After a busy 2017, The Jungle Giants are now rested and recharged as they prepare for their next run of live shows.
The band released their third album, 'Quiet Ferocity', last year, which took them on multiple touring cycles around the world.
After a couple of months off, they start a live run of festival shows that begins with Spin Off in Adelaide. “I actually can't wait,” lead guitarist Cesira Aitken says.
“I think we played Spin Off maybe four or five years ago and we're really excited for it. It's cool to get ready for more than one show, so that weekend will be really good and we're excited to come back to Adelaide because Adelaide is always really loose.”
That same weekend The Jungle Giants also play Splendour In The Grass, kicking off a series of festival performances including Beer InCider Experience (Brisbane) and Yours & Owls Festival (Wollongong). “I don't think anyone says festivals aren't fun,” Cesira says.
“It's always a really good time and it's cool to have a bit of a run of them and not just look forward to one thing.”
'Quiet Ferocity' has proved to be an extremely successful album for The Jungle Giants in terms of broadening the reach and appeal of their music.
Their last tour, which was in support of the single 'Used To Be In Love', was a complete sell-out and Cesira says crowds are responding well to the new tracks. “People really came onboard with the third record; it's awesome, it's really nice,” she says.
“We mainly play [songs from] 'Quiet Ferocity' now and we noticed with the singles people were responding more to the newer songs, and then we figured out that we should put them all in there and play all singles. You can tell when the crowd is singing the newer songs much louder than they're singing the older ones.”
Cesira goes on to explain how the recording process for 'Quiet Ferocity' differed greatly to those of their previous albums in that they took a more relaxed approach to laying down the songs.
“As we had new songs ready to be recorded we would record them, rather than do huge blocks at a time away from home or in a big studio, stressing ourselves out making sure we had to finish full records in this one block of time. This was the first time we tried this method and it really worked,” she says.
“Because the process was different this time it felt better; no one really felt the anxiety of how we did the first two records. Obviously there were the underlying anxieties pre-release but I think mainly it was masking excitement, so I'm pretty happy.”
In validation of their confidence in 'Quiet Ferocity', The Jungle Giants also picked up a Queensland Music Award recently for 'Album Of The Year'.
“I was overseas on a holiday and so was Sam [Hales, songwriter/ vocalist], so Keelan [Bijker, drums] and Andrew [Dooris, bass] were there with our manager, and I was online talking with them the whole night. It was really, really exciting and we all spoke the next day and we were super stoked, it meant a lot.”
The Jungle Giants Australia Tour 2018
Fri 20 Jul - Spin Off Festival (Adelaide)Sat 21 Jul - Splendour In The Grass (Byron Bay)
Fri 21 Sep - Beer InCider Experience (Brisbane)
Sat 29 Sep - Yours & Owls Festival (Wollongong)
Sun 4 Nov - The Lost Lands (Melbourne)
