The Jungle Drummer on his return, Metalheadz, Glastonbury and ‘London Wake Up’
The Jungle Drummer shaking up the capital
“It’s taken a while. The lyrics mention the price of a pint being a fiver,” laughs The Jungle Drummer, about his debut solo production ‘London Wake Up’, “it’s closer to a tenner now!”
That might be true, but there’s no denying the track’s central message – about the gentrification of the capital and the economic exclusion of those less and less able to afford its spiralling rents – is certainly as relevant as it was when it was penned a few years back in 2019.
‘London Wake Up’ was inspired by a close friend of Jungle’s, and imagined through his eyes. “He’s a famous reggae engineer and he’s a geezer, so I wrote about how he saw the changes as a geezer round Bethnal Green, about how much has changed.”
It’s the first track that he’s penned in what is a new phase in a lengthy career that’s previously seen him drum with A Guy Called Gerald and London Elektricity, and play 40 different countries in a longstanding pairing with DJ Fu. The tune also sees him take to the mic, rather unexpectedly, delivering a heartfelt spoken word plea to the capital to fight back against those who would crush its soul in the cause of profit.
“London is still a really inspirational place,” he says, “it’s got a lot left to offer but it’s just so expensive.” Having moved up from his native Devon tempted by the lure of the jungle and drum & bass scene in the 90s, he cites how important it is to him as an artist to absorb and reflect the city’s character. “I like to be out there on the street, I want to be a product of the environment.”
The intention was to give the track to an MC in the scene to deliver its message. It didn’t quite work out like that though.
“I never wrote lyrics before so I wanted to write something political to give to my friends,” he says, “But because of the time signature – it’s in 5/4, which for a drum & bass tune is quite unusual – a lot of people couldn’t fit any lyrics to it, so I ended up doing the vocals.“
The track is quite the hybrid, he admits, with jazz parts, hip-hop parts, drum & bass parts and a spoken word element as well, a mix of all different types of music wrapped around a jawdroppingly powerful hit of political reality. The perfect inaugural release for his brand new Drum Lab label, in other words, which promises to be an eclectic beast. “I’ve got some interesting stuff coming, some well-known names are doing mixes, and I’ll be trying to do some different things, there’s going to be be-bop meets drum & bass and all sorts.”
In addition to the release, he’s also been staging some incendiary nights in the capital which see his drumming skills taking centre stage. “I’ve been doing 90 minute sets,” he says of the night, most recently at Folklore in Hackney Road, East London, where he’s confirmed a residency doing what he does best – “holding the crowd for 90 minutes and doing the full spectrum of drum & bass, as well as performing ‘London Wake Up’.”
This recent outbreak of activity marks a proper renaissance for Jungle, whose career as a much-loved veteran of the scene looked under threat due to ill health. Things started going wrong when the success of his touring show with DJ Fu led to a deal with a new agent and the business side of the work became more serious. “I was having to become someone I didn’t like to get paid – I should have just been enjoying it.” His alcohol intake started ramping up, other addictions were weakening him and his mental health was declining.
When he ended up breaking both his hands, he was out of action drumming-wise. The despond deepened when his brother died of cancer, another friend was diagnosed with it and then, in 2015, his friend and singer Diane Charlemagne (“the voice of an angel”) also died of kidney cancer. “All that was going on while I wasn’t drumming,” he said, “because I was having trouble accepting myself. I wasn’t practising, I wasn’t enjoying shows and I was telling myself ‘I don’t derserve to be here, I’m not good enough’. Before shows, I was a nightmare. I’d just had enough of certain aspects of the business side.”
In the end, having had no success with traditional medical remedies, it was taking up hot yoga that proved to be the key to his rehabiliation, mending mind and body alike. “The best aspect of hot yoga is to think good you have to feel good,” he says, describing how it rebuild his mental and physical health simultaneously, “.”
The first sign of Jungle’s comeback was a significant one: a feature on undoubtedly the most iconic label in d&b, Metalheadz, in March of last year, in collaboration with long-serving Canadian producer John Rolodex. ‘Serve No Kings’ from the ‘Formless’ EP saw his unique beats incorporated into a brooding, original, tension piece with a touch of classic Photek about it.
“We’d done a show together in Munich in 2006 when I was playing with DJ Fu – our first shows abroad in fact. I smashed out five minutes of drums for him – in the end it took him six months to edit all the different drum breaks out of those five minutes. But he was saying he thinks I’m the first drummer to be featured as an artist on Metalheadz.”
His long standing working relationship with acid and jungle pioneer A Guy Called Gerald also remains strong – he’ll be joining Gerald on stage at his closing set at this year’s Glastonbury next month. “I’ve played there before with Gerald, Elektricity and DJ Fu – it’s always special…”
Live shows with Gerald, he says, are key to his musical outlook – using improvisation and spontaneous invention to keep his live performances as vital as ever.
“We’ll be bringing improvisation back to the live show big time,” he says. ”What I like about playing with Gerald is that I’m always on the edge, it means I can interpret it in my own way. I’ll always support what the artist wants and then bring an improvisational element to it in the live show.”
His first encounter with Gerald sums up their musical relationship perfectly. He arrived at the airport and met Gerald, reassurign him that he’d learnt his album inside out.
“He said people can listen to the album at home – when we do a live show it’s complete freestyle. With Gerald, to be honest, we have minimal conversation – sometimes we’ll get together the day before for a quick rehearsal but sometimes he’ll change his mind when he’s on stage. Quite often we don’t even rehearse and it’s pure improvisation. I like being on the edge when performing. It’s sink or swim.”
The Jungle Drummer will be announcing a new London residency at Folklore, Hackney via social media shortly.
He joins A Guy Called Gerald at Glastonbury’s Rum Shack stage at 1am on the evening of Sunday June 30.
The Jungle Drummer is exclusively represented by [email protected] for live d&b/jungle shows