The Mystery Jets

The Eel Pie Islanders have already impressed the powers-that-be with NME declaring them "glorious marathon music-makers". But how will lead singer Blaine Harrison cope with the Living Questions?

I'm a Twickenham boy, though not born and bred. I'm a bit of a mongrel, I come from all over. I'm originally from hammersmith but I'lve lived in France then I was in Oxfordshire and then I was back in London from the age of about 14. I think I can see myself travelling a bit, but my heart is definitely in London, and I can't see myself settling down for quite some time. I'm hopefully some years off my country baron days.

I'm not religious or spiritual. I'm not an atheist either, I think religion and / or spirituality is something that comes to you when and if you need it. Unless you've been brought up in an environment where you're worshipping something, I think its something you should discover naturally. If it comes to you, than that's they way it should happen. I don't think, I don't believe you should have anything forced on you. I have many friends who are religious, and they have their own very valid reasons for being so, but I've never really had that in my life, in my upbringing.

I would go to this really wonderful old English Heritage building called Camelot Castle. It's like an elaborate country house that's been turned into a luxury hotel and there's something quite eerie and creepy about it. It's run by this group that are... well, I'm not sure if they're Scientologists but they might as well be. They're running this hotel and it's amazing. It's right on the edge of a cliff, opposite Tyntagel Castle.

I went there for a weekend last year and it's inspiring. I got lots of weird songs about ghosts from it. There are weird patterns in the grass that the owners have made, I think. There's a lot of history there.

The best present... I wrote and recorded my sister a song for her 21st birthday but, unfortunately, I recorded it on a laptop and I lost the CD on the train on the way to her birthday so she never believed that I actually wrote and recorded it in the first place. I'd like to say that was the best present I've ever given but it never got given so it's a bit of a bad story. That's the best present I've almost given.

The best present I've received... Well, I got a drum kit for my eighth birthday and I was over the moon about it. I remember coming home from school and all the individual drums were wrapped in brown paper and it was pretty obvious what it was! It was an old 60s Olympic kit, it looked just like one Ringo Starr had, so that was fantastic. And that's what kickstarted me paying an instrument. I can't say I stuck to drum lessons very faithfully, but the actual excitement of having a drum kit was amazing.