Interview with We Were Promised Jetpacks

Scottish Indie-rock band We Were Promised Jetpacks have made quite a name for themselves over the past few years. They are currently in the studio recording a new album and will embark on a North American tour starting in February. GroundSounds caught up with Darren Lackie to discuss the band’s history, creative process, and inspiration.

For those just discovering your music, how did you guys form the group?

We have all been friends for a very long time and during high school we were all playing different instruments. We decided one day that it’d be a good idea to start a band. We did one gig where it was just the 3 of us (Adam, Sean and I) and then got Mike involved shortly after that… I think it may have even been the very next day Adam asked him to join.  

What was it like the night you guys recorded your new album E Rey Live In Philadelphia?

I don’t think there was any extra pressure if that’s what you mean? We know that one of our main strengths as a band is our live performance and we knew that in order to get a good recording of the set we would just have to relax and play like any other night. I did wear a shirt that night so that my mum wouldn’t shout at me for looking like a scruff in the live DVD. That was stupid, it was roasting. 

I have absolutely no idea what Peace Sign is about. Is that terrible? He could be singing about anything and I’m quite happily playing along. It was the first song we wrote after releasing In The Pit Of The Stomach so we have been playing it in our live set for a long time. It seemed like a good time to give people a taste of something new. 

It can vary. Mostly, Adam will come to our practice with a rough idea and we will listen to what he’s got, trying out parts of our own. We’ll then discuss structure and what direction we want the song to go in. Sometimes, however, we just start from nothing and we can end up playing the same thing over and over again for a good 20 minutes before someone realises and we stop. Hopefully that means we’ve come up with something good though and that can become part of a song! Either that or our brains turn to mush and we go home for dinner.

We really enjoy being on Fatcat. All the people that we have worked with over the years from the label have been great and have helped us get to where we are now. We always hang out with them whenever it’s possible. Ok that’s enough brown nosing. 

That was a really long tour which started at SXSW in the middle of March and ended with the Philly show on May 5th. It was a great time but also a very exhausting few months. We all love SXSW so to start a tour there is always fantastic. We also played Coachella in the middle of that tour which is something that none of us ever imagined we’d be doing. That wasn’t just a highlight of that tour but a highlight of our career so far. It was also a great end to that tour. The last 4 shows we did were Washington, D.C., New York, Brooklyn and Philadelphia, all places where we have great fans and cities where large numbers of people come to see us. It started on a high and ended on a high too. 

You guy will be going on a North American tour once again, what will you guys be looking forward to?

There’s a lot of cities on this tour that we’ve not been to for quite a long time so it’s going to be great going back to places like Portland and San Francisco to name a few. It’s a bit of a cliche’ for someone from Scotland to say but I guess I’m looking forward to heading to warmer climates too. I can’t wait to get my shorts out. 

For me it’s absolutely roasting on stage! I sweat horrible amounts, so being under the lights doesn’t do me any good. Seriously though, we do love playing shows. There’s nothing better than being on stage at a show when everything is going right. I guess I’m thinking most of the time… “Don’t drop your stick, don’t drop your stick”