Hailing from Newcastle, Australia, indie-rock band Rum Jungle made their ACL debut on Sunday, Oct. 11, bringing their sun-soaked sound to the Zilker Park stage. Known for their blend of psychedelic guitars, catchy melodies and laid-back grooves, the four-piece has built an international following with their alternative rock sound. We caught up with Rum Jungle to talk about their music, ACL thoughts, life on the road and more. Read our conversation below!
My name is Benny and I am on rhythm guitar and I also sing in the middle, and I'm here today with Alexis thank you so much for having me.
Thank you so much for joining me. You just wrapped up your ACL debut today on the AMEX stage, take us through your thought process. How did you feel, were there any jitters?
Benny: I’ve luckily found myself in the last couple of months or years not feeling too nervous about shows in the lead up to it but I can definitely speak for the other boys, cause they were definitely telling me that they were super nervous. I think sometimes that nervous energy is really good because you're not complacent - you're insanely excited to play something that means a hell of a lot to you. I definitely felt the nerves when I was running on stage, I was like, “this is just, genuinely size wise, this stage is huge.” Not only that, I saw Charli XCX two nights ago, one of my favorite artists, on the exact same stage and I was like, “I don't even know how to feel, I don't even know how to think,” but it's been it's been a whirlwind, it’s been beautiful, it's been amazing.
Seeing the crowd in front of you while you’re performing. Do you ever have that sense of... wow, I can't believe I'm here right now ?
Benny: Every single time. This is this is the last show for us of, I think in a 19 or 20 day American tour and every single day has very much been, walking outside and being like “oh my god I can't believe these beautiful people from a country that I'm not from and never even in my wildest dreams could have imagined visiting are here to spend their night or their afternoon with us to listen to our song.” It’s crazy, I wish I could explain it, but it's just beautiful. Yesterday we were actually in the crowd watching Finn Wolfhard on the exact same stage that we were playing and it was so hot, and I was standing in the crowd like, “Oh my god I think I’m about to catch fire.” As I was watching everyone there for our show I was like, “I cannot thank everyone there enough for sticking it out.” Even a couple of people got jumping, a bunch of people got moving, so it's so much respect to those people because it was hot out there, but it was beautiful.
You were telling me that this is the last stop for your tour, can you just bring us back to the whole experience in general? Any lowlights and highlights that you want to share?
Benny: Let's start with the lowlights so we can end on the highlights. We've been in the tour van and we worked out that in terms of distance, we had driven a third of the circumference of the entire world, just on this tour, within a month. We've been spending like 8 or 10 hour days in this van or bus and then some days playing a show and some days not, but it's all been an insane highlight. As much as we've been in these vans for a long period of time, we’re very lucky. It's essentially like going on a road trip with your best friends. You get to spend, maybe sometimes too much time with your best friends, and sometimes you’re working things out as you go but it's also like, we're seeing this country that we never even imagined that we would go to let alone see so much of it. There were even some Americans we met that said, “I’ve only ever been to two states,” or something like that, and I’m pretty sure we went to something like 28 states across this tour, some of them driving through. Trying to process that and fathom that has almost started being impossible, but as we’ve been living it in the moment we’ve been having to tell ourselves,“wow, this is incredible.” It's been one of the most incredible experiences of my life and I'm very excited to come back to the states after this.
Being a part of Australia's music scene and coming here for tour, how would you describe the difference from performing back home versus being in the states?
Benny: There’s so many different ways I can answer this, but as an Australian, you come to a show in the states and you're like “oh my God you are literally from a different country you have been born in a different country, been raised in a completely different way, and the fact that you discovered my music is… I don't even know how to describe it.” It’s insane, and that they want to come and spend time with us and listen to the music, is insane. To be honest, I know the question was what are the differences but, it’s a similar thing in Australia. We started playing small little shows in Newcastle where we’re from, to four people -which was probably my mom, my dad and everyone else's parents- and then you find yourself playing shows outside of your hometown. For us it's Sydney in Australia and it's like, “wow we’re in Sydney. Two hours away and, omg there’s people here to see us.” It expands from that to “omg I’m in Western Australia in Perth and there's people here to see us.” And then you end up in America and you're like “What is going on?” I’m not sure if there is necessarily a key difference I could highlight because every single one of the shows we've played has just felt like everyone has been really stoked making it here. There were a couple of people that couldn't make it to the last tour and they could make it for this one, and it felt really heartwarming to be honest, I wish I could explain it more.
If you could use one phrase to describe your sound, as a band, what would you say?
Benny: I don't know if this describes the sound, but this is something I want people to feel when they're at our show, and I've tried to say it on mic a couple of times, but here’s the phrase: nobody here is judging you. That's it. I think about this a lot, I'm up there on stage kicking my legs out being an idiot and I'm having the best time in the world, but if you put me in the crowd people would be like, “what the hell is that guy doing?” I only get away with it because I'm on stage. For me, anyone who is in the audience, it's like, no one's judging you. If people were judging you then they’d be like, “look at this idiot up on stage”. Live your best life, have fun, and throw yourself around if it’s not too hot like it was at ACL. Enjoy yourself and enjoy the music for what it is because there's nothing more freeing than jumping around like there's no care in the world. That's the most important thing.
On that note, is there something that you saw while performing that has kind of stuck with you?
Benny: There's so many but I would probably say the one’s from today. One was the fact that it was so insanely hot today and there were still people in the audience who not only came to see us but they jumped around, they had fun, they let themselves go… hopefully they're okay and got a bunch of water and got sprayed by the hose. The other one is probably I member literally just on stage today, and it’s like, you play the first set at a festival on the main stage, you feel like you're hopefully playing to people who know you, but in your head it’s very much like, “a lot of people here are probably to see like some of the later acts.” That's perfectly okay, because if I can win them over and they enjoyed it then that's the only important thing to me, but someone today on the front row had a Rum Jungle shirt on and they were pointing at me, and even just the fact that there is somebody here in Austin, Texas, across the other side of the world from where I was born, to come and see me, at this insane festival where there is some incredibly beautiful incredibly influential artists, that's currently sticking with me.
What can our readers expect in the future, is there anything else in the works for Rum Jungle?
Benny: Definitely, we already have a bunch of music in the bag. I’m insanely excited to release it, it's definitely a lot of music that I feel really connected to and proud of. It's a lot of music that all four of us have been able to find what our differences are and then take those four differences and turn them into something that's the same, and we have a new song, and I dont know when this interview is coming out, don't tell my manager, but it's called “The Elephants” and and it comes out on October 30th and I’m really proud of it. Beyond that there's a whole lot more coming and I'm more excited for what we're about to release than anything I've ever been for the entirety of our careers so I can't wait for you to hear it and I can't wait to be back in Austin speaking to you.
Do you have anything else you want to say to our readers out there? Any fun facts or anything silly?
Benny: We’ve been hacky sacking heaps on this tour so if youve never hacky sacked before go to a gas station get a hacky sack and start hacky sacking it is so fucking fun. We forgot to bring a hacky sack before we played the show but the boys went back to the hotel to dump gear and I was begging them to bring one back so if you're around in the artist village, come hacky sack.
Image captured by Nathan Zucker