Welcome To The Jungle

Until around two years ago, what would eventually become Tigertown had a pretty nondescript existence. Formed by the songwriting partnership of the recently-married Chris and Charlie Collins, the group's first EP immediately shot them into the “cool indie scene” and national airplay. Fast-forward, and already the whole Tigertown thing seems like a serious part of Chris Collins' life.

“We're actually having our first rehearsal tonight for the tour,” Collins explains preparations for the tour around third EP, Wandering Eyes. “So we've just been gathering all the feedback we've had from the EP. We did some support shows last week with Bastille from the UK. So we got to practice there.

“Since it's focused on the new EP, it's all the songs from that, and basically a whole lotta stuff we haven't done live before. It's funny now that we've got three EPs, trying to cut the set down. We've never really had to cut it down that much, because we haven't had that much music out,” he laughs.

All three EPs – Tigertown, Before The Morning and now Wandering Eyes – have gone straight from the band's collective hands to music store to hearts and minds. It seems there's a pretty voracious appetite for Tigertown's emotive and powerful storytelling folk at the moment. It's something that Collins doesn't want to take for granted.

“I mean, it's only really been two years since we released the first EP. I guess it wasn't that deliberate, that release, because Charlie and I had just got married and we'd written all these songs and recorded them all in our bedroom. We just put out the EP by ourselves, which you can do these days and is probably one of the main reasons we've stuck with EPs so far. I guess it was when triple j started playing it that pretty much instantly we thought we had to get serious and get all our brothers and sisters involved.”

And boy did triple j start playing it. Dom Alessio and Zan Rowe both championed Tigertown from the start on their respective shows. “Yeah, it was pretty crazy when all that happened. I mean, we hadn't really taken it that seriously up until that point. I know a lot of people say it, but it's a strange experience hearing your music on the radio with someone talking about how good it is. You suddenly realise, 'I can actually do this as, like, a job.'”

Now, and already with a few very successful tours under their belt, Chris, Charlie and the family they've made into Tigertown are on a roll. “Three EPs is probably enough now,” Collins laughs. “It's just an idea, but we're probably looking at an album next. I think we're comfortable with ourselves and as a band to take that next step.”