Jet to join ARIA Hall of Fame 20 years after Get Born
‘It’s funny — you don’t start a band to get accolades,’ says bassist Mark Wilson. ‘When we got the phone call this year I was a bit like ‘me? Are you sure?’
Two decades after the seismic release of their debut album Get Born, Melbourne rock band Jet will receive another accolade when it is inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in November.
Mark Wilson, who plays bass in the band, says getting recognised in this way is “surreal.”
“It’s funny – you don’t start a band to get accolades,” he tells The Australian. “When we got the phone call this year, I was a bit like ‘Me? Are you sure?’
“It’s cool though,” he adds. “It’s an honour to be recognised and it’s not something I thought would happen. You kind of live in a bubble, so it’s nice when other people think you’re all right.”
Wilson formed Jet in the late 1990s along with brothers Nic and Chris Cester and guitarist Cameron Muncay. Their emergence was heralded by their debut EP, Dirty Sweet, in 2002, which became one of the most sought-after releases of the year.
After a glowing endorsement from UK rock bible NME of the EP’s single Take It Or Leave It, the hype was at a fever pitch, with Rubber Records, the local independent label charged with pressing the record, unable to keep up with demand.
“The early 2000s was so different … Nobody had mobile phones, there was no social media, YouTube didn’t exist. Get Born was one of the last records that came out in that old world where people still went to record stores to buy CDS,” Wilson says.
It was also a febrile time for guitar-based rock ’n’ roll: US bands like The Strokes and The White Stripes and Swedish quintet The Hives were dominating the mainstream. When Rolling Stone US featured Sydney band The Vines on the cover of their October 2002 issue, with the proclamation “Rock is back!” an Aussie explosion was imminent, and everything was in the right place for Jet to unleash their debut record.
After a record company bidding war, won by Elektra, the band set off to Sunset Studios in Los Angeles to record what would become Get Born.
The record, produced by the acclaimed Brooklyn producer Dave Sardy, became a global smash. It topped the charts in Australia, making No. 13 in Britain, and entering the top 30 in the US, ultimately achieving worldwide sales of more than five million.
At the ARIA Awards in 2004, Get Born took home seven trophies, and was certified nine times platinum in Australia, making it one of the five highest-selling Australian rock albums of all time.
For Wilson and the band, life changed immensely after the release of Get Born.
“The album got so big, so fast, all over the world everybody wanted us everywhere at once. We toured for five years straight, and rarely had a day off.”
Jet would go on to release two more albums — 2006’s Shine On and 2009’s Shaka Rock – before disbanding in 2012.
This month they will reunite for a series of shows across Australia to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Get Born.