According to Jette:

I met Holmes Ives in Hagerstown, Maryland, early January 2004.   He was spinning at a party thrown by my good friend, Derrick Miller.   Derrick introduced me to Holmes by pointing to me and remarking:   You need to meet her.   Every time she sings, I cry.

Holmes, pervasively amused and always interested in adding to his collection of divas, gave me his card:   Call me.
Sure.
Two weeks later, I called.   Holmes didn't remember who I was.
(So much for lasting impressions...)
I clumsily reintroduced myself:   Hello, my voice drives Derrick Miller to tears.
Ah yes.
Memory jogged.
Laughter ensued.
We met in DC at Holmes' studio.   I was two hours late.   Holmes was politely not impressed.   I was nervous and sorry and didn't immediately laugh at his tension-breaking enema joke.
We were off to a wonderfully awkward beginning.

So we quickly segued to music:   Holmes played me the barest sketch of a track, opened the door to the vocal booth, wickedly threatened to lock me inside (it's both dark and cold in there--all the more incentive to be a one-take wonder), and told me to:   Make something up.
I hadn't recorded in years and gave an impressive and oh-so-professional response:   But...
I don't know how...
What?

Needless to say, I am not the most verbally graceful girl; however -with respect to brevity- I recovered, wrote some lyrics on several scrap sheets of paper, named them Darker Than You , and sang.   Holmes was pleased by everything.   Except the sounds of the scrap papers being shuffled around next to the mic as I tried to decide which verse went where while recording the song.

We did one take.   (Give it up for small, chilly, light-deficient spaces)

Holmes remarked that he was going to have to painstakingly remove the frantic 'What do I sing next???' paper scuffles:   You should go home.   This will take a while.

It took days.
And nights.
And a week
Went by.

I sat in my cubicle in West Virginia's capitol building (on the House side) and attempted to avoid my work as a political analyst by reading the online editions of the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Onion.   Meanwhile, Holmes diligently composed the music to Darker Than You .   (Please note: Holmes slaves away in the studio for days and nights on end and NEVER complains.   It took me six months of sheepish 'But I don't know what to say' protestations to write this, the Jette-Ives 'who we are & how we met' anecdote.)

The first draft of Darker Than You was played for me at the end of January.   I loved it and was amazed -I continue to be amazed- that I had anything to do with its creation.

Holmes and I decided to write an album together after we recorded our second and third songs together, Vexed and E~ .   We shook hands, swore to maintain a platonic relationship, and spent the next year trying to choose both a moniker and band mates.

Matt Lewis came aboard in September 2004.   He was tipsy-happy on Guinness when I asked him if he would consider joining our there-to-fore nameless band; thus, his judgment was impaired and he said yes.  

Holmes and I were introduced to Danny Tait via Matt in February 2005, (still no band name), at which point I recall dropping to my knees and begging both Danny & Holmes to refrain from any and all disgusting comments until I was out of the room or asleep on the couch.   ("Say it behind my back or when I'm unconscious" remains my band mantra)

In March 2005, the band decided to call itself 'Jette-Ives'.  

Yes, I know--we spent a year deliberating monikers only to throw up our hands and agree to combine our names.   For the record:   We attempted to be creative with the punctuation that separates 'Jette' from 'Ives', but everyone -fans and business partners alike- consistently insisted upon placing a hyphen instead of a period between our names.  

So, there you have it.

There you have us:   Jette-Ives.

~Jette Kelly   5/15/05