The Screaming Jets are a piece of the Australian rock music scene’s furniture. They’ve been creating majestic rock anthems for 27 years. Recently, ahead of the release of their latest album Chrome, Paul Woseen took some time out to give us an insight into the way an iconic Aussie rock band sees the industry, and indeed the world.
27 years in the industry. There must be some cracker memories in there…
Oh yeah, there’s some great memories. In 27 years there’s some things that I choose to forget and some that I choose to remember! We played a gig in the early nineties at the Rock Am Ring in Germany. We were on the bill with the likes of Robert Plant, Black Crowes, Def Leppard. We were one of the first bands on early in the morning of a three day event, so we played to maybe a couple thousand people first up. The promoter said he really liked our stuff and offered us to play on the B stage after Def Leppard as people were leaving, so we went back and played to about 55,000 Germans at the end of the event!
The new album Chrome came out today. First in eight years. It’s been in the works about three years, I believe. Why now?
Yeah, it’s out now and already charting on iTunes, so that’s cool. As for why now, this is the longest running constant line-up we’ve had in the band. And it just works, so we thought we’d be mad not to document this current line-up with an album.
It would appear you’ve done the lion’s share of the writing for this album. Do you have a writing process or is it different everytime?
It is sorta different every time. Usually the songs I like the most are the ones that all come out in one hit. Pretty much all of the songs I wrote for this album came out like that, maybe two I wrote lyrics for at the eleventh hour. There’s no real rhyme or reason to my writing. I carry a book and pen around with me everywhere I go and just write stuff down. Then I sit down at home, pick up a guitar and just see what happens.
I’ve always characterised the Jets as unassuming and unpretentious rockers. Listening to “Automatic Cowboy”, it would seem nothing has changed…
We are the beasts that we are you know? We’re not trying to re-invent the wheel here. This is us. The band has evolved over the last 27 years, but the general ethos of what we do remains the same. I think we’ve learned over the years that the less processed stuff is and the more open the guitars are, the bigger and heavier they sound.
Rock fans tend to like the familiarity of their favourite bands sounding the same.
I hope we’ve achieved that for people. But at the same time, whilst it sounds like The Jets, it doesn’t sound like anything we’ve done before.
Perhaps that’s the key to staying alive for 27 years? Being able to change some things up?
Now that’s a cover we should play. “Stayin’ Alive” – the Bee Gees.
Maybe not at 100 beats per minute…
(Laughs) Nah, I’m really proud of this record. It’s just been such an open easy going thing. We all lived at the guest house at 301 in Byron Bay. It was like rock camp you know? And I was back on the lounge a-fucking-gain…
Surely you’d pull rank over somebody for a bed?
Mate, someone’s gotta keep the area safe for women and children you know? But from the moment you’d wake up until the end of the day, everyone was involved you know. Being together for the whole time just made it really cool, I felt.
You’re kicking the tour off tonight. Can we expect the usual antics this time around?
Yeah, pretty much you’ll get a Jets show for sure. There’ll be a whole bunch of new songs in there, which’ll be good for everyone – especially us! We’ll be playing almost the whole new record and then all the hits and favourites as well.
Random question – what do you guys listen to these days? Do you still have influences at this stage of the game or are you your own influence now?
I listen to heaps of different stuff. Anything from Tom Petty to Stone Sour. I mean we still have influences. There’s an English band Royal Blood, a two piece just bass and drums. They’re fucking awesome. It sounds like the bassist is playing guitar and bass at the same time. I’ve been experimenting with how to get that much sound out of two guys.
I was watching the Keith Richards doco the other day, Under The Influence. He made a derogatory comment about hard rock, saying it removed the ‘roll’ tag from rock and roll, which he’d prefer to keep. I’m paraphrasing and it was only a throwaway line. I guess Keith has never seen you guys play live then…
Well you know, he’s entitled to his opinion. He is Keith Richards… But I suppose it depends on the band, you know? I think there’s quite a few, like AC/DC and Rose Tattoo that are hard rock, but it’s got heaps of swagger and ‘roll’, you know. That’s how I look at it.
“Helping Hand” is one of my favourite tracks of all time. There’s plenty of groove in that song.
Cool man, thanks. And yeah, if you can dance to it then it’s rock and roll for me!
I stumbled across a video of you guys playing “Better” at The Metro as part of the Real Deal tour in 2013. In the middle of the song, Dave gives some commentary about the sanitised nature of modern rock stars at the expense of a manufactured pop star, who shall remain nameless. What would you like to tell Australia about the future of rock music in this country?
Just don’t get caught up in the hype of all the talent shows. They’re not gonna make you famous. Does anyone honestly remember the names of anyone who’s won those shows, except Guy Sebastian? I mean Guy certainly deserved to win. But you shouldn’t have a televised competition for music, it’s just bullshit. Guy is a fantastic singer, but there’s no way he wouldn’t have found his way into the industry anyway, you know? I say just get out there and play. Get into the pubs and play your songs. The only way to get better and succeed is to gig.
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