There was no way to predict that when Jet released an album titled “Get Born” in 2003 that it would strike a cord. Or that the single “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” would become a favorite worldwide. And who knew that a relatively unknown band from down under would sell a whopping 3.5 million copies of that album?
Perhaps just as baffling was the band from Melbourne, Australia, would follow up “Get Born” with “Shine On” in 2006 and it would sell a little more than 100,000 copies. Who knew? Now Jet is back with a new album titled “Shaka Rock,” that was released in June of 2009. The songs “She’s a Genius” and “K.I.A. (Killed in Action)” sound like something that might be on “Get Born.” So how will it be received? Let the guessing games continue. It’s only speculation, but since their release of “Get Born,” a lot of things have changed including their label. There’s no way to guess how “Shaka Rock” will be received, that is out of Jet’s control, but they hope that it finds an audience.
When asked if he was proud of “Shaka Rock,” guitarist Cameron Muncey said, “Yeah, definitely, I’m more proud of this. We co-produced it. We’ve been going through so many changes. I think that If this record does well, if it keeps us going and gets us to the next one, I’ll be so proud of us because we’ll have done it ourselves instead of being carried by anyone.”
Don’t get Muncey wrong, he’s not complaining. It’s hard to find fault with a record that sells 3 million copies, but at the same time, the pressure of trying to match that has been stressful.
“A lot of bands, their biggest record is their fourth or fifth record. There’s so many bands like that. It’s usually the way to go,” Muncey said. “The second one did pretty damn good as well, a 100,000 or just over that which is really great for a rock band, but because you’ve got that thing where the first one sold so much it turned into a negative strangely. So it can be slightly frustrating, but I’m not complaining.”
Just how Jet’s follow up could drop off so significantly is still a matter of speculation. Was it the music? Poor marketing or had their fans moved on?
“I just think that through maybe some mis-management, who knows. Who can say, you know what I mean? It could be a mix be a mix of all different things I’m not here to point fingers or anything,” Muncey said. “I think for whatever reason it didn’t go well. If the first one had of been around the same amount of sales as the second one, and the second one came out and sold as much as the second, I did I don’t think I’d been getting that many questions. I think people would just sort of say, ‘oh cool,’ this band is chugging away, they’re going to get there eventually. It takes a while for a band to make a name for itself and to build up fans.”
It’s hard to complain when the band has had so much success in less than a decade. Lead singer Nic Cester formed Jet along with Muncey, drummer Chris Cester, and bassist Mark Wilson in 2000 and put out a vinyl-only EP that titled Dirty Sweet in 2002. The EP sold out of its initial run of 1,000 copies. The band would later ink a deal with Elektra in 2003 and went on to hit it big with “Get Born,” but the group found out how difficult it can be to stay on top.
“It’s so strange that some people write you off a times, so quickly. It’s such a fickle business,” Muncey noted. “We just started to get on with it. We don’t believe there’s a greater force at work that says ‘wow give up.’ We’re just not like that. We’re just playing our own game. With the third record we went to Austin, Texas and contacted a good friend of ours who is a producer and we did it in four studios in Austin. We didn’t want to like contact the big shot producers and spend like hundreds of thousands of dollars to some dude to save us. We’re not like that.”
Jet is happy with the result and more than anything they feel like on their latest release that the band has more freedom to do what is best for themselves.
“I think we sort of saw what wasn’t working and changed it and after that we said ‘okay what are we doing now.’ With this record we sort of changed everything. It’s best to not keep doing something that’s not working. You may as well just go out on the limb, take a risk,” Muncey said. “We’re getting used to the idea of being our own record company as well. We work with EMI, but to a certain extent, we’re our own entity. It’s exciting, sometimes daunting, but always cool to have more control of your life, you know.”
Perhaps just as baffling was the band from Melbourne, Australia, would follow up “Get Born” with “Shine On” in 2006 and it would sell a little more than 100,000 copies. Who knew? Now Jet is back with a new album titled “Shaka Rock,” that was released in June of 2009. The songs “She’s a Genius” and “K.I.A. (Killed in Action)” sound like something that might be on “Get Born.” So how will it be received? Let the guessing games continue. It’s only speculation, but since their release of “Get Born,” a lot of things have changed including their label. There’s no way to guess how “Shaka Rock” will be received, that is out of Jet’s control, but they hope that it finds an audience.
When asked if he was proud of “Shaka Rock,” guitarist Cameron Muncey said, “Yeah, definitely, I’m more proud of this. We co-produced it. We’ve been going through so many changes. I think that If this record does well, if it keeps us going and gets us to the next one, I’ll be so proud of us because we’ll have done it ourselves instead of being carried by anyone.”
Don’t get Muncey wrong, he’s not complaining. It’s hard to find fault with a record that sells 3 million copies, but at the same time, the pressure of trying to match that has been stressful.
“A lot of bands, their biggest record is their fourth or fifth record. There’s so many bands like that. It’s usually the way to go,” Muncey said. “The second one did pretty damn good as well, a 100,000 or just over that which is really great for a rock band, but because you’ve got that thing where the first one sold so much it turned into a negative strangely. So it can be slightly frustrating, but I’m not complaining.”
Just how Jet’s follow up could drop off so significantly is still a matter of speculation. Was it the music? Poor marketing or had their fans moved on?
“I just think that through maybe some mis-management, who knows. Who can say, you know what I mean? It could be a mix be a mix of all different things I’m not here to point fingers or anything,” Muncey said. “I think for whatever reason it didn’t go well. If the first one had of been around the same amount of sales as the second one, and the second one came out and sold as much as the second, I did I don’t think I’d been getting that many questions. I think people would just sort of say, ‘oh cool,’ this band is chugging away, they’re going to get there eventually. It takes a while for a band to make a name for itself and to build up fans.”
It’s hard to complain when the band has had so much success in less than a decade. Lead singer Nic Cester formed Jet along with Muncey, drummer Chris Cester, and bassist Mark Wilson in 2000 and put out a vinyl-only EP that titled Dirty Sweet in 2002. The EP sold out of its initial run of 1,000 copies. The band would later ink a deal with Elektra in 2003 and went on to hit it big with “Get Born,” but the group found out how difficult it can be to stay on top.
“It’s so strange that some people write you off a times, so quickly. It’s such a fickle business,” Muncey noted. “We just started to get on with it. We don’t believe there’s a greater force at work that says ‘wow give up.’ We’re just not like that. We’re just playing our own game. With the third record we went to Austin, Texas and contacted a good friend of ours who is a producer and we did it in four studios in Austin. We didn’t want to like contact the big shot producers and spend like hundreds of thousands of dollars to some dude to save us. We’re not like that.”
Jet is happy with the result and more than anything they feel like on their latest release that the band has more freedom to do what is best for themselves.
“I think we sort of saw what wasn’t working and changed it and after that we said ‘okay what are we doing now.’ With this record we sort of changed everything. It’s best to not keep doing something that’s not working. You may as well just go out on the limb, take a risk,” Muncey said. “We’re getting used to the idea of being our own record company as well. We work with EMI, but to a certain extent, we’re our own entity. It’s exciting, sometimes daunting, but always cool to have more control of your life, you know.”
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