Q&A with We Were Promised Jetpacks

We Were Promised Jetpacks. The name has you intrigued from the moment the last syllable leaves your lips and the name has been on my lips ever since ‘It’s Thunder and It’s Lightning‘ blew up my ears some years ago.

Whoever has had the questionable pleasure of my company for longer than 10 minutes will no doubt have heard me waxing lyrically about the Edinburgh act. The even more devoted of you might have read my glowing ‘Safety in Numbers‘ review yesterday in which I tried and inevitably failed to remain neutral.

Scottish rockers are going through a purple patch of success and recognition right now (or just slagging off Metallica) and along with Frightened Rabbit, Jetpacks are fully deserving of all the fans they make along the way. Their third album, titled Unravelling, is set to drop later this year and early indications are promising that it’s going to be every bit as stellar as its predecessors. And nothing like Coldplay or U2.

So, you could imagine that I was a little bit excited to hear that Mike of WWPJ was able to field one or two of my questions. Check out what he had to say about touring, Unravelling and triangle face.

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1) Hey Mike,  how are you?
Not all bad!

2) You recently announced a string of UK gig dates. Is there anywhere in particular you’re looking forward to playing the most?
Yeah, even though we’re from Edinburgh we tend not to play there that often. It’ll be good fun to play The Caves again, I reckon, and 3/5ths of us will get to sleep in our own beds after the show. Fancy that!

3) You’ve been showing off some new songs at recent gigs. How has the reception been so far?
Pretty good I think!

There’s been a couple of times where we’ve played a few in a row at shows, and we’ve managed to get away with it. That’s a good sign, I think.

4) Anything you could tell us about the new album, Unravelling?
The five of us are dead excited about it! We’re really pleased with how it turned out.

It was great working with Paul Savage (who produced it with us). It’s hard to say when it’s coming out, but it will definitely be September or October.

5) Have you seen a definite change in your style from the earlier days of We Were Promised Jetpacks?
I think so. I think the best way to differentiate between this album and previous albums, is that we thought a bit harder about these songs.

Previously, we would really go with our instincts with songs. This time though, we would try to think it all through a bit more. Instead of giving up on a song when it wasn’t working, we’d think “no, there’s definitely something in this” and would re-work stuff. I think it’s led to much better results.

6) How was your recent U.S tour? Any stories to tell?
Not particularly. Tour stories are never fun to retell. See:

This one night we played a show, it was real fun but one of us didn’t have that great of a time because he struggled a little with his stage sound, but he got there by the last few songs. Anyway, after the show we packed up our stuff and had a few drinks, then we went back to the hotel. We share rooms so some of us watched one thing on tv while the rest of us watched another thing, then we all fell asleep.

That was fun at the time, but doesn’t make for a very good retell story. The tour as a whole was great though. Lots of sell out shows which is always exciting!

7) What has been the highlight of 2014 for you so far?
We’ve not done too much this year so far other than recording and preparing the album for release. preparing the album has not been very fun, but recording it was amazing. Definitely the highlight.

Working with Paul Savage was great, the process of recording was great. All good stuff.

8) You guys are pretty keen on your football. If you had to take on another band in a tournament, who would you choose?
Any band. We will take on any band.

9) Are there any plans to commemorate triangle face in a song? Liner notes maybe?
I think to commemorate triangle face anywhere would only lessen triangle face. the triangle face is above such trivial matters, don’t you think?

10) And finally, who would win in a bare knuckle boxing match between Postman Pat and Fireman Sam?
Do they even have knuckles in there? Isn’t it just empty clay?

They’d both just mash each other into clumps in seconds. Fireman Sam would win though.