INTRODUCING: Jet Fuel Chemistry

In these unfathomable times, where an 80s-dystopian fiction feels like firsthand reality, with tensions between left and right reaching their boiling point as the climate reaches that same irreversible brink, we need a rinse of reassuring calamity to guide us through the rest of this rollercoaster year. Cue JET FUEL CHEMISTRY with their breakthrough EP Sign Of The Times, a beacon of hope that ushers in a reset to our frame of mind, promoting a united force of the people to salvage the world rather than allowing our issues to divide us. Bassist Lorcan Macken sits down with us to delve into their new album, the state of current affairs and all that’s coming up for them.

Sign Of The Times leans into a once surreal, nihilistic, dystopian world that’s slowly becoming a modern reality. Tracks like War and the title track boldly speaking to issues of division and climate change, Macken says the band draws from elements of modern life that “feel too grim to be real. Use Your Eyes was written in 2019 while folks were crying out for the state to acknowledge,” the bassist says, “and addresses a host of nasty truths about this country; corruption at the highest levels of government, bank bailouts, staged tribunals, abuse of the vulnerable in schools and in nursing homes, clerical abuse, direct provision centers which are downright cruel, false criminal allegations against whistleblowers in the police… I could go on and on like this.”

Delving further into the album’s themes of civil unrest and heated topics, being a band with a message in times like this is of the utmost importance to the Irish five-piece and Macken says that to those who find his work “preachy” or too bold, he’d rather be “told the songs are too preachy than being in a band with no message.” Although critics might argue that the band’s stance of five white men preaching of inequalities could seem patronising, Macken argues “just because we’re white doesn’t mean we’ve nothing important to say. Besides, preaching is done from the pulpit and we’ve very much written the lyrics to be shouted upward, not down. We’re speaking out on unfairness, powerlessness, despair, the desire to enact positive change and to unite under the shadow of adversity. These issues aren’t exclusive to any race of people. I don’t assume to speak on anyone’s behalf, only to capture an experience in the hope our words resonate as widely as possible.”

JET FUEL CHEMISTRY have tuned into the next brainwave of metalcore, paying their respects to classical techniques of early 2000s metalcore but keeping things fresh and creative with fun twists of pop choruses and melodic harmonies that break the chains for conventional metal and branch out. Macken says that whilst it’s hard to strike a balance between having your finger on the pulse and ripping off something better than you, they learned very early on that inspiration can be found beyond what’s trending. “I’m really into melodic hardcore bands,” he gushes. “Like NORMA JEAN, Dan loves THRICE and SEETHER, Danny is obsessed with the production coming from more technical bands like NOTHING MORE and PERIPHERY. Ed and Ross listen to tones of old school stuff from AC/DC to THE POLICE, and it has more of an influence than you might think. Our aim with this release, sonically, was to weave fashionably progressive metal elements into timeless songs that you could still envision being performed by a band like FOO FIGHTERS. To my mind, for all the bells and whistles, we’re still in essence a ‘rock’ band. I think it worked out well.”

Touching back on their roots, JET FUEL CHEMISTRY are textbook Dublin DIY band at their core. But breaking into a predominantly indie rock scene as a metalcore band has been trial and error says Macken. “The indie rock scene is very dominant in Dublin,” he explains. “But that also makes it easier for us to stick out in the minds of industry people who might have fifty or sixty up-and-coming bands swamping their inbox. That’s how we’ve gotten on some awesome bills with the likes of HALESTORM or HUNDREDTH. I like a lot of the bands in the indie scene but I don’t envy the level of competition they’re up against. The positivity toward metal is steadily improving, There was an incredible summer festival in Dublin this year (that was unfortunately cancelled) called Sunstroke featuring WHILE SHE SLEEPS, NORTHLANE, DEFTONES, and it was extremely exciting to see the demand for this music being noticed. I really hope it’s not forgotten about if and when live music returns to normal.

What opted you to bring out an EP instead of an album?

Lorcan Macken: We’ve had a dozen tracks in the works since 2018, and these five felt like the best sonic and thematic introduction to our band. Also, as a new band, we didn’t want to waste any effort on a bulky release as perhaps we haven’t earned the audience attention span for a longer one. We just focused all our energy on a handful of tracks that could hold up on their own, then five songs that felt connected by a core message became an EP. I don’t know how long it will take for a full-length album to materialise, but we’re committed to releasing music regularly in the meantime.

You recently released a track from the EP in anticipation of this, War, what’s the context of that song and why did you want that to be your single?

Macken: War gets to the point pretty quickly. There are a really bouncy guitar riff and an anthemic chorus, sure, but the lyrics speak to an experience that I think is familiar to most people. You have a desire to enact change, so you look to those with power for answers and they shirk responsibility, you can’t hold any relevant party accountable for the injustice you see around you, all the while the media bombards you with misinformation and before you know it you’re in a screaming match with somebody who wants the same outcome as you, just through different means. That powerlessness and misdirected hostility is something we thought any listener would relate to, and so then maybe if War resonates with them they’ll stick around to hear what else we have to say.

You guys are essentially a core DIY band, writing, producing, and creating everything in lockdown on a little budget. Firstly, what was that experience of creating everything on your own like?

Macken: It was tough! Our guitarist Danny Bochkov is a really talented producer, and he’s very patient in the writing process which means there’s a lot of time to fight over creative differences which can be bad for morale, but it also means we get to try out every idea we might have for a song and compare them side-by-side, and I’d imagine any other producer wouldn’t have given us all that time which allowed us to find our sound. Thankfully, it’s only getting faster and easier since we’ve moved on from the EP.

Picking on one track, in particular, the title track, there’s a sample from a Greta Thunberg’s speech. What was the reasoning for sampling that in relation to the context of the song?

Macken: That song’s written from the perspective of this not-so-fictional character who spends all his time calling out hypocrisy while himself being a hypocrite, and it’s aiming to poke some fun at ourselves, and anyone else who can be as reactionary and emotional as we are. I mean, come on, we’re all self-obsessed in our own ways and we’re all our own special kind of ignorant. On an EP that focuses quite heavily on the chaotic state of the world, we wanted to show why our own flaws have to be a part of the conversation too. Greta‘s speech was used to add a sense of impending doom, and the fate of our planet puts human egomania in a much more serious context that’s more worthy of this record. I, for one, spend way too much time stressing about what people think of me, or being catty about somebody smug who thinks they’re a “legend”, and if an alien were to observe that behaviour they’d probably wonder why I wasn’t equally pre-occupied with the looming agricultural and climate catastrophe that’s likely to finish us all off. Plus, what better example of egomania than a child being ripped to shreds over her beliefs by grown adults on the internet?

Sign Of The Times is out now via self-release. 

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