THE LUCK OF THE JUNGLE

Rip It Up, Issue 216, 1 August 1995, Page 14

THE LUCK OF THE JUNGLE

Some bands, not many mind you, but some bands, they have all the luck. Auckland six-piece Jungle Fungus took one step from the studio to a record company, and that was that. Upon completion of their forthcoming three-track single ‘Crushed’, the boys in the band — Tom (drums), Andy (bass), Josiah (guitar), Bryan (vox), Harris (alto sax) and Bruno (tenor sax) — knocked out a list of record companies they wanted to bail up, in order to get the record into the shops and onto the airwaves. First on the list was Roadshow Music, and in a virtually unheard of scenario, Roadshow said: ‘We’ll do it.’ Jungle Fungus had scored a record contract after knocking on just one door. Despite this stroke of good fortune, and also having had two feature articles on the band published in Pavement magazine, Tom says it hasn’t just been smooth sailing since Jungle Fungus formed in 1993. "I don’t think it has been that easy, but we seem to have done it. You always feel like someone is pushing you back, but that's what you’ve got to expect when you’re first starting. I’ve felt consistently for the past two years that bFM has given us no support, and it’s really only because none of us or our friends work there. It’s such an inbred thing, because people in bands who work there get their stuff played.” Andy: “bFM are great, but it would be good if they were a bit more open. They have stopped a lot of bands from getting airplay. It does seem that you need a contact there.” Tom: “They didn’t play Supergroove for a long time, until they couldn’t ignore them.” Jungle Fungus share more than just a lack of first time airplay with the globetrotting Supergroove. Both Tom and Josiah’s old brothers are part of the award winning combo, although witnessing their uprising hasn’t made Jungle

Fungus desperate to jump on the first available flight out. Tom: "I don’t care if we don’t make it big, because we’ll still be making the rad music we want to. I got offered the chance to play drums in Supergroove, and after three weeks I thought: ‘Fuck it! I don’t want to play drums in a Supergroove covers band,’ ‘cause that’s what it felt like for me. When I was playing, I was told exactly what to play.” Andy: "What we’re doing is a lot of hard work, and I’m prepared to work nine to five, and live in a stink, grubby flat, as long as Jungle Fungus remains as rad as it is for me. I think we all feel that way, and feel pretty happy. The whole thing from the very beginning has been one big saga, but it’s good because it means we’ll have a lot to talk about when we’re old men.”

JOHN RUSSELL