Clearing Headspace

Soaking in the combination of sunshine and nicotine, Sam Hales is feeling good: “We can't wait to get it out and just let the music speak for itself.” The Jungle Giants frontman is of course talking about the band's debut record Learn To Exist, a release that feels like it's been a long time coming, although the reality remains that it's arrived fairly promptly; the band are only two years old and have also cracked out a pair of EPs since forming in 2011.

The Brisbane four-piece have found themselves on the radar of indie pop fans ever since the blissed out guitar bounce of single Mr Polite positioned them as Australia's answer to Two Door Cinema Club. And now we get a musical snapshot of the interim time which has seen them mature as musicians and songwriters without turning their back on the vibrant sheen which endeared the gang to us originally.

Learn To Exist isn't a concept album by any stretch. It's simply a warts-and-all documentation of life in your early twenties. Take the bare bones ramble of Devil's In The Detail. “It's a positive spin on a low point,” Hales says. “When you're changing and you're deciding the person you're going to be forever or getting an idea who you'll be, there's moments of loneliness. That's what that song focuses on – sometimes you feel like you don't know yourself but stick to it and you'll figure it out.”

With all the reflections and ruminations taken from last year, Hales and his bandmates – Cesira Aitken (guitar), Andrew Dooris (bass) and Keelan Bijker (drums) – were clear with their ideas and made sure they followed them through when recording. There's plenty of lust across this debut. There's remorse, too. There's laughter and heartbreak also. But no matter the outcome of these (mis)adventures, relationships have been maintained.

“I'm friends with everyone man,” he smiles. “The first segue after Devil's In The Detail, the one that splits A and B side, my ex-girlfriend was over at my house one time in my little studio in my bedroom and I was just like, 'Hey, pick up the bass and play some stuff if you want', and she didn't know I was recording. But I told her, then I put a bunch of effects on it so it didn't sound like a bass – it was ambiguous – and then I put a beat to it. It's almost creepy but it's cool, it's my ex playing that instrument, and the motion between the record is this memory of her, and she was a big part of 2012.”

But as far as personal recording touches causing on stage insecurities, Hales is unaffected. “Maybe if my ex was there and it's a song about her, but I think I got over that after the first while of touring because I realised that if you're feeling insecure while you're singing you can't really pull it off as much as you can if you're feeling confident and believing in the song,” he reasons. “I sing it the way it should be sung and not worry about my ex; if she's going to be upset, she's going to be upset.”

Birthed from his bedroom, Hales says the writing period for Learn To Exist: “was a lonely time but one I needed and wanted”. Luckily, his bandmates encouraged this introspective journey and shared his musical vision. By the time they called on producer Magoo to finish tying up all the tracks at his studio, Applewood Lane, they were left with what we have now – a downright charming record that humbles with its consistent quality.

Progress hasn't changed things at the heart of The Jungle Giants, but growth is a constant – in music and life. Luckily for this lot, the fun's only just getting started. “We are such best friends that we're like fucking retard,” Hales shrugs. “We just run around acting like idiots all the time and we just have such a good time together. In that way we're just the same, we'll be friends forever man; even if we're not in a band together when we're sixty we'll be hanging out on the front deck with no teeth. But we have changed so much in how we play together because we've been learning how each other plays. We're just getting this feel for each other and finding out how we can make things sound good together. We're always learning.”