Hi John. Tell us how preparations are going for the new Jet Set Six album?

Well, it's finished, we're just mastering this week actually. Hopefully in a month or so we'll be able to get advance copies out.

How similar or indeed different do you think it will be to Livin It Up?

Very different, as it's a lot less of a swing album than that first record was. We were never a forties kind of inspired band. We were more 'Sinatra at the Sands' is one of my favourite records and we were more coming from that type of angle anyway. You know, sharp, sixties suits, skinny ties and that type of thing. So this record is  a lot more pop, psychedelic and has some elements of New Wave. Don't get me wrong, I loved the way that first record came out but the new one is different.

So have you matured as a songwriter or just decided to take a new direction?

As a songwriter, I felt it restricting to have every song in a swing tempo. That's kind of limiting. I got into swing in the first place to expand into different styles of music, and I was interested in the more complex arrangements so the new record is another step forward from that.

So is Dae Bennet at the helm again? What qualities does he bring to the band's sound?

Yes he is. He brings a lot to Jet Set Six as he's extremely meticulous and knowledgeable, plus he has a lot of the same 60's pop, jazz and swing influences I have. Creatively speaking, I've always felt on the same page as him. Plus he is a phenomenal engineer and producer. He's  real attentive to detail and has a lot of ability with the technical side of things. Every time I've worked with him it's been a valuable collaboration. The first inception of JSS was a band called Beat Positive, and Dae engineered on that record with Jonathan Daniel producing, so I've worked with him for 6 years now.

'Livin it up' got rave reviews. Were you happy with the response the record garnered as a whole?

It was bittersweet. I was out ahead of the whole swing thing in NYC and although I appreciated the acclaim, comparatively speaking, our CD was heads and shoulders above a lot of the other NYC swing releases. I didn't feel our overall record sales had reflected that. On the one hand I was appreciative of the great reviews and it was gratifying that I had a hand creating the scene, yet it was disappointing see bands not nearly as good as us go platinum. I try to look at the positives though.

Was that tinge of disapointment one of the reasons why your writing has changed?

I go where my heart is, and I started playing and writing in a swing style in 1988 or 1989, so I'm pretty creatively satisfied as far as the whole swing thing goes. All of a sudden I felt I wanted to do something that excited me. Stuff like Nancy Sinatra etc were really starting to appeal to me a lot and that influenced the direction the band was starting to take. Also, on our tour to promote 'Livin It Up', Jet Set Six opened up for Smash Mouth and I met Greg Camp who writes their songs and he inspired me a lot.
I was on the same wavelength as him. Y'know, the new album is where my head is at right now.

Well you have certainly never stood still musically as you were in a couple of punk bands in the '80s weren't you?

Never, no. I am I guess what you would call a 'lifer'! I will be doing this for the rest of my days. I see it as an art form, so I approach it that way. I felt what swing could bring to pop music was a lot - the use of horns, and different sonic melodies, so I'm ready to go back in a more pure pop direction.

Is it the same members as the first record?

The line up changed almost immediately after we put out 'Livin It Up'. As we got a new drummer, and Dave Datweiler,  the sax player who played on a couple of the songs on 'Livin It Up', he's joined us as well. It's pretty much the same. We have a really good Horn section, as J Walter Hawkes helps me with a lot of the arranging and I do most of the writing.

Going back a bit, you have involvement with the Loveless, which again is a different sound to the JSS. How did you get involved with Johnathan Daniel?

I met Jonathan while I was working at Sony Music Publishing. At the time he had a publishing deal with EA, but John and I were definitely on the same wavelength. We had a lot in common. The Loveless had tried guitar players out over a period of time, without any really working out for them, so he asked me to do it, knowing that very little had to be said about his musical direction. He already knew the types of guitar sounds I was using in Beat Positive, I was using a lot of stereo, wide sounding effects and he liked that. He wanted to move away from the pop-metal of EA, and move towards something more sophisticated. Having said that, the Electric Angels album with Tony Visconti is sophisticated for it's time and genre, but in general he was looking for a new thing. Ryan (Roxie, EA Guitarist) and Shane (EA/Loveless singer) had run their course as far as getting along, so I was there to help out. It was a great experience to work on the Loveless record. Ryan is an awesome guitarist but I was coming from a different perspective, and saw his songs in a different way sonically.

You guys only made one album, were there any songs left over from those sessions?

Jonathan had a zillion songs. He is an awesome, phenomenal songwriter. He had tons of songs left over. He doesn't write or play much any more as he's more into the business side of things, Whereas I carried on the performing. I had my job at Sony Music Publishing, but decided to stay with the music. I enjoyed writing and playing too much, even though it's been a hard road. I'm not exactly making millions y'know!! But JSS did spend the better part of the last 2 years out on the road and it was amazing.

Your songwriting in terms of lyrical style is similar to Johnathan Daniels's. Have you ever written stuff together?

Funnily enough, there's a song caled When The Tides Turn on the new record. We tried cutting it as more of a JSS swing song for the first record, but it didn't make the record as it wasn't working in a swing groove. We put it into a more 60's pop vibe, and it works really well. That's about it, we influenced one another, but never really wrote many actual songs together. I started getting trickier with words after I met him though!!  Since then, I find writing the more sincere, less clever stuff harder to write. Jonathan definitely inspired me that way.

When can we expect the new album then?

Hopefully we'll have advance copies in March. There's some great stuff on there. I did a lot of guitar layering and texturing on this record, like the Loveless record so I'm excited for people to hear it! (As we speak it has just been officially released, so spend, spend, spend kiddies. - ED)

So is the new record going to be a real departure from the first one?

I think people who were the true fans of the band will really like the music. Musically this record is better in my opinion. We took a lot longer to cut it. There's a lot of blood sweat and tears on the record, and that comes through. I think people like the songs and the personalities within the band, so I think they'll like us. We might catch some backlash from some people on the swing scene, but I just do what I feel and I have to reinvent to keep it exciting for me, so that's what I'm doing.