Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Musically interrogating the human experience

An interview with We Were Promised Jetpacks

We Were Promised Jetpacks
We Were Promised Jetpacks
Past Event

We Were Promised Jetpacks

  • Friday, October 12, 2018, 7 p.m.
  • Irenic, 3090 Polk Avenue, San Diego
  • $18

We Were Promised Jetpacks, native to Edinburgh, Scotland, took a long time off after 2014’s Unravelling, but thankfully return to musically interrogating the human experience. They arrive at Irenic on October 12, touring behind their new album The More I Sleep The Less I Dream. Guitarist Michael Palmer volunteered to take questions.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Have you played San Diego before? Favorite stories?

We have, a couple of times. Once, and I can’t remember the name of the venue or when we played, because that’s the type of brain I have, we were playing and a couple in front of me were full-on making out the whole time. Not in a cute-couple way but in a gross somebody-throw-water-on-them way. I ended up managing to get the attention of a security guard while playing, pointed my head at them and motioned to the exit.

The guy smiled at me, then took great delight in throwing them out. Which then got a pretty big cheer from the crowd.

You gave up touring awhile. Was that simple burnout, or something more complex?

It wasn’t really “giving up”, it was trying to carve out time to actually write music. So we didn’t play for a few months, didn’t manage to write anything we thought was good enough. So we took a few more months. And that just kept extending. So it wasn’t like a deliberate plan or anything.

Who got married during the downtime? Did the band play any of the weddings?

I did, as did both Sean [Smith, bassist] and Darren [Lackie, drummer]. The band didn’t play at any weddings because we wouldn’t want to subject our friends and families to that. Plus, who wants to work on their wedding day?

What were the essential differences between the demos you scrapped and the album tracks you’ve got now?

Quality. That sounds like a snarky answer, but it’s not. The songs we scrapped were all too try-hard. We were trying, and you could hear it. The record we have now is very instinctive. We wouldn’t worry if doing a breakdown in the middle of the song and then carrying on doing something completely different was “right” or not. If that was our instinct, we went with it. Whatever felt right. We got out of our own way.

What are your plans?

Play more and write more. Maybe take fewer than four years to get the next one out.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Holiday Market At Petco Park, Will Smith’s Dance in the Darkness Tour, Light Shows, Snowfall, Caroling

Events December 12-December 13, 2024
Next Article

Issa aide collaborates with Ukrainians

Carlsbad's Tracy Slepcevic, Warrior Mom, and her ties to RFK, Jr.
We Were Promised Jetpacks
We Were Promised Jetpacks
Past Event

We Were Promised Jetpacks

  • Friday, October 12, 2018, 7 p.m.
  • Irenic, 3090 Polk Avenue, San Diego
  • $18

We Were Promised Jetpacks, native to Edinburgh, Scotland, took a long time off after 2014’s Unravelling, but thankfully return to musically interrogating the human experience. They arrive at Irenic on October 12, touring behind their new album The More I Sleep The Less I Dream. Guitarist Michael Palmer volunteered to take questions.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Have you played San Diego before? Favorite stories?

We have, a couple of times. Once, and I can’t remember the name of the venue or when we played, because that’s the type of brain I have, we were playing and a couple in front of me were full-on making out the whole time. Not in a cute-couple way but in a gross somebody-throw-water-on-them way. I ended up managing to get the attention of a security guard while playing, pointed my head at them and motioned to the exit.

The guy smiled at me, then took great delight in throwing them out. Which then got a pretty big cheer from the crowd.

You gave up touring awhile. Was that simple burnout, or something more complex?

It wasn’t really “giving up”, it was trying to carve out time to actually write music. So we didn’t play for a few months, didn’t manage to write anything we thought was good enough. So we took a few more months. And that just kept extending. So it wasn’t like a deliberate plan or anything.

Who got married during the downtime? Did the band play any of the weddings?

I did, as did both Sean [Smith, bassist] and Darren [Lackie, drummer]. The band didn’t play at any weddings because we wouldn’t want to subject our friends and families to that. Plus, who wants to work on their wedding day?

What were the essential differences between the demos you scrapped and the album tracks you’ve got now?

Quality. That sounds like a snarky answer, but it’s not. The songs we scrapped were all too try-hard. We were trying, and you could hear it. The record we have now is very instinctive. We wouldn’t worry if doing a breakdown in the middle of the song and then carrying on doing something completely different was “right” or not. If that was our instinct, we went with it. Whatever felt right. We got out of our own way.

What are your plans?

Play more and write more. Maybe take fewer than four years to get the next one out.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Tuétano and Mujer Divina: two storefronts, one famous birria

Burritos and coffee or tacos and tortas, marrow or not
Next Article

How Much Time Do I Get With My BetterHelp Therapist?

Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader