Interview: Jungle feed their emotions

October 10, 2018

Jungle recently dropped For Ever, the follow-up to their massively acclaimed and much loved defining debut record. Cherry Anna Brearley spoke to Josh from the band:

Hey Josh. How’s your day going – where are you right now and what are you up to?

Hey, how’s it going? I’m actually in New Orleans! It’s been a pretty good week, everything’s been going pretty well for us out here… everything’s going pretty well, can’t complain. We just came back from an amazing show, and next up we’re playing at Austin City Limits festival which’ll be fun for sure.

Cool, sounds like you’ve been busy since releasing ‘For Ever’. Tell us more about the creation of the new album – why did it take you four years to get a new record ready for release after your debut?

Basically, we were spending all that time… just living, really, and experiencing the ‘real world’. Both me and [second of the two original band members] Tom were in committed, loving relationships during the creation of the first record, and then we went through pretty intense break ups…

Uh-oh.

*Long, wistful pause’

Errrrmmmm…

Sorry, yeah. I mean, I’m sure you know that feeling when you’re young, and you’re in love, and then you’re… and then that’s taken away. A lot of time went by between the first and the second record because it was really, for us both, a healing record. It was weird, like… out of that pain, we created this music and it was beautifully cathartic. It was a revelation for me to discover that I could heal myself with my own art, and through being creative. I think that’s much more honest than just quickly banging out a couple of hits. There’s something about being able to really feed your emotions into something that makes it feel real.

…All that time, and spending so much time on the road, obviously your musical influences must have expanded exponentially since the release of the last album… what have you heard and learned on your world travels that has fed into the record?

Yeah, totally. I think it’s just the scope of different experiences, meeting so many people, and understanding their perspectives on life that’s really inspired me.

We’ve gotten better, more skilful, at playing live shows, gotten a smarter understanding how the global industry works a little bit. I mean, sure, sometimes that’s meant that we’ve had to get wise and ‘play the game’ a bit… but I also believe in the balance between being fully creative and keeping the music business in mind.

How that’s transpired on record is that the first album, made whilst we were still both living in West London, was based on our imaginations… our ideas of what the world ‘out there’ was like. The second is based on our realities.

Deep.

Yeah. It’s been really amazing. We just played a show in Mexico I gotta tell you, that crowd was one of the most amazing we’ve ever played to. They were going absolutely crazy, snapping pictures, screaming all the words to our songs… it’s definitely not a vibe that you’d ever find in reserved old England. It was like… being in The Beatles or something! Haha.

In Australia, too, we’ve had some great shows. Something about the general vibe of the the people over there…when the sun is shining all the time…people are a bit more carefree and relaxed.

*Stares out at the thunderstorm outside* Yeah. Well I mean, the sun doesn’t shine all the time… Anyway… tonnes of the big tracks from the first album have been used on movie scores, ad soundtracks, TV shows etc. What’s been your favourite movie, tv show, etc that a Jungle track has appeared on?

I think that when the track was on during the England games during this year’s football world cup, that was a huge moment. Just being able to have something you do represent your country, we were really proud of that.

There’s still a lot of ground we haven’t covered, for us for movie soundtracks. Movie soundtracks are definitely something that we would go into – it’s a natural progression for Jungle. We love making movies, watching movies, it just seems like a natural next step for the future.

Cool. And, since completing the new album, have you started making new music?

Yeah, man! We never stop! It’s just a case of keeping creative, doing as much as we can… and then later comes that refinement process when we trim down the good stuff.

Right on. Okay, one last question. If you could be one animal in the Jungle – What would it be and why?

Oooh that’s tough… probably a butterfly. Just because, I dunno, they’re beautiful…

… and, what’s that song that sampled that Red Hot Chili Peppers Track – ‘Butterfly’?

… you mean ‘Butterfly’, by Crazy Town?

Yeah! That was like, my cool guy rap, like back in 2004. Hahah!

Hahaha! Josh, it’s been an absolute pleasure.