Canadian trance rockers Jets Overhead had seemingly flown below the American radar while buzzing thousands a night on tour at home. Their cosmic guitar cracks, femme harmonies, and tripped out jams found on their brilliant 2006 debut Bridges are being retooled for a second coming this summer with the release of their follow-up. We sit down with frontman Adam Kittredge to talk about the new album, the past efforts to break into the States, and what got him off in the studio.

Pensatos: You guys are all pretty close in the band, if not related?
Adam Kittredge: There’s some family involved. Some neighbors since we were five years old. And of course, happenstance. As family, we’d get together for Christmas and holidays and end up playing together. Individually, they’re all long stories.

We aren’t going to go out there and make a country rock record or something. We want to keep that same vibe that Bridges allowed us.

The title track from your first album Bridges was a building, brooding piece - arguably the best song of the album.
The song started more as a drum heavy track and ended up getting much more spacious by the time we got to the studio to make Bridges. There’s a b-side version released not too long ago as a digital download that shows how it began; quite a difference. We had a lot of fun with that one. We spent late nights getting crazy in the studio making that interlude. There’s actually a little bit of each song on the record woven into that one montage that happens in the middle. Therefore it kinda became the signature sound of the record.

The B-Sides brings up a good point; you offer a lot of your music for free digitally from your site.
It helps the music spread faster and is a response to the inevitable evolution of how music is distributed. Music in stores just collects dust. Any exposure, anybody getting a hold of our music is a good thing.

You’ve conquered your homeland, Canada, but you really haven’t broken thru in the US yet.
Yeah we definitely haven’t yet. We did some homegrown marketing and got our tracks into CMJ and contacted some radio charts and got the CD into the hands of college radio. We’ve had some great internet exposure with the latest B-Side release as well. But for our next record, we feel like we’ve planted the seeds. You know, in the back of a lot of heads…

… and now you’re back in the studio recording the followup.
We are currently in the middle of recording. We have bed tracks done for 18 songs and we’re now getting into the thick of things with guitars, pianos, vocals etc. The album is being produced by the same producer we did Bridges with - Neil Osborne - in Victoria and on Hornby Island (a small gulf island off of Vancouver Island). The goal is to have the record ready to go by May [for a tour] this summer.

it’s full of trippy guitars, wurli etc, with great peaks and valleys. I really got off on hearing that one back in the headphones….. It’s a ride. [about new track ‘Friendly Fire’]

What’s the sound of the new album (especially when compared to Bridges)?
It’s kind of hard to say what the full breadth of the new sound is - it’s too early to tell how far and how deep each attempted direction will go. And I say each because one of our goals on this next album is to spread our wings wider in directions that Bridges went but perhaps didn’t soar. Deeper trenches and fatter grooves is one of them. We came in wanting to take the psychedelic side of Bridges and expand on that. We aren’t going to go out there and make a country rock record or something. We want to keep that same vibe that Bridges allowed us.

Tentative title yet?
Can’t say…many titles are up on our ideas board and it’s always a fun debate but it won’t get heated for another few weeks at least.

Is there a theme at all with the album?
Plenty of themes seem to be emerging, but one overall vibe I would say, is the current state of the world as we take it to be from our west coast Canadian dwelling. Political, environmental, and simply human states of being are all on the agenda.

Can you give up some information on one of the new tracks?
One track I am really happy about, which will be released in some form, perhaps not on the album itself but at least through our website, is called ‘Friendly Fire’. It’s over 16 minutes long, (although we may chop it into movements) and we used our friend on a second drum kit late one night after a few, and ended up with a very cool Helen Keler-esque groove (a two drummer band I remember seeing a few years back)…. it’s full of trippy guitars, wurli etc, with great peaks and valleys. I really got off on hearing that one back in the headphones….. It’s a ride.

+ review: Jets Overhead - Bridges
+ video: Jets Overhead ‘Bridges’