‘BANG! We’re back and we’re loving it’
JUNGLE’S TOM McFARLAND TELLS SHARON O’CONNELL ABOUT THE BAND’S EMOTIONAL RETURN TO LIVE GIGS
AFEW days before speaking to Metro, Tom McFarland took to the stage with Jungle for the first time in what felt like forever. With their five-piece band, he and co-founder Josh LloydWatson played two London shows on the same day, as a warm-up for their run of dates in the capital and Manchester.
Business as usual, you’d think, for international touring pros with two UK Top Ten albums to their name, but after an 18-month absence it proved to be an unexpectedly emotional experience – flooded with relief as much as joy.
‘Weirdly,’ says Tom: ‘I felt incredibly Zen beforehand and I think, before, I would have been nervous. But I’ve just had a kid and so my perspective has shifted massively.
‘There’s no fear of failure, no fear of being judged and I think we’ve spent so long away from doing what we love, it was just excitement, really. There have probably been a few times over the last 18 months where we’ve asked ourselves, “Do we want to do this again?” so it was nice to just step onstage and have that question answered pretty quickly.
‘Bang! Back in it and absolutely loving it. It was very emotional, actually, standing up in front of 1,000 people. It was really beautiful.’
It’s a safe bet that euphoria was felt just as strongly by the crowd, not only because Jungle were playing their new (third) album, Loving In Stereo, for the first time but also because they’re feel-good sorcerers, with a modern, clubby sound that’s peculiarly distinctive. Quite how they manage this given the familiarity of its core elements – soul, funk and Studio 54-era disco – even Tom can’t really explain. But he does know it’s grown out of his and Josh’s friendship, which dates back more than 20 years.
‘The defining feature of our relationship is definitely our love of music and the fact that we grew up together exploring that,’ he says.
‘We’d sit there together listening to Californication by Red Hot Chili Peppers 17 times in a row. Some kids grow up skateboarding or playing football together; we grew up just trying to write songs, either sitting in my parent’s basement, where we had a drum kit set up and a couple of amps or in Josh’s dad’s basement, where he had a little computer and we started with very rudimental recording techniques.
‘I think ultimately what Jungle is,’ he decides, ‘is that Josh and I finally found a place where we could fully express our natural selves, musically. It’s more a state-of-mind thing. When you’re younger, you’re trying to be The Strokes or you’re taking The Libertines’ course and you spend a lot of time doing that because you’re less confident in yourself and you’re looking out for something that is going to make you popular. Obviously, when you’re trying to do that it’s not going to sound original. What you’re hearing is a true expression of ourselves and that’s unique.’ However, it’s not just that a Jungle song is instantly identifiable as such, but also that their music sounds deeply rooted in London – again, in ways it’s hard to pinpoint.
Tom’s underage clubbing days, though, were foundational: ‘My brother’s three years older than me, so when I was 15 I used to take his old passport out with me,’ he laughs.
‘The picture was so old I could get away with it and often the bouncers would take pictures because they found it so funny. I was going to Fabric, I was going to SE1 in London Bridge, a rave called Whirl-y-Gig in Hackney… I cut my teeth on the dancefloor listening to late-period drum ’n’ bass – High Contrast, Roni Size – and just exploring what London had to offer. It’s 100 per cent subconscious, but we wouldn’t be the artists that we are if we hadn’t grown up in London.’
All being well, Jungle head off on their US tour in October, followed by a European jaunt and then three arena shows supporting Billie Eilish next June. It seems the galaxyconquering teen is a fan – Jungle’s 2018 track Cherry has appeared on more than one of her playlists. The invitation is, as Tom says, ‘really cool. ‘Also, if somebody you respect asks you to play some gigs, of course you’re going to say yes. It’s the first time my 21-year-old cousin has been invested in what I do,’ he chuckles. ‘She was, “OMG, you’re so cool”. I’m now a legit older cousin!’
‘We’d sit listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers 17 times. We grew up trying to write songs’