(Photo Credit: Euan Robertson)
We had an opportunity to chat with Adam Thompson (vocals, guitar) of We Were Promised Jetpacks about the pandemic, their sound, and their awesome new album 'Enjoy the View'. Check it out!
1. Because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, you were forced to write Enjoy the View with one another from a distance. Can you speak to any positives and negatives that arose from using this approach to write an album?
"The positives were that we could individually spend as much time on any different aspect of a song for as long or as short as we wanted. Normally we would write live together in a room and the song would only exist in our heads - we could only try ideas out when we then got back in a room together."
"But because we were sending projects to each other, we got to approach songwriting in a way that we haven’t really ever done together before. The negative side of that I suppose is that it was a new way of doing it for us and therefore it was hard to compare to what we would normally do. All we could do was try our best!"
2. What can longtime fans of yours expect from Enjoy the View versus your previous releases?
"Our long suffering fans can perhaps expect a sound that is a little bit more mellow and smoother than usual. I also think that this album is a little more considered than some of our previous efforts as we tried to keep each song focused and not meander off on too many tangents. We tried to create a sound that was warm and welcoming. Less head banging more head bopping. We can always make a racket on the next album!"
3. The album is indie based in its sound, but you also seemingly utilize this album to expand the scale of your sound. This is especially true on tracks "What I Know Now" and "I Wish You Well". Was there an intentionality with this? Or was this something that organically arose fom the writing process?
"We knew we wanted to add a couple of different elements to this album but we weren’t quite sure what they would be. There was a big hole left where our old bandmate Michael used to be. So we had a bit more space to explore than normal and we did a lot of work making demos of all the songs before we were anywhere near a proper recording studio. So a lot of the sounds were already integral to the songs by the time we went in and recorded the album."
4. What were some of your favorite moments from the writing/recording process of Enjoy the View?
"When we were able to play live together after months of separation. We brought all our hard work we’d done on the demos into the practice space and we were able to work on the song and the demo at the same time, which isn’t something we’ve really done before. It was great to play loud music in a room with my pals again."
"I most of all enjoyed hanging about with Sean and Darren and our producer Andy Bush, trying things out in songs and having a good few laughs in the process."
5. What are you most looking forward to about hitting the road on your upcoming tour? "The rush of a gig that both the crowd and I have enjoyed. That feeling of mutual positivity and love is hard to beat. I’m also looking forward to not cooking a single meal. Eating out 3 times a day and not having to do the dishes is so good!"