Wednesday 4 February 2009

New year. New deal. New record.

DEAR ALL. I wish to bring to light the announcement that we, Mystery Jets, have indeed left our previous contract with 679 recordings. We worked with some talented and inspiring people, enjoyed our time there and parted on an amicable note. But ultimately what occurred was a catch 22 situation with a major label. When we first signed, 679 was its own entity. They occupied a beautiful office in a leafy backstreet in Camden town, and we shared a pretty fierce roster with the likes of the Futureheads, Death from above and The Streets. Fast forward four years, and the label occupies nothing more than a six foot-high metal storage cabinet on the third floor of the Atlantic offices in High Street Kengington. And all we share is a shelf with some dusty old Kano promo cds.

John Lennon once famously said that he liked to imagine domestic objects that he could buy with the profits made from his songs, so as to give himself motivation to keep writing. It was once even (allegedly) said that he and Paul wrote 'Eight Days A Week' specifically so that John would be able to afford an extension to his house. "Sometimes we sat down and said 'right! Today we're going to write a swimming pool'."

Comparatively, record sales today aren't a scrape on what they were in the Beatles' day. Therefore, I think I can justify saying that in the eyes of a major label like Atlantic, Mystery Jets (and many of our contemporaries who have encountered similar obstacles, and who I have listed below) were effectively 'writing kebabs'.

Luckily I like Good Shoes.
And I like The Futureheads.
And I like The Horrors.
And I like Patrick Wolf.
And I also like kebabs.



On another note, it is with utter joy and excitement that I would like to announce our new home- Rough Trade Records.
We signed last week and took a photo to mark the occasion too.

Rough Trade records is a whole world unto itself. In the past thirty years it has been home to the likes of the Cure, the Smiths, the Strokes, the Libertines and the Arcade fire. And that's only scraping the surface. It also even more importantly carved the way for many of the independent labels we love and buy records from today. So I think its more than fair to say we are looking forward to what lies in front of us in the year ahead.


Photograph by Russ Tannen

Aside from the final dates in February in the UK and the States, our sights are firmly set on making the third record. Demos are being thrown around like beach balls, as are, less thrillingly, phrases like 'driving music!' and ' French new wave soundtracks!'. I can only speak for myself when I say there's a lot of Springsteen, Cars and late-police being played out round here. That said, I will however, never allow a Sting CD in this house.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

P.S
For those of you who are not familiar with the heritage of Rough Trade, let wonder-kid Jeff Lewis make the introduction:
To Paraphrase Jeff himself -
"Don't let the record label take you out to lunch, every sip of soup's gonna be recouped"



Read what founder Jeff Travis had to say himself on rough trade's website here:
http://www.roughtraderecords.com/mysteryjets/1199/mystery-jets-sign-to-rough-trade

X Blaine
05/02/09

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

good for you
=)

The Noises In Our Heads said...

Nice one Mystery Jets. You deserve a label that puts you guys first. YAY.

Anonymous said...

haha William looks pretty good as a kebab chef!
But no, to me you guys are writing diamonds. in the dark. :D
wish you all the best. x

Paige Yong said...

Hahaha I love the pic of William with the kebab. 100% halal! haha

This is so awesome! Congrats! I love The Cure and The Strokes as well, it's amazing that you guys are in the same record label as them. Continue to make more great music!

<33333

Paige Yong said...

Btw, can someone tell me how do I follow this blog? I can't seem to find it anywhere in this blog whereby I can click on to follow it.
Thanks.

NG said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PDmZnG8KsM

aïe aïe ;)

Space Cadet said...

Hooray!!! Rough Trade is the best store in the world too!

Anonymous said...

congratulations guys!
can't wait to hear some new songs. i also hope you'll get a proper french tour, you deserve it sooo. X

Merlin said...

I'm about to go see you at Shepherds Bush Empire... Hope you're good!

Merlin said...

Well you rocked it! Holy crap everyone knew every word! Is it always like that? Amazing - and the new song - Lady Grey i think it was?? Fantastic.

Hey do fancy doing an interview for my blog?

themixtapepodcast.blogspot.com/

Let me know!

Merlin.

Paula Bowles said...

Hello! Thanks for coming to Bristol this week, really enjoyed your gig! You guys are awesome.

Really glad to hear 2009 has started off well too with Rough Trade records, was worried when I heard bad news rumours. Thanks for explaining it all too, I understand what happened now!

Writing a swimming pool.. made me laugh! I draw stuff for a living, and like to imagine what I could buy with what ever picture I'm painting... but usually it ends up being my rent and groceries, and occasionally ingredients to bake interesting cakes.

Drawing a cake....

px

Anonymous said...

very intesting this page

Anonymous said...

fuck you for cancel in mexico

Anonymous said...

dont even care to do a blog about why mexico date is cancel, dont even care about mexican fans ?

Memmis said...

good luck, my best wishes :D

Anonymous said...

In the pic of you boys signing, where is Kapil?

Where is he on that NME cd thing?

Unknown said...

brazil is waiting for you guys...

california love said...

you're in istanbul tonight, woo!

cheese-head said...

love you guys, i look forward to the new record greatly. i also look forward to the next tour! i live in shrewsbury so can go to birmingham and manchester, woot! don't wait too long before touring, we fans are often deprived.