Courtesy of Hercules Moments

A few weeks ago, We Were Promised Jet Packs brought Black Cat down with their unique balance of post-punk and indie pop. Staff writer Julia Zaglin met up with them after their set to talk roots, dream venues, and horoscopes.

How was ya‰’lls flight?

Adam: Good

So this is your first show in the states since last year?

Adam: We did a small run in July, we did a couple of New York shows and Chicago and all that. Yeah so just a small run.

But this is a big tour. You‰’re going all across the states. How are you feeling about the presumption and all of the excitement? Are you really excited for the rest of this tour?

Adam: It feel like were more excited about this one than we have been in awhile. We‰’ve played some new songs. It feels like we‰’ve not done a field tour here in awhile and we‰’ve not toured that much in the last 6 months. We‰’re pretty excited to just get back to what we like doing. We‰’ve been writing quite a lot, and that‰’s the different side of being in a band. You forget that you can go out and do gigs and people like it, so, yeah, it‰’s exciting.

I read somewhere that y’all won your secondary school Battle of the Bands, and that reminded me of when I tried to win my school‰’s battle of the bands as a third time playing bassist, and it was bad. What kind of advice would you give to young and younger musicians to win their Battle of the Bands?

Adam: I would say just do whatever you want. Do whatever you want and don‰’t let anyone tell you anything else. No one knows anything more than you do, I don‰’t think. Just yeah, do whatever.

So this is your first stop on the tour, and this is your second time at the Black Cat, right?

Adam: We were speaking about this and we think it is like our fourth. We pretty much play DC every tour. We played here a few times, did a couple other venues, and then came back here for this one.

What would you say your favorite venue you‰’ve played at is, and what is y’all’s dream venue? I know a lot of people say they want to play at Madison Square Garden before they die.

Adam: I would like that.

Sean: I don‰’t know what it‰’s like, I‰’ve never really seen it. I‰’ve never seen it for a gig. But it sounds cool.

Adam: We love playing music at place called Williamsburg in New York and then Beverly Ballroom, and the 9:30 club in DC was great- cupcakes and a really nice, big venue. There is a really nice place in Dresden in Germany we‰’ve played a few times BeatPol,. Nice old building.

Sean: The last day we were there there was a couple in the front row. The support band came back and said “Check out the couple in the front row,” and we were like, “What are you talking about?‰” We went out and started playing, and the guy is just groping his girlfriend, and they‰’re looking up at ya, and you know, the guy‰’s hands are wandering. It‰’s weird ,and they‰’re going on for the whole time, and, if you looked at them, they were, like, enjoying it. It sounded funny before you went on, but three songs in it was a bit, like, enough of this.

What would you say your funniest experience is on tour other than that one? Or most memorable?

Sean: The first time we were in the states supporting Frightened Rabbit and Twilight Sad we actually played here on that tour, and we left, and we stopped in the middle of the night at a gas station. We were all sleeping on the bus and there were seventeen of us or something all there. I was fast asleep, and the Twilight Sad drummer went off to go to the toilet, and the bus left without him. And drove for like two and a half hours. And he never had his phone or his wallet or any money, and he did so well. He found somebody in a shop with a phone, and he somehow remembers the name of the bus company, which I never would have been able to remember. And they were somehow able to get in touch with the driver and say you‰’ve left someone at a gas station. And that was quite funny, and we all just found out the next morning. We couldn‰’t believe it, it was like Terry, this driver drove all the way back to pick him up, and back again to the venue the next day. We had a good laugh over it.

So y’all are from Edinburg, but live in Glasgow.

Adam: The three of us lived in Glasgow for university, and that was kinda where our band started. Like we played in the same bands since we were sixteen. You can‰’t play too many shows in Edinburg over eighteen because that‰’s the drinking age, so it was always underage events with just our pals coming along. When we got to Glasgow we were eighteen, there was more of a small bands music scene. We had a really good couple of years in Glasgow playing a lot and meeting a lot of bands.

In that time when you got to meet up with other bands, who do you think, right now, from your area (Glasgow and Edinburg) people should also listen to?

Adam: We‰’d say Twilight Sad. We‰’ve toured with them a bunch and just love watching them live. They‰’re really loud and really good.

Michael: And Man of Moon. They‰’re just getting going. They‰’re gonna be something big.

So if ya‰’ll had an opportunity to collaborate with any artist dead or alive, who would it be?

Adam: Elvis

Michael: Gwen Stafani?

Adam: I do like Gwen Stafani. Elvis or Gwen Stafani

Sean: Beethoven the dog because that dog is definitely dead.

Julia: Which one of them because I‰’m sure there have multiple dogs that played Beethoven?

Sean: Why hasn‰’t someone put together dogs barking all the notes. Put that on the to-do this.

So I was first introduced to y’alls music when I was fifteen, and my first not-yet-boyfriend but later that day became my boyfriend played the song conductor, which is still a song that sends me back to my first love, which is really funny. What do you want to happen with your music when people listen to it. What is your dream for people to listen to and feel?

Adam: That‰’s a nice question; we‰’ve probably not been asked that before. Kinda like that stuff.

Sean: Yeah, that‰’s a good example.

Adam: Like longing for something but can‰’t find that comfort. Whatever it is you don‰’t know what you‰’re looking for. I don‰’t know, I just made that up.

I think I have one more questions, what are your astrological signs?

Adam: Gemini

Michael: Gemini

Sean: Scorpio

Julia: I‰’m also a Scorpio. They tell us that we‰’re mysterious.

Sean: I like that, that‰’s a good one!

Michael: What do they say about us?

Julia: Geminis? Geminis are two faced which is a negative one. We also have a lot of negative ones. I don‰’t believe in it, but my director requested that I asked what your signs are.

Adam: If you‰’re the same star signs do you get along?

Julia: It depends. So like Leo‰’s don‰’t. Leo‰’s are really hot headed so they don‰’t get along with each other. Scorpios can get along and Gemini‰’s can because they‰’re twins, so they see themselves in others. s