know a thing or two about vibes. The West London group have traced the full spectrum of 70s-coded electronic soul for over a decade with , , and their newest member reclassifying intimacy to the point their cherry-kissed grooves have become an identifiable love language. Ask anyone in Montreux or Montreál: ‘’ and ‘’ are blue-eyed hits of vinyl pop bliss and whereas 2023’s ‘’ was viewed as a hair down afterparty, their fifth effort, ‘, subverts the euphoric coos into a glimmer of emotional questing. It’s unusually vulnerable, but it’s a lush exercise in danceable distance.

“I think it’s maybe a result of when you get on the other side of the heartbreak or like the pain or even with yourself,” Kitto admits when discussing the album during a break in California. “When you’re on the other side of that and you can look at it with a positive feeling like, ‘I’m glad I went through that as it made me who I am’ — as cliché as that sounds — I don’t think you can ever really sing about the pain when you’re going through the pain. You sing about it in hindsight.”

That optimism comes into full bloom on ‘Sunshine’. The 11-track record is an achingly personal reinvention of Jungle’s sound — threading longing, quiet anxieties, and binaural sexing through an inward-looking bouquet of textures that can’t help but lead you by the hand to the dancefloor. ‘’ and ‘Come Back To Me’ are highly boppable; ‘’ echoes ‘Back On 74’ while sighing over the doo-wop nature of desire; and next to cosmic energies, ‘Where Are You Now?’ muses about the rain over a bassline that’s laced in its own French touch healing properties. 

Everything is calibrated to nostalgia and Kitto’s confessions are much-needed, gossamer-light attempts to repair a bruised heart with escapism. On the standout cut ‘Someday, Somewhere’, she shrugs off ‘a sweet harmony’ that ‘could’ve been’ with contradictions and key changes that defined K&K Records, while ‘Natural’ retouches Loaded Honey-isms with loops that burst with tender sweetness. Her takes on dub and R&B are modular — from ‘Lifting You’ and ‘All Of The Time’ to LE SSERAFIM’s ‘Come Over’ — and they glide into serene familiarity when Bas uses ‘Romeo II’ to equate a new love to Rosetta Stone while a ‘Donuts’ beat rattles off in the back.

With scheduled to kick off next month, we recently linked with Jungle’s J Lloyd and Lydia Kitto to chat about the meaning of ‘Sunshine’, collaborating with Leon Bridges, how their dance visuals are , and why their latest project might be their best.

For over a decade, Jungle has always found a way to harmonise genres, the traditional with the contemporary, and the dualities of love and heartbreak. How important is it for artists, regardless of their medium, to put organic creativity above all else?

I think it’s really, really important. We strive to use the first take, to always go with the first ideas and not to have things overthought, conceptualised or to work with writers who are generic. That’s why we’ve always done things in-house in terms of our creativity. From our videos to graphics and the songwriting; we have always tried to do it off the cuff and base it on feeling and base it on intuition of our own taste. 

Can it be difficult to remove perfection and expectations from writing and recording?

I think perfection is something that all of us kind of strive for. I think everybody is a perfectionist in some respect and it takes some sort of discipline to remove that aspect and embrace imperfection in performance because what we don’t realise is that imperfection is the thing that people relate to. We were all brought up and educated in a way where perfection is the way to be but in reality — and it’s the same with dance music videos — if somebody does something slightly wrong, it’s the imperfections that show the audience that it’s real and that it’s human. 

Has your creative process evolved since the release of ‘Loving In Stereo’?

I don’t think it’s evolved massively. I think we do very similar things in the same way. It’s always been a sort of collage, you know? We tend to bring our ideas from different places and different times together to make them work for certain moments. We do that because you never really know what you’re going to get. When you try to write a song thinking about it in that moment, it can be overthought, so we try to write freely over long periods of time. At certain points when we’re like “Ok, let’s make the album”, we can draw on those moments when we weren’t under pressure to kind of deliver. So we get these organic, beautiful moments that were made when we weren’t overthinking anything. 

Do you still view Jungle as a conceptual project?

Yeah, Jungle is definitely a conceptual project. I think it’s also a worldbuilding project which we as writers and collaborators can lose ourselves in. I think Jungle was designed to be as it’s named; it’s supposed to be bigger than the people who make it. It’s supposed to be a collective. It’s definitely still a concept and I think with every album – as we don’t really do singles – everything has to exist within a bigger context. 

From your perspective, would you say your sound is getting better with age?

I don’t think I can really chime in on that one. I’d have to let Josh decide [laughs]. 

I do. I think that we’re one of the few bands that has managed to transcend decades and I honestly believe that our music has gotten better over time. I think there are great songs and vibes on the first album and I think there are great songs and vibes on the second album, but I think Jungle had always sort of lacked a focal point – almost a pinpoint where the emotion can kind of come through the vocals. It had been group vocals for a long time and there wasn’t someone who could really connect with the audience on an emotional level. The introduction of Lydia massively increased that. She has this amazing ability to tap into her own emotions while singing and she sings from a place of soul. I think adding that to the mix of what Jungle’s style and vibe was just elevated the whole thing to be otherworldly. 

Thank you [laughs].

What inspired you to name your new album ‘Sunshine’?

It kind of came from the album ‘Volcano’, which had been one of our favourite named albums in terms of Jungle albums because it was inspired by Arctic Monkeys’ ‘The Car’ [2022] – when it was just a ‘thing’ or something that is there. We wanted to continue that trajectory from ‘Volcano’. ‘Sunshine’ for us… it was the name of one of the songs and we liked it because it was elemental and it was a place in some respects and a feeling in others. But it also wasn’t telling you how to feel, you know? That’s something we quite like. You just get a feeling from it. 

Is there a specific song from the album or even a moment during the recording process that made you realise what you wanted ‘Sunshine’ to be?

We had most of the songs for the record before the title had been picked and we pick based on vibes as we’re trying to set a theme and set a vibe. Maybe we don’t even know what the vibe is that we’re sort of trying to create at the time as we’re just going on feelings, so once you reflect on the songs that you have chosen, you go “Oh, this is the feeling”. And ‘Sunshine’ felt like a completely appropriate word to use to name the album and for the title track to be that song. 

It’s funny to think about the names [laughs]. There were a few other funny ones that sort of fell out. 

We were going back and forth for like two weeks. We were writing all these names down and leaving them on pieces of paper in the studio and coming back to have a little peek at them, like “Does that look right? Does that feel right?” whilst listening to the songs as well and going “Does this feel like that word? No it doesn’t. No it doesn’t. Turn it off” [laughs]. 

I think ‘Sunshine’ actually came from the title ‘goddamn sunshine music’ which is kind of what came out of me in a Gorillaz / Damon Albarn sort of way, like “I got sunshine in a bag”. It’s sunshine in a depressing sort of way and the title track has sort of got that. 

It’s not overtly optimistic where we’re supposed to feel like sunshine; it’s that expectation and that weight as well that’s in the actual music. It’s almost like this weight that Jungle is supposed to deliver that music to you or to our fans and how we’re known for this optimistic feeling, like “Jungle is sort of like a sunshine band”, you know? There’s a little bit of rebellion in there as sunshine doesn’t naturally represent natural optimism. 

Given how much the group has evolved across all five albums, has it been challenging at all to push your sound into new territories while knowing that you might alienate the fan base who grew up with ‘For Ever’ and your earlier works?

I don’t think so. I think we’re all artists at heart so we thrive on change and I personally get excited the most when our music is pushing back on what people think we are. That’s what pushes me to keep going — like “Oh you thought it was this? Well, how about some of this” [laughs]. I personally enjoy it but at the end of the day, the music has to be good. It doesn’t matter what it is and if you stayed the same, more people would complain about it because you stayed the same rather than changed. Natural change is good and I think people just need to take a second to interpret it and understand it. But I don’t think you’re a proper artist if you’re not pushing the barrel forward… The barrel? You know what I mean [laughs]. 

In what ways do your latest dance visuals represent that change? And how would you compare them to the artistic direction of ‘Volcano’?

Well, with the videos, we have always tried to make them this hyper-realistic world. With the video for ‘Let’s Go Back’, it was the first time where we let the audience into the real idea. These are dance music videos but they’re set within the context of ‘none of this is really real’ and that it’s all a performance. With ‘Volcano’, we questioned the idea that it was its own TV show and this thing that every dance music video is a performance. That’s a question of something we have to do in life. 

Whether you have to get up on stage or whether you’re around friends, people have to perform and the reality of being yourself and having to be this other version of you for the performance, which is ego. I think the whole thing is a questioning of that. So when we got to ‘Let’s Go Back’, you enter the Jungle archives and kind of realise it’s a little bit akin to ‘Westworld’ or something like that and we suggest that we’re like robots or, you know, we’re all characters and props in this greater thing that is Jungle — including ourselves. 

With the beginning of ‘Sunshine’, we start with a song called ‘Come Back To Me’ where you kind of see this crate get dropped off in this new landscape and then we follow Will [West] and you kind of wonder “What is this new world? Is he in a new place?” He thinks he has broken free from this reality and this ‘Truman Show’ thing so you’re kind of watching him as he discovers an entirely new place. We’ve changed locations with this thing and all the characters have changed from before but ultimately the core of dancing is still there. 

What was it like working with dancer and giving her a prominent role?

: I think that came out of Will’s relationship with Kaycee. We have worked with him since ‘Casio’ and his movement had always been a big part of Jungle’s expression, and he worked a lot with Kaycee and had a very good relationship with her so he brought her on to assist with choreography and ultimately be in it as well. So that was really Will’s decision and it was great to see her expressing herself and doing what she does best in our music videos. 

Is there anything you’ve taken away from debuting your own side project Loaded Honey last year and working with artists like Leon Bridges, Royel Otis, and Little Simz?

For us, there’s a world beyond Jungle, you know? We’ve always been producers and songwriters before artists in some respect and I think the ability to work on other projects is very freeing. Doing the new Leon Bridges album was great as it’s great to not have to be the artist in it. You can help guide the sound guide the taste, and guide the melodies and give the flavour but not have to own the sentiments or expose the stories so much. Which I think it kind of gives us the freedom to explore and push ourselves in a different way. We really love it to be honest. 

You get more of a creative freedom in doing stuff with other people and just working with other people and being a part of melodies that maybe wouldn’t suit my voice or that we wouldn’t necessarily use in Jungle’s stuff. I can sing Leon Bridges-style melodies all day for him when we’re in the studio and I love doing that. It’s very enjoyable. 

It’s definitely a creative energy that can be overlooked as I’m not sure a lot of folks are aware that you worked on Royel Otis’ ‘Hickey’ and produced tracks like ‘Dancing With Myself’. Which is a shame because you two tend to bring out the best in artists.

Yeah, I forgot about that one [laughs]. It was a lot of fun working with those two guys — they’re quite like very funny Aussie lads — and to be honest, we didn’t actually know their music that well at all. We heard a couple of songs and then got in the room, which I’ve always thought is kind of a better approach because you don’t try to make them sound like something they have already done before. You don’t know their music as much and I do think that’s probably why that song ended up making them sound a bit different because we were going for something new and something that represented the vibe in the room and our tastes at the time, I guess. 

Are there any future collaborations that you’re really excited for the world to hear?

Probably the whole Leon record [‘Happiness Anytime’]. I know there are only four songs out right now, but we are really excited about the rest of the album and how that’s going to do. I think it’s going to do really well for him, so I’m very excited for people to hear it. 

That album is very, very good. We have the distance from it to know as with the Jungle album, we’re so wrapped in it we have to live it everyday. We haven’t really had to do that with the Leon Bridges album so we have that perspective and I think apart from ‘Love Made Trees’, I think it’s one of our proudest albums. 

We tried to sort of like take him back to the earlier influences of his first record [‘Coming Home’] but not go too far back, you know? Like it’s still a bit modern but it definitely taps into it. 

There were a lot more Fela Kuti influences and Brazilian influences, which is kind of funny because a lot of the bossa nova stuff that we were working on came from how we started working on the Leon Bridges album before we even finished the new Jungle album. So he kind of got a taste of that flavour that we had earmarked for where the Jungle sound was going and what we were into [laughs]. There was some crossover between some of the sounds — like ‘Where Are You Now?’, for example, could be on the new Leon Bridges album. 

Given the effect that you have on other artists when it comes to writing and production, have you ever thought about releasing a collab album?

Yeah, I’d be up for that. I would love to do something with Khruangbin — like a Loaded Honey and Khruangbin album would be sensational. That’s the only one I can think of right now that would work really well. They just create great instrumentals and great vibes and when you put a vocalist on that, it just gives them so much more space. Also, I’d love to do something with Knxwledge. His work with Anderson .Paak back in the day with ‘Link Up & Suede’ and also ‘Yes Lawd!’ was an absolute masterpiece. 

To be honest, the Leon record is basically a whole collaborative record. We didn’t think of it at the time, but it’s basically a Jungle x Loaded Honey x Leon Bridges record as I’m singing over the whole thing and it’s both of us playing everything. It’s definitely a collaborative effort without the label. 

I’d personally love to see you do a project with some of the latest names in hip-hop and R&B.

It’s always been in the cards. Even with our first and second album, we have always wanted to do a double-disc where the second disc was all rappers and features. The issue with that is it’s just difficult to kind of bring people in and kind of get second verses. It’s easy to get a first verse from somebody, but getting them back in to complete that second verse can be one of the hardest challenges in music [laughs]. 

There are also a lot more artists that fit your vibe or are transitioning into more eclectic styles but they’re still struggling with authenticity because their songs lack substance. 

That’s because everyone works with so many different people at once. Especially pop artists — they work with 20 writers in a room and it’s all very factory-based and then every song is a different producer and a different set of 20 writers. They have no soul on them and they’re not cohesive; they just sound like a bunch of songs that are really trying to desperately pop off on TikTok. That’s definitely something we try to avoid sounding with whatever we work on. 

We’re actually about to leave on Thursday to fly out to the UK where we have a month of rehearsals ahead of us. So you’ll probably know how it’s going and sounding in four weeks or so [laughs]. It should be fun. We’ve got very long days ahead to make sure it sounds perfect. It’s definitely daunting because there’s not much time for messing around. Like we really have to work hard here and focus which can be quite scary because I really love messing around and puttering, but now I’ve actually got stuff to do [laughs]. 

How do you hope to incorporate more movement and elements from your short films into your live shows for the new album?

Learning how to dance better, I think [laughs]. We’re trying to think about the shows a little bit more and bring them out of the shadows for this album and tour. We don’t bring dancers on tour — it just feels a bit poppy and a bit anti-Jungle and we like to separate ourselves from those spaces. I think we’re going to be a bit more clever and intentional about how we perceive movement and we’re obviously going into arenas so we’ve got IMAG and cameras, which for us is another medium. I see those as storytelling devices rather than just image magnification or whatever it’s called. It’s about embracing all aspects of how to tell a story and inspire people. 

Live music is also kind of in a dangerous place at the moment. I don’t think live concerts are as accessible as they were and people don’t have the same amount of disposable income as they did; you can see a lot of people cancelling tours and struggling to make them work financially. We’re grateful and very lucky to have the ability to be able to go out there and play for people. 

When it’s said and done, what do you want ‘Sunshine’s’ legacy to be?

I want this to be remembered as one of our best albums. It has the most consistent vibe and it’s a back-to-back listen that is really coherent in terms of vibe — more so than any other record. So I hope that people think it’s our best album. 

My favourite type of songs are the ones that you can put on when you’re sad when you’re happy, and it just takes you out of that mood. Or it lets you get into your feels and be sad [laughs]. I think a lot of the songs on the new record have that feeling and if they can get people through sad times or elevate their happy times, then I think that’s the main goal. For us, anyway.

today.