Mystery Jets

One of the less orthodox bands spawned by the post-Libertines London music scene, the Mystery Jets started at the end of the last century when Blaine Harrison and his dad, Henry, formed a band together. Soon joined by Blaine’s schoolfriends Kai and Will, the band recruited drummer Kapil and started staging gigs in a crumbling hotel ballroom on Eel Pie Island. A new scene rapidly grew up around the Eel Pie shows, giving artists like Jamie T an opportunity to play their first gigs. The final Eel Pie party was attended by over 600 people, but by then the band had signed to 679 Recordings, appearing on Top Of The Pops, releasing a handful of singles and one album, ‘Making Dens’ and spending almost two years on a tour that took in Europe, the US and Japan, including a stint on the road with Arctic Monkeys on the NME Awards Tour in 2006. The last we heard of them was when they hosted a tribute night to their hero Syd Barrett at Islington’s Union Chapel, but for the last two they’ve been busy preparing their second album for us.

Produced predominately by DJ legend Erol Alkan – tipped to be producing the new Franz Ferdinand album – and with one track, ‘Half In Love With Elizabeth’ helmed by veteran British producer Stephen Street, ‘Twenty One’ is a huge stylistic and emotional leap forward for the band. Now no longer residents of the West London scene that they helped to found with their Eel Pie Island parties, The Mystery Jets have spread their wings in style on their second record.

“I love what we did on ‘Making Dens’,” says Blaine “but it’s almost like we were wearing other people’s clothes on it. It was really just a collection of songs that we’d been playing live – we were young and we didn’t really worry about how it was going to hang together. On this album we’ve learnt what our limitations are and what we can do.”

Largely abandoning the prog-influenced weirdness of their debut album, ‘Twenty One’ is a sleek collection of oddball pop born of Erol’s willingness to road-test new tracks at his now-defunct Trash night. 

“We’d done a track called ‘On My Feet’” says Blaine “and I had it in my back pocket and I was in the club and Kapil dared me to give it to Erol. So I went up to him and three songs later he played it – he didn’t even listen to it first, even though the songs starts with a 50 second acapella. And I was just standing on the side and watching the dancefloor empty. But Erol loved it. So as we’d record songs we’d bring them in and give them to him and he’d play them in the club.”

After demoing songs in Kai Fish’s bedroom (“it was pretty cosy” says the bassist), the band moved in to Erol’s studio flat on London’s Holloway Road (“just up the road from where Joe Meek had his studio” laughs Blaine) before heading to Ray Davies’ Konk studios in Hornsey. “Konk’s a weird place – people say it’s haunted,” jokes William.

The first fruits of the band’s collaboration with Alkan appeared in December 2006, when they gave away copies of a limited-edition vinyl-only seven inch with ‘Umbrellahead ’ and ‘Half In Love With The Radio’ on to MySpace competition winners. The two tracks were originally supposed to be part of an acoustic EP, but the band decided that they marked an important transition between the young proggers of ‘Making Dens’ and what the group were rapidly becoming.

“People assume that because Erol ran a club for ten years that we’d produce an album full of synth basses or something” says Blaine. “But it’s not that at all. He was just full of energy and instinctive ability. There were tracks on ‘Making Dens’ that had hundreds of keyboard parts or guitar parts. One of the first things that Erol said to us was to keep things simple.”

One of the reasons for keeping things simple was that the band wanted to concentrate on the art of writing pop songs, rather than throwing songs together as studio jams as they had done previously. The inspiration for this came from a source that many people might be surpised by, especially considering the Mystery Jets’ former reputation as saucer-eyed Pink Floyd fans.

“Basically one of the few things that we all agree on is Michael Jackson” says Kai, “especially the stuff produced by Quincy Jones. We’re all loving ‘80s power ballads too. Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Dancing In The Dark’. Phil Collins. Phil Collins is the king of the break-up song. You can’t deny that he can write great pop songs – simple, direct with great hooks and loud drums.”

“There’s one song on the album, ‘Two Doors Down’ that’s inspired by Aztec Camera and Phil Collins” furthers Blaine. “Really glossy ‘80s production. It’s got a sax solo that could’ve been on a Wet Wet Wet record and the keyboard sound was inspired by Roxette…”
“…it’s basically 11 o’clock to 1 o’clock on Magic FM” laughs Will. “That was the feeling we were going for.”

Another major change in the band was the departure of Henry Harrison from the band. Although Henry is still heavily involved in the writing and recording of their music, live the Mystery Jets are now a quartet.

“For our first record, we did the music and Henry did the lyrics,” explains Blaine. “But on this album there’s been a lot more collaboration – different people wrote different songs and lyrics.”
The Henry-less band headed out on a US tour with friends Klaxons at the end of last year. “I think that we have a lot in common with Klaxons” says Will. “We both write pop songs but dress them up in a really weird way.”
 “We’re obviously much younger than Henry and we decided that we wanted to go out into the world as a young band without his guidance and experience” says Kai

This theme of youth is both the inspiration for the album’s title and part of its genesis. When the band took off, the Mystery Jets were all teenagers. Now, after almost three years as a signed band they have life experience to draw on.
“21 is a landmark age” explains Will. “Everyone talks about it as being the best year of your life - you’re grown up enough to not be a foolish adolescent but you’re still young enough to go into things with a certain enthusiasm. And there’s a flipside to it: there are songs on this new record about having your heart broken for the first time.”  

This new emotional depth dovetails neatly with the band’s raised musical ambition on the steamrollering rhythms of flyer single ‘Young Love’. Featuring their catchiest chorus and a spine-tingling vocal from new London folk singer Laura Marling, its tale of a one-night stand is also remarkable for the richness of Blaine’s voice. Likewise ‘Flakes’ – a free download before Christmas – where the spare arrangement and Blaine’s near doo-wop vocals showcase a band learning exactly what they’re capable of, and being palpably thrilled by the results.

“We thought that this album would be like The Clash – we’d walk in there and just do it all straight off” explains Blaine. “But it was hard work. It was definitely a difficult second album. In the end, though, we learnt a lot about what kind of band we are – we’re not just this Pink Floyd-influenced progressive group with big instrumentals and choral harmonies.”

“They’re songs that we believe in” says Kai. “Not just now but for the rest of our lives.

Mystery Jets are:
Blaine Harrison - Lead vocals, percussion, keyboards, effects
Henry Harrison - Vocals, guitar, percussion, keyboards
Kapil Trivedi - Drums
William Rees - Vocals, lead guitar, percussion
Kai Fish - Vocals, bass guitar, guitar

‘Twenty One’ is out on sixsevennine on March 24 2008