On the opening day of Glastonbury 2014, Jungle was scheduled to perform at the John Peel Tent at 1 p.m., a few weeks before the release of their self-titled debut album. The year before, the singles and videos of Platoon and The Heat were released, introducing what would become a dominant and enduring aesthetic for their music videos, which are all dance pieces, often directed by Jungle half Josh Lloyd. -Watson.

By the time Busy Earnin ‘landed, a song that has become almost ubiquitous on radio, commercial and television shows, the level of anticipation that surrounded the then-mysterious outfit, signed to XL Recordings, and on the verge of doing what would become a standout festival appearance, was high. The group had perfected a moving and instantly memorable electronic sound behind closed doors, music that has spanned decades and genres creating full and full energy, appealing to fans from all walks of life.

As people rushed to the festival tents that year to see what this band actually looked like and if they could possibly translate such pristine studio sound on stage, audiences were greeted with a sophisticated level of perfection. and sophisticated that demonstrated what could surely only emerge. 10,000 unprecedented hours of grafting, musicality and a feeling of self-confidence and assurance. Seven years later, it’s as if Jungle had pressed a button labeled both “reset” and “progress”, with their third album, Loving In Stereo.

I talk about it with half of Jungle, Tom McFarland, as he walks through Copenhagen, where he and his partner introduce their new baby to his partner’s family. Open-minded, honest, relaxed and ready to go on tour again, McFarland talks about the album and how it marks a new era for a band that went through the creative process of their second album, For Ever. They left XL by mutual agreement and released this record on their own label, Caiola, named after guitarist and composer Al Caiola. The album itself is less loaded, lighter, more liberated. Largely completed towards the end of 2019, mixed and mastered earlier in 2021, Jungle delayed its release until they could tour again, and injected new energy into the album by recording 14 videos in five days. during the lockdown in a disused military building in Dover, a remarkable process with brilliant results.

The album is magnificent. Floral and airy, it’s the sound of musicians who know what they’re doing and have no interest in getting bogged down in who or what they are not. Keep Moving looks like a sequel to Busy Earnin ‘. Talk About It slumps into a b-boy position before soaring skyward. The song Truth is an unexpected, surf-oriented guitar tune. For a group that briefly covered themselves in the shade, it’s the sound of them basking in the sun. Throughout it all is a feeling of pleasure and invigorating.

McFarland founded Jungle with Lloyd-Watson, his childhood friend and neighbor, in 2013. Both come from Shepherd’s Bush in London, a place where they were “overexposed to music culture from a young age,” says McFarland. . When he was much younger he dreamed of being in The Strokes or Kings of Leon, on stage with long hair, skinny jeans and Converse, but ultimately what drove him and Lloyd-Watson to becoming the musicians that they are is the energy of a crowd in a room, “and watching the people on stage soak up that and give it back to you in the next song. I think it is. what really appealed to us, this cycle of energy which is recycled and reused in the room minute by minute, song by song.

With this album, they had “a strong desire not to spend too much time on it, not to dwell too much on ideas and to capture ideas in their oldest form, in their most nebulous form.” They let go of their tendency to overwork and healed the scars from the process of their second album.

“We just feel like we’re at the top of our game and really enjoying the life of musicians and artists”

McFarland says by the end of 2018 they kind of knew that XL was “ummmaiting and ahhing” about picking up their third album, “We were pretty cool with that, you know what I mean? We knew that our relationship with them had a certain limit. There had been creativity issues in the past. There’s a very famous quote from Adele and she says, “I’m not going to let a guy sit behind a desk and tell me how to make a record because he’s never made one in his life before. ” And I think we were in that position. It’s like you start to doubt yourself because you let other people’s opinions affect your creative process.

Following the unexpected and massive success of their debut album, Jungle quickly realized how true the difficult cliché of the second album was. It’s also hard not to end up with the process bleeding into the feel of an album, and that’s what happened with their second, but in a way that, ironically, has been an artistic success. . Anyone who’s struggled with a creative project can’t help but empathize and find solace in the track House In LA, with its line “Two Whole Years On Rewriting”.

“Look, XL was amazing,” says McFarland, “They gave us a real platform… For West London artists who grew up in the 1990s, we were very aware of what XL stood for and what what XL was. So being a part of that family for a few years was really glorious and gave us a lot of confidence in the early years. But then it kinda kind of reversed when it came to doing this. second album. Now we’re like flying. We just feel like we’re at the top of our game and really enjoying life as musicians and artists. So that’s what it is. there is no bad blood at all.

You wonder if a band ended up feeling at sea with an indie renowned for its emphasis on creativity and artistic integrity, how on earth do bands fare within the confines of the majors?

“I wouldn’t literally sign for a big record company if you paid me, because you are just beholden to a machine,” says McFarland, “I think I can have such a singular vision as we do and take it to the fore. ‘in the end, it’s really precious to us. That’s essentially what drives us there. We don’t make music for anyone other than ourselves and our fans. This is how it should be with everyone.

“Do I have to bury myself in this whirlwind of artistic pain to do something big?” I think it’s bulls ** t ‘

“Listen, I understand that we are sitting here in a slightly elevated castle because we were lucky enough to have been given the thumbs up at the gates early.” And there are artists who potentially need a structure around them to introduce them to writers, to introduce them to producers, and some people need a bit of A & Rings here and there, ”he says, saying. reference to the Artists and Repertoire section of a label, which is responsible for finding and developing new artists.

“But I think the way they [major labels] produce artists viscously – they sign them, they let them go, they sign them, they let them go, they sign them, they let them go… At the end of the day, record companies are just banks with posters on them. walls. This is kind of how we see it. In this age of a kind of backlash against the machines and the mechanics of the systems we live in, I just think it’s so important for artists to have blind faith in themselves that they can be successful without no one around them.

Now Jungle is wearing things a lot more lightly. It is perhaps a state that can only be reached by crossing rocky terrain and emerging into a wide open view, where things seem vast and unlocked. After torturing themselves with their second album, the process for the third was a complete backlash against it.

“I think space is important, being able to withdraw from what you’re doing. We struggled to do that on the second album. When we hit a barrier, we were like “no, we have to stick to it, we have to keep smashing our heads for f ** king to get through it”. But in fact, if you walk away from the barrier, you often find that around the corner there is a gap. It was definitely a process that we went through on the second album. We were like we were just training: it’s not good, it’s not good, how to fix it, we have to keep working, keep working, 12 hours a day, 14 hours a day, 16 hours a day day in the studio.

“And in fact, you can do whatever you need to do in two hours, three hours, if you have the right perspective and you have enough space. Again, it comes from trust. It comes from this understanding that you can go golfing for six hours, walk into the studio, and write a banger. Whereas before it was like: no, my only vocation is to make music, I have to bury myself in this whirlwind of artistic pain to do something great. I think they’re ** t bulls, ”McFarland says, with, of course, a smile.