Mystery Jets: ‘It’s Our First Concept Record’

The brand new album from Mystery Jets looks set to be the band’s ‘first concept record’.

Speaking to DIY, guitarist William Rees helped us delve into the depths of the band’s forthcoming album.

‘We didn’t really know we had a record, to be honest, until about three months ago,’ he begins. ‘We had all of these songs but it was just chaos.’

‘Our manager listened to all of it and he said that he could hear a concept in all of it so we wrote this narrative about it.’

So, what exactly is the concept of ‘Radlands’?

‘It’s a story about someone called Emmerson Lonestar, who’s basically based on Cass McCombs. He’s this wandering musician who travels the badlands of America, going from one disastrous relationship to another.’

Alas, don’t be fooled. The word ‘concept’ does not necessarily mean fiction, as Lees further explains: ‘Everything on that record is true. Everything that’s being sung about has happened to us in America; we met Sister Everett, all the heartbreak stuff, it happened. But the nice thing about having this alter-ego is that you don’t feel responsible for it. It’s his fault, he’s the bastard… unless, of course, you admit to it, which is what I’ve just done.”

Recorded in the depths of Austin, Texas, ‘Radlands’ saw the band head across the ocean; a key part of creating such a record: “As a band, we like doing things like going to America and putting ourselves in situations where real experiences and intense things can happen. If you’re in London, you’re so used to it, you don’t notice it anymore. You don’t notice all of the colours or what people say because you’re one of them.’

‘America’s such a weird place. All of the cults and the religious side to it and the attitudes people have. It’s amazing and it’s strange and it’s so different to English people. They’re so positive but then there’s a real dark side to America.

What sort of things did that landscape inspire though? ‘We had lots of conversations about religion. We wanted to make a religious album, an album that looks at all of these different beliefs and questions them. It was a relief actually because we’re so used to writing about relationships and love songs that it was nice to just write about this. This is new, this is different.”

You can read our full interview with Mystery Jets in this month’s issue of DIY Magazine.

Mystery Jets release their fourth album ‘Radlands’ on the 3rd April.

The band will also be embarking upon a massive UK tour, beginning at the end of March.

MARCH
28 Leeds, Brudenell
29 Hartlepool, Studio
30 Carlisle, Brickyard

APRIL
01 Edinburgh, Electric
02 Newcastle, Cluny
03 Hull, Fruit
04 Birmingham, Rainbow
11 Cardiff, The Gate
12 Norwich, Arts Centre
14 Nottingham, Bodega
15 Stoke, Sugarmill
16 Sheffield, Queen’s Social Club
18 Oxford, Bullingdon
19 Tunbridge Wells, Forum
20 Cambridge, Junction 2
21 Bath, Moles
28 London, Brixton Academy

Taken from the April 2012 issue of DIY, available now. For more details click here.