The Jungle Giants

To live in the world of The Jungle Giants, you really have to live in Sam Hales’ head. That’s usually a riotous place to be; slammed full of big dance tunes, multiple bands and electric live shows all over the world. The Jungle Giants have been at it for such a long time – fifteen years, on the cusp of five albums – that it’s hard to imagine them ever not being part of Australia’s global vanguard. But when you are the band – in the most Kevin Parker sense of the word – and the world as you know it starts falling to pieces, the music inside of your head might start to sound a little different. That is, if you’re even hearing music at all.

 

Experiencing Feelings of Joy is an apt title not only for the listener, but its creator. Careening from crushing personal loss to hopeful exuberance, it’s an album Sam Hales could only write after thinking he’d never be able to write again. 

 

Hales has always prided himself on being ‘a full-on, extreme kind of guy’. But by mid-2022, the cracks were starting to show. “There were a couple years there where my accountant told me that I’d done more shows than there were days in the year,” he laughs, “I was just making music and then just flying wherever they told me to fly!” Hales had arguably reached a creative apex: playing in and writing hits for two globetrotting dance bands simultaneously, with the second of these, Confidence Man, booked to play Glastonbury. He was also engaged to their singer, following a ten year artistic and romantic relationship. Then, in classic Hales fashion, everything happened all at once.

 

In the space of only a few months, Hales tore up his leg in a jetski accident and was confined to a hospital bed, played Glastonbury on crutches after intense rehab, split up with his fiance and parted ways with Confidence Man. 

 

Things you may not know about Sam Hales, the one-man music machine behind Jungle Giants: He was a competition-winning flautist at school. He was raised by a single Irish mother, and turned to music partially to escape her abusive ex-husband. He adopted his trademark falsetto vocals after hearing Bon Iver on the radio. He curates mini-rave listening sessions for his band, “with laser lights and smoke machines”, once he’s finished an album. 

 

With a record big on feelings and even bigger on floor-fillers, Hales has naturally refocused his sights on world domination. “It just feels good to just be spreading joy and love on a global scale,” he says. “I’m lucky to have an immigrant mum from Ireland. I grew up being very exposed to an international outlook. Having previously taken on the Americas, Hales now has his sights set on Europe. “It’s all built off love and obsession. I will never stop making Jungle Giants music; it’s who I am and it’s only going to get bigger.”