JET by Craig Ablitt
“Jet are about camaraderie. We don’t take ourselves seriously although we take the music very seriously! We have a laugh that’s it, nothing else.” Welcome back to the world of Jet, probably the most unashamed rock and roll band on the planet who care for nothing but rock and roll. Guitarist Cameron Muncey has just landed in London ahead of the band’s upcoming world tour and is in buoyant mood on the back of the release of album number two Shine On which he hopes will see the Aussie rockers conquer the world.
“It feels really great to be back again,” he says from his Camden living quarters. “I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved with this record. ‘Put Your Money Where Your Mouth is’, is just a sign of what’s to come. Listen out for ‘Shiny Magazine’, I’d have to say that’s as good as anything we’ve ever done,” he says sounding very happy with himself.
Happy is what he should be. After the monumental success of debut album Get Born and in particular worldwide hit ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl?’ the band were launched into rock and roll’s elite with success finding them in a big way. So now onto so-called difficult album number two. How difficult was it to perform under the shadow of success? “Yeah it was a difficult one to write and record,” he concedes. “We kept on rising the bar and put pressure on ourselves to pull it through. Everything just seemed to take twice as long because we kept on opening pandora’s boxes and each time we did that we had to delve into these new ideas and see where we could take them.”
Listening to the record you can see where he is coming from. Although the record is undoubtedly rock and roll in nature, the band has bought more musical elements into the equation, which Muncey explains further. “There was so much experimenting going on in the studio. Yes, it’s a rock and roll record but on some tracks we’ve brought in gospel choirs, strings and more keyboards, I think it will surprise a lot of people,” he remarks.
“It feels really great to be back again,” he says from his Camden living quarters. “I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved with this record. ‘Put Your Money Where Your Mouth is’, is just a sign of what’s to come. Listen out for ‘Shiny Magazine’, I’d have to say that’s as good as anything we’ve ever done,” he says sounding very happy with himself.
Happy is what he should be. After the monumental success of debut album Get Born and in particular worldwide hit ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl?’ the band were launched into rock and roll’s elite with success finding them in a big way. So now onto so-called difficult album number two. How difficult was it to perform under the shadow of success? “Yeah it was a difficult one to write and record,” he concedes. “We kept on rising the bar and put pressure on ourselves to pull it through. Everything just seemed to take twice as long because we kept on opening pandora’s boxes and each time we did that we had to delve into these new ideas and see where we could take them.”
Listening to the record you can see where he is coming from. Although the record is undoubtedly rock and roll in nature, the band has bought more musical elements into the equation, which Muncey explains further. “There was so much experimenting going on in the studio. Yes, it’s a rock and roll record but on some tracks we’ve brought in gospel choirs, strings and more keyboards, I think it will surprise a lot of people,” he remarks.
Although this record has seen Jet tamper slightly with their sound, they have always been on the receiving end of critics claiming that their music was overly derivative of 1960’s and 70’s rock acts, something Muncey brushes aside. “We just juggle around with the sounds that we love and we’re not afraid to wear our influences on our sleeves,” he states. “People call it derivative, but we just know what we like and what we don’t. We’re just recycling some of the things that we love and we’re the only band on the planet who do it well,” he says confidently.Some have even labelled the band ‘the most British Australian Band of all time,’ something that again does not bother the Jet guitarist. “I think the only British band that actually had a massive effect on me were The Beatles. Sure there are a number of great British bands but we never set out to be some sort of carbon copy,” he answers back. “What we take from The Beatles is that good approach to music which is more to do with the melody than the actual lyrics or meaning behind a song. Jet definitely take a melody led approach every time,” he affirms.
Influences aside, something that has had a dramatic effect on the writing for this album was the untimely death of lead singer Nic Cester and brother Chris’ father in 2004. “I think their father’s death was something that made the last two years kind of surreal,” he sighs. “It was definitely something that affected the amount of time it took to release this record. There are a couple of songs that were written for the guys’ father, ‘Shine On’ being one of them, it’s a really beautiful track. That was a real hard time for everyone involved, but that’s life I’m afraid.”
Moving on in the conversation we steer towards Jet’s imminent world tour and in particular the UK dates happening at the start of November. “I think that in the UK the audiences differ from place to place, but that’s not to say we don’t love playing here because Britain is obviously a nation of definite music lovers,” he compliments.
With a string of huge sold out dates here and a world tour to follow you’d think that physical and mental preparations were needed before heading out on such an expedition. Well in some cases anyway. “You’ve just got to pack an much underwear as possible, that’s all you need to survive on tour,” he says without a hint of a laugh. “As long as you don’t have to start turning things inside out and back to front and smelling like a pig you can face the world with a brave face!”So no sex and drugs and rock and roll then? “You’d have to ask the other guys about that,” he says. “We toured with Oasis and the guys partied quite hard, but I preferred going to dinner than all night drinking sessions, because there’s always a show to play the next day.”
With album number two just released and selling well plus a sold out UK tour in a few weeks surely there can’t be much more to achieve? “We won’t be happy until we headline Madison Square Garden. That’s when you know you’ve made it to the top of the mountain and that’s where we’re aiming for,” he says cockily.
With their meteoric rise to fame, Jet are putting their money where their mouth is, literally.
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