Getting to Know… Ali In The Jungle

Reading Time: 7 min read

For the 91^st interview on The Musical Hype, we chat with Sam, the bassist for Milton Keynes indie-rock band, Ali In The Jungle.

“We write acoustic ballads, progressive rock, piano-led rock, blues, soft-rock, glam, all around our central principles of ‘analogue’ indie rock, filled to the brim with humour that conveys serious messages.” Wow – are you totally floored just like I am? That, my friends, is what you call musicianship, and as a musician myself, I totally admire it. Ali in the Jungle are definitely intriguing interviewees on the 91^st interview on The Musical Hype.

Bass guitarist Sam chats with us about the Milton Keynes indie-rock collective, which also includes Tim (vocals and piano/keyboards), Chris (lead guitar/backing vocals), and Ali (drums). The answers are in-depth and speak volumes about the band and where the band is headed. Without any further rambling, let’s let Sam and Ali and the Jungle speak for themselves, shall we? Here is Getting to Know… Ali in the Jungle: Interview #91.

Starting things off, for those who may not be familiar with Ali In The Jungle, what would you say makes your band distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

Sam: We’re an indie band, obsessed with writing distinctive songs that tap into different genres. We write acoustic ballads, progressive rock, piano-led rock, blues, soft-rock, glam, all around our central principles of ‘analogue’ indie rock, filled to the brim with humour that conveys serious messages. There’s nothing we do on our EP that we don’t do live, and consequently our fans hear the realest thing every time. The real thing is pretty complicated to play sometimes so it’s great when we nail it live, and if we’re enjoying ourselves, the audience feeds off that enjoyment and we feed off their enjoyment so it’s incredible!

Great, insightful answer to say the least. Let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did Ali In The Jungle form and what were some of the goals or the visions you had as a band early on?

Sam: We’ve been playing together since we were at school. Tim was in a band with me (Sam) called Euphoria but he was fired because his singing voice wasn’t quite right for the covers we were doing. Following this, Tim got really into writing music and after showing me some of the music he’d written, and jamming along, we formed Ali In The Jungle where we focus on our own material. We’ve now been doing it for eight years and we love what we do together with Chris and Ali. So, there’s a juicy bit of back story…

Our vision was to stand out from all the other minimalist guitar groups who were copying The Arctic Monkeys and The xx back in 2013. Our genre bending stems from this and we aim to surprise our listeners in every song if an opportunity arises. When you’re fourteen, your vision is to be the best band in the world, and you’re very competitive about it – maybe too competitive. It’s important to keep your ambition high however, so that the music you make is the best you can produce.

Awesome. Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?

Sam: We’re now 22/23-year-olds and being in Ali In The Jungle as an adult trying to realistically get people listening to your music has altered our perspective. Before recording our debut EP, Anyway, we had two albums planned out, but we’ve been confronted with the limitations of money, which meant an EP was our best option. We’re very proud of our EP and it’s been a crucial step for us, allowing us to showcase our versatility, catchiness & energy across all four tracks.

Our aspirations and goals are still much the same – to create and perform varied music that catches people off-guard and makes them think, “I haven’t heard something like that before.” We’d still take being the best band in the world, but rather than being competitive, we want to show love for our music scene and encourage all the great artists in it. We just want to keep recording and sharing our tracks to inspire others to follow the avenues we’re exploring, and to hopefully make people happier! Playing Glastonbury would be a big dream too, on any stage, but what musician doesn’t have this dream!

Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Who would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

Sam: My bass style is really influenced by listening to bass driven post-punk revival music around 2004-2007… The Arctic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs, The Killers. My car journeys are famous for raucous renditions of “From the Ritz to the Rubble”! You can really feel this influence in the third verse of our track “People Change.” Otherwise, I was trained as a classical guitarist, and I write a lot of our music from there – listen to “I Don’t Even Know You” to hear a song based around my acoustic work. I also adore “Roundabout” by Yes, and their influence as well as other very cinematic bands such as Radiohead and Pink Floyd can be found in many of our unreleased songs, but also in elements of “You Make Me Feel So Alive”, which we like to refer to as a progressive blues song.

Ah, the fun stuff. What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance? Feel free to be creative.

Sam: Tour Story 3. I cried so much. Joking obviously… So, the poshest answer I have for this is: I can’t really remember what competition we were in that resulted in this, but we ended up having a full English breakfast with our local Member of Parliament and his assistant. I honestly can’t remember what we talked about with them, maybe if the sausages were local or not. I think I was more interested in our HP sauce than in the Houses of Parliament. Breakfast with Prince Charles next!

Wackiest things in our performance… Tim does a lot of standing on his piano stool, and wears lots of jumpers that he takes off, and Chris is an animal on his guitar. A couple of times, I’ve walked into the audience at smaller venues using my wireless cable. It’s really strange watching your band from that angle!

Up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?

Sam: “You Make Me Feel So Alive”, the final track on our EP, Anyway. I love the change that song undergoes midway through the run time, as it morphs from blues choruses and post-punk verses, into a jazzy drumbeat holding together sporadic but interlinking bass and guitar parts. The whole piece becomes so theatrical at this point, and just when you’ve got the lone piano sounding like a soundtrack, your hit by a “Revolution 1” chugging, classic, basic, raw super-blues rendition of the chorus at half speed. There’re at least 20 slight tempo changes in “You Make Me Feel So Alive,” so in a band where at least 3 out of 4 members play rhythm parts, it’s an awesome piece to perform.

Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

Sam: Although I’m the bassist, everyone apart from Ali plays bass on the Anyway EP! Tim plays it on “I Don’t Even Know You,” while I play acoustic, and Chris plays it on “Drunk Generation” while I play lead guitar!

We’ve referred to one another on our Facebook group chat as ‘Owen Wilson,’ ‘Drunk Ali/Ringo,’ ‘Floor Chris/Lexicon,’ and ‘Bossman.’ I’m Owen Wilson of course. Ali’s also a member of two sports teams… A 5 aside team with our frontman Tim in goal called ‘Ali In The Football,’ and an annual Cricket team called ‘Ali In The Cricket.’ This leaves me confused as to why our band name isn’t ‘Ali In The Band’? Loads of our set lists have Kanye West references on them….

Interesting… Closing this thing out, what is the band currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure.

Sam:We’re currently promoting our music video for “Drunk Generation” which we made in lockdown! It’s been called a “DIY (Drink It Yourself) Subterranean Homesick Blues” by the critics! Here it is:

We’ll soon be releasing our music video for “I Don’t Even Know You,” I believe on July 17th! We’ve also got a video for “People Change” coming soon, and we’ll be doing some mad things in that video. We’re also recording a soundtrack real soon for a short film by Chloe Kennedy called Making Waves, to be shown on BBC iPlayer. Listen to our debut EP ‘Anyway’ here.

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