jet

Jet are so hot right now. They won the ARIAs and everything. Everyone (myself included) thought that they’d have one hit, and then shuffle off to the RSL circuit or something, but the chartbusters just keep coming. When I got the call to interview Jet’s lead singer, Nick Cester, I turned to my knowledgeable friends. Advice alternated between telling me to “do something different” and warning me that Nick was a renowned arsehole. I hate interviews where the journalist says the subject was “a really nice bloke,” so I’ll dish some dirt: Nick was a bit bored, reckoned everything was shit and his answers were too short. Fucking arsehole.

What’s been going on?
We’re on holidays so I’ve got the next five weeks, six weeks off.
What do you plan to do in that time?
Um, I would really like to um… Well, I’ve got this idea. I’d really like to bring a bunch of Australian musicians together and redo 'Evie' parts one, two and three.
'Easy'? What’s that?
You know the song 'Evie'?
No.
Really? It’s like an Australian classic, mate.
For some reason I’m thinking of ‘Friday On My Mind.’
No. You know, [starts singing] “Evie. Evie. Evie let your hair hang down.”
Ooh ‘Evie’. I thought you said “Easy.”
Yeah, so I’m having a meeting with Harry Vander tonight in Sydney to try to get the ball rolling, give me something to do in my time off.
Are you planning to go and see any bands?
Yeah, I’m good mates with Davey Lane so I go and see The Pictures whenever they play, and Dallas Crane whenever they’re playing.
My first official question is about how you’ve said that interviews aren’t your favourite thing to do. What’s to hate?
I don’t really dislike interviews… I’m surprised I said that. You know, it’s just part of the job really.
What do you think fans get out of reading interviews?
I dunno. I like reading interviews with artists that I like and, um, I like hearing from artists what songs they like of their own. I remember reading an interview with Neil Finn and they asked him that and his answer was ‘You’re Not the Girl You Think You Are’, which is my favourite song of his. He said that was the one song that he was the most proud of writing.
I'll flip it back at you then. What’s your favourite song?
Of ours? ‘Come Around Again’ which is most people’s least favourite, which is a bit weird.
What is it about the song that makes it your favourite?
I dunno. It’s something about the structure and the melody and I like the way it flows from one part to the next. The middle eight in that song is one of my favourite moments on the record.
I was think about the song ‘Cold Hard Bitch’ before this interview. I was watching the DVD that comes with the album. I saw in another interview that you said lyrically it’s not the most satisfying song.
Oh, it’s a piece of shit.

It's all shit. A piece of crap.

Really? I find that strange because it’s actually one of my favourite songs.
Oh, I’m not saying that it’s not a good song, it’s just that the lyrics are crap. Well, it’s crap on purpose. It’s supposed to be a dumb rock song, that’s part of the schtick.
Does that make you reluctant to realease it as a single, because there’s some part of it that isn’t as satisfying as ‘Come Around Again’?
I love it for that reason. I love the fact that it’s a piece of crap.
At what point does the band decide that the song is finished, given what you think of the lyrics? When do you say, ”Fuck it. Let’s lay this one down”?
When it’s swingin’ I suppose.When you run through it and you say, “This is really swingin’ right now.” [Starts laughing] When you’ve got no better ideas.
Again on the DVD, when you’re playing live you play the song a bit differently than to the studio. On ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl’, for example, you extend some bits out.
Just because it’s a different medium. Playing live and listening to a record are two completely different processes, I reckon. There’s a lot of moments where we really extend it out and try to have a bit of a jam and stuff. It’s a completely different process than putting a CD in a CD player and listening to it through a stereo and being part of an environment in a room filled with people and noise. You try to engage the audience as well and you can really build up the crowd and bring them down again, you know?
Do you prefer the studio or the live process?
Both appeal for different reasons. We like all the elements and if you’re not liking one element then you should do something to fuckin’ change it.
I’m trying to get a feel for how the album was put together. What was the first song you completed?
‘Cold Hard Bitch’ was the first one that we did, as the war was beginning in Iraq.
Yeah right. Did that affect anything?
No, not really I suppose. I don’t know why I bought that up.
What song off the album do you reckon is the most political?
Er, none of them [Laughs].
Why not have a political viewpoint in your music?
I don’t believe my opinion is worth much given that I don’t know much about politics. I don’t want to bother anybody with my fuckin’ opinions.
If you could force the Prime Minister to listen to one of your songs to say, “See, that’s what it’s all about,” which one would it be?
I don’t think you can change someone’s opinion with a song. No, hang on. Maybe. I’d like to think that you can. Oh, I don’t know.
I guess I’m trying to find out if there’s a song on the album that could change some body’s viewpoint on something.
On our album? Man, we’re the least political band in the world. Our songs are about girls and how many times you can go “yeah!” over and over again.
“Yeah!” and “baby.”
Yeah [laughs]. If one of our songs changes anybody’s political perspective on anything then they’re not fucking listening to it properly.
I guess I don’t mean just political perspective but, say, on rock music or something.
There are genres of music that I’ve not really liked. Like, I never liked country because all I ever knew of it was Billy Ray Cyrus. Then once I started listening to the [Rolling] Stones… Music is like dominoes; you listen to something and it’ll open a door to something else. I really like country now that I’ve been introduced to it from that angle. I’ve been listening to Gram Parsons, but even that can be a little bit too country for me sometimes. I suppose my point is that any song can open a door to something else.
You know who is weird to listen to in country music? Dolly Parton. She’s really good!
Yeah, I know! She’s really addictive too.
Do you think the music scene is a democracy or a dictatorship?
Shit. That’s an interesting question. I’d have to say, and I wish this weren’t the case, but I’d have to say it was a dictatorship.
Who are the dictators?
The labels.
What do they dictate?
They dictate what gets funded and what gets promoted, what gets played on radio and what people buy, essentially. It’s easier for them to put together some marketing exercise than it is to nurture a musical career. It’s a safer bet, like Australian Idol for example. Then again there are bands like Dallas Crane who, against the odds, still get heard, have an impact and have an influence. Which is fuckin’ great.
What was the first band you were in?
Well, me and Cam have been playing together since I was sixteen. We had heaps of different names because we’d just play friends’ parties. Like we were The Quarter Pounders and dressed in McDonalds uniforms and shit.
Were you rough diamonds or unrecognized geniuses?
We were crap. We were really shit.
I’d imagine that you’ve met a whole bunch of your musical heroes and stuff by now.
Yeah, I’ve met a couple.
Does that demystify the whole thing?
Nah, because most of these people are still pretty amazing. Most of my idols haven’t achieved that status unless there’s something special about them. So when you meet them it’s obvious that they’re pretty special people.
Does meeting them change the way you listen to their music at all?
Not for me. I’ve never become close to any of these people. Oh, except for Tim Rogers. He’s probably the only person I’ve been able to get to know.
That must be really weird.
Yeah, it was. We’d be somewhere in the middle of America and we’d get this phonecall from Tim. He’d be like, “We’re all thinking of ya! Keep going!” He’s been fucking great.
Winning that MTV award for the ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl’ clip is insanely huge. They are one of the biggest players in one of the biggest sectors in the largest economy in the world. What kind of effect does that have?
Yeah, it was a big deal. I don’t want to downplay the whole thing, but it’s kind of weird winning an award for a video clip that we didn’t really have anything to do with.
What role do you play in making a clip?
You want to be represented in a way that you think is truthful and suits you comfortably. We always have the last say in who we use, but that’s it as far as our input goes.
From your perspective, does it change the way people view the song?
I think so because you get an idea on a few levels of where the band is coming from visually, the way they present themselves and stuff. It helps you form a picture of where you are coming from.
When you play that song, do you have a mental picture of what the song is about and how does it differ from the clip?
Maybe not anymore because we do it so often. Definitely when I was first singing it there was a mental image in my head of what tones and sounds, especially as far as singing delivery went, that I was trying to use. What I think makes that a good flim clip is the marriage between the style of the song and the visual elements, because it’s pretty minimalistic but it’s got style and is rough at the same time.
Maybe an even bigger deal is being able to get Billy Preston on the album.
Absolutely. Even more so than touring with The Stones or anything that we’ve done. He’s a bone fide hero and well-renowned organist contributing to something that we had made.
How does that happen? Do you just go, “Bring forth Billy Preston” or something?
Bring forth? Maybe if it was the eighteenth century we would have [laughs].
Yeah. “Fetch me my codpiece and bring forth Billy Preston.”
Oh, he’s just a gun for hire. It wasn’t that hard.
How did even the possibility of that come about though?
We were talking about one song in particular and I think someone even said, “We’d really like to get a Billy Preston-esque vibe happening.” Then the producer goes, “Well let’s get Billy Preston then.” We thought he was joking and then the next day he goes, “Yeah, Billy is coming in tomorrow.” We were like “Whaaat!?” and he was like “Yeah man. I called him and he’s coming.”
What did you say to him?
I was just a little bit in awe, you know. He walked into the room and he had the worst tracksuit I’ve ever seen in my life on.
Was it one of those parachute kind of deals?
Is it called Fubu? It was fucked. And he had this kid with him who had a matching tracksuit. I had all these naïve images of him walking in with an orange skivvy and flares, like Beatles on the rooftop or something. But no, it wasn’t the case. After the shock of the tracksuit, I realised we didn’t have very long so we just got down to business. We showed him the songs and he didn’t even have to hear it all the way to the end. He just made a couple of passes and nailed it all the way to the end.
Do you have a wish list of other people you want to work with now you know it’s a possibility?
Yeah, well after that we were like, “Well who else can we get to work with?” But we’ve got our own keyboard player now, and we’d rather it be us than to have to go somewhere else.
Is there difference between all-ages gigs and over-age gigs?
Absolutely. For starters, when there is alcohol involved it makes people a bit more riotous and uninhibited. We’ve even noticed that playing in Europe that if we play early and the crowd isn’t drunk they can be less enthusiastic. But the kids will just go crazy anyway and it’s always kinda fun. There’s just a lot of screaming [with the under-age gigs] for no real reason.