INTERVIEW WITH JETTBLACK
Thursday, April 29th, 2010
JettBlack is one hell of a party band. The same members toured South Africa years ago as Skirt Box and since then they’ve cranked up the volume, upped their game and stepped up the pace like only reckless cock-metal dudes can. They’ve just release their brand new single ‘Get Your Hands Dirty’ and will release their full new album on Spinefarm in June 2010. Killer met up with bass-player, Tom Wright, while they were stuck in Holland due to Iceland’s volcanic ash, and talked about their new album…
How much has changed since the band toured South Africa as Skirt Box all those years ago, how would you describe the new sound and style of JettBlack?
Well it has changed a fair bit. We always had solos and technical riffs but we have brought the speed down and increased the sizes of the chorus’s. We just went back to playing the music we grew up on. The new sound we like to describe as cock-metal. Metal songs about girls basically.
How long exactly have you guys been playing together and are you just as psyched to still be playing shows and writing songs?
We have been playing together in bands for quite a while. We all went to school with each other and we all shared the love for music and skating. So that’s how we all hooked up and started jamming.
What sorts of shows and tours have you guys been playing lately and what’s been the best time you’ve had on a tour or at a show so far?
Well it has been a bit of a slow start this year but last year we played some amazing shows. We supported Whitesnake, we played Download Festival, which was probably the best show we have ever played and we played some other amazing festivals. We also just played the last two shows of the Kerrang! Relentless Tour at the Roundhouse in London which is pretty huge.
You have any tours or mega shows lined up for 2010?
Well hopefully we have some really good tours coming up this year, I dont want to say with who as we dont have 100% confirmation on them so don’t want to jinx it but our manager is on the ball and we have high hopes for this year touring wise!
What was the song-writing process like for the new album and how do you guys feel about how it’s turned out as well as being on Spinefarm?
The writing process usualy involves Jon or Will sending over demos to the rest of us. We all then listen and learn the tracks, then take them to rehearsal and we work on fine tuning them together. For this album we had about 18 songs to pick from and with the help of Dan and Justin who we recorded with we got that down to about thirteen of the best. When it came to recording it was pretty straightforward as we had it all worked out before we went in plus Dan and Justin knew exactly how we wanted it to sound. We are really happy with it and so happy it is coming out on a great label that knows this music. It’s quite funny as we pretty much have another abums worth of material ready for the next one!
Were there any bands in particular that influenced the style of the new album? What music do you guys listen to mostly?
Well as I said we all grew up on Metallica, Ugly Kid Joe, Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, Pantera, Megadeth so we have drawn influeneces from all those types of bands and then added a slightly modern twist.
Are any of the guys in the band skateboarders, or does the music rule your lives 24/7?
Tom still skates from time to time along with Jon but the risk of limb snapping is too high to risk for us to take really so it is very much part time now unfortunately.
Is there any major goals that the band still wants to achieve, or are you guys just happy to be playing?
We just want to get out there and play to as many people as possible and get around Europe and Japan and ideally the States but we are so happy to be playing music we just want to get out there and tour the world and have fun rocking and meeting new people!
Anything else worth mentioning or checking out?
Check out the video for our first single ‘Get Your Hands Dirty’ and come see us play!
Check out the new single and info on the band over at: www.myspace.com/jettblackuk
