Nic Cester Reveals The Strokes And The Who's Influence On Are You Gonna Be My Girl

Nic Cester, vocalist of Jet (Instagram @nic_cester)

JAKARTA - Are You Gonna Be My Girl is the first single from Jet's debut album in 2003, Get Born. This song is the first step for the Australian band to achieve success in the United States and Britain.

Nic Cester (vocals) recalls how Are You Gonna Be My Girl was written in a warehouse located in the backyard of her house

We haven't signed a contract yet when I wrote the song. Nobody knows who we are. We played in pubs around Melbourne and no one came," Nic Cester said in an interview with The Guardian recently.

I have a small warehouse in the backyard where I sit with an acoustic guitar and write. I will convey my ideas to the band and we will improve them. All the material for Get Born, our first album, is written there," he continued.

The 45-year-old musician called The Strokes' song "last Nite" the main inspiration in writing Are You Gonna Be My Girl. The Who also inspired the iconic rhthm.

"It's great to hear other rock bands do what we do. 'Last Nite' is a rock song that can make you dance," he said.

The rhythm reminds me of Motown songs like You Can't Harry Love. At that time, I was fascinated by the stop-start dynamics The Who used in My Generation

The frontman also recalled how "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" was first performed on stage, with lyrics that had not yet been written.

"I remember playing the song live, in his first appearance. There were about 20 people there. I don't have any lyrics, so I justrculate the nonsense in a way that sounds like words. I managed to do it because the sound system of the place was bad."

When electronic music took control in the early 2000s, Nic said, the appearance of Jet's debut single made rock 'n' roll again popular. Something from the past that began to be abandoned feels new.

"Twenty years later, Are You Gonna Be My Girl has been tested by time. I remember making a demo for the song before we recorded it. We were close to producer Rick Rubin, who told us he had listened to it with Tom My Girl. Wow! said Tom. That's what you don't hear every day. Just thinking about it makes me excited.