Fresh from their performance at the Barbican in London for Transgressive Records’ 10th anniversary with Laura Marling, frontman, Blaine Harrison announced that Mystery Jets were “deep into the thick of album five sessions.” Reinforced by new bassist, Jack Flanagan, the Londoners relocated to a disused button factory in Stoke Newington, enabling them to rediscover “the gang mentality that had bound the band together at the start.” Fifteen months later and a headline date at Whelan’s to boot, ‘Curve Of The Earth’ is finally upon us.

Wiser from their “exercise in exploring the culture of Americana and the traditions of contemporary American song writing” for previous album, ‘Radlands’, the band set about “kitting out and designing a space which isn’t intended for music to make it sound musical” for a year.

Self-producing the album, Mystery Jets seem bent on continuing to challenge themselves, be it through their creative process or their song writing. Describing ‘Curve Of The Earth’ as a “product of the environment,” in which it was recorded, you get a sense of the contemplative existential thoughts that would be spawned from embarking on isolated sessions in a cabin on the Thames estuary, most notably perhaps on lead single Telomere.

A far cry from the tales of lust that would come with anyone making their first foray into rock stardom, Telomere (a compound structure at the end of a chromosome) is a lot more introspective and deep, dealing with ancestry and the bloodline, something which Harrison talks about at length.

“The idea for that song actually came from something I read in a book [Patti Smith’s “Just Kids”] talking about the idea of your ancestors’ characteristics living on through you via your DNA. It opens up that idea. Why are we the way we are? Is it predetermined? Is it fate? It’s something we explore throughout the record. They’re very hard ideas to write about in a pop song so we realised we had to write about them candidly in an abstract way.”

Assessing their progression from the songwriters on debut album, ‘Making Dens’, he explains, “the first album sounded like a melting pot of its influences whereas now our influences come from much more esoteric sources, life experiences and books and films-‘Curve Of The Earth’ is a step away from our influences more than any other record I think.”

The album it seems from talking to Harrison can be described as a 'coming of age' above all else. “You look at the people you grew up with feeling they’re slightly more sensible and responsible than us. You exist in this strange Neverland where you’re not really a child or a kid. Being in a band and being on tour, you’re suspended in this rather wonderful state of arrested development, which is a really great place to write songs from. Yet, looking around you a lot of your friends are beginning to accept the responsibilities in life of being an adult, like family, and you start to ask questions like ’Am I supposed to be doing that?’”

When Mystery Jets aren’t contemplating the human essence, they’re busy championing their old label, Transgressive Records who celebrated their 10th anniversary last year. “Transgressive was a really important label in our life as a band. They discovered us really and helped us bring out our first single, Zootime. Those kind of labels should be celebrated. A lot of the time they don’t make profits from the bands they release. Our experiences with those labels has been very formative because you’re not being pressurised into making a hit all the time. It’s very much art for art’s sake. They’re the life blood of the music world.”

Having won the NME 'Britain’s Best Small Venue' Award, Ramsgate Music Hall celebrated this feat by hosting Mystery Jets just before Christmas. Harrison is quick to offer words of support for our lost intimate spots. “They should get so much support than they get. They’re born in the community. Bands rely on being able to share that intimate experience in those smaller rooms. For us, this was a great chance to connect with that environment. And we loved it. It was sweaty and it was noisy.”

As 'Curve Of The Earth', their most expansive collection yet nears its release, the six-piece can look forward to one more sweaty noisy outing when they hit up Whelan’s on February 12th.