“Beat-making is a thing that cures you, a thing that you do because it’s fun. But your mum’s not going to like a beat is she? And at some point, you kind of want to impress your mum.” There’s a warm, slightly pedantic gusto to J Lloyd, one half of Jungle, the seminal UK production act of the 2010s. He joins me, draped in pyjamas, from his LA hideout; an early morning zoom call for him is a stuffy late afternoon for me. Neither of us are interested in a formal structure interview, spending a good chunk of our conversation discussing guitar pedal boards, FIFA and coffee machines. But convention has never been the priority for these trailblazers.
The legacy of Jungle proceeds itself. Confidently announcing themselves to the industry with their superb ’14 self-titled debut, the Shepherd’s Bush duo – J Lloyd and his counterpart, T – quickly became renowned as one of the most exciting production acts in the country, signing for XL Recordings and picking up an esteemed Mercury Prize nomination. For Ever followed four years later, cementing their commercial vitality and artistic evolution in effortless fashion, before ’21’s Loving In Stereo saw the pair sharped in their vision than ever, augmented by a sprawling visual journey across every track of the LP’s track-list.
Recently, it was announced that Jungle would be returning for a fourth studio album, entitled Volcano. Set to be released on 11th August via Caiola Records, the act will additionally be heading out on tour, with a UK exclusive performance at All Points East Festival in August before jetting out to the States and Europe. Gaining steam ahead of the release of the new LP, the duo have so far unveiled three singles plucked from the album, in the shape of the soulful, vibrant and triumphant Erick The Architect featuring “Candle Flame”, the hazy, groove-laden “Dominoes”, and the sentimental and sensual “I’ve Been In Love” with Channel Trés.
Promising to be their most matured, refined and sonically explorative record to date, the twosome continue to push generic conventions and industry expectations, as well as their own artistic capabilities and creative outlook.
Jumping at the opportunity to unpick the brain of one half of the iconic duo, I query J Lloyd on all things Jungle – from developing their interest, vision and style, to the success that followed and looking forward to their swiftly approaching new LP.
Read the exclusive interview…
How did you two meet? How did you start creating music?
We met in the local neighbourhood when we were about 10 years old and just started making music that way. It’s a long time ago, so things have changed a lot since then. But yeah, we were childhood friends.
Did you both always have an interest in production, or did one of you have more of an interest and brought the other into the fray?
I think I was probably more fascinated with getting it all done and doing the whole thing. I mean, it seems so obvious now, because it’s how everyone does it these days. Laptops and production and music is just so accessible and becoming more accessible every day. So I suppose back then it was a little bit more random. With our first band, we would have to go and record with somebody or go and book studios. We started taking matters into our own hands, making our own stuff and experimenting with that, recording different sorts of sounds and being a bit more experimental with it. It was really rubbish at that point, back in the day, some old sort of PC and sort of doing whatever — but the ability to record stuff and hear it back was the fun thing about it.
What was it about working together that felt right — and still feels right?
I mean, it’s kind of like a brother thing. You make music as you grow up. I think it’s changed a lot now. We’ve grown up and people have got families and it’s no longer your childhood dreams of getting together every day after school and playing music that way. But, I mean, that’s how it started. We would always muck around on guitars and stuff, and then we got into the production stuff a little bit more after numerous failed bands that fell apart. We started taking it into our own hands in 2012 or 2013. I went off and made loads of instrumental hip hop and stuff like that, which was unrelated, but eventually kind of turned into Jungle.
What is your process now? How has it changed throughout the years?
We don’t meet up after school for one. I suppose our lives have changed. We have always seen music as something that we are the creators of. We have never really seen it as like we are straight up artists or singers. We’ve always seen ourselves as producers and writers and creatives that make the music. So we’ve always used different things and worked in different ways. I’ve always been looking for different ways to make stuff happen. I suppose as you move through music, you start to work with different people, work with larger groups of people, like strings and choirs. At the beginning, you’re sitting in your bedroom with a pre-amp and no mics, and your mum telling you to shut up and then it sort of goes somewhere else after that.
So the debut LP was 2014, that’s a short amount of time after you founded the Jungle aesthetic. What was the initial process and direction to be able to get that debut out?
You don’t really know what you’re doing. You don’t have any context. The first record was made between my house, in my bedroom, and XL — we signed to XL Recordings a couple of singles in. We worked with them for a little bit, which gave us a little confidence. They allowed us to use their studios, so we went in there and finished the record. I suppose it was quite a pressured process — the finishing of the first album. Now making albums, I’ve realised that having some sort of deadline that is outside of what you can control is important. So that’s probably what got that record out — the fact that, you know, somebody signed us and was like, “where’s the record?” Then it was like, if you want this to be a success, or want this to work, you’ve got to release it before the summer. You can’t really be like, “oh, yeah, we started putting some singles out” and then waiting six years to put the next thing out. So yeah, we were in a bit of a rush. And I remember going on tour and the album wasn’t finished, and the rest of the band would be out partying, and we’d be still in the hotels just putting it together. Songs like “Time” and “Lemonade Lake” were some of the last ones to be finished. We were just mucking around in hotel rooms trying to finish it on the road.
Well whatever you did, it worked. How is it looking back on the earlier records now, in comparison to what you know now and the way that the industry works?
I mean, it’s changed quite a lot. The industry is constantly changing, we’re in a bit of a transition again at the moment, which is going to be an interesting one. How has it changed? Well we came up when blogs were quite important. We got a lot of love on blogs early days. Blogs are bloody irrelevant now. So people get their music from different places. I think how people found new music was constantly changing. Playlists weren’t really a thing, it was still based on radio and stuff like that.
How has your musical approach altered?
That’s an easy one. I think, ultimately, the process has changed. When we started out, the ideas were there, but it was all kind of put together in a shoebox, in a bedroom, you know? So, we’d have these big ideas for the first album, but we wouldn’t have any money, we couldn’t get studios, we had like 300 quid in the bank. And that was spent on the music videos. It was a lot more DIY. Then, as time progressed, we started to buy a bit more gear and things naturally started to become a little bit easier but also harder. We struggled with our second record. It took like four years to make. There wasn’t really a clear deadline, so we were making so many songs for ages. The second record got a little bit faster and a little bit bigger, and a little bit more realised in terms of its sonics.
Would you say you’re an instrumentalist before a producer?
I grew up playing guitar as a kid, then just started picking up everything. I never really got amazing at anything to be honest, I’d just be doing the minimum, more so just learning how to put a song together and do all the elements. When you listen closely to a song, you figure out that the parts aren’t that complicated. The thing that really elevates it is always the vocals, they require real skill. We’ve always tracked those, done them as a group. Back in the day we’d look at each other and go – who’s going to sing on this – and would both have a pop, which developed into bigger groups and choirs and bits and pieces like that. The idea of sounding like an old soul record but without using many samples.
Was this a purposeful thing, avoiding samples?
It’s about experimentation but also about practicality. We have always made music from our hearts and that we want to listen to. There was always people around us telling us that we needed vocals… I was happy doing instrumental hip hop, but people like our manager were always pushing us to put a hook on it. So that developed from there.
Do you think that’s one of the reasons why you because so popular? Do you think instrumental hip hop has the same reach?
No I don’t. For me personally, yeah. Beat-making is a thing that cures you, a thing that you do because it’s fun. But your mum’s not going to like a beat is she? And at some point, you kind of want to impress your mum.
Is the something in your career that has stood out to you as a great achievement, something that you are so glad that you have done?
Little things, over the course of the journey, mean more than the big things. Being on FIFA was a great one – I grew up playing the games so it’s a personal one, even though it’s not like a massive fucking deal. For us, that felt like a landmark. Also, the first time we played Village Underground. I remember coming off and 1100 people roaring back at us, I hadn’t felt or seen that before. It’s often the first times of things that are important.
What’s left on the bucket list?
To be honest, as you get older, you realise that the happiness comes from the process. It comes from sitting down in my little home set up and messing around. I wouldn’t say we’ve got loads of accolades, for me it’s more about the actual process. Once the records finished and you hand it over, you start to feel like it’s not yours anymore.
What do you think about the state of the industry and the impact of social media?
I think it’s moving very quickly and we don’t really have a grip on it. I’m kind of waiting for the next wave; we were late to Instagram because we didn’t care, and then we were definitely late to TikTok because that’s a full time job. From there, we are waiting for the next wave so we can jump on early. But I think AI is the next big thing – I’m fascinated and terrified at the same time.
I love “Candle Flame”, how did that collaboration with Erick The Architect come about?
A friend of ours, Lydia, she knew Erick, we had this space for a verse in the track and we had left it to last minute to fill the space and knew it needed something else. So we just sent him the track and it sort of all came through Lydia, she’s the one singing the sample. So we didn’t do any samples, we sort of created the little melodies and then resampled it and then treated it like our own sample. But Erick was brought in really last minute, when we were getting it out and he sent it back so quickly, he’s amazing, he’s obviously a top producer as well. He does a lot of great work and just got on with it really quickly. I wasn’t massively familiar with Erick before, he was new on my radar as well. We’ve got a couple more features on the new record too which is really cool.
What do you want the legacy of the new album to be? Is that something you think about – this idea of longevity within the wider music sphere?
I try not to take myself, or us, too seriously in that sense, because I think if we do, it’s a bit like, you can’t really think about your own legacy. I think something like that has got to be done if the work is good enough and someone recognises it. It’s someones else perspective instead of our own. We’re thinking more, “thank god this has worked”. It’s not some magical thing, it’s more just hard work, sitting down and dedicating yourself to it every day.
It’s something that you devote your life to essentially. I think that the music connects in that way, this new album is definitely my favourite of the albums and it feels likes it’s the most fun, developed, free and off-the-cuff version of Jungle that there’s ever been. In terms of legacy, I feel like Jungle has gotten better and better. There’s a charm to our early stuff as well which you’ll never really get again from us. I don’t think we’ve ever massively sold out or fallen off. Most bands just do one or two albums and then it gets all a little bit same-y. We always have our own creative say though, we never give away our creativity to other people.
