The Jackets are based in Bern, Switzerland and consist of front woman Jack Torera, Chris Rosales (an American expat originally from Los Angeles) and Samuel "Schmidi" Schmidiger. Charismatic singer and guitarist Jackie Brutsche (aka Jack Torera) is an energetic elemental force, androgynous and wild. With her distinctive voice, her fuzz guitar, stage acrobatics and stage make-up, she captivates. Together with the uncompromisingly rhythm and groove section of Chris Rosales on drums and Samuel Schmidiger on bass the Jackets create the perfect three-piece; raw, direct and together with Brutsche turn every Jackets concert into an unforgettable event.
The Jackets strip Rock and Roll down to its essential components then build something unique to their personalities and their need for self-expression. The music feels new because it is authentic and free of cliché but still captures the simplicity that Rock and Roll must have to stay honest and bold! Songs like “Wasting My Time”, “Keep Yourself Alive” and “Freak Out” have become new anthems for new times but keep the spirit and roots of garage punk in the heart of the song. They mix Punk and Psychedelic ‘60s that make your body move and lyrics that feed your mind. The Jackets are not afraid to play ballads or the most primitive punker. It always sounds groovy when it’s The Jackets!
Under what circumstances did The Jackets form, and were you all writing and recording together before the band’s formation in a different project? How did you all meet each other, and can you tell us about the other bands you’ve been a part of and the experiences you took from that time and incorporated into The Jackets?
Chris Rosales: I met Jackie [Torera] in the late nineties, and we were a romantic couple for many years. One of our goals was to start a great rock & roll band together because we had been in many bands before, but all the other members wanted to do the band thing at less than 100%. In 2005, Jackie and I began writing songs and rehearsing with just guitar and drums. Eventually, we wanted a bigger sound, so I asked one of my favorite bass players here in Bern, Switzerland, to play with us—Severin Erni from a band called Tight Finks. We had our first show in January of 2008. Severin wanted to start a family and wasn't going to be free to play full-time in a band, so he agreed to finish all the bookings we had so far and to record bass on our first recordings, but he couldn't go on with us after that. We met Sam [Schmidiger], our current bass player because he was the local promoter at a club where we performed. After the gig, we stayed up all night drinking and talking to Sam. To make a long story short, Sam became our bass player one month after that meeting. I was in a few bands before The Jackets. While living in the United States, I played in a band with Candy Del Mar from The Cramps called The New Creatures (no recordings). When I relocated to Switzerland, I played with Beat-Man of Voodoo Rhythm Records when he was doing his Lightning Beat-Man wrestling band in the early mid-nineties, and then later as the first backing band when he started his metamorphosis into The Reverend Beat-Man. You can certainly hear a lot of Beat-Man's influence in our music. I then formed a soul band called The Super Supers and joined The Get Lost in the early 2000s, which consisted of two members from the legendary 80s neo-garage revival gods, The Miracle Workers. Jackie was in a few bands before The Jackets, like The Mad Cowgirl Disease and The Fox, who wore similar stage clothes to The Jackets, so we took some influence from them. Sam played guitar in his party punk and roll band, The Budget Boozers, which still plays gigs occasionally. All these bands of ours were stepping-stones to how we play and perform in The Jackets.
Who were the first national touring and local act concerts you three saw growing up, and what impact did those shows leave on you then?
Jack Torera: AC/DC was a big influence when I was growing up.
Chris Rosales: The Cramps and The Ramones came to play in Los Angeles every year when I was growing up there in the eighties, so both bands greatly influenced me. Plus, the Sixties-garage revival thing was happening in the city at the time and basically shaped the rest of my life.
Your new single, Life’s Not Like The Movies, is your second partnership with Chaputa! Records after he split release between you and The Courettes last year. This release is also your second single this year, with Pie In The Sky released in April. How did this partnership between you and the label start, and what put the wheels in motion to release this new single?
Chris Rosales: Chaputa! Records had been asking us to do one of their split singles for a long time -even before we recorded our last record, Queen of the Pill, and a while after that LP was released when we decided to give them two of the hottest songs on that album. They were straightforward to work with and really cared about the bands and the quality of the products they wanted to make. We were impressed. So when we were shopping around for other labels to release our stuff, they were our first choice. Both new singles came from a Spring 2022 recording session in Bern. We had just formed our new label, Wild Noise, and wanted to have a single as our debut label release, and then we decided to do another single release with Chaputa!
What other artists or songs inspire your music?
The Cramps - "The Way I Walk"
The epitome of cool, what every band wishes to attain.
The Monks - "Complication"
A living art piece. These GIs went AWOL and started the first punk band in Germany in the sixties.
The Sonics - "Psycho"
Arguably the greatest screamer in Rock and Roll and maybe the first US Punk band?
The Seeds - "Evil Hoodoo"
They invented a completely new sound. Fuzz, simplicity, and the craziest lyrics of all time.
The Music Machine - "Talk Talk"
All black clothes, one black glove, and the Vox Guitar poster band. These guys started the look, and the songs were amazing.
The Gun Club - "Sex Beat"
The swamp things of Los Angeles. Wailing, ghostly vocals, and a band that could rival The Cramps
The Remains - "Why Do I Cry"
These guys were on tour with The Beatles, and no one ever heard of them!? The greatest American garage rock from Boston.
The MC5 -" Looking At You"
Could they be the greatest band of the sixties? For sure, the best American rock band of all time.
The Damned - "Neat Neat Neat"
Vampires make the best lead singers. They both the sound and the look, the greatest UK punk band of the seventies.
Shocking Blue - "Send Me A Postcard"
Dutch pop-psyche legends. Jackie gets compared to Mariska all the time!
Do you abide by a philosophy for your live shows, and when performing live, do you prefer to stick to your set sounding as close to the record as possible or have the live version of a song become its own thing?
Chris Rosales: Our live shows are the main event. They are the best place for us to play our songs and for our audience to hear them. For most of the band's career, our records only somewhat lived up to our live shows. With each new record project, our goal was always to capture that intensity, and I think we finally captured that with Queen of the Pill. But The Jackets are a band meant to see live rather than listen to our records.
The Jackets have toured throughout North America, the UK, Mexico, and Europe. How do the audiences differ in each part of the world with this style of music, and what are the differences you encounter in each new country? What is the best show you remember playing, and which was a disaster?
Chris Rosales: We find cool people everywhere we go. Every village and town everywhere seems to have a handful of cool rock and rollers. Of course, some countries really stand out. Spain is probably the Mecca for garage punk rock in Europe. The amount of people who come to these kinds of gigs in Spain is phenomenal. Plus there are so many incredible festivals in Spain. France is probably second at the moment, but as I said, we have great parties everywhere in Europe. The United States is a bit of a smaller and older audience for our type of music, but people are very cool and dedicated. Mexico was pretty insane; that country reminds us of Spain but with a smaller and younger audience. We have had many amazing moments as The Jackets on stage, so it's hard to say what our best show was but playing at our first Funtastic Dracula Carnival in 2013 was a highlight. We were finally getting a lot of recognition in the scene then. I suppose we were the new big thing for that month and year. You probably won't believe me, but I really can't think of any disastrous shows of ours. Sorry!
What’s in store for The Jackets for the rest of 2023? You have touring already planned throughout the year across Europe, but what about returning to the United States?
Chris Rosales: We plan to go to all our usual places this year - we have a small Spain tour built around the Espina Festival near Leon in June. We will be touring Benelux in September and playing Berlin Beat Explosion early that month. The Spring and Summer will be peppered with festival appearances in France and Switzerland. There will be some surprises at the end of the year, especially in October (in Spain), and we are finally returning to the UK for two quick shows in November in London and Brighton. We plan to return to the United States next year, probably only on the West Coast, but stay tuned for more info. We also plan to return to a studio sometime this year, so hopefully, new recordings will be soon. You can keep up with our gig schedule over at http://thejackets.ch/gigs.html.
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