We Were Promised Jetpacks

interview for The Mill magazine

High-fives all round for the FatCat scouts who brought us The Twilight Sad and Frightened Rabbit, two brilliant Scottish bands who've flourished with a little help from the Brighton-based independent label. Now they tell us they've found another great band from roundsabout here, and we're predictably salivating: FatCat's latest Scottish project are four-piece We Were Promised Jetpacks, discovered by none other than the aforementioned fearty bunny.

Singer Adam Thompson explains: "After a gig at Barfly in March last year I think the Rabbits phoned FatCat and said they should think about signing us." The groups had met previously while sharing a bill for an Is This Music? night and quickly became pals. "I've always imagined it to be like the bit in Back To The Future when Marty is beasting out the solo and the guy with the cut hand is on the phone telling his cousin to sign him. I hope it was like that."

Of course, record deals don't usually come with 'recommend a friend' promotions on the side, but FatCat obviously saw enough in the young quartet from Edinburgh's outskirts to keep listening, and eventually to sign. If there's something special about the Jetpacks, it's probably in the way they use rhythm: not as an unimportant wallpaper to the tune, nor as a herky-jerky fast-track to punk-funk cliche; but as a catalyst to every song, adding a restless urgency to Adam's vocals that add to their sincerity. Ian Curtis used to spasmodically dance when Joy Division's Stephen Morris locked into his groove: with the Jetpacks it's almost as if Adam is persuaded by the rhythms to gush out his innermost thoughts, his tongue flailing around like Curtis's arms.

"We do spend a long time getting the drums done once we have the skeleton of a song," Adam says. "They take ages [to get right]. It's a shame cause everyone with the stringed instruments yells at Lackie to play better drums and we all play the air-drums to help describe what we want it to sound like. He just sits there like he's about to greet!"

It's been a long road to get to this stage, with the group now recording a debut album for a growing expectant fanbase. After meeting at high school, the first ever Jetpacks gig was in April 2003. "We certainly didn't bond over a common love of a few bands or anything like that. Our drummer was into Blink 182 and screamo, Michael [guitars] didn't start liking guitar music for ages, and myself and Sean [bass] were content going to see the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Obviously as time has passed we have become much more passionate about music and are a bit more focussed now."

Luckily for all concerned, they sound nothing like a Blink/screamo/Chilli Peppers hybrid. Tastes can change a lot in six years, especially through school and young adulthood, and with the benefits of regular gigging and paying customers who won't hold back from offering a scathing critique where it's needed. "A guy came to one of our early gigs purely because of our name. He then heckled us and called me a farmer!" Adam complains, but with that they dropped their Wurzels influence, so all's for the better. Recent gigs have been going much better. They made a schoolboy error in selling out Nice N' Sleazy's -- "We had to turn friends who had bought tickets from us away, Sean's sister had to sneak in after we started!" -- and thoroughly enjoyed their September performance at Edinburgh's The Mill. "Yes that was great!" Adam says. "We were a bit suprised that it was so busy for us that night. It was great fun."

Now for that debut album. "We've recorded everything we've got! We're very pleased at how it's coming along. We feel it's a great interpretation of the live show: loud and quiet at the same time. We've done a bunch with Ken Thomas, who produced a couple of Sigur Ros albums, and M83, and they're getting mixed right now by Peter Katis, who's done Frightened Rabbit, The National, and Interpol."

And along with these opportunities, these esteemed names legitimately dropped, comes just a little expectation. I ask Adam about the Twilight Sad and Frightened Rabbit albums, which both won Album of the Year in The Skinny. "Yeah we completely love those albums. It's a bit scary because they are both soooooo good and Scottish and we are on the same label. We were joking about having to win The Skinny's Album of the Year now, you've put us under so much pressure! And now, of course, it'll go to Merriweather Post Pavillion because it's glorious. We're doomed!"

www.myspace.com/wewerepromisedjetpacks

Super Adventure Club

introduction for The Mill magazine

99 reasons to love Super Adventure Club 1. Their name is a South Park reference 2. It's the name of an international paedophile ring that kidnaps Chef: "We just liked the name cos it's silly" singer Bruce explained to The Skinny 3. They named their debut album, released last year, Chalk Horror! 4. Partly because it's a pun, and they like doing silly things like punning 5. Partly because they have a song about a fight between prehistoric chalk monuments, including the Uffington Horse taunting the Rude Giant with "Saint George was no saint you see, but he never flashed his piece at me" 6. Their drummer Waz is amazing 7. They have a song about over-thought no-fun Math Rock, with lines like "a new rock and roll is here, it's based on algebra" 8. You could say Super Adventure Club play Math Rock 9. Which one dunderheaded reviewer thought was hypocritical 10. Crucially forgetting that Super Adventure Club were mocking the very austerity of the form 11. Which is obvious live with bassist Mandy grinning throughout 12. They have a song about the super obese, sung by grinning Mandy, with a chorus of: "No offence to Rik Waller but you're not that much smaller than the state of Tennessee" 13. The lyrics are not in fact the best thing about this band, because they are musicians, not comedians 14. Two-thirds are music teachers, and all three together are tighter than, em, Rik Waller's tights 15. Frank Zappa might be their most obvious single forebearer, for his eclectism, virtuosity and humour 16. Live they're ferocious, veering between metal, punk, power pop and noise 17. They have a new song about the link between hip-hop and Pot Noodles 18. Clearly, they do not know the meaning of cliche 19. Whaddaya mean there's no more

(Obviously this clever ruse doesn't work online. Don't ask me for 80 more reasons! Also, this was not actually published in this form, for hilarious reasons which I cannot reveal. But it was butchered a bit and squeezed into the March issue of The Skinny)

www.myspace.com/superadventuremusic

Found

introduction for The Mill magazine

Edinburgh-based music and arts collective FOUND have been Scotland's most curious indie band for almost three years now, deftly side-stepping easy summation because they prefer asking new questions to asserting familiar answers. Signed to Fife's Fence Collective, their experimental bent is certainly reminiscent of hallowed Fifers the Beta Band, ex-members of which they regularly collaborate with. FOUND are carrying that torch further, squeezing pop songs into the spaces between uncommon scaffold, and borrowing others' songs to remix into more intriguing shapes. Succintly self-described as "Unpredictable, noisy, melodic, daft, electronic-art-pop", FOUND are a far different proposition from Edinburgh's usual indie traditionalists, and it's that singular spirit which has earned them an invitation to this year's South-By-Southwest industry showcase in Austin, Texas. With two excellent albums (the first earning a rare 5-star review in The Skinny) and countless eye-opening, horizon-expanding shows under their belts, it's hard to imagine what oddities they could possibly come up with next; but with a seemingly endless array of weird and wonderful instruments to tease new ideas from, we don't doubt there's plenty more to follow.

www.myspace.com/foundtheband

We See Lights

introduction for The Mill magazine

We've been seeing a bright future for We See Lights since their debut EP landed last May, but they've since evolved from the trio that recorded that promising little sample into a seven-piece collective dedicated to playing with your heart-strings like puppeteers. A debut album is in the can and will be available imminently, but it's live where we suspect they will continue to excel. Take lead single and band anthem "Parachute" for an example: while male and female lead vocalists regretfully trade confessions, it's the sight of all seven members chanting the "break my fall" chorus that reminds us we've all done things we're not proud of. It then becomes a communal admission of fallibility, a group hug involving everyone in the room, even if you didn't know you needed comforting when you walked in. With four songwriters contributing to their setlists, and a revolving cast of lead singers, they manage to avoid repeating themselves while still retaining a distinct group character: one of bittersweet melancholy that uses open-hearted song as therapy. Don't catch them on a down day, or you might just walk out blubbing.

myspace.com/weseelights