NYLON - February 2008 - (Page 103) ISLE BE THERE Mystery Jets have been different from the get-go. How many bands are formed when the members are eight years old and the keyboard player’s dad is the guitarist? And not only that, how many bands hail from an island in London in the middle of the River Thames? “We’re all about Eel Pie Island,” vocalist Blaine Harrison explains when we meet at a café. “Half the population is water gypsies, the other half is old people, and then there’s us somewhere in the middle, annoying both camps. It’s connected to the mainland by footbridge, and there are no cars, and no motorbikes.” Mystery Jets used to host parties on the island where, among others, Good Shoes, the Noisettes, and Acoustic Ladyland performed (“By the end we were getting noise complaints—that’s why we had to stop,” Harrison explains); events which were in keeping with Eel Pie’s long musical history. Legendary venue Colonel Barefoot’s Rock Garden was there, a launch pad for bands from the Rolling Stones to Pink Floyd to the Who (Pete Townsend still owns a studio there). “What’s so ironic about the whole thing is that a lot of people who live on the island have moved there because of the heritage of the place,” Harrison says with a laugh. “They all impress their friends by saying ‘We live on Eel Pie Island, where the Stones first started,’ and then they’re against [our parties].” Although they’ve been a band for almost 15 years, Mystery Jets have just released only their second album, Twenty One. And things have changed drastically since the recording of debut Zootime. For one, Harrison’s dad Henry no longer tours with the now-of-legal-age band (which also includes drummer Kapil Trivedi, guitarist William Rees, and bassist Kai Fish), the repercussions of which Harrison is happy to discuss. “The new line up as of 2007 really is the four of us on the road, and it’s something that has been a long time coming. It feels a lot younger, and it’s a lot wilder because we don’t have Henry watching over us on tour. He never used to tell us what to do, but obviously if your dad’s there you’re not going to get fucked up after a show. We feel like we’re freer to experience the things that 22 year-olds experience. I’ve just come out of a three-year relationship, so this tour I’ve just felt very up for… whatever.” Indeed, days before our interview, the band completed a string of Mystery Jets hail from an island with only 120 inhabitants, and that isn’t even the best thing about them. By Fiona Byrne. Photographed by Adam Fedderly dates with Klaxons across the U.S. “In terms of introducing us to this new world, the Klaxons tour has just been the most wild thing you could possibly imagine,” Harrison says. “Klaxons started off as the band who dropped pills before every show and threw paint all over the audience. They’re not the band that they were two years ago, but they are still the wildest band.” A sheepish grin. “There were a lot of drugs. There wasn’t a day of rest. I don’t know how Jamie [Reynolds, Klaxons’ frontman] does it: The man’s a machine.” It’s fitting then that Mystery Jets’ sound has developed from ’60s and beat-inspired psychedelic rock to a more futuristic-tinged affair, thanks in no small part to DJ/producer Erol Alkan, founder of legendary London indie night Trash, who produced Twenty One. “He’s from a dance background and we wanted to put a spin on what we’d done before,” Harrison says. And even though they started out with what they thought was a clear vision of what they wanted, the band’s sound changed over the course of recording: “Initially we wanted the album to sound really processed, but it’s ended up coming out as a very organic record," says Harrison. “I don’t want people to put the ‘eclectic’ sticker on it because that’s something that we’ve always been burdened with. We’re about making music that excites us, and one day that might involve a drum machine and the next day a ukulele or an organ.” He grins. “It’s not one-dimensional, but it’s still focused. I’m happy about that.”
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