{"id":22901,"date":"2020-02-18T23:21:05","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T04:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=22901"},"modified":"2020-02-18T23:23:56","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T04:23:56","slug":"interview-the-jungle-giants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2020\/02\/18\/interview-the-jungle-giants\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW: The Jungle Giants"},"content":{"rendered":"

WTBU DJ and writer Sarah Burnick chatted with The Jungle Giants’\u00a0Cesira Aitken and Andrew Dooris\u00a0<\/span>ahead of their Cambridge show on Feb. 6.<\/p>\n

Sarah: Why don\u2019t you guys introduce yourselves?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cesira: I\u2019m Cesira [Aitken] and this is [Andrew] Dooris, and we play guitar and bass in The Jungle Giants.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sarah: Where are you guys from?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cesira: Brisbane, Australia.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sarah: I heard you all went to high school together?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cesira: Yeah, we all went to [the same] high school. The four of us met in 2007, but Dooris and Keelan [Bijker] \u2013 the drummer \u2013 met in year one. But then the four of us met in high school.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sarah: So, what\u2019s your story?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cesira: The story is\u2026 we all met in high school together within the music department because <\/span>Mansfield [State High School] is a music excellent school. And we were all major music dorks who would like to play and jam in bands and in music rehearsal rooms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Andrew: But we weren\u2019t like \u201cband dorks.\u201d We were like pop music dorks and people who actually loved making music, writing it, and performing it. So it was kind of like this thing where there were the people who were in the choirs and we were kind of obliged to be in the choirs, but actually me and Cesira would sneak into another room and like play Jimi Hendricks songs together. We\u2019d listen to Death Cab for Cutie. You know, all these stereotypical things that teens discovering music would do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So Sam [Hales] was actually a year older than us, and he did his own thing. He was a drummer in his band, and he and his best friend would make all this music. Somewhere along the lines, Sam picked up a guitar and started writing songs. Really, The Jungle Giants are born out of that. For some reason he turned to the rest of us and handpicked Cesira, me for some reason, and Keelan snuck in there in the end. It\u2019s kind of been 10 years from there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cesira: It\u2019s been kind of wild.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Andrew: From the beginning there was a family vibe. We were just all in it, and stoked to be doing music. We loved it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cesira: It never felt like, at any point, that it was the wrong thing to be doing. Even though choosing music when you\u2019re 17 and giving yourself no other option was a little risky. But it never felt wrong, there was no sort of pressure. It was just like, \u201cThis is totally it, we\u2019ll stick it out and have fun.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sarah: And here you are now, touring the world. You guys just came from Europe? How was that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cesira: Yeah, that was cool. A short stint: it was just Amsterdam, Paris, and London. But that was fun, the shows were cool. We did a massive London show with 1,600 people and it sold out. We were very emotional about that one.<\/span><\/p>\n

Andrew: Oh yeah, it was huge. It\u2019s hard to understand, really. It\u2019s hard to fathom. But it was so good. It\u2019s been a long time coming for us to come overseas, and it\u2019s quite hard for Australian bands to make it over.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cesira: And to do any tickets overseas is super nice. Selling a show out is the cherry on top.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Andrew: We\u2019re still probably hemorrhaging money, but we\u2019re having a good time doing it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sarah: And this is your first show in the U.S. on this tour? Which is super cool and welcome to Boston. I\u2019m sorry it was like the worst day.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Andrew: I was loving it!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cesira: You should have seen us when we woke up in the bus this morning. We were like, \u201cIt\u2019s SNOWING!\u201d This is the third time I\u2019ve seen snow. It\u2019s such a novelty.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Andrew: I did not give any sort of a [care] about it. I walked probably about 4 kilometers. I walked from here all the way to Fenway Park, and then all the way back. Got a beer somewhere on the way. I was just loving it, even though it was freezing cold. And I saw a nice dog on the way. It was a great time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sarah: So you just released a new single \u201cSend My Ur Loving\u201d a couple weeks ago. And I checked out the music video, and am curious what the thought process and inspiration behind it was.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Andrew: So we worked with a Berlin-based production company. The directors of that company are amazing, and they do everything from like high-end ads to visual art and short films, stuff like that. And we\u2019ve worked with them for a long time and really liked how experimental they were and their briefs are so professional. So it was a kind of back-and-forth process between them and Sam. This last single, though, has been a process with Sam and a new friend in Melbourne who is also a filmmaker called Julian Lucas. He gave us his brief.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cesira: We wanted a film with all of us in it again because it has been ages since anyone had seen us. It\u2019s like, they\u2019re a band, but no one sees them?<\/span><\/p>\n

Andrew: It was an intense collaborative process between Sam and Julian to nut out the plotline for \u201cSending\u201d. But it came mostly from Julian\u2019s idea of wanting to create something very filmic and something in the same vein as that film \u201cThe Lobster.\u201d We wanted to make something like that. That was the inspiration for the \u201cSending\u201d video.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sarah: What part do visuals play in your musical expression?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cesira: That has changed over the years. Really early on when we were super invested in putting these awesome film clips together, we kind of just got shy and would [leave] it more to the production companies to give us briefs. Now there is more involvement especially from Sam. Especially with \u201cSending\u201d, the concept of running an intimacy retreat\/hotel, which is totally bizarre but also in so many ways is like us and very on brand. That\u2019s where the difference is now, we\u2019re just trying to make everything really cohesive and work really well together. And putting out film clips that do that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sarah: What kind of changes have you noticed within yourself, within your music, and within the dynamic of the band over the last 10 years?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Andrew: It\u2019s weird to reflect on because we sort of just jump from one thing to another. You don\u2019t really think about how things have changed. With Sam\u2019s writing, Sam as a producer, and Sam as a creative force, he has just grown from strength to strength. In the very beginning, it was Sam coming to us with an acoustic guitar and just in his bedroom fleshing out all these parts. Now it\u2019s to the point where everything you\u2019re hearing on the record is made by Sam, played in by Sam. And unless we get a special moment here and there to come into the studio, really everything is played by him now. I\u2019m just so proud of him and our dynamic. We can create an environment to have him foster and take on this pressure and do it in such a way that is still good for our band dynamic. I\u2019m so proud of that. Individually, I have a lot less ego. I think we\u2019ve all grown as artists in our own respect. We have a clear idea of what our taste is. Our tastes have grown so much. Anything from pop music to world music, we\u2019re just so eager to listen to it and hear new things. And that\u2019s a huge part of our growth. What do you reckon?<\/span><\/p>\n

Cesira: Bang on. We have been touring together since we were 18, and us being 26-27, and how much we have all changed. We\u2019re like siblings, truly growing up together. Which is bizarre because you get really reflective and spend all this time together. And now we\u2019re like, \u201cremember how we were, like, children?\u201d It is bizarre. And when you grow up with siblings and you\u2019re really little, you don\u2019t really remember those early days because it\u2019s like we were infants.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Andrew: I think that is one of our strengths. We still remember those things, but we do just jump from next thing to next thing. We fondly remember the past, but we don\u2019t live in it, you know? It\u2019s been one of our advantages, like we\u2019ve changed styles, we\u2019ve changed our production live and in the studio. We\u2019ve been able to make progress by not really giving a crap about who we were in the past. But it\u2019s such fun to reflect on.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sarah: What have you wanted to get out of music?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Andrew: It doesn\u2019t really happen like that, doesn\u2019t it?<\/span><\/p>\n

Cesira: This was all born out in a place of innocence. It wasn\u2019t like we were trying to be in a famous band in Australia. It was just like this is what we wanted to do because it made us happy. So we just threw it all on that, and no one has been unhappy. So it\u2019s been successful in that way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Andrew: James from another band Soho is from the same neighborhood in Brisbane. He said he\u2019s been asked before \u201coh, what was your dream?\u201d And he was like, \u201cI just wanted to play a gig. The moment we got our first gig at Rick\u2019s Bar in Brisbane I was like \u201cSick! Woo!\u201d And everything after that was just cream on top.\u201d But I so relate to that. When Sam asked me to play in a band when I was 16 I was like, \u201cCool, maybe I\u2019ll not give up on music now. Maybe we\u2019ll play a show together and earn 100 dollars collectively and I can go to my friend\u2019s 17th birthday the next weekend.\u201d Even though you can imagine all these things, you are just stoked on that first decision.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sarah: What kind of impact do you want your music to have on people?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cesira: It would be amazing to have even half the impact that we\u2019ve had in Australia overseas. To have that would be pretty incredible. The goal now is to expand on what we do so in Australia and make it more worldwide. We just want to reach as many people as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Andrew: Coming to a Jungle\u2019s show is all about energy and uniting people in a way. If you ever get the pleasure of meeting Sam, he\u2019s just a ball of energy. He and Cesira are two people who can whip an entire room into a frenzy. It doesn\u2019t matter who you are or where you come from, it\u2019s about getting together and getting down and having fun to music. And really connecting, you know? Taking that across the world, and not taking yourself too seriously but not being afraid to be a bit deep as well, I think those are kind of the Jungle\u2019s ideals. Have fun, look after one another, be crazy, be silly, be whoever you want to be. But also, be as deep as you want to be, too. Have no shame.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sarah: What kind of feelings are you trying to evoke from your music?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Andrew: This is definitely Sam\u2019s territory. I know Sam is such an empathetic person, he can stare through you sometimes. And it can be intimidating honestly. But he wants to make you move and make you feel something, that\u2019s all he\u2019s really after. He does the \u2018shoulder test\u2019, a tried and tested Sam method. When he\u2019s working on something he\u2019ll sit back in the room and play it really loud. And go to the corner of the room and if his shoulders start wiggling he knows it\u2019s alright, he knows something is going on. He\u2019s just after creating what music does to him in other people. Whatever that emotion is, as long as it\u2019s a powerful thing. I don\u2019t know, ask Sam!<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sarah: So what\u2019s next for you guys?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cesira: So we\u2019re on this tour. There are murmurs of a single and an album.<\/span><\/p>\n

Andrew: It\u2019s hush hush, man! I wish we could talk about it. But there\u2019s some really cool stuff that he\u2019s making and I think the world will get to hear it sooner rather than later. That could be coming sometime. In fact, Sam has set up a little studio in the back of the bus. We\u2019re pinched for time with all this touring, but definitely before the end of the year you can expect to see some stuff.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cesira: 2020 equals \u201cstuff\u201d. And when it\u2019s ready it\u2019ll be dropped on you.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sarah: Any last comments you want to put into the world?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cesira: Thank you so much for the Boston cream\u2026 puffs?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sarah: Boston cream pies. My pleasure! They\u2019re the best.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Andrew: And thanks so much for the interview! I freaking love Boston. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WTBU DJ and writer Sarah Burnick chatted with The Jungle Giants’\u00a0Cesira Aitken and Andrew Dooris\u00a0ahead of their Cambridge show on Feb. 6. Sarah: Why don\u2019t you guys introduce yourselves? Cesira: I\u2019m Cesira [Aitken] and this is [Andrew] Dooris, and we play guitar and bass in The Jungle Giants.   Sarah: Where are you guys from? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17168,"featured_media":22898,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[29,994,1566],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22901"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22901"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22904,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22901\/revisions\/22904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}