Coming Of Age: Mystery Jets

GW: Did you write the single with young Miss Marling in mind?

BH: “Not from the start but we had this second verse written and were keen to do a collaboration. She has a very beautiful voice, what I would describe as truly a ‘Woman’s Voice’, her voice is very powerful and mature despite the fact that she is only 18”.

GW: What were the lyrical pre-occupations this time around? Is this still a heavy observational element, in terms of describing characters like ‘Dennis’ or ‘Agnes’ or is it more personal?

BH: “It is definitely much more personal. I think that observational is a good word for the first record, we were taking characters that we knew and merging them into fictions. It was intentional, to do something like The Smiths. There are still songs like that on the new record, like ‘The Girl next door’ but it is really much more about us and our coming of age, hence the title ‘Twenty One’. We wanted to document our experiences as we’ve always had this cross-generational element with Henry writing a lot of words based on his experiences”

GW: Speaking of which, how has the transition from Henry (Harrison, Mystery Jet and Blaine’s father) not playing live anymore with you guys worked out? How has it affected the band?

BH: “Yeah, Henry hasn’t played live with us for 18 months now, though he is still very much involved in the song writing process. It is a sharpening of the knives for us, we’ve had to become a lot tighter, we’ve refined the chaos. 

“There is also perhaps a bit more mischief on tour without a father figure around but Henry understands that” Blaine adds with a suitably mischievous laugh.

GW: You’ve previously played shows with like minded bands such as Young Knives and The Futureheads. Who would you like to take on the road this year? I was reading on your blog that you’re fans of MGMT.

BH: “Yeah, I don’t know much about them but I really like that tune (Time to Pretend) and the video. We want to take a band called The Golden Silvers with us, they are like the Attractions and XTC, a bit like the Kinks as well I suppose. They use loads of FX pedals and have songs that really stick in your head”.  

GW: What are your plans for touring this year? You’ve just announced an absolutely immense UK tour- Are you confirmed for any festivals? I saw you at The Secret Garden festival a few years ago, it seemed a fitting environment.  

BH: “We’re going back to Japan- we went there two years ago to play the Mount Fuji festival. Hopefully Glastonbury, as we haven’t played there yet and also Electric Picnic, Reading and Leeds. The Secret Garden festival has grown so much over the last 3 years and people are always out of it when they are watching you, which is fun”

GW: Sadly, our time is almost up. I wanted to ask a mystery themed question so bear with me.

GW: Who is your favourite fictional detective and why?

BH: “Good one” says Blaine with just a hint of sarcasm…..”Oh, I don’t want to say something too obvious”

GW: Ah, come on. We’re big fans of Holmes- What is wrong with being too obvious? After all, this is your pop record- time to get obvious perhaps? 

BH: “How about Inspector Cleuso? Because he is……..French and has a moustache…….I think…..”

Subsequent daring investigative journalism from Gigwise HQ has since uncovered that Cleuso does indeed have a rather inspiring tache. We’ve also discovered that ‘Twenty One’ is a playful pop gem of a second album, everything that Blaine has suggested they have aimed for and more. 

The king of pop may well be currently staging his revival through 3000 consecutive nights at the O2 arena or whatever but he would do well to keep an eye on these young gunslingers.