Mystery Jets Interview with Blaine Harrison (November 2007)

MYSTERY JETS

by Craig Ablitt

As Thamesbeat capsized into the river claiming the lives of several crew members including Ladyfuzz, Les Incompetents and Larrikin Love, you would probably have found the captains of the vessel; Mystery Jets conquering the mainland with their debut album Making Dens and the immense singles ‘You Can’t Fool Me Dennis’ and ‘The Boy Who Ran Away’. As their London friends ventured into the choppy waters of the music industry never to return, this Eel Pie Island five-piece were snug on the HMS Success as they shared tours with the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Maximo Park and We Are Scientists. With Making Dens, the band came up with twelve songs completely at odds with each other in terms of structure and instrumentation that garnered them praise from the critics and a dedicated fanbase to boot that set them apart from their capital contemporaries. Today, we find frontman Blaine Harrison on his way to the studio as the band put the finishing touches to their eagerly awaited second album produced by dance maestro Erol Alkan; a record Blaine has promised us will be something rather more considered the first.

“I think it’s going to be a more concise record than Making Dens,” he outlines immediately. “The first time round, we wanted to do justice to everything in our heads, but this one is going to be a shorter record with a more consistent sound and one people will want to listen to at least five times in one night when they hear it. I think it’s really going to connect with people, because Erol has helped give it a real all round freshness as well.”

Before people you freak out and expect an Alkan produced record to turn Mystery Jets into another one of a long line crossover electro bands, think again. Although he has produced the nu-ravetastic Late of the Pier’s latest material (and done a stellar job too may we add), Harrison is quick to reassure the Jets’ fanbase that album number two will entertain the Mystery Jets’ eccentricity and new prog identity, not just because he is a great producer, but because there is a side to Alkan that those who don’t know him even existed.

“He’s an indie kid at heart,” says Harrison. “He grew up listening to Blur and Suede, so we used to bring him CDR’s of rough demos we’d done when he was DJing at Trash and he’d just shove them straight on the decks and play them to everyone!” he laughs, still sounding relatively surprised. “I was like; ‘he’s fucking amazing, we have to work with him’. He has this technical nouse, and understood that we use a lot of different instruments, so he’d go away and find us bits of gear to record with. You’ll have to wait and see what it sounds like, but this is not an indie dance crossover record – which we’re glad for, it’s going to be a surprise!”

Thankfully, we won’t have to wait too long to hear the results of the album sessions as the band take to the road to play an incredibly intimate tour to test the new material out on fresh ears. However, Harrison is quick to point out that these forthcoming shows won’t be to celebrate the past, but to turn the page and begin a new chapter in the Mystery Jets’ career path, but surely they’re going to play ‘You Can’t Fool Me Dennis?’at least?

“I think ‘Dennis’ is a gem, but we won’t be playing it much anymore,” he says convincingly. “Maybe one day we’ll play it as a one off to surprise people. It’s not that we don’t like it, we’ve got to the point where we feel like we’ve got to put some of the old material to bed, because I prefer these new songs to the old ones,” he explains. “I know our fanbase isn’t particularly fickle and the people who bought the first album will be people who will be interested in the next one, but our fanbase knows that we have to move on as artists. I just want to play people all this great new material we have written.”