Australia’s music scene has long been a breeding ground for fresh musical talents, but only a few bands capture the carefree spirit and raw energy of Down Under the way that Rum Jungle do. With their sun-soaked alt-indie rock sound and a story that feels plucked straight from a coming-of-age film, the Newcastle-born quartet has carved out a name for themselves far beyond their coastal roots. From jamming on a balcony in their hometown to touring Europe and winning over fans worldwide, Rum Jungle’s tale is as compelling as their music. Lead singer Benny McIntyre opens up about the band’s beginnings, the challenges of staying unique in a crowded genre, and their unshakable passion for making music.
Rum Jungle’s journey began like many great stories at a party. “I had just moved out of home in Newcastle and met Michael, our bassist, and Josh, who plays guitar. We started jamming with acoustic guitars on this little balcony at my shared house,”, lead singer Benny McIntyre recalls. What started as casual hangouts soon turned into something much more serious, pushed on by McIntyre’s father, who was equally rooted in Australia’s music scene and forged a path for the three friends. “I was writing a few songs, and my dad, who had been part of the local Newcastle scene, knew a guy with a studio. So, we went in for a day and recorded our very first EP. We didn’t even have a drummer at that point.” The missing drummer problem was soon solved when McIntyre asked a co-worker to help out: “Frazer was this 15-year-old kid I worked with at a burger shop. I said, ‘Hey dude, do you want to play this gig with us?’ and he’s been with us ever since.” Thus, the group was complete.
The band’s debut EP was recorded in just one day, with most tracks completed in three takes, and later on uploaded to YouTube in full: “We only uploaded it to YouTube originally because I didn’t know how to do anything else. I’m pretty sure the cover on the videos is this shitty Snapchat filter of the three of us sitting on that balcony. It was the fucking biggest thing in the world.”
All of a sudden, the once chill jamming session had turned into an actual business – one that also needed its own name. Unsurprisingly, this also emerged from deeply personal roots – McIntyre’s father had played in several bands on Australia’s East Coast, one of which was called Rum Jungle, as the singer shares: “He found this old poster in his garage, and I was like, “That’s a sick name. Can I use it?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, mate, go for it.” The artist credits his father not only for the name but also for shaping his early music taste: “I’m really lucky to have grown up with him introducing me to so many staples that are now core influences in my own music.”
Fast forward a few years, and Rum Jungle have outgrown their small beginnings in terms of audience size and the venues they perform at. Reflecting on their first European tour, McIntyre still finds the experience surreal: “Touching down in Heathrow, I was like, ‘What the fuck? We’re on the other side of the world and about to play music.'” But even with their growing international reach, the band has remained grounded.
To stay above water during busy days of travel, sleep deprivation and one live show after the other, the four- piece has started to keep written diaries of their adventures, jotting down memorable moments from life on the road to keep level-headed and fend off the industry’s many pressures: “We hop in the van and write a couple of lines about what’s going on. It’s funny because sometimes we look back and think, ‘What the hell did we do yesterday?'”
Musically, Rum Jungle has always been a reflection of its members’ many tastes. “You could blanket us as alt- indie rock, but I feel like when you write your own songs, they sound a lot different to you than to someone who’s never heard them before,”, McIntyre states. “The band is an eclectic mishmash of four dudes who can be so similar, but in so many other ways also polar opposites. What we end up creating is this culmination of all of our influences mashed into one.” Throughout their career so far, the group has made it their mission to constantly evolve their sound, striving to stand out in the crowded world of happy-days indie music – if it wasn’t for that one descriptive line that was once put into a press release and has since been haunting them: “I don’t know why that’s still on the website, I’ve tried to change that so many times. A hammock swinging between two palm trees, overlooking the ocean’. In some ways, it fits, and in some ways, it doesn’t. It’s pretty funny, it’s trying so hard to sound artsy.”
Their latest releases, such as the cool ‘Weather’s Better’ and the gritty ‘Don’t Be A Stranger’, reflect Rum Jungle’s commitment to authenticity and give a taste to their debut record ‘Recency Bias’. Recorded with producer Simon Dobson at Lakehouse Audio on the Central Coast of Australia, the quartet enjoyed the freedom to create music that truly represented their vision: “The new music refreshed us back into what the band was. All four of us have very different music tastes and different opinions, so, having four egos is hard enough, let alone having someoneelse who might want to take the song in another direction. Simon empowered us to make these songs sound how we heard them in our heads.”
For McIntyre, writing music and then being head over heels in love with the tracks is an essential part of the production process. “Once you write a song – and any songwriter will tell you this – the most recent one that you wrote is the best track in the world. You have to rinse it,”, the frontman exclaims while highlighting the fact that music has and always will be subjective and experienced in different ways by each individual listener. “I’m interested in the idea of what someone feels when they listen to a song because I can convey as many thoughts as I want, but that’s not necessarily going to be interpreted in nearly the same way from person to person.”
Unsurprisingly, music has turned into a lot more for McIntyre than just a hobby or a way to pass time while doing chores or going for a walk – while it has morphed into a career, it has also become his life’s fuel: “I only really started creating music when I turned 20. It was a part of my life, obviously having my dad and my mum be so into it while I was growing up, but I hadn’t ever really even considered it as a job until the very end of my teens. gave me so much direction, and now I don’t ever want to do anything else. If I can do it for the rest of my life, that’s exactly it. Music to me is life.”
Written by Laura Weingrill // photography by Joe Puxley
GEM Magazine 