Debut Album By Mystery Jets Out In 679 Recordings...

Album Samples At Juno

Watch Mystery Jets first single of 2006 - "The Boy Who Ran Away"

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Mystery Jets - Alas Agnes (Live @ NME Awards Tour Bristol 13-02-06)

Mystery Jets - You Can't Fool Me Dennis (Live @ NME Tour Bristol 13-02-06)

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Some Early Info By Gig Wise:

It’s 15:30 on a clear January afternoon in Liverpool. As we approach the venue for today’s interview, the air is cool yet sparked with anticipation. To many of the people who already have tickets for tonight (but particularly to those who will later pay up to eighty quid for one of the hundreds bought by the black-coated swarm of touts) the tour means one thing: Arctic Monkeys. To many others though, it also means the chance to see one of the UK’s most successful talents and most awesome live acts, Maximo Park; the emo-with-‘taches stomp of the America’s We Are Scientists; and our hosts today, the frankly otherworldly Mystery Jets.

On getting to the Liverpool Academy to meet the Eel Pie Islanders, it becomes apparent that they’re living up to their name and have mysteriously flown off elsewhere. “I seem to have lost my band,” apologises tour manager Dan, “they’ve taken to going missing during the day and Blaine (Blaine Harrison, Mystery Jets frontman) always loses his phone… ” The title of their forthcoming single ‘The Boy Who Ran Away’ is starting to ring true, it seems. Fortunately, any danger of an aborted mission is quickly sorted out with a couple of phone calls to guitarist Will Rees, and 10 minutes later we’re meeting with the heroes of our little tale in a soul music-themed café in the city centre where Blaine is finishing off “breakfast”. Breakfast at this time, Blaine? Gigwise takes it that this tour has been of the messy but fun variety?

“Out of all the tours we’ve done, this has been one of the most fun. Which rhymes, actually!” states Blaine, evidently thinking about the lyrics for the next album even at this early stage. “It’s not like a headline band - support band thing; all the bands go out together after the gig and find a bar, grab a corner and talk. It’s like a travelling circus: so far it’s been great fun and no-one’s been p*ssed off with one another.” It seems the boys have made particularly good friends in We Are Scientists: “We’ve been picking up really nice vibes from them. They take the piss out of themselves, which I think is such a good quality” – sentiments which are later echoed by main Scientist Keith Murray: “those guys are probably our best friends on the tour!” he blearily enthuses to Gigwise at a local indie night.

Surely, however, the tour dynamic must have been affected by the craze for all things Arctic Monkey-shaped that’s sweeping the nation? When even a national tabloid is reporting that fans are leaving in their droves straight after the Arctic Monkeys’ set, hugely reducing the numbers to which 'headliners' Maximo Park play, surely that’s got to have an adverse effect on inter-band relationships? “I wish I could say it had! But to be honest, Arctic Monkeys are so grounded, they don’t brag about anything! Sometimes it’s us that has to tell them how many records they’re selling!” And how about our Geordie friends? “Maximo Park have had such a tough thing put in front of them, playing above basically the biggest band in the country. But they’ve dealt with it so well; and as for the audiences, they’ve been moshing pretty hard to Arctic Monkeys, but they’ve still showed a lot of support to Maximo Park.”

This all sounds a bit too friendly. Four bands on the road playing to each other’s fans every night and there hasn’t been one hint of a petty squabble? Come on Blaine, dish some dirt! “Well there has been bad behaviour. Most nights we head out and we’ve had our fair share of DJ battles with Maximo Park and We Are Scientists. In Glasgow, we were DJing upstairs and Maximo Park were DJing downstairs, so I kept sneaking down to listen to what they were playing, making sure we weren’t playing the same stuff. Every now and then we would be and I’d be like, “BASTARDS! WE’VE JUST PLAYED STEVIE WONDER!” But there hasn’t been any dirt; we often park all our tour buses next to each other so sometimes you walk back pretty pissed and wander onto the wrong tour bus. You don’t get chucked out – you just have a brew with whoever it is! Everyone’s getting on so well.”

At this point, Gigwise chooses to break the heartbreaking news to the boys that teeny-bopper institution Smash Hits has today announced it’s demise; news that clearly affects Blaine: “It was a big part of my childhood, TOTP magazine and Smash Hits. I was part of The Spice Girls fanbase!” he jokes. In honour of the sadly defunct rag, let’s ask The Mystery Jets a typically vacuous Smash Hits-style question: who in the band has the smelliest feet? Will and drummer Kapil Trivedi look up from their couch to stare accusatorily at Blaine, forcing the mop-headed frontman into counter-attack: “He’s the cleanest,” he nods at Kapil. “He grooms. When he goes to the toilet he will literally scrub every finger nail.” Maybe you should mention this in future interviews; get that that Body Shop sponsorship in the bag? “Yeah! Arctic Monkeys get free Puma shoes – we should be getting some free shampoo!”

Apart from being on one of the biggest make-‘em-or-break-‘em tours on the gig calendar, the other big news in Mystery Jets-ville is the completion of their debut album 'Making Dens', to be released on 679 Records on 6 March. Coming on the back of single ‘The Boy Who Ran Away’, this release could well see The Mystery Jets becoming one of the year’s biggest breakthrough stories, having racked up a devoted fanbase, a succession of twisted prog-punk singles and a series of gloriously shambolic tours over the last year. So, what’s the story behind the record’s title? “That’s not a very Smash Hits style question!” Blaine laughs. “Well, first of all, it’s the name of the last track on the album. But I think what the title means – though I think it’s cool to leave it open to interpretation – is… well, we wanted to find an identity for the album which actually described the whole process of making the album itself."

“Some of my favourite songs – not just our music – are songs that would get me through a difficult period. I remember there was a time at school when a friend of mine had a cousin who died, who’d had this amazing band. For a long time I listened to their music and it totally took me to a place that I wanted to be; and for a long time I listened to Procul Harem’s ‘Whiter Shade Of Pale’, every night before I went to bed – for about six months. And what that song came to represent was almost like a dream-like state, or a parallel place that’s totally private. That’s what my favourite kind of music is: music that takes you to a kind of private place. And that’s basically what a den is, somewhere that you can crawl away to; you’ll build it out of twigs, up a tree or under the ground but it’s your private place; no-one can discover it, it belongs to you. That’s what ‘Making Dens’ means – we wanted to make 12 little songs that people can crawl away to.”