Mystery Jets - Take Off

"Well to do it musically, I´d probably say step 1, find a space which you feel inspired by, step 2 take an instrument which sounds´make the little hairs on the back of your neck stand up, and finally step 3 close your eyes let your fingers play whatever comes to them."

That's Blaine Harrison, the lead singer Mystery Jets telling us how to create a "psychedelic head trip" in 10 steps or less...

The Mystery Jets debut album, Making Dens, has been described as "sure to add a whole new dimension to Britain’s thriving young rock 'n' roll scene... 'Purple Prose' and 'Diamonds in the Dark' are a psychedelic head-trip leading each listener to the peaks of joy and depth of ones misery." their record label, Speak n Spell says.

Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys is quoted as saying “Mystery Jets make me want to sing and dance". So how does Blaine feel about getting the Monkeys (the Arctic ones) singing and dancing?

"We toured with the Arctic boys for a couple of months at the beginning of last year, (on the NME tour and then on their European tour) it was an amazing experience, and I think we became big fans of each others music. It´s always great when fellow musicians are into what your doing, and I know that we feel the same about what the Arctic Monkeys are doing."

Compared to "musical marvels" The Kinks, (early) Pink Floyd and David Bowie, I ask how the Jets feel about the comparisons?

"They have all been big influences on us from a young age, so I can understand how people pick up on this inspiration in our songs. It´s also quite flattering since we feel that they have been some of the most innovative and original artists and songwriters of the last fifty years."

So who are the The Mystery Jets... let it be a mystery no longer!

"The Jets consist of 5 people. There is Kapil, our drummer; Kai who plays the bass and synth bass; William and myself share guitars and keyboards (though he is the better guitarist by a long shot) and Henry (my father) and I write the majority of our lyrics together. I am the lead singer, but much of our music revolves around group vocals so responsibilities are mostly shared," he says.

Does the creative and friendship combine well for this band hailing from Eel Pie Island in Twickenham, London?

"The thing about this band is that four of us have known each other long before we even decided to make music together, which is reassuring. Because I would like to think that, even if we decide we are bored with making music one day in the future, our friendship would survive the wreckage," he says.

"I mean obviously when we were younger (me and William have been playing under the Mystery Jets name since we were 9 year olds), Henry was a central force within the whole thing. He kind of just held it together and clearly loved the excitement of hanging around with teenagers as opposed to people his own age. But we always took the whole thing very seriously, and were very militant about rehearsals," he says.

"Theres never been such a thing as a front man or a leader amongst us really. In different areas we take turns in calling the shots. William for example, is team Myspace leader. He sometimes asks each of us to write blurbs for the band blog, as if he was setting us English homework."

In late September 2006, the Jets put on a tribute show to one of their biggest influences, Syd Barrett. The show, staged at the Union Chapel in Islington, London, included performances by Kid Harpoon, Lupen Crook, Kate Nash, Dan Tracy and the Television Personalties, Drew from Babyshambles, Ben from SixToes, Lucas from the Cazals and, of course, the Mystery Jets. The Show had a special "Fanzine" made for the show with special entry from all the performers and artwork by the bands.

Blaine explains the atmosphere at this gig for those of us not fortunate to be in London at that time.

"Suitably and beautifully shambolic I'd say. Some People turned up with guitars, some turned up with guitars shy of a few strings, some didn’t turn up with guitars at all. Seeing Dan Tracy perform was a bit special as he hadn't played 'ì know where Syd Barret lives' with the TVPs for some time. Kid harpoon had the whole church in the palm of his hand. People sat in the pews, which was unusual for us. But we decided we liked it so much, that we did a whole acoustic tour of the UK soon after, in the same set up. And we got someone to project oil slides all over the altar behind the stage where Henry hung Mick Rock´s portrait of Syd in a life ring."

Described as combining "psychedlia... good rock... yet flirting graciously with a little bit of pop and little bit of dance and soul", I ask how difficult is it to mesh genres and do the Mystery Jets find it always works?

"I think we've always had a thing about never writing the same song twice and repeating ourselves as little as possible. Which, understandably could easily confuse a proportion of our audience. But then if I look at my record collection, There are human league albums placed next to king crimson and ELO albums. So why shouldn’t the music we make slot snugly between all three? I don’t think flirting within music is a bad thing. Talking heads started off as a quirky new wave art project and ended up bridging electronica together with tribal African polyrythms."

So does Blaine think the secret to success is "flirting", in the musical sense.

"I don't think flirting is the secret to success, but I think it is more a way of keeping music fresh and exciting, and can give an element of surprise to the songs, which hopefully makes it more interesting for the listener."

Mystery Jets are planning the follow up release to 'Making Dens', Blaine lets us know when to expect the next potential masterpiece on our music store shelves.

"It looks like we´ll put it out next January, so as to give us the time to make it exactly how we we want it to be. We didn't want to feel rushed with it, and it´s always good to road test new material, which we'll do in America and over the summer," he says.

"The first step is to finish writing and recording the second album. Then we´re off to America for a few weeks to tour the first album, which is just coming out there now. Weve changed a couple of the tracks and have called it 'Zootime'. For the rest of the summer I think we´ll be playing a few festivals, but not as many as last year, and hopefully put out the first single from the album in September."

So when will Australia get to experience Mystery Jets live?

"We can't wait to go over to Australia, especially now the album's just coming out. If there's anyway we can get over there this year then we will, but at worst it will be next year."

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