How The Jungle Giants Prepared For SXSW: We Played A 'Shitload' Of Ping Pong

Nothing 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 it as, 'Reminding someone what it feels like to be human'.

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