Jet Jaguar have definitely learned from the past. But they’re only too happy to repeat it. Or at least recreate it. The Mexican rockers’ nostalgic debut album Endless Nights is an enthusiastic love letter to hard rock’s recent past, celebrating and channelling everything from anthemic arena-rock and galloping NWOBHM to hair metal and thrash, complete with blistering fretwork, driving drums and tight-trousered vocals — and a few musical touches of their homeland for good measure. Not bad for a band that share a name with a Godzilla character. Speaking of characters, bassist Jorge was kind enough to do battle with my ridiculous questions. Let’s see if he learned his lesson:
Introduce yourself: Name, age (feel free to lie), home base and any other details you’d care to share — height / weight / identifying marks / astrology sign / your choice.
Hey there, I’m Jorge from Jet Jaguar, I play bass and sing backing vocals, and I’ve been in the band since its formation in 2014.
What is your musical origin story?
As a little kid I got into music through The Beatles thanks to my dad. Then when I was 13 my parents got me the videogame Guitar Hero, and it changed my life when I discovered Iron Maiden, Slayer, Metallica, Black Sabbath, etc. Then I was in a covers band, and finally at age 16 I was invited to join Jet Jaguar.
What’s your latest project? Tell us everything we need to know.
Our debut album Endless Nights was inspired by our personal experiences and also by lots of artists and pop culture from the ’80s. I see it as a tribute album for everything we loved during our early years.
What truly sets you apart from other artists?
We are still a young band but one thing that we have very clear is that we don’t write to fulfill the expectations of other people, we try to keep it authentic and honest.
How will my life improve by listening to your music?
Well, some reviewers think that we have a gift for writing earworms. So if you like having a song stuck in your head all day, we can probably help with that!
Tell us about the first song you wrote and / or the first gig you played.
It is called Hunter and you can go listen to it on our YouTube channel, it’s a pretty straightforward heavy/ speed metal song, but we are still playing it live because our fans love the song. Our first gig was back in 2014, we played four songs, including a cover of Riot’s Thundersteel, in front of a modest crowd of maybe 50 people.
What is the best / worst / strangest / most memorable performance you have given?
It may be between Wacken Open Air in 2017 or Corona Hell & Heaven in 2018. But I think our Wacken performance will always hold a special place in our hearts. Because when we won the Metal Battle competition at Wacken, we realized that we had the potential within ourselves and as a band to actually pursue our musical career in a more professional way.
What is the best / worst / strangest / most memorable performance you’ve seen?
I think the best one so far has been Gojira; they are unbelievably good and have a crazy amount of energy onstage.
What living or dead artists would you collaborate with if you could?
It would be a dream come true to get Rob Halford to record some vocals in a song of ours.
What artist or style of music do you love that would surprise people?
We all have our “guilty pleasures”, I personally enjoy 90’s alternative rock and britpop quite a lot (Blur, Radiohead, Pulp, The Stone Roses), you get the picture.
What useful (or useless) skills do you have outside of music?
I’d like to think that I’m a decent goalkeeper in soccer, and I’m also quite good at the videogames Halo and Guitar Hero.
What do you collect?
I used to collect Star Wars action figures when I was a kid; not anymore, but I still have my collection right where it has been the past 15 years or so.
What would you like to be reincarnated as?
Probably a crocodile, can’t think of a more badass animal.
What’s your idea of perfect happiness / total misery?
Perfect happiness would be spending half of the year on the road, and the other half going to places I’d like to visit. Is that too much to ask?
What are you afraid of?
Ending up in a job that makes me miserable.
What’s your motto?
“Don’t expect anything from anyone.” It reminds me that I’m the one who has to take action if I want things to happen.
What’s always in your refrigerator?
Mostly vegetables (I swear I’m not lying).
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I’d like to stop being distracted by social media. It makes me feel guilty to waste time like that sometimes.
What’s the silliest thing you believed as a child?
That once you die you turned into a star. It’s kind of silly but also pretty I think.
What world record would you like to break?
Not exactly a world record but one of our goals is to become a household name for heavy metal around the globe.
Check out Endless Nights and their videos above, and follow Jet Jaguar on Facebook and Instragram.
