I was a little worried about interviewing Benny McIntyre, lead singer and guitarist for Australian band Rum Jungle, after I started reading about how much the group had matured in releasing its sometimes nostalgic “Marginalia” album earlier this year. Maturity is not what I look for in a rock musician interview. But the curly-haired, mustachioed McIntyre reassured me early on that he and his three twenty-something band mates are far from grown up, especially when you see them live.
“People listen to our recordings and think, oh, it’s really sweet,” he says. “Live, we’re just much more kind of in your face… not that we still don’t play some of the kickback and chill songs and they’re always sweet little moments. But to be honest, most of the time we just want people to be dancing and going crazy and whatever else.”
The indie rock band kicks off its U.S. tour in North Carolina on Sept. 8, before making its way locally to the Sinclair in Cambridge on Sept. 11 in what will be its first-ever show in the area (they did a brief U.S. tour last year, including in New York and Los Angeles).
The band from Newcastle—a coastal city renowned for its surfing beaches about 2 hours north of Sydney—has been releasing music since 2017. But Rum Jungle only rolled out its first full album, “Recency Bias,” last year. It followed that earlier this year with the independently-released “Marginalia,” which owes its name to a suggestion from the artist mom of one band member.
Is Rum Jungle really on an album-a-year plan? It’s already pretty much wrapped up recording another one, so it looks that way.
“We’re just constantly writing,” McIntyre says.
The band inherited its name from a group McIntyre’s dad played in years ago. Rum Jungle refers to a part of Australia located in the Northern Territory, and McIntyre says it’s ironically one of the few parts of the continent where the band hasn’t been.
Rum Jungle consists of McIntyre (vocals and guitar), Josh Giles (guitar), Michael Kolmajer (bass guitar) and Frazer McDonald (drums). The band formed after McIntyre moved out of his family’s house to live with one of his brothers, one of five older siblings. He started hanging out more with a couple of friends who would become his band mates, sitting on the balcony with some crummy acoustic guitars and playing covers from Arctic Monkeys and other bands they liked.
“We didn’t have any idea what we were going to do with our lives,” says McIntyre, noting that all of the band members actually do now have other jobs in addition to playing music(digital marketing, teaching guitar, personal care work).
The three original band members after compiling some material recorded an EP—they did three takes of five songs—in a “dodgy part of Newcastle” with a session drummer. “Going back I listen to them and I’m like, oh God, what was I thinking?” McIntyre says, laughing.
But just recording the music gave the band enough confidence to enter one of their pieces in a local song writing competition. They didn’t win, deservedly so as it sounds, but did get invited to play a gig afterwards at an iconic venue called The Cambridge that’s now no more. They added a drummer in then 15-year-old McDonald, who fittingly enough was working at a burger joint.
Once they started playing more regularly they got noticed, and have begun traveling the world to places where the Rum Jungle members never imagined they’d visit, including big and small cities across the United States, and notable festivals like Shaky Knees in Atlanta and Austin City Limits in Texas. Sometimes the band gets the royal treatment at bigger venues but McIntyre says “I think our capacity for staying in s–t rooms is also pretty good.” McIntyre gives plenty of credit to the band’s manager for paving the way for its tours and a devoted photographer for expanding Rum Jungle’s online presence.
Going back to this talk of the band maturing, it’s not totally untrue. McIntyre acknowledges there was a time when Rum Jungle was trying too hard for radio hits, but has settled into a mode where band members are encouraging each other to explore whatever moves them.
“What we’ve found is that when you don’t put the pressure on yourself to think that every single song that you’re about to write has to be the single, you end up with a lot more unique kinds of sounds,” says McIntyre, who’s been building out his guitar collection. His workhorse is a Squier Telecaster, though one recent acquisition is a limited edition Fender Jaguar in black pearl with gold trim found after an exhaustive search while touring in Japan (McIntyre didn’t buy it there, but ordered it later after dreaming about it several times…)
Rum Jungle’s next album, McIntyre says, includes some darker stuff, glimpses of which have been heard in its back catalog, including “Madman” (“‘Cause I’m backwards, I’m twisted and I’m fried, I got bad s–t on my mind…”).
But for those going to check out Rum Jungle at the Sinclair, it will likely be brighter, hook-filled songs like “Beaming” (opens with “Yeah with the sun beaming, You can do no wrong”) and “Lowlife” (“Lowlife, leave it all behind, I think I like it, Just stay here for a while…”) that should carry the show.
The fact that the band is playing locally on the 25h anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks is not lost on McIntyre, who says band members made a point of visiting the memorial in New York City when they visited the U.S. last year. “It’ll be good to share some positivity when we’re on stage that night,” he says.
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