sort of shit. The other thing is that there’s three songwriters. If one person gets out of line then there’s always two other people to (laughs) pull him back a little bit.
Whammo: (laughs) As long as you’re staying ‘down to earth’, Aussie style.
Chris: Shit yeah and lesser men would have crumbled, believe me.
Whammo: When all the record label scouts were in Melbourne, did you feel it was justified at the time?
Chris: Not with all the bands that they were interested in but I definitely felt that we were justified because we have tunes, we’re songwriters and we have songs with melodies. We grew up on the Beatles and, to be honest, we can’t write a song without one (melody). I think at any time, no matter what’s going on in the record business, it’s an under-rated thing. There are band’s with vibe and bands with cool hair-dos and all that sort of shit but at the end of the day there is a lack of good songwriters. I just saw a band last night: the worse f**king band in the world, called The Agenda. They were just absolute balls but, of course, the English press is all over them. They didn’t have one song among the ten of them on the f**king stage. I was so pissed off. I threw a lit cigarette at the stage. We saw The Pictures play – from Melbourne – and they played before these guys, supporting The Black Keys, which is a pretty prestigious gig. The Pictures played and they were fucking awesome, then on came The Agenda and they were a waste of half an hour. I was just so pissed off because I felt that there were so many better bands that could have taken that slot, and it’s a really f**king important one too.
Whammo: I get frustrated too, hearing every Australian and New Zealand band, and then seeing where the money goes. I consider myself to be pretty outspoken and I don’t care what anyone says about The Vines and what anyone says about you, I now know –after listening to the album – that you’ve got songs. I think that some people don’t listen to the music, they listen to the hype. You’ve written some great songs and with an obviously simple rock approach, that’s going to be highlighted.
Chris: I agree man. I think people that have listened to the hype are people who read those budgie paper magazines. It’s just insane, in theory, to think that a band like us would be getting up ourselves and listening to the hype. It really doesn’t work that way. It’s more about the people who read it and have these ideas. It’s just not on. Anyone who knows us knows that we have the ‘f**k the gig’ approach. It’s fun. It’s so amazing that we’re here and we get to do this. To be uptight about it and to believe your own hype would be so ridiculously…not fun. We’re not up for that kind of crap.
Whammo: After listening to such seminal artists and believing in music, it must be great to finally see that people are ready to listen to rock n roll again.
Chris: Yeah. It’s a good thing. It’s just one of those ‘spinning wheel of rock n roll’ things where it all comes around. It started with The Strokes and thankfully it hasn’t gone away yet. People are still signing rock bands.
Whammo: I was quite surprised by the amount of ballads on Get Born. I thought the more low-key moments would be included for balance but the ballads make up about 30/40% of your repertoire.
Chris: There’s 13 songs on the album and six of them are ballads. It’s almost half of the record. I think a lot of people will be and I want to push for the song Lazy Gun to be the third single, which will surprise a lot of people, I think.
Whammo: Look What You’ve Done is a killer ballad. That one’s got third or fourth single written all over it…or maybe sixth or seventh single, the way you guys are going.
Chris: That’s what I was saying. I thought it was all justified for us because we had the tunes. I always believed in that. The only big-headedness I ever had was that I actually did think our band was really good (laughs). So, I agree; there definitely could be a few singles off this album if people understand it the way I do.
Whammo: You open up with a real bang on the album. For me, I think you capture the energy that’s been missing in rock n roll. You guys know how to pull out all the stops and just go for it. It’s good to hear that old feel where it’s just chugging along like a train.
Chris: Yeah, it was always going to be hard to place those songs on the record because it is half and half and the record had to have some sort of flow to it and you want all the people to listen all the way through. It ebbs and flows in the proper spots.
Whammo: So what’s the plan? You’re going to tour massively in Australia? Have you got the time?
Chris: Yeah, of course. We’re coming back there in December and we’ll do a round of shows before we go to Japan again. It’ll be an end-of-year thing after our American, English and European tours.
Whammo: I guess the real difference between you and some of these other young rock bands that have emerged through the latest trend, is that you rock live.
Chris: And it’s because we’ve been doing this for a long time. We’ve actually been a band for six years, contrary to popular opinion. We’ve got our shit together live and we can follow through on the hype. I think a lot of people here in England sort of want us to fail because it’s been hyped so much but they always end up seeing the band and realising –unfortunately for them – that they can’t really pick too many holes in it. And the other thing is that we never pretend that we’re not massively influenced by the bands that influenced us. So no one can hold the argument that we love AC/DC too much and it comes through in our music, because we know and we’re proud of that.
Whammo: I reckon Get Born is a really interesting mix of your influences, which does make a completely new sound.
Chris: It’s a good approach to have. It’s vicious over here. Because it’s so connected, all the record labels, the press and the bands all have their own favourites and they want to slag off anything else that comes through. No one slags us off because they always come and see the show and they realise that it’s not all hype: the band does have tunes and they rock live.
Whammo: Are you constantly writing music?
Chris: I’ve been writing a shit-load, myself. Nick’s been writing a bit too and Cam’s also done a couple of things here and there. We just haven’t had a chance to all get together in one room and bang them out because we’ve all been massively busy. We’re in a new country every week.
Whammo: I’m afraid of flying; I don’t know how you do it.
Chris: I am too, mate (laughs) and I hate it. They all laugh at me when I get on the plane.
Whammo: Do you always knock back a few drinks before you get on?
Chris: Usually the rule is that we get absolutely smashed the night before we go to the airport and we try to stay up all night. Generally, you’re drunk enough from the night before (laughs). If you don’t go to sleep you just end up sitting there hung over for 8 hours watching shitty movies.
Whammo: I guess that’s why they invented sleeping tablets.
Chris: Nothing can knock me out though (laughs). I hate flying so much. It’s a thing that your body has where I just don’t trust the driver. It’s like sitting in a car. I don’t trust the driver either if I’m not driving it. I need to get my pilot’s license. That’s what I really need to do. Maybe I’ll just get a leer jet or something like that.
Whammo: I can see a black leer-jet.
Chris: Going round like Motley Crue or something?
Whammo: It’s destiny isn’t it? If you guys are going to play rock n roll you’ve got to at least give the image that you’re living it.
Chris: Oh, we are. We’re staying at the Columbia Hotel. It’s this hotel in England. Even all the bands that play at the 5-star hotels come here and drink. It’s like the party hotel. I’m averaging about 3 hours sleep a night.
Whammo: I guess, as you come up through the ranks, a lot of these people you’re meeting are more like peers.
Chris: A lot of the younger bands are but I would never go as far as to call myself a peer of The Rolling Stones, who we played with. You know who your heroes are and who your peers are. It doesn’t matter how big you get, you always know how to separate those two.
Whammo: How involved were the Rolling Stones in actually picking you guys for the support gigs?
Chris: That’s a really good question. A lot of people ask us but it’s hard to know. We got the call from their promoter and we were one of four bands that were suggested to them. When the four bands were suggested, each of them sent a CD along and we were told that Keith Richards and the tour manager listened to all four of them and then picked their favourite. But I didn’t ask Keith if he picked us when I met him (laughs).
Whammo: You were just pretty happy to meet him I guess.
Chris: Yeah, I just shook his hand and had a bit of laugh because that’s what he does: he just laughs all the time. He’s as mad as a hatter.
Whammo: He was saying that Paul McCartney was a wimp for not coming over to do shows and Keith was challenging the terrorists to have a go at his plane on the way over.
Chris: (laughs) It sounds like Keith, doesn’t it?
Whammo: Yeah, tell us what you really think Keith! So, tell us where you’re at now? What are doing tonight?
Chris: Okay, I’ll tell you mate. It’s 1 o’clock in the morning right now and in four hours time a TV crew pick us up from the hotel and we go and do a breakfast TV show and then we do interviews and radio shows all day in London. Then we do a show tonight at Pentonville Prison with a band called The Hiss. They’re fucking great. Noel Gallagher is probably coming down to that show. He loves The Hiss.
Whammo: You guys don’t avoid the fact that you like Oasis as well.
Chris: Nah mate, they’re the last band I got excited about. We met him last time we were out here. He’s a really nice guy actually.
Whammo: Well, I figure he’s ‘the brains’ of the operation.
Chris: Exactly. Liam’s the dumb ass.
Whammo: Be honest. Have you got the girls swooning?
Chris: I’ve got a full-time girlfriend, man.
Whammo: Okay. Well, be very careful then (laughs).
Chris: I’ve never been this into a bird before. It’s a weird thing. I met her in America and it’s perfect because we don’t spend enough time together to get sick of each other. I’m there for a week and then I’m gone for three weeks. So, I’m not really looking around. She’s great.
Whammo: That’s the best possible answer.
Chris: (laughs) Yeah, you can conform to the cliché of being in a rock n roll band but sometimes you get lucky.
Whammo: If someone needs to live the cliché, you can call me.
Chris: (laughs) You can double for me, eh?
Whammo: I’m here for you in that respect. I’m always supportive in that way.
Chris: (laughs) Awesome.
Whammo: (laughs) Well, I’ll let you go. I guess it’s all good as long as you keep your head on your shoulders.
Chris: Yeah, we’ll just have to wait and see now. The record doesn’t belong to us anymore. It belongs to the public now, so they’ll decide. |
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 JET
Add to basket. Normally ships within 10 days $27.95 (US $17.28) (UK £9.66)
cd
The current hype surrounding Jet makes the media frenzy associated with The Vines look like a one-line entry in the local paper's classified section. This Melbourne 4-piece bided their time, shrugged their shoulders at the success of grunge and dance music, worked on an uncompromising sound and hitched a ride with the latest runaway bandwagon; the one driven by The Datsuns, D4, The Vines and The Casanovas. They will succeed - there's no doubt - and stringently simple rock has never been packaged and presented so well. They have the songs, the marketability, the production ‘cred’ (Dave Sardy- Dandy Warhols, Marilyn Manson) and the hopes of a disgruntled generation, alienated by popular music's departure from ‘real’ rock'n'roll. Get Born is exactly what was promised: rebellious, powerful, energetic; an album that ignores any garnishes in favour of the 'main meal'. Last Chance hits the ground running and hints at the intensity of the band's live shows, warming up the uninitiated before the radio-friendly Are You Gonna Be My Girl provides the familiarity of a hit. There's a tender side to Jet that - rather than being token - has developed into a major component of their sound. Songs like Look What You've Done - a Beatles-esque ballad, destined for airwaves - benefit from Jet's depressing time in the wilderness of a confused music industry. How things have changed. If you love rock'n'roll - not grunge or punk or any other abstraction, just the basics - then you can stop salivating and start celebrating. Grab your mothballed leather/denim jacket and brush up on your favourite air-guitar moves: you’re back in style.
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Jet: International Tour Dates
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September
15....Rosebud, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
16....Headliners, Louisville, KY, USA
17....Exit / In Nashville, TN, USA
20....Hyundai Pavilion of G.H. Devore, CA, USA
23....Bash on Ash, Phoenix, AZ, USA
24....Troubadour, Los Angeles, CA, USA
26....The Scene, San Diego, CA, USA
27....Slims, San Francisco, CA, USA
29....Graceland, Seattle, WA, USA
30....Richards On Richards Caberet, Vancouver, BC, CAN
October
1.....Berbati's Pan, Portland, OR, USA
4.....Fox Theater, Boulder, CO, USA
27....QMU, Glasgow, UK
28....Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK
29....Leadmill, Sheffield, UK
30....Liverpool Academy, Liverpool, UK
November
1.....MDH Manchester, UK
2.....Academy 2 Birmingham, UK
3.....Waterfront Norwich, UK
5.....Concord 2 Brighton, UK
6.....Astoria London, UK
7.....Anson Rooms Bristol, UK |
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