Music > Interviews
Interview with We Were Promised Jetpacks
02/12/11
In Outline’s experience, We Were Promised Jetpacks have been notoriously difficult to get hold of; two years back we tried chasing them down on an intermittent phone signal as they made their way across the American mid-west, only for us to have a lengthy chat with now-famous tour manager, Esteban. We’ve waited late into the evening, tried to nab them between shows, and it’s all indication to something very clear – they are a band that work, tour, work, tour very hard. Between their gruelling schedule, they’ve managed to bring a second album to the surface, a more expansive version of the first and amassed a league of loyal followers to the Scottish band’s movements. We take some of Mike’s time to find out what’s been happening two years later…
From our last interview, I know that you only ever tended to agree with reviews that were pretty average – you couldn’t accept the truly positive ones; two years on, do you believe in the reaction more? No not really. We thought it was an OK album, so we only really agreed with the people who shared our thoughts on it!
‘These Four Walls’ took quite a long time to come out – you had mixing problems and other delays. How did your experience help in the making of ‘In the Pit of the Stomach’? It helped a lot. It meant that we were able to learn from our mistakes and really focus on getting it the way we wanted it to sound from the beginning.
You went to Sigur Ros’ Sundlaugin Studios in Iceland to record the follow up – tell us a little about your time there. It was great. It's a really great studio and we were staying next door, so we could work the hours we wanted to work and, like I said, really focus on getting things done.
It seems that on a couple of songs – ‘Hard to Remember’ springs to instantly to mind - you’ve pushed the song structures more on this album. Did you consciously scratch away at your own perimeters? No, we don't really do anything consciously. We tend to let things like that happen naturally!
The songs have retained your inimitable pace and vigour though on nearly all of the songs. Do all the songs start off with such high energy? We knew from the beginning that we wanted this album to be like that – quite energetic and powerful. There are a few songs we wrote for the record that are less energetic but those are the ones we chose to leave off.
‘Sore Thumb’ hints at further explorations of your sound. It’s often exposing to bring the pace down, but I imagine your experience has given you the confidence to do that? Yes, that was, again, something that came about pretty naturally. When we were writing, that just kind of happened. We didn't sit down and decide that we were confident enough to try bringing the pace down, but I guess we were on some level!
You’ve just played some more US dates – you’ve built some good history there now. How does the reaction compare to the UK? Well more people come along (coming from a tiny island you forget just how many people there are over there!) so it feels a little different in some ways, but people are people everywhere so the reaction tends to be kind of the same.
You appeared on the Carson Daly show in the US – is that the same kind of game changer that, say, Jools Holland is in the UK? Will it raise your profile dramatically?If we've learned anything from being in a band for a few years it's that nothing is a game changer. They don't exist! We're delighted to be on the show and we're dead proud that they asked us and cared enough to put us on their show, but we don't think about our “profile” very much!
You toured with Jimmy Eat World recently, who have carried a cult following since the ‘90s – you must carry some affection for their early songs – what was it like touring with them?It was really fun. We got to play to thousands of people in amazing theatres for 30 minutes, then be done by 9pm and get drunk and watch Jimmy Eat World!
Last time we spoke, you were having trouble getting your songs on Spotify – now we can talk of your songs appearing all over film and television; are you chuffed to have your music published onto different shows and films?Yeah it can be pretty cool having a song in a film or on TV. That's pretty much the only way you can make money as a band our size. It's not a lot, but it's pretty cool to have a song in a movie that has Stephan Merchant and J. B. Smoove in it.
I’ve read that you’re still playing venues that hold 3-400 people, which isn’t financially as viable as you’d like it to be. What are your aspirations for the band?It's not very rock and roll, but we'd like to have a little bit of money. Just a small amount! Enough to be able to move out of our parents houses and eat food. That's as far as our aspirations go.
Do you have any memories of playing Norwich last time? If not, what would you like from your Norwich audience?I do, but I remember because my amp wasn't working properly last time, so that's not really a good memory. But we've been getting a lot of people shouting stuff recently. We don't like that very much. If the song goes quiet it's because it's supposed to be quiet, not to give people a chance to shout things at us! But I'm sure Norwich will be as friendly as last time!
Emma Garwood
We Were Promised Jetpacks make a welcome return to the Norwich Arts Centre on December 5th, with support from Let’s Buy Happiness. For tickets, go to www.norwichartscentre.co.uk or call 01603 660352.