music
IT’S NICE TO BE ALIVE A pre-warning regarding The Jungle Giants’ upcoming tour: if you are in the front row, Sam Hales may slap your tongue. The frontman talks to Benny Doyle about the cheeky art of tussing.
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othing like a trip to SXSW to get you in the mood for a tour back home. By the time you read this The Jungle Giants will have taken their swag of sunshine indie-pop international for the very first time, the Brisbane quartet continuing to enjoy plenty of momentum behind their independently released debut of last year, Learn To Exist. Taking a break from packing his bags, vocalist/guitarist Sam Hales says the four-piece are ready to “bring it” on foreign soil, although preparations for the trip have been unorthodox. “We play a shitload of ping pong, every day pretty much,” he says. “We’re trying to rehearse for America but we keep getting distracted because Keelan [Bijker – drums] just got a table, and we’re like, ‘Two games, okay we’ll play two games’ and then four games later [we still haven’t rehearsed]. But it’s good, spirits are high and we just can’t wait to go party.” This life balance thing has been a bit of a new discovery for Hales, and the frontman is enjoying a clearer headspace as a result. “Last year I’d write most days and if I [didn’t] I felt bad. But I learned that wasn’t really healthy – I was putting a huge amount of pressure that I didn’t have to onto myself. I realised I should just be embracing how I feel, so if I don’t feel like writing I just chill out for the day.” Following the US, The Jungle Giants are playing some of their biggest headline shows to date Down Under, spliced between slots on Groovin The Moo 2014. Billed as the Tuss Tour, The Music is curious as to whether we’ve missed something; it’s not a track name and it’s certainly not a common word. What it is, however, is something so much more. It’s a four-letter summarisation on what it means to be alive, making it the perfect overarching theme for a mischievous young band on the road. “It’s a word my housemate gave me for a thing I do to people,” Hales explains. “When I’m hanging [out] sometimes I’ll just wrestle somebody or mess around with them, just slap their head, tickle them or stick my finger in their armpit. He calls [that] tussing, and he describes
“Calling the tour that, we expect [the shows] to be a little [more lively]. We might even start tussing the crowd when we’re playing? I might crowd surf and just hit everyone’s heads; slap tongues in the front row.”
it as, ‘Reminding someone what it feels like to be human’.
The Jungle Giants already have experience playing main stages at Splendour In The Grass and Falls Festival, but arguably their biggest festival slot came this year at Big Day Out. Rubbing shoulders with the likes of Arcade Fire and The Hives, the experience taught them not to be scared of large crowds, and if punters aren’t behind the music then they just need to play even harder and faster.
“I used to do that to my dog – my dog got really old and he was kinda dying, but I’d still tuss him. I used to do this thing called ‘tongue
The band are going to use these lessons learnt moving forwards in 2014. And although he’s not entirely sure if he’s allowed to divulge any info, Hales says that overseas will remain a focus for the rest of the year. He reveals that in September The Jungle Giants will venture back to the northern hemisphere, looking to
“I MIGHT CROWD SURF AND JUST HIT EVERYONE’S HEADS; SLAP TONGUES IN THE FRONT ROW.” touch’, and when he’d stick his tongue out I’d just slap his tongue, and he’d get really annoyed at me and chase me around the house. But that was the only time he was actually being alert and physical, all the other time he’d just be lying down sleeping. So we established that to tuss someone is a healthy thing, and that translated to when I’d do it to people in the band; we all do it to each other, and it’s kinda amplified on the road.
continue the momentum created from this maiden trip, but before that the frontman will break away from the group for a bit of solo songwriting and soul searching. “I’m going to do a little writing trip in France in June – get a little apartment, just work on some songs and build a little studio, and then I’ll come back and then we’ll do a big preproduction thing together [before recording],” he reveals. “But I like that isolation, I want to just go away for a while and see what I come up with, this new perspective thing in a different city on the other side of the world.” WHEN & WHERE: 29 Mar, Ric’s Big Backyard; 30 Mar, Alhambra Lounge (under-18); 4 May, Groovin The Moo, Townsville