Nic Cester was the newest musician to appear on The Plug with Neil Griffiths podcast, and he didn't hold back when it came to discussing the rise and fall of Jet.
Jet were one of the greatest rock success stories in Australia in the 00s. From 2003 to 2009 they hit three top 5 albums, starting with massive chart topper Get Born: It moved over 650,000 units in Australia and was rated 8x platinum. That album featured the hit most people know the group for, the electric "Are You Gonna Be My Girl".
Their fame didn't last, however, and Jet broke up in 2012 before getting back together in 2016. Apart from touring, no new music has appeared. Nic stopped by Griffith's Podcast this week, the latest in a long line of notable guests including Jaguar Jonze, Tom Morello, and Tom DeLonge.
And he was brutally honest when it came to Jet's early success. “At that moment there was a lot of toxicity in the group and a lot of excessive behavior,” recalls Nic. "In business terms, we were famous for a certain style of music that was never close to my heart."
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He continued to notice the tremendous pressure he felt on Jet to sound and play in a certain way. "I just felt like I was trapped below the band's expectations because the success in the beginning was so enormous," he said. “The assumption was that we would just go ahead and do a certain genre of music. I thought to myself: 'How did I get in there?' It wasn't me or my concern. "
When Griffiths asked him about the possibility of Jet doing any shows again, Nic hesitated. “Personally, I don't have any real desires or ambitions right now, but who knows how I'll feel in 5 or 10 years,” he admitted.
You can find more information on this topic in the Indie Observer.
