Welcome to this week’s Launch Box featuring The Jungle Giants
The Jungle Giants are an Australian four-piece band, formed in 2011. All four members attended the same high school in Brisbane. Singer-guitarist Sam Hales, lead guitartist Cesira Aitken and bassist Andrew Dooris were in opposing bands in their early years, and it wasn’t until college that they came together. Soon after, Keelan Bijker signed on as drummer.
Frontman Sam Hales spent 6 months working two jobs in order to fund their debut self-titled EP which was released with local producer Yanto Browing in March 2011. The EP contained lead single “Mr. Polite” which has now reached over 600,000 views on Youtube
Fast forward a year and a half and The Jungle Giants released their second EP, She’s A Riot. The five track EP, released via Create/Control on 27 July 2012, drawing on life experiences and telling stories of friendships and relationships in Hales’ life.
The Jungle Giants supported Last Dinosaurs‘ national Satellites tour with Twinsy and in early 2013 toured Australia with Two Door Cinema Club and The Vaccines.
Their first album Learn to Exist was released independently in August 2013. Take a listen to Skin to Bone from the album:
Speakerzoid followed in August 2015. Many unrecognizable accents are littered throughout the record and a multitude of different influences. From hip-hop-styled beats underneath minimal vocals to funky bass driven tunes, all the way to a spacey repetitious guitar hooks complete with crazy flute explosion Speakerzoid is difficult to define.
Whether you perceive it as an intelligent array of well-placed, interesting sounds, or a bit of a Jackson Pollack canvas with a few effective flicks; The Jungle Giants have created an experimental indie-rock based record that’s definitely worth mulling over.