The Multidisciplinary Musician Duo: Jungle

Written & Photographed by Elisa Peters

Modeled by Gio Sanchez, Desiree Daos, Mindy Welland, Alexis Loftis, Cole Vest, Mary Newsham, Olivia Cordero, Ashton Diercks, & Madeleine Brady

In 2013, a couple of childhood friends, Josh “J” Lloyd-Watson and Tom “T” McFarland, based in Shepherd’s Bush, London, formed a band. They call themselves Jungle, an English soul and funk musical duo that would go on to remain more or less anonymous. Instead of prioritizing their identity as musicians, the main focus of their art is the music videos. In more recent years, one of the tracks from their newest album,“Volcano,” titled “Back on 74,” went viral on TikTok. Not only was the song trending, the dance associated with it was too. Thanks to J, the emphasis made to prioritize the dance, choreography, and cinematography of their one-shot music videos allowed them to gain an intersectional fanbase of listener turned viewer. There bloomed the relationship between the dancers and their clothes, each being equally as important as the music. Moreover, their emphasis on the blend between music and music video-making seems to have cultivated a new genre of art. 

“We’re not trying to hide who we are, we just want to be known for the music and what we create visually,” said T, noting how relaxed they are about the whole anonymity thing. 

The visual aesthetics of Jungle’s music videos successfully create a beautiful mix of fashion, dance and film. J frequently collaborates with the same dancers and directors. As much as I love the music, what drew me to Jungle is the dancers in their videos. The visuals of the clothing in motion creates a fascinating variable to their media. This cultivates an added component of ephemerality to them as a band.

Most fascinating about their music videos, like those for the tracks “Casio,” “Keep Moving,” “Holding On,” and “Back On 74,” are the dancers effortlessly moving in and around empty fields, abandoned warehouses, and most recently, large-scale studio sets. Their “music videography” features dancers of all-genders wearing a mix of colorful dress slacks, jumpers, suspenders, collared shirts, patterned button-ups, tank tops, sweater and leather vests, silk scarves, hats, heeled shoes, boots and much more. Nothing in fashion stops them from moving. This creates a feeling of awe while watching their videos; who knew someone could dance so swag in platform docs? 
On December 6, 2023, Jungle published “VOLCANO- A MOTION PICTURE” to their Youtube channel. This video meshed all previously released music videos on “Volcano,” finalizing it into a 49 minute, 55 second film. The video segmented a diverse range of dancers, choreography, sets, outfit changes and scenes into one seamless showing. This collage of artistic disciplines is pretty inspiring; I even got my mom into it. In whatever way you consider yourself creative, I can most likely guarantee that you come out of watching any Jungle music video feeling more insightful.