When a band of youngsters like The Jet Black use the lyrics by a living Legend like Neil Young, “Rock N Roll will never die, there’s more to the picture than meets the eye”, they you quickly understand, -that despite their youth-, they take their art really seriously, . We will be lucky to see them live at the 7th Music Highway Festival, at KYTTARO Live Club, on February 16, but before this, lets get to know them…
Being a considerably new band let’s start by introducing The Jet Black to our readers…
The band was formed in 2011, we started jamming in our basement trying to figure out our sound, only to actually become active in 2015 when we had our first live gig and recorded our first two songs. We are four best friends, more like brothers and the primary reason behind forming the band was us spending more time together.
Which do you consider your main influences for The Jet Black? Music-wise and non-music-wise?
Well the thing is that each one of us has a different taste in music, nevertheless we all love and respect AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana and The Last Drive. Those are the main influences to our music. Furthermore we are drawing inspiration by the nature itself. The Sun, The Moon, the Sea will always make their way into our lyrics and in our music. The rage of our youth, the political and economical system, the pain, our pain and that of others, a photograph, a movie, a book, a poem, a poet and everything that comes and goes in and out of our lives. But nothing would find a way to be expressed if there wasn’t a muse to make it needed to be told.
Searching for music for this interview I discovered two videos by you, ‘Butterfly’ & ‘Fire In The Rain’. Two solid rock tracks based on potent guitar riffs, and in general a cool rock n’ roll attitude. Would you like to talk about these two tracks? Any special story behind them?
‘Butterfly‘ and ‘Fire In The Rain‘ were our first two songs to be recorded. We came up with a solid riff for ‘Butterfly‘ and started building the song. When the music was completed I (Ioannis) handed the lyrics to the others and when they realized it was a love song they were kind of disappointed. However, they loved the melody, so we eventually decided to keep it as it was. ‘Fire In The Rain‘ was also meant to be a love song, but we ended up limiting the romance aspect of it after what happened with ‘Butterfly‘ and a couple of other songs.
How was the live experience on 14th October at the legendary AN Club? Did you enjoy this?
Our live performance on the 14th of October was actually our fist gig as head-liners and we were also in charge of the whole thing. Despite it being our first time organizing something like this, it went pretty well. We had a blast and we’re looking forward in doing it again.
What are you going to present at the 7th Highway Festival on February 16th, at KYTTARO club?
It’s an honor be part of the 7th Music Highway Festival and we are very exited. We haven’t played live since the past October so we are very pumped about this one. We are going to play the 9 songs that are going to be included in our album, as well as a couple of covers. We are going to Rock the fuck out of it and that’s a statement!
A tricky one now! There are many stating rock n’ roll is dead! I guess you disagree with this statement, right? In what way do you think The jet Black will “save” r’n’r?
We view rock ‘n’ roll more as a way of life than something material. However, in a time of promiscuity, in a time when the way you look is more important than what you really are, the times we live in, it is suppressed by all the surrounding filth and decadence, given the fact that is a pure and true thing. True to the core of its roots. As Neil Young said “Rock N Roll will never die, there’s more to the picture than meets the eye”. We believe in Rock n Roll, that’s how we’ll save it!
Any chance releasing your debut album within 2018?
We finished with the recordings for our album in the past summer and now it’s by 90% ready. There are only some technical stuff left to be done, so we believe that with pleasure we will share it with you in the next couple of months.
Name 3 albums that are most important for The Jet Black, and also your 3 ‘best’ releases of 2017…
As we mentioned before, bands like Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Black Sabbath compile a major influence for our sound, if we had to pick only three though, they would be ‘In Utero‘ by Nirvana, ‘By The Way‘ from Red Hot Chili Peppers and ‘Paranoid‘ by Black Sabbath.
In 2017 we were preoccupied with listening to and studying older stuff and didn’t have the opportunity to be exposed to many new entries. Nevertheless, we had the chance of listening to Queens Of The Stone Age’s ‘Villains‘. A very melodic trip that does not fall flat compared to their previews records. It also happened to be released 40 years after David Bowie‘s ‘Heroes‘. Next up would be Roger Waters’ ‘Is This the Life We Really Want?‘, which gave off a melancholic and at the same time exquisite feeling, seeming like a mix of Pink Floyd and the later works of Johnny Cash. Lastly, we have to include The Rolling Stones here and their album ‘Blue & Lonesome‘, even though it came out in December 2016 (but we don’t give a fuck). A rough sound accompanied with great emotion and Mick Jagger’s passionate harmonica playing did the blues justice.
Feel free to add anything else you like… The space is yours!
Keep on Rocking in A Free World…
Photo credits: Milo (Dimitris Milonas)
Christos Doukakis