Mystery Jets

Singer — London

01Profile

A Mystery Jets Photo

03Interview

Name, Where are you from?
My name is Stephen although most people call me Blaine. I spent my childhood in France, my teens in Oxford and my twenties in London.

What do you do?
I write songs about things like planets, girls and chemical compounds and then go sing them with my band, Mystery Jets.

Describe your style in three words.
Pre Raphaelite Millennial.

How should your music be listened to?
I'd like to think the mark of a good song is one that would sound equally great coming out of a phone in a pint glass as out of a speaker tower at a major music festival (assuming you had drunk the contents of the glass first).

What do you miss about home when you’re on tour?
Linda McCartney sausages. Yes they do sponsor us but only because I talk about them so much.

What British music icons inspire your sound today?
Fripp, Eno, Bowie, Wyatt, Gabriel, Bush...artists who have never stopped redefining who they are. You're either out there weathering the waves of the unknown or you're on a cruise ship...

04Playlist Notes

The first track you played on repeat?
'Everybody's free (to wear sunscreen)' from Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet. I heard this when I was 11 and was obsessed.

A song from your favourite album?
'Two headed Boy part 2' from Neutral Milk Hotel's In the airplane over the sea. I watched Jeff Mangum play solo at the Union Chapel three or four years back and it was astounding. The crowd were still applauding long after he left the building.

Song you wish you had written / Music icon that has inspired you?
'Cornerstone' by Arctic Monkeys. We toured around Europe together the year Humbug came out and we always made sure we caught this one every night. It captures that sense of innocent knowingness that was so prevalent in Alex's early writing.

Five songs from bands you rate on the Dot to Dot line up?

Rectifier - Spring King

Move - Rat Boy

Still - The Japanese House

Loveblood - Sundera Karma

Into The Night - Blaenavon

03Interview

Name, Where are you from?
My name is Stephen although most people call me Blaine. I spent my childhood in France, my teens in Oxford and my twenties in London.

What do you do?
I write songs about things like planets, girls and chemical compounds and then go sing them with my band, Mystery Jets.

Describe your style in three words.
Pre Raphaelite Millennial.

How should your music be listened to?
I'd like to think the mark of a good song is one that would sound equally great coming out of a phone in a pint glass as out of a speaker tower at a major music festival (assuming you had drunk the contents of the glass first).

What do you miss about home when you’re on tour?
Linda McCartney sausages. Yes they do sponsor us but only because I talk about them so much.

What British music icons inspire your sound today?
Fripp, Eno, Bowie, Wyatt, Gabriel, Bush...artists who have never stopped redefining who they are. You're either out there weathering the waves of the unknown or you're on a cruise ship...

04Playlist Notes

The first track you played on repeat?
'Everybody's free (to wear sunscreen)' from Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet. I heard this when I was 11 and was obsessed.

A song from your favourite album?
'Two headed Boy part 2' from Neutral Milk Hotel's In the airplane over the sea. I watched Jeff Mangum play solo at the Union Chapel three or four years back and it was astounding. The crowd were still applauding long after he left the building.

Song you wish you had written / Music icon that has inspired you?
'Cornerstone' by Arctic Monkeys. We toured around Europe together the year Humbug came out and we always made sure we caught this one every night. It captures that sense of innocent knowingness that was so prevalent in Alex's early writing.

Five songs from bands you rate on the Dot to Dot line up?

Rectifier - Spring King

Move - Rat Boy

Still - The Japanese House

Loveblood - Sundera Karma

Into The Night - Blaenavon