Interview: The Temper Trap

Interview with Lorenzo Sillitto

Jet

By Grant Joslin

Jet are heading back to Australia for a quick tour at the start of December 2009, but currently in some place he thinks is called Saint Paul’s (“it’s part of what’s called the Twin Cities which is like Minneapolis”), kicking it on board the tour bus a few hours before a gig, Cam Muncey of Jet talks down the phone line for a laid-back discussion regarding hot-dogs as payment on tour, Barry Lyndon and Jet’s newly formed Horrorshow Records, keeping his shit together when on the road, and artistic inspiration within his songwriting process for Jet’s recently-released third album "Shaka Rock".

From what I understand of your touring schedule, it seems pretty intense.

Well it is just a lot of driving, you know. We are usually asleep for most of it. Usually on tour, you probably want to [keep it to] about three hours drive. We’re at about eight, nine to twelve hour drives every night, crisscrossing all over the place.

Meeting so many people and doing so many things, it can be so enlightening, exhausting, lonely, joyful… do you guys feel the same on tour?

For me it is a daily challenge. For me, it is getting fed, it’s getting decent food. Keeping my shit together, to a certain extent

So, keeping a daily schedule?

Yeah, keeping it to a certain extent; normal. About five years ago we just sort of… I don’t know, just let everything go to the dogs. You know what I mean? [Laughs]

It used to be pretty bad, now we sort of create a bubble and live within that. I think it’s better for the music, it's more inspiring to have something to give on stage because you’re in control to a certain extent of your life. [Laughs]

If you’re not in control of your own actions, whether chemically induced or whatever, if you’re living healthier you’re going to be enjoying it and be happier in your own time, so it makes total sense…

Yeah, I think that booze is one of the worst ones, because sometimes you’re so sick the next day, and you can’t function until you get to that point just before the gig ready to pour yourself a big Jack Daniel's. Then you sort of walk out there and you’re level again, just before that you’re feeling kind of warmed up.

I tend to take a more balanced approach now, but there’s still those nights of craziness. When we go through places like… I've got nothing against them, but Iowa and these sort of mid-western states, there’s not much to do, so you’re either just going to get back on your bus and end up at your hotel room and drink the mini-bar, or you can just relax.

There’s nothing to do, so you just don’t do anything. [Laughs] That’s just the way it is. You get to New York and you can have a really good time.

Are you looking forward to coming back home and doing the Sydney and Melbourne shows?

We are, man. We are really looking forward to it. It’s going to be summer again. It’s a different feeling; playing and being in Australia. It’s very much a different environment and atmosphere than anywhere else in the world, and I really enjoy that.

How did Jet hook up with Papa Roach for the tour going on at the moment in the States?

It’s really that a lot of these shows are supported by radio stations out here and to get on the radio out here. And it all goes hand in hand. To a certain extent, it works like that in Australia, but even more here. They have radio stations for their own festivals and bands go and play them, and you sort of get paid minimal, you get paid what it costs you to get out there. Fuel for the bus, you know, and they give you a couple of hot dogs.

I guess they make a bit of money because they sell tickets and then bands come and play, and you get played on the radio. It’s like in Jamaica where they do those block-parties and the artists don’t get paid, but they get promoted, you know? It’s just about getting out there to the radio people. It’s weird because Papa Roach sound much different to us, we’re in very different worlds, but the same radio stations play both of us.

Recently within Jet you created your own record label called Horrorshow Records; are you guys Kubrick or Anthony Burgess fans?

Oh, definitely, one of my favourite top five movies is Barry Lyndon. It’s one of those things we’ve been kicking around, and we got a friend to design the logo. We’re happy with it. It’s just a vehicle in which we can do whatever we want with in the future.

At the moment it’s just releasing "Shaka Rock", and it’s our own imprint. In the future we can do whatever we want with it. It’s cool that it’s there, set up, and open to take those opportunities in the future.

These situations remind me of The Beatles when they set up Apple Records and how they started issuing statements like "if there are any filmmakers or musicians out there, just send us stuff.'’ Are you ever intending to sign other bands or branch out into other media?

Maybe. I think we’ll all definitely keep that open. I don’t think any of us are puritanical about that we just have to be Jet. If one of us wanted to do something and it didn’t interfere with Jet, but if it was something that was their dream thing to do, obviously no one would try and stop them.

There’s a certain kind of tempo and cadence in which the songs flow into each other on "Shaka Rock". Is it a thing which is highly considered when you’re either writing or recording the music? Things don’t seem out of place within the album.

We obviously take things into account when we put these things together. We try and put it together like someone would be listening to it all the way through, taking into account the whole iTunes culture when approaching singles.

I think that there are different types of music fans, your pop fans and people that just buy single songs, but as a rock band you want to get to those hardcore rock fans and those are the people who will stick by you and keep buying your records, and those other people are a flash in the pan. You know, if we can get people to buy whole records and albums as opposed to the other way.

Paraphrasing something you’ve said before regarding the song Seventeen, you said it was a step forward in your writing and that the song contains many pieces, it’s rocking, it’s melancholy, has a storyline and other parts within it. It’s like how you can view Roy Orbison’s songs, which are essentially songs inside songs.

What is your general MO when writing and recording songs?

I tend to find it kind of hard to be very cerebral about these things. For me, it’s about hopefully capturing something happening in the beginning, that first spark; creativity starts you down a path, and we tend to just try an recapture that and follow it through as closely as possible. Because as soon as you sort of walk off that lead it starts to lose some of its power.

It’s taking that distilled idea, and just keeping the idea at that, as opposed to not over complicating it...

Yeah, it becomes an exercise in just thought alone, and thought without inspiration is just a fish out of water, you know. It’s interesting when people try and push the boundaries of what music can do, like as far as making it jump through hoops, different time signatures, and you can get really interesting things out of that.

When you first get the inspiration for a song, I tend to feel like if it gets to progressive or to prog-rock I feel like it loses some of its soul, and I’m not saying that for everyone that’s just for me".

With a song like Beat On Repeat, among others, it seems like you were pushing your boundaries.

Yeah, it started out as just a drum loop and a sort of garage song, I don’t know, we just started fooling around with drum machines and it just ended up like the way it is. [Laughs]

SHAKA ROCK is out Now.
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