„Are you ready Austria?“ Und ob! Wir haben schon viel zu lange auf euch warten müssen…
25.02.2007
Die schnittigen Jungs von Jet machten ihm Zuge ihrer Welttour am 25. Februar in der Wiener Arena Halt, um dort die restlos ausverkaufte Halle mit neuen Songs sowie alten Klassikern alá „Are you gonna be my girl“ oder „Cold hard bitch“ zum Kochen zu bringen.

Zuvor allerdings wurde das Publikum durch die dänische Band „The Blue Van“ grandios auf einen Rock ´n´ Roll Abend der Oberliga eingestimmt.

Aufmerksamen Frequency- Festivalbesuchern dürfte die Band noch aus dem Jahre 2005 bekannt sein, wo sie schon damals durch ihre destruktive Bühnenshow Aufsehen erregten.

Nicht weniger ereignisreich gaben sich die vier Dänen als Vorgruppe von Jet: Mit hervorragenden Songs vom neuen Album „Dear Independence“ brachten sie mächtig Stimmung in die bereits siedende Arena. Die Bühnenshow war ebenso ausgezeichnet wie die Songs, die einen Mix aus Funk, Jazz und purem Rock boten. Unglaublich energetisch und in wundervoller Rock ´n´ Roll- Manier ließen „The Blue Van“ die Besucher für 30 Minuten vergessen, wer hier eigentlich Hauptact war. Nach einer Jamsession der musikalischen Sonderklasse ließen sie schließlich das Wiener Publikum verschwitzt und voller Begeisterung zurück und übergaben die Menge in die Hände der vier Musiker aus Melbourne. Diese übernahmen das Publikum souverän und ließen es keine Sekunde wieder los. Von Anfang bis zum Ende war das Publikum auf der Seite von JET, ohne jemals einen Anschein von Müdigkeit zu zeigen.

Mit einem perfekten Mix aus rührenden Balladen und knallharten Rocksongs brachten sie eine Stimmigkeit der Sonderklasse mit sich. Jedes Lied schien perfekt platziert und das Publikum dankte ihren Heros diese perfekte Setlist mit tobendem Applaus und spontanen Choreinlagen.

Der absolute und unbestreitbare Höhepunkt war „Are you gonna be my girl“. Als Sänger Nic Cester den klassischen Schellenkranz zur Hand nahm, wusste jeder Anwesende an diesem Abend, was auf ihn zu kam. Die Musikfans tobten und spätestens bei den ersten Basstönen begannen die Ersten sich und ihre umgebenden Mitfans herumzustoßen.

Der Pogo- Tanz bringt die Chance mit sich, einen selbst nach ganz vorne zu fabrizieren. Einfach fallen und sich mit der Strömung mitziehen lassen, lautet hier die Devise.

Und so konnte ich mir, trotz der anfänglichen Distanz zur Bühne, auch noch von ganz vorne ein Bild von den coolen Rockposen Nic Cesters machen. Und wer nun denkt, nach einem Klassiker wie „Are you gonna be my girl“ wäre die Luft bei einem JET- Konzert draußen, der täuscht sich gewaltig. Die Stimmung blieb bestehen, bis die vier Australier nach etlichen Zugaben dann tatsächlich die Bühne verlassen hatten. Zurück ließen sie ein verbrauchtes und ermattetes Publikum, welches sich an diesem Abend von allen Emotionen entleeren konnte. Sollte man sich für nur ein Wort entscheiden, welches diesen Abend nun beschreiben sollte, hätte man damit ein leichtes Schaffen: Sehr gut? Nein! Überwältigend? Noch nicht ganz! Grandios? Knapp davor! Perfekt? Genau das war es! Schlicht und einfach PERFEKT!

Vor dem Ausnahmekonzert traf ich Drummer und Teilzeitsänger Chris Cester und Gitarrist Cameron „Cam“ Muncey zum Interview. Sympathisch, witzig und mit einem unglaublich großen musikalischen Wissen erklärten sie mir von ihrem ganz persönlichen Standpunkt aus, warum sie trotz heftiger Kritiken seitens der Musikjournalisten absolut und 100 Prozent hinter ihrem zweiten Album „Shine On“ stehen.

Gleich darauf kam meine Kollegin Karin zum Zug und durfte sich mit Per Jorgensen und Soren Christensen von „The Blue Van“ über das Touren mit Jet, das gemeinsame WG-Leben und über zu coole Menschen im heißen L.A. unterhalten.

When you started as a band, did you already know in what direction you wanted to go with you style of music?

Chris: In the beginning I guess, we were pretty confused and we were just having fun and didn’t think about anything. Slowly we found a certain sound we liked and then we started off by learning some songs. By and by we just got bored of that and started writing our own stuff.
Cam: We wanted to make music for a crowd that could totally get into it.

I read that each of the band members is living in another country or even on another continent. So how is it going with writing music and being productive, when you live so far apart from each other?

Cam: We ended up basically all living away from home. We just decided to move to different countries and live a life apart from music. It is hard to just live a normal life, when you started in the music-business.
But I mean, when we did the record, we spent a lot of time in Melbourne, so we were all together in our home country.
Chris: Yeah, you have to make an effort to keep life normal. This whole music-stuff can get annoying, but that is what we do. And it is not a bad a job! (smiles)

Do you see differences in the audience, when you compare gigs in America, Europe and Australia?

Chris: Yeah, crowds in Europe for example are a way younger than everywhere else, which is great, I really like that. Japanese people are a very unique audience; they have a very respectful way to enjoy a show. They go crazy when you finish a song, and after approximately 5 seconds, they stop and try to listen what you are saying. Well I guess that is the way how they do things.

Britishrock: They seem totally polite, trying to listen what you´re saying and trying to understand…

Chris: Yeah, exactly. And then, when you get up to the North of England everybody is just fucked up and going crazy. There are like 2000 people singing the songs together. And then you know, Europe is just like a really excited young crowd. That is what we saw the last days on tour in Germany and Switzerland.

How serious do you take reviews and criticisms about your second album “Shine on”? Did you read them, because I´ve got some here, from the Jam! Magazine or the Rolling Stone Magazine…

Cam: I read a couple of them and then just stopped. I know what I thought about the record and I don´t need someone to tell me that. Sometimes they get really personal, and these are the things which stick in you and so I try not to read them. The reviewers may have listened to the record once or twice and so they have just no idea what they are talking about. They do not know anything about what you put together after 8 months.
Chris: Yeah, you know, journalists should pass a test about musical knowledge. Honestly, half of the reviews, even if they are good or bad, are talking about influences and they seem to have a really small mind about what is going on. They get an idea stuck in their heads and they are usually really cold-minded. They attend to drum their opinion in other people´s mind and use journalism for that. In general journalism in America is a way more factual. Unlike in England, where they attend to be more excitable, they think they are Rockstars or something like that. Somebody said “Holiday” sounded like the Rolling Stones, I just laughed out loud because this guy couldn´t be further away from the market. I thought: “On what fucking planet are you living man?” It sounds more like Captain Beefheart or something like that, but that guy probably never heard about Captain Beefheart, so you can just ignore it! They don´t know what they are talking about.

Britishrock: I also read in a review that due to your new record Shine On, your upcoming shows will be empty and tonight you´re playing AGAIN in front of a sold out concert-hall…So that review is a piece of shit…

Chris: Exactly! Good Comment: It will be empty and it is sold out! Maybe this guy should get fired, because he doesn’t know what he is talking about!

Britishrock: It was written that you hang out quite a lot with the Gallagher-brothers. Is that true?

Chris (laughs): We did hang out a lot with them; we went also on tour with them. They are good friends and so is Kasabian, we hang out with them quite a lot too.

Britishrock: Sounds like fun! So, how hard is it to do a second album when the first one was so successful?

Chris: It is just difficult to surpass yourself, you know? When people talk about pressure, I think they mean the pressure to succeed again. Success for us is to do a record that we think is better, then the first one. And we definitely did so, so we succeeded.

Britishrock: So you are totally satisfied with “Shine On”?

Chris: Of course, we wouldn´t have released it. We had the choice to release or not to release something, and we needed a long time to come to that conclusion. That is why it took so long; we weren’t satisfied until we were at the end.

Britishrock: You said in an Interview, that you had a lot more songs to put on the record. How did you finally decide which ones to put on “Shine On”?

Cam: It was a long way of elimination. Some songs weren’t finished and others didn’t work in the context. But I think once in the end, we just couldn’t leave off and that is how we decided. Finally we had 13 great songs to put on the CD.

Britishrock: Can you think about one song of your written songs, which will get a place in music history?

Chris: I think our songs will be remembered different in diverse territories. We have some songs which were really huge hits in one country, and which weren’t a hit in others. In Australia I think, the whole album can be remembered as a classic rock-album. It was a kind of phenomenon in Australia and I think all off the songs, will still be played in the next years, from our first and our second album. I guess “Are you gonna be my girl” is a pretty well recognized song.

Britishrock: Mick Jagger is playing with his sexappeal on stage, he did when he was young he is still doing it. So how much sex can we find in your Stage- Performances?

(General loud laughter in the whole hall where we did the interview)
Chris: GET OUT! (laughs)
Roadie downstairs: That´s a good question…
Chris: (smirking) Well, I don´t know, I think it is more cheekiness. We focus on enjoying ourselves. I think, the more you enjoy and be yourself, the more attractive you are to people. When you enjoy the show with the band on stage…
Cam: …then you´ll be magnetic.

Britishrock: We have never seen you live, but we are very looking forward to see you tonight.

Chris: Good! Well I think we are a little bit harder then the Stones in several ways. The way that Mick Jagger dances, is more suited to the way they play. I think we have a harder way when it comes to the music, so it is different. Maybe to our music, it is harder to dance too. People just attend to jump around.

Britishrock: Yeah! When we hear a Jet- Song somewhere in a disco, we get totally crazy.

Chris: (laughs) Good!

Britishrock: I saw a Strokes- Interview on TV and they talked about a dinner with you and the Vines in America. How did it come to that dinner?

Cam: It was actually set up by friends of us, the Dandy Warhols. We were coming through the town with the bus and Courtney Taylor invited us to have dinner with him and the Strokes, who where recording in his house. We just sat down and had a meal. After our Gig we went back and really fucked up with everybody…(laughs)

Britishrock: Fab said in that Interview, that is was the highest class of Rock and Roll- musicians sitting on that table…

Chris (laughs): He is a funny bastard!
Cam: He is giving himself a compliment at the same time
Chris: Yeah, he is complimenting himself at the same time.

Britishrock: Well, Fab can do that…

Chris: Yeah, well I do that often (laughs)

Britishrock: Do you think there will ever come something new in music when everything is so retro nowadays?

Chris: It depends on what your definition of new is. Just put “Get Born” (First Album) and “Shine one” next to a Rolling Stones record! I mention that, because a lot of people are likening us to them, but the Stones don’t sound like anything I like, I mean sonically.
And again: What we are doing is reinventing or kind of interpreting Chuck Berry and guys like Don Covay; The second somebody interprets somebody else’s music, even if it might sound simple. If it would be wrong what we are doing, how could we sell so many records then?! But well, what would it sound like? Some people strife to do things that sound completely unlike anything else, but I think no one will ever really succeed, because I could always hear where the influences come from. For example Bloc Party on their first record: They used “Gang of Four” and just played that sound again and they thought it was their sound. Sure, “Gang of Four” were a really unknown band…

Britishrock: I read that you think the 70s were the highlight of music- history for you. Do you see your roots in the 70s?

Cam: I think that every decade has its highlights, and that is the cool thing. We can go back and just take influences from the 40s if we want, that is our privilege. But I wouldn’t be upset, if somebody says that it seem we listen to a lot of 70s music. It was a good time, with good bands.
(Meanwhile Chris is searching for his cigarettes and realizes that there is only one left. Cam looks furtively on Chris cigarette and so they share it. They are imitating an Australian Junky and it is damn funny)
Chris: Well, yeah…anyway…Tastes changes, you know? There were times when I was totally addicted to one band and then just got bored of it and invented new stuff. People change!

Britishrock: So, what imagine does your music convey?

Chris: That is for you to decide!

Britishrock: That´s true, but maybe you have got an answer for me too.

Cam: It is definitely populist and not trying to be better then anyone. It is music for the people!
Chris: We are trying to convey, that we are in motion, that we are moving and going somewhere. We are trying to live yourselves out and we wrote these songs to take ourselves somewhere. We are just trying to protect us in our music. That is exactly what we did with “Shine on”, there are a lot of documentary things on it which happened to us. I hope we could explain a bit who we are.

Britishrock: Your music sounds really simple, but I mean that in a good way. It comes to your mind and you can easily dance and enjoy it. Can you imagine going into a more experimental way on your third album?

Cam: Yeah, I think we are already playing something like that. The third album is open for everything, so we can just do whatever we want to.
Chris: There are songs that we wrote for “Get Born” where we thought, maybe we should wait to grow into that, and so we put “Shiny Magazine” for example on “Shine on”. It fitted better in the second album, than in the first one.
I think you need experience to make an experimental record and we have that now with 2 records. We know what it is like, to be in a studio and to go in an experimental direction, is definitely our plan.

Britishrock: You produced both albums in LA. Why did you choose to go to America and get the albums finished there?

Cam: Well, we did our first record there with Dave Sardy and knew how it is going to be. He built this new studio and we thought it would be good to produce there. We wanted to focus and it just seemed to be right.
Chris: We could have done anything, but there was a lot of emotional stuff going on too, when Nic´s and my father died. We just wanted to go to a place we already knew, and that is why we went back to Dave and L.A. Maybe we will find something in Europe to record our next album or we are going to Oakland, where Neil Finn from “The Crowded House” built this amazing studio. So it is really exciting for us, not to know where our next album will get produced. We have got a lot of options!

Britishrock: Let´s talk about Australia: How much Australia is still in your music and in your attitude?

Cam: You only have one childhood, and we had ours in Australia and that shapes you. It is in our music, maybe Australians can hear it.
Chris: It is possible yeah.
Cam: Austria is not Australia, so you can´t hear it. I´m sorry.

Britishrock: Yeah, but we always get mistaken with Australia.

Chris: Yeah, we do have the same problem. There was an American- study when kids got asked about showing Australia on a map and the pointed to Austria.

Britishrock: oh wow, that is really sad…

Chris: Yeah! America spends all their money on building fucking bombs instead of investing it in education.

Britishrock: We do have T-Shirts with the sign: No Kangaroos in Austria!

Chris: (laughs) I want one of those, where do we get them?

Britishrock: We can try to arrange you one!

Cam: Check us 4!!

Britishrock: Alright! We will do that!

Thank you for the Interview!

 

25.02.2007, 21:29 von M. Punz