I met up with Jets To Zurich before their gig at the Malster’s Arms in Pontypridd yesterday to interview them. During that interview I found out about their new album, love of the French horn and bizarre sexual practices.

VC: Does the band name have any particular meaning?
Shea: [Dale] was in an airport going to Zurich, he was going to get hookers, but then he didn’t get any hookers, and he just jetted around Zurich.

Dale: I’ve never been to Zurich, you know that.

VC: So it’s a lie then?
Dale: No, it’s not a lie. I came up with the name “Jets”, and it was something else like “Jets of Fire” or something, but I thought that was to close to the Firebrand. I saw an advert for Zurich Bank and I went ahh that works, Jets to Zurich.

Simon: So we’re jetting to a bank?

Dale: No, there’s not any reason to it but that’s how I came up with it and it sounds cool. Do you agree?

VC: Yeah. It’s not too bad. How did the band start?
Dale: We were a band called the Physics.

Simon: Band of Psychics

Shea: That was years ago.

Dale: I’ve known [Simon] all my life obviously, and I’ve known [Shea] pretty much all my life as well, since we were about two.

Shea: Yeah, I went away to uni and then I came back, and [Dale] had been in bands for years and years, and it was like Do you want to start a band?

Simon: And I’d come back from Liverpool, and was looking to do something.

Dale: [Simon] had played in a band in Liverpool.

Shea: And then we played the Wrestling Song in the living room, which is No Alternative.

VC: What song?
Shea: The Wrestling Song.

Simon: That is what No Alternative was called before it was called No Alternative.

Dale: Ultimate Warrior, it sounds a bit like the Ultimate Warrior’s theme tune. Yeah so, we were a four piece, then we didn’t do anything for months and I started jamming with a guy from a band called Corona Jones and we came up with some ideas but he couldn’t commit, he had just come up to write some songs. So I got Shea involved and we started jamming together and then I got [Simon] back in and then that was it.

VC: Who are your biggest influences?
Shea: Biffy Clyro.

Simon: Primus.

Dale: Silverchair.

VC: Not Nirvana?
Dale: No, Silverchair. No, actually swear to God I like Silverchair more that Nirvana.

VC: How do you write your songs?
Dale: I do.

VC: How?
Dale: I just sit there with an acoustic while playing football manager, and then while it’s loading I just play. I write loads, when I’m feeling it I can write like four songs in a day and then what ever sticks in my head I keep, then I bring it into practice and we start working on it. We have ditched some songs because they do have that feeling, you know?

Simon: [Dale] writes the songs, then he brings them to us and we put the finishing touches on and we do our parts.

Dale: They write their parts and I write the song. Basically.

VC: You’ve just released a new album, what are your thoughts on how it has turned out?
Dale: I like it.

Shea: We just released it, but we recorded it like a year ago.

Dale: Yeah, it’s taken a while to release it. We recorded half of it in a studio in Radyr, like the ones mainly with drums and then we recorded the slower songs in my house because it’s basically me with an acoustic, I can record acoustic stuff easily on my own but the main body of the album was done with a guy called Jon Con in a studio in Radyr.

VC: Which of your own songs is your favourite?
Shea: No Alternative probably.

Dale: He loves No Alternative.

Simon: I do like No Alternative but I think I’ll go for Murmur.

Dale: Around The Sun.

VC: What is the best gig you’ve ever played?
Dale: Hereford. We played a gig in a place called the Jailhouse in Hereford, and it was amazing. It was just weird, it was just the weirdest gig I’ve ever played.

Simon: There was a free bar so I was steaming.

Dale: Yeah, he was steaming, I wasn’t, [Shea] was driving.

Shea: Yeah, I was driving.

Dale: You know when you play a gig and everyone is so into it, we had pits, we had all these kids pitting. They’d never heard us before and within two songs they were going crazy.

Simon: It was a classic gig.

Shea: Simon couldn’t really play that much.

Simon: I was alright.

Shea: I kept it going.

Simon: I made one mistake.

Shea: I drove the band that night.

Dale: Yeah, that was a brilliant gig, yeah Hereford, probably is the best gig. I don’t know if it’s the best we’ve played, but Hereford was the best gig for crowd reaction, the best gig we’ve played was probably the last one we did in Aberdare Rugby Club, we were really tight that night, that’s the best we’ve actually played as a band, but the best reaction was Hereford.

VC: What are your plans for the future?
Dale: Well, we’re in the process of expanding the line up, tonight we’re a three piece but we’ve got Mitch kind of join on second guitar, he’s really busy with work but we’re hoping to get him in shortly and also a keyboardist as well. The new album, which I’ve started writing as kind of got more layered sounds, and you know the instrumentation in No Alternative with the string sections, there is going to be more of that. And there is going to be a song with french horns.

VC: So when is the new album planned for?
Dale: I’m going to try and do an EP first.

VC: Another EP?
Dale: Yeah, the album, well we I get started on something like the last album, we recorded it and then I spend a week, just me and the producer, and I layered it all up.

Shea: In his bedroom.

Dale: Yeah, it was, it was like an apartment inside his house, it was weird. But, that’s where the strings came from. My mission is that this album is going to have french horns.

VC: Why?
Dale: Because I like Sliverchair and if you listened to the last two Silverchair albums you will know why.

Shea: Yeah, but if you listen to the first Silverchair album, that is what we have got to write.

Dale: We already have.

Shea: We’re not quite there yet.

VC: Anything else you’d like to add?
Dale: People buy the album, because that helps us pay for the next one and we need some sales, that helps us.

Shea: And Charlie humps my leg every time we practice.

Dale: He does. It’s not a guy, it’s my dog. I haven’t got some guy living in my house called Charlie who humps Shea’s leg, don’t worry. That would be funny though, to be fair, it would be.

VC: You should make a video.
Dale: Maybe, but that falls under bestiality and we’re not going there.

VC: That’s illegal isn’t it?
Dale: In some States yes, well it’s frowned upon.

Shea: Like masturbation on an aeroplane.

Dale: It’s a bit like necrophilia, it’s frowned upon, but it’s not actually illegal.

VC: I think that is illegal.
Dale: Only in some places.

www.myspace.com/jetstozurich