2005-2008
New lineup
After the departure of drummer Jeremy Lutito and bassist Landon Ihde in the spring of 2005, Jetpack was offered an opportunity to shoot a video for a song on The Art of Building A Moat entitled "Mathematics." Down two members, they asked close friends Brian Fuzzell and David Dewese to play the parts of drummer and bassist in the video. Deciding that the chemistry was right both Dewese and Fuzzell stayed on as permanent members in their respective roles following the shoot.
Legal roadblocks/Children's book
In early 2006, Heatstroke Records, a label located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was set to release The Art of Building A Moat nationwide. Just before the release, Jetpack received a cease and desist notice from a California-based surf rock band also known as Jetpack. Around the same time, a publishing company out of Minneapolis contacted the band asking them to be the subject of a children's book which chronicled the ins and outs of performing in a rock band. Hoping to avoid any legal troubles that would impede the national release of the EP or the children's book, Jetpack came up with a stopgap measure and added a "UK" to the end of their name—a tongue-in-cheek reference to the British band The Charlatans who had added a "UK" to their name for similar reasons. With legal trouble out of the way for the moment, Jetpack UK launched an extensive tour of the Eastern and Midwestern United States in the summer of 2006 to support The Art of Building A Moat. That fall, to take advantage of the fact that they were featured in a children's book (an unusual situation for a rock band), Jetpack UK booked a six-week tour where they played their full-volume set in a host of public libraries and school auditoriums throughout the U.S. With library shows during the day and regular club gigs at night, the band earned enough money to go back into the studio to record their next LP.
The Mezzanine
In the summer of 2005, songwriter Sean Williams spent several weeks in Little Rock, Arkansas, working on a handful of songs that would eventually make up most of the band's next full-length album, The Mezzanine. While touring as Jetpack UK in the summer of 2006, the band went through an extensive list of possible permanent band names until keyboardist Stephen Jerkins suggested "The Nobility" based on a lyric in one of Williams' new songs ("Halleluiah Chorus"). The band continued to perform under Jetpack UK until the official release of The Mezzanine.
In the fall of 2006, the band headed into the studio in between stints on the road to begin recording The Mezzanine. During the first week-long session the basic tracks were recorded for the following songs:
- Halleluiah Chorus
- Riverboat
- Worth Your While
- Let Me Hang Around
- Midst of the Park
After returning from another leg of the library tour, The Nobility recorded these remaining songs:
- Skeleton Key
- The Mezzanine
- This Is What I've Wanted To Tell You
- Angel's Debut
- Gold Blue Sky
- I Refuse
Jim Hoke, famed saxophonist who had worked The Beach Boys, Kenny Rogers, Harry Connick, Jr., My Morning Jacket and Guster, was brought in to play on the song The Mezzanine.
The Mezzanine was released on July 31, 2007, and received high praise from several media outlets including NPR, which described the album as "jangly guitar rock with sweet harmonies and carefully plotted melodies….the kind of music that leaves you humming and feeling better about the world." A tour in support of the album followed, which included stops at the CMJ Music Festival in New York and SXSW in Austin. Shortly after the initial tour for The Mezzanine, bassist David Dewese left the band to focus on his own musical projects, including the Foxymorons. The Nobility continued playing shows in support of The Mezzanine throughout the remainder of 2007 and 2008 using a host of friends on bass, which included Benjamin A. Harper, Keith Lowen and Cheyenne Medders.
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