‘I Felt Like I Was Trapped’: Nic Cester Discusses Jet’s ‘Enormous’ Success

In the early 2000s, Aussie rockers Jet were absolute everywhere following the release of their debut album Get Born, but the rapid rise into the spotlight for frontman Nic Cester and co came at a cost.

Appearing on a recent episode of The Plug With Neil Griffiths to promote his new children’s book and companion album, Skipping Girl, Cester said that during the height of the band’s success “there was a lot of toxicity within the group and a lot of excessive behaviours”.

“Even just in terms of the business side of it, I felt that we’d become famous for one specific style of music which was never, ever really what I was about, personally,” Cester said.

“I just felt like I was sort of trapped under the weight of expectation also, from the band, because the success had been so enormous in the beginning, that the assumption was that that would just keep continuing, and continuing always doing specifically one genre of music, and I was like, ‘Man, how did I get myself into this? This is not really me or what I’m about.’”

When quizzed on whether or not fans could expect a Jet reunion down the line, the Italy-based muso said: “Personally, I have no real desire or ambitious at the moment, but who knows in five, ten years how I’ll feel.”

Skipping Girl is out now; you can check out its accompanying album below.