Jungle

Interview with Tom McFarland.

Photography by Filmawi and Anna Victoria Best. Interview by Heather Hawke.

UK-based production duo Jungle released their third album Loving In Stereo on August 13 and the album finds lifelong friends (Tom McFarland and Josh Lloyd-Watson) steering their sound back to their roots, to a time when they could make whatever music they liked without overthinking it. With Loving In Stereo, they’ve ditched the external influences, put the commercial considerations on the backburner and avoided second-guessing what people expect from them. What did they get in return? Well for one, Loving In Stereo is radiating positivity—a tangerine sunset reflecting off a wave of groovy, soulful disco. Second? How about a double dose of sun-kissed positivity, celebrating the post-social distancing age, with themes of new beginning and new love. 

Recorded at Tom’s and Josh’s own studio as well as The Church Studios (Paul Epworth’s studio in north London), Loving In Stereoachieves that exuberant, energic atmosphere by extending an open invitation for friends to join them at sessions at The Church, opposed to the industry norm of focused writing camps. That carefree approach of having an open studio resulted in Jungle’s first two feature vocal contributions / collaborations, from New York rapper and Dreamville artist Bas (“Romeo”) and rising star Priya Ragu (“Goodbye My Love”). Loving In Stereo also features songwriting contributions from Inflo—a Mercury Prize and Ivor Novello Award winner for his work with Michael Kiwanuka and Little Simz.

Tom and Josh first began collaborating on music together as Jungle at the beginning of 2013 and they’ve since released a self-titled debut album in 2014, followed by their 2018 follow-up, For Ever. 

Since day one, Jungle has been about making more than solely music. The two have created an entire distinctive artistic vision that makes up the band – in which not only the music, but also the aesthetics and choreography co-exist as one distinctive artistic vision. Choosing to focus on the project rather than an individual. The pair are Jungle’s producers, songwriters and musicians, as well as its directors, content creators and curators. If you’ve chanced upon any of Jungle’s music videos in the past (like “Busy Earnin,’” “Happy Man,” “House In LA,” “Casio”) you’ll immediately notice that the efforts pay off. Tom has previously stated, “It’s a 360 experience in which their music influences their visuals, which in turn lends fresh impetus to the music. Dance is the most instinctive way for humans to react to music. Sometimes when I watch our videos, I learn new things about the music because of the way the dancer is expressing themselves. That’s the most powerful thing for me about what we do visually.” The band also carries their cohesive band aesthetics to their vibrant live shows by amplifying the focus on their choreography and visual aesthetics, which places an audience member feeling like they’ve stepped center stage into a Jungle video shoot. 

For the music videos off of Loving In Stereo, the band worked alongside longtime collaborator and creative partner Charlie Di Placido on a larger project of creating a visual identity for every track on the album. In pursuit of this aim, Jungle filmed all the visuals in five days, shooting roughly three videos a day. 

Just like the endurance it takes to film all those visuals in a short span, for Loving In Stereo as a whole, the band sought out to (yes, “trust their instincts”) but to also be more “raw” and “open” because what’s music without the creativity? 

Jungle’s web/socials: Website – Bandcamp – Soundcloud – Facebook – Instagram – Twitter 

I feel like the music industry has shifted even more so during the pandemic. How has it felt, to you, as an artist? Has it been freeing? Is it scary trying to question how to approach music making and then how to or if you want to creatively release it to the public?

I definitely think that artists are taking some sort of control back. The idea of this centralized system of power within the music industry is really being challenged by a lot of artists and smaller labels who are disrupting the system. From the day that streaming services started it was only a matter of time before the traditional structures within the industry began to crumble. We’re releasing music on our own label now and it just gives us complete creative control and there is a lot of confidence that comes with that.

Going back to the beginning. What were both of your childhoods like growing up in the Shepherd’s Bush area of London? Did creativity/music/art play a big part of your childhood? 

Shepherds Bush is a real melting pot of lots of different cultures, so we’ve always been exposed to music and art from across the globe. British culture is a collage of all the cultures that people have brought to this island for centuries so to be a part of that feels special. I think British musicians take pride in using all the influences around them. Music played a huge part of our childhoods; it was everywhere from the market stalls selling bootleg reggae tapes to our parents car radios. 

What music did you grow up listening to? When did you first become aware that music was going to be a part of your life? What was your formal / not formal music education like growing up? 

Music has always been something that we both loved. It’s hard to pinpoint a specific moment when we said ‘right let’s make this our careers.’ I guess it was essentially a bit of an accident. You just keep doing something you love until you realize it’s too late to do anything else. But that’s quite poetic in itself. It feels like music chose us rather than the other way round.  

When you were old enough to start seeking out music, where did you regularly find yourself (a certain record store / internet site / getting recommendations from a certain friend)? Who were some of the artists you first found and then were constantly on the lookout for? 

Two record shops in London really stood out to us from a young age. Sounds of The Universe and Sister Ray in SoHo are probably two of London’s most famous and eclectic record stores. It always felt really special getting the 94 bus from outside where both our parents lived and heading into SoHo to buy some records, or just walk around soaking up the atmosphere. Denmark Street was super close too and we would always go and look at the guitars we couldn’t afford to buy. 

I read that for your new album, Loving In Stereo, you’ve “ditched the external influences, put the commercial considerations on the backburner, and have gone back to your roots to a time when you could make whatever music you wanted without overthinking it” and launched your own label. How long was the label in the works? What was your mindset like after the For Ever release and going into the creating / recording process of Loving In Stereo?  

We’re just really comfortable and confident in our creative process at the moment and launching a label has really helped that. We wanted to get back to just having fun in the studio and not over-thinking too much. You can get lost in a world of asking too many questions of your art and that can be really damaging. Loving in Stereo is the first album we’ve made where we feel like we’ve really been able to finally realize all the visions we’ve had in our heads to their full potential and that’s a really satisfying place to be.  

Do you find it helpful to be intentional when it comes to writing the lyrics / music? Like “I’m going to sit down and work on a song.” Or is it more ephemeral, like you’ve been kicking something around in your head for days, weeks, months, and then suddenly it comes spilling out? Or is it a mixture of both? 

I think we actually try to be un-intentional when we write music as it allows your natural creativity to fill that space rather than making something pre-prescribed. When you remove boundaries and walls from the writing process is incredibly liberating and often produces the most unique results. Most of our best ideas come about very quickly and we tend to use collage to put tracks together from a load of different ideas that we have floating around. 

Loving In Stereo was recorded in your own studio as well as The Church Studios. What was it like recording at both places? What do you think each space brought to the sound and feeling of the album? 

The sessions that we put together at The Church were amazing. It was the first time we had the confidence to gather together a large group of musicians in one room and record them. It was scary but when the pressure is on like that and you have a lot of people looking to you for leadership and answers it forces you to step up and get creative. The choir, the strings and the brass ensemble really brought this album to life for us and there were some really emotional moments when we realized how great it was going to sound. 

When and how did the album title Loving In Stereo come about in the album creation process? What is the significance of the title?

It’s actually the title of a song that we wrote when we were fourteen. This album feels so youthful and free to us that it felt right to tie the album title back into the beginning of our musical journey.  

I’m such a fan of the band’s aesthetics and choreography! I know you both play a major hand in it all … Out of the concepts / music videos, what has been your favorite thing your worked on for the band so far? What have your favorite music video treatments been? Any fun behind the scenes facts from the making of them? 

The process of making the videos for this record was crazy. We decided to shoot fourteen videos in five days, so it was super intense and really hard work, but ultimately that energy heads given the visuals for this album a really unique feeling. Again, we had to think on our feet, not ask too many questions and let the art speak for itself. The dancers and choreographers put their life and soul into the making of these videos and we couldn’t have done it without them. 

On the topic of artwork / visuals, do you feel like the art that accompanies one’s music is more / less important than it used to be? How do you feel like social media / the internet impacts the intention behind all of this?

We’ve always tried to create audio visual landscapes to disappear into. The music and the artwork and the videos are all inherently linked and cannot really exist without the other elements. It’s been a dream of ours to have a consistent and strong visual identity as Jungle and I think we have largely ignored the modern, media-led desire for an individual to be ‘the face’ of that. Our identities within Jungle are irrelevant, it’s all about the art. It has to be the most important focus. 

Does traveling influence you both as artists? Are you inspired by the places you go, or do you think your work would sound about the same no matter where you created it? 

I think that when you are lucky enough to travel you realize that life is much more beautiful, fragile and diverse than we’ve been taught. You gain a perspective on the world that is very rare. When you begin to understand how insignificant your individual needs are in the context of the bigger global picture, then you become more empathetic and a better person in my opinion. 

Have you had any mentors along the way? 

Yes, there are a huge number of people whose advice has given us strength and knowledge. We wouldn’t be here without them and they know who they are. 

What was your favorite part about the writing / album creation process? 

Finishing something.