Crack

Will Rees from Mystery Jets is having one of those moments, when the analysis of his band’s achievements comes flooding in.

“We just did one of our best ever gigs at Somerset House, which is a gorgeous venue. That gig felt like the culmination of the last seven years with the launch of our third album and the coming together of all those three records and all the effort that’s gone into them. It all climaxed on that one night. It was really, really special and also the setting is so beautiful you can’t help but feel like a prince when you are walking around there.”

The grandeur of playing at a national monument to a large audience was an extremely poignant moment for the guitarist and the three other band members stood with him.

Mystery Jets have, for a while now, been an excellent pre-cursor to the wave of synthetic pop rock ploughing its way though the charts and airwaves at the moment. The four piece from London’s firm exponents of an arresting melody meant that 2008’s Twenty One, was a contender for catchy album of the year with 11 tracks that could have all been singles and a couple that if listened to more than three times, were scientifically proven to stay in your head forever. This isn’t a bad thing; it was a great record and was criminally under looked in more critical circles.

New album Serotonin is not altogether removed from Twenty One. Serotonin is perhaps less weighted in favour of the jingly-jangly melody and is an altogether more diverse affair. Stand-out single Girl is Gone showcases the band trying a more melancholic approach. The song writing is quite a step up from the previous records.

Will explains: “We want to be a singles band, but we put an immense amount of time and care into making our record. Hopefully we retain an exiting experimental edge to what is essentially a collection of pop songs. Though I think there has been an absolute progression across our three albums. If you listen to all three records it’s quite evident. You can hear our influences changing; you can hear our song writing developing and opening up more

“This is particularly evident on The Girl Is Gone. My feelings for that track are very strong as that’s one that I did with some help from Kai. It’s a very personal track about basically about not being able to communicate properly in a two week period I went through a few years ago when things were very up in the air. I remember walking round London thinking a grand piano was going to fall out of the sky. I felt really on edge as I was coming out of one relationship into another. I’m glad you picked up on it.”

It’s certainly true that ploughing the kind of path Mystery Jets have managed to do so successfully takes skill. In the much-maligned area of pop rock, the line between sounding as polished and credible as Mystery Jets and sounding like Scouting For Girls can be thin. It’s a genre of music that leaves itself wide open for criticism due to the host naff pop music from yesteryear.

Luckily for Mystery Jets, theirs is a brand of music that finds itself right back in fashion due the apparent revival of all things 80s. It’s now alright for bands to make polished music again and the producer has never been more in fashion.

Will outlines the bands’ influences: “We grew up listening to progressive rock bands like Yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer, King Crimson and Pink Floyd. People slag those records off as being pompous, but if you listen to those records they have an inherent pop sensibility. Pink Floyd wrote some incredible pop songs. I challenge anyone out there to write a better pop song than Money.

We then definitely started listening to stuff that was more blatant pop. Things like Aztec Camera. We got into a lot of pop from the 80s, bits of Phil Collins, early Madonna and in particular Tears For Fears, who are an incredible band. Their first album The Hurting, is one of the most criminally overlooked pop records ever. They also had quite an experimental edge to what they do. They messed around a lot with electronic sounds and were very mature sounding. For a lot of people, bands like that have too much production. Too much reverb on the kicks and the snares and for some people it’s too synthetic sounding. If you can look past that there are some amazing tunes there. Human League are a great example of that too.”

Crack is at Dot to Dot at Bristol Academy and Mystery Jets are smashing through their hits intermingled with their new material. The result is a flatteringly seamless transition between the well-known tracks from their first two albums, interspersed with the standout material from the new album. There is never any drop in quality and the set is propelled forward with hook after hook. The band are looking the part in smart vintage clothing and there is a buzz and energy that translates to the audience. Their biggest hit, Two Doors Down, is paired with new track Miracle and it works a treat.

The brilliant thing about Mystery Jets is their ability to retain an awesome sense of cool and musical credibility in a genre of music that often leaves bands for dead. Their London fan base is strong and shows no real sign of slowing down.

“We’ve got a long way to go and a lot of work to do. Our record came out a week ago and it went in at 35 and ended up at 44 in the charts, which is actually alright considering how records do these days and the kind of band we are. But we’re ambitious. We want to sell some records and do two nights at Alexandra Palace. But energy levels are high, so we’ve got to make sure our gigs are as good as they can be and punch above our weight.”

“The bands like us that are on independent labels don’t have the machine of a major label to put posters of them up all over the place and get them on the A-list at Radio 1. You’ve basically got a much harder fight. But I think it’s worth it, as hopefully there is a longer-term career there as we’re on our third album. A lot of bands now seem to have an intense period of success and that’s it. Because of that you wonder if your fan base are going to come to the gigs any more, because without them you’re fucked. But then some bands end up getting massive and staying massive.”

Will is realistic about their chances; though being signed to Rough Trade has managed to keep them ticking over nicely in the London credibility stakes. The band clearly takes heart from this independent streak and it’s something, certainly in London, that doesn’t go unnoticed.

Onstage the camaraderie between Blaine, Kai Will and Kapil on stage is obvious, Crack has never seen a band smile so consistently throughout their gigs and we’re certain that’s not just to do with the upbeat nature of the music.

Will explains: “The rawness of our live show is something we’ve embraced, but also something we don’t have any choice about, because when you get four excited guys together playing live music it’s always going to sound raw. We aren’t ones for just reproducing the record live - that’s really boring. There are people that do that really well and hats off to them, but what is really interesting is adding extra sections or changing arrangements and making it go off more! Emphasising more on the kick or doing things that make the live show more dramatic.”

With a UK tour in September and October, Mystery Jets are set to be the sole reason behind even more smiles and shimmering guitar dreams.



Tune: The Girl Is Gone

http://www.myspace.com/mysteryjets

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