The Edge 2010: We Were Promised Jetpacks

Not many bands have a name that can officially summarise a decade. Late last year, Channel 4 News asked viewers to Tweet a snappy aphorism of the preceding decade. The winning entry played on that 1950s sci-fi promise that by now we would be flying to work across silver-domed cityscapes as casually as taking the bus. “Where are our jetpacks?” asked Krishnan Guru-Murthy. “We were promised jetpacks.”

Talking after a successful day in the rehearsal studio, Sean Smith of, yes, We Were Promised Jetpacks claims they were not the masterminds behind the winning Tweet. “We weren’t aware of that,” he assures us. “I’m sure if it had been any of our friends they would have let us know. They like to get a good Jetpack joke in. If they don’t get something they expected, it’s all ‘oh, we were promised chips and cheese’ or something. Apparently that’s bloody hilarious!”

Having laboured under their moniker since 2003, it’s easy to understand that the joke has worn thin for Smith. Back then the band formed to play a school ‘battle of the bands’ contest in Edinburgh. Gigs in the capital ensued though Smith was less than enamoured with them. “It was the crappy ‘you’re on last if you sell the most tickets’ type of affair,” he sighs.

It took a move to Glasgow for the ‘real’ gigs to come. A couple of choice support slots with Frightened Rabbit, who had just signed to FatCat Records, proved pivotal. “They mentioned us to their label, they had a listen then they came and saw us,” shrugs Smith. “It just went from there. Before we knew it we were recording our album for them.”

That album was last year's These Four Walls, released to positive reviews on the back of some brilliant live shows. Fast forward one year and the Jetpacks are already in preparation for album number two. “The writing of the first album wasn’t really like writing an album,” reasons Smith of the differences in approach. “It was just us writing songs because we were in a band. It feels a bit weird, writing the second album – you know the songs you’re working on are going to be recorded properly and put on CD.”

“The new songs are much closer to songs that I actually want to listen to,” he elaborates. Dropping them into their live sets has also been a saviour for the boys. “It depends on the night, but if things aren’t going well, playing [early favourite single] Quiet Little Voices is probably the last thing we want to do. So we’ve been gradually throwing the new songs into our sets to keep things fun for us.”

Before their Edinburgh Edge gig though, the band will be dropping these new tunes to American audiences. “The one thing in the States is that they’re really appreciative of bands coming over,” claims Smith. “They appreciate the twang of our accents and everything.”

However, this appreciation bordered on something less affable with one Los Angeles’ couple. “They were really excited to meet us,” he laughs. “They were like ‘My God, you guys are in the band’. They had us signing pictures, anything they could find, then they both went straight to this wee toilet cubicle together. We’re pretty sure they were having sex in there.”

We Were Promised Jetpack lust-fuelled progeny, anyone?