Jet

Wed 11th Nov, 2009 in Features

How many Australian bands could sell a million copies of an album and still have it declared a failure? Only Jet. After the band’s monstrous debut, Get Born, the follow-up just couldn’t scale those same heights.

“Bands all over the world would give their left testicle to sell one million copies like we did with Shine On,” says drummer Chris Cester, who is currently on tour in the US, the place he’s called home since 2004. ”[The critics] gave us confidence to play our own game.”

Despite each member living in different corners of the globe, Jet has fired back with Shaka Rock. No matter what anyone says, it was a complete success for the band before even one CD was sold.

“We’ve finally started down the path of making music that’s of our own construction,” Cester affirms. “We had our dirty little fingers in every part of the creation of Shaka Rock. We’re just four people who write music about our lives. You can’t affect the results of that. You’ve just got to keep your head down and make your music.”

No doubt they now drum to their own beat. But back when it all began for Jet, Australian record companies came looking for the next big thing. Cester knows being in the right place at the right time assisted the band’s success. “There we were. We wrote songs and I think a lot of bands focused on getting their haircuts right. And that’s why they’ve all disappeared.”

She’s A Genius, the first single from Shaka Rock, sees Jet returning to the no-nonsense rock that made their name. “I had just gotten out of a serious relationship that almost sent me to the loony house to be honest,” Cester says of the song. “It’s funny, a lot of people are going to go on and assume it’s about the perfect girl or something, but there’s a healthy amount of the girl you should be terrified of in there as well.”

Cester admits that growing up under the spotlight can have an effect on the band, and that they’ve now learnt you can only really please yourself. “That’s an unfortunate thing when your ego gets out of proportion, but what do you expect when you’re 21-years-old and you’ve sold 5 million records? It’s a pretty wild ride and it’s going to change you.”

Having experienced so much together, the members of Jet find living in different countries the best way to exist. “We’re all really different and we need to get away from each other for inspiration every time we write a record,” he says. “I don’t think it would work if we lived in the same country. We naturally drifted away from each other, which kind of looks and reeks of a band that doesn’t get along, but I think it was more natural really.”

In the early days, the band even had their set interview-pairings – coined – œFire and Ice’ and – œChalk and Cheese’ – to avoid disastrous mixes. “When we started doing interviews for the first time, I would run my mouth a little bit; fire off at people who probably deserved it. These days, the only real rule is that Nick and I don’t do interviews together. We really are fire and cheese, I think.”

Chris and Nick went through the grief of their father’s death, which was reflected on the – œblack hole’ record in Shine On that maybe fans just didn’t understand. The dark times severely impacted on the band and the ability to make more music.

“It was horrible,” Cester concedes. “Emotionally I don’t think anyone felt like making a record again. We secretly had doubts about Jet making another album again. And it was real. It was even difficult to have a conversation, even if we were in the same room and there to have a conversation, we weren’t having them.”

The lively personality of Shaka Rock producer Chris – œFrenchie’ Smith was just the influence needed to get Jet back off the ground. “Big names come attached with enormous egos and we’ve experienced that already. What we wanted was just an excitable lover of rock – œn roll who was passionate enough to get us excited about music again. He got us off the couch. He had some pretty insane dance moves and he inspired us to get the level of energy out of the record that we needed at this point in our careers.”

The three Jet albums have each been spaced by three years, but the fourth is set to launch quicker than you may expect. “New album coming out next week!” Cester jokes. “A lot of tragedy has been involved in that spacing out in between the albums. And tragedies that grew like a weird cancer on the psyche of band that made things really difficult.

“There’s very welcoming and uncharted waters (at the moment) of having no problems at all with each other personally or musically. So I expect the next Jet record to be the best Jet record we’ve ever made and to come faster than any of them.”

Shaka Rock is out now through EMI. Jet has just been announced to play Big Day Out 2010, following a couple of headline shows next month.

Friday 4th December – Metro, Sydney
Saturday 5th December – Homebake Festival (SOLD OUT)
Wednesday 9th December – The Palace Theatre, Melbourne
Sunday 17 January – BDO Brisbane
Friday 22 January – BDO Sydney
Saturday 23 January – BDO Sydney (2nd show)
Tuesday 26 January – BDO Melbourne
Friday 29 January – BDO Adelaide
Sunday 31 January – BDO Perth