It’s fair to say that quite a lot has happened since Mystery Jets last released an album.
Their singer was hospitalised (again) to receive treatment for his Spina Bifida. Brexit tore the country apart And now, they’re releasing their new long-player, A Billion Heartbeats, in the middle of a global pandemic. That, in anyone’s eyes, is Quite A Bit Of Stuff.
We caught up with frontman Blaine Harrison to talk about the long road to A Billion Heartbeats, the importance of the NHS, and the possibility of years of social divisions being eradicated in the wake of Covid-19. 👇
Blaine from Mystery Jets! How are you coping with the current climate?
‘You know what? It isn’t actually that different for me. As a musician, we spend a lot of time in dark studios chipping away at records; and, quite fortunately, I’m able to carry on doing that at the moment. Obviously, it’s disappointing to have to cancel shows, but I think that it’s just a case of adapting to the situation and finding a new rhythm and routine in the midst of it.
You’d already delayed the release of your new album, A Billion Heartbeats, due to your ill health; and now, you’ve ended up releasing it in the midst of a global pandemic. It’s been a hell of a road to get you to this point, hasn’t it?
‘It has indeed. When you’re an artist, your records are like your children – and I’ve taken to joking that this child is going to need a bit of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy when it grows up. It’s had quite a complicated birth… But I’m happy that it’s now out in the world and doing its thing.
‘I actually feel quite positive about putting a record out during lockdown. I think that people really do need things to stimulate and comfort them at this time; and I think that music is able to do that like nothing else. Hundreds of artists have had to pull releases because of Covid-19, so it’s only right that those of us who are still able to are going ahead and putting music out there. Obviously, there’s going to be a compromise in terms of sales – but, ultimately, that’s not why you make music. You make music to express yourself and to connect with your audience, and fortunately I think that we’re still able to do that.
It’s very easy for both artists and the wider industry to forget that the reason we all do this is because music has touched our lives in one way or another. So, if you’re in a position whereby you’re able to, putting your music out might, hopefully, help your fans to get through whatever’s going on in their heads and lives right now.
‘Absolutely. I suppose that’s about mental health, really, and I think for both the artist and the listener, music has such profound benefits on both sides of that. It’s such a symbiotic thing, making records.
‘I suppose the only disappointing part of this is that the first time you get to play those songs live in an embryonic stage – at a festival, or on tour – is something that we’ve been slightly robbed of. But, like I said, it’s a boat that so many artists are in. We will get a chance to play these songs live – it’ll just be a little bit further down the line. And actually sometimes that’s a good thing. It gives people a little bit of time to get the record under their skin, make friends with the songs, and get those associations with them; and, as a music lover myself, I know that it can take months to really allow that music into your world. People are going to have plenty of time to do that now.
A Billion Heartbeats is the closest that Mystery Jets have come to writing a state of the nation record; but, in the time between you recording the album and you actually putting it out, the entire world’s been flipped on its head.
Do you think that the themes of this record still hold true amid the current climate?
‘Essentially, I think that some things (depressingly) never change. I think that – without sounding too much like a socialist – a lot of the globalist, capitalist machinery that has ground to a halt will inevitably start back up again, and that a lot of the problems which led us to this situation will probably still be there when we come back out.
‘I do think that what this period has allowed us is to gain a sense of perspective on what’s actually important and what it is that we really need; namely, somewhere to live; something to eat; human connection; our mental health; and an income. I don’t think I’m alone in saying that there are a lot of things about this period that I’m quite enjoying, and that there are some parts of life under Covid-19 that are making me slightly dread going back to normal life. It’s a slightly utopian situation; putting aside the loss, death, and mourning that’s been happening, it’s also been quite a humanising situation, because it’s brought us all together.
‘I do think that a lot of the problems of the last few years have come from us not seeing ourselves as a whole. The polarised society that’s evolved over the last five years – whether that be social, economic, political – was all a human construct, and a lot of those divisions have now melted away.
‘People aren’t fighting about Brexit, and a lot of those conversation have drifted into the background; and, as a result of that, we are seeing ourselves as a whole again. That’s something that a pandemic like this has the ability to remind us – not only that we are neighbours, but that we can be better neighbours.
‘We’ve become better at being aware of one another’s needs and being more charitable. Where I live, people have started dog walking and dog-sitting a lot more; and, I think that’s representative of people using this time to look around their communities and see how they can be more useful. We’ve got the luxury of time on our hands, and yet I think that will carry on – but there’s this inevitable threat that things will revert back to the way that they were. I suppose one just feels hopeful that this is an opportunity for us all to learn something about ourselves and that we shouldn’t waste that opportunity.
There’s a line on the album that asks, ‘why does it take a tragedy to make our true colours come out?’. That seems oddly prescient.
‘That lyric – that song – was written in the wake of the Grenfell tragedy in June 2017. What I really wanted to express was how out of the worst circumstances, we can be reminded of what it means to be human. We’re very fortunate in that we’re able to experience empathy; that’s a very sacred trait about being human, and I think that in the wake of those awful situations, we can group together as the dust settles and be bigger than the sum of our parts.
‘In a funny way, that also extends to the NHS. I’ve spent a lot of time in hospitals, and I believe that the NHS is the closest thing that the British have to a religion; it’s something that extends way beyond politics and is something that everyone can agree on how important that aspect of our society is. There are things about the way we are and the way we live our lives that I think people take for granted. Maybe we’ll stop taking them for granting once all this is over.
Do you think you’d have been able to write the same record if you hadn’t gone through that experience?
‘I’ve spent so much of my life dealing with different health problems, and it’s only ever inhibited me to the point that I’ve allowed it to. There have been so many times over the last ten years that I’ve had to cancel shows and festivals, and I’ve always bounced back; but, the week before we were supposed to release this record, we had to pull it.
‘I had to have emergency surgery. I’m actually completely fine with it, and I feel completely comfortable in hospitals. I’ve grown up on hospital wards and they’ve become quite a familiar environment for me. But there’s no doubt about the chaos that it causes on your professional life. I was very much the last person to accept that we’d have to move this album back by six months. I was protesting, but everyone at the label and the management were very insistent that health comes first.
‘I also think that, when you’re a musician, your songs are expressions of what you’re going through. There’s a very cathartic aspect to songwriting, and you want to release those songs out into the world while they’re still fresh and real to you; and, subsequently, there’s always a danger that you could perhaps care less about the music by the time you actually get to release it. Thankfully, though, that wasn’t the case with this album.
So, the delay didn’t make you wish you could go back and change anything about the album?
‘Not really. In a way, the songs on the record all deal with these polarities of society that have been so prevalent in the UK across the last five or six years. One could argue that, had the record come out last year, it would have felt even more shackled to that time; but, with a little bit of hindsight, it’s sometimes in retrospect that you’re able to see a situation for what it was.
‘When we were in the middle of that horrible Brexit saga, I think that it was hard for us to see the world around us with a sense of neutrality. There was so much disagreement, not only within politics, but even within friendships and family groups. That situation was so destructive.
‘Politics shouldn’t be about that. It shouldn’t be a popularity contest, which these leadership debates very much are. In this age of social media, and these echo chambers that we all exist within to a point, people have become very good at shouting. I love Twitter, but it very much feels like it’s a platform where people become less good at listening and very familiar with the sound of their own voices. Politics should be about people, just like this album is about people – so, thankfully, now feels like as relevant a time to release it as ever.