The Jungle Giants Release ‘Experiencing Feelings Of Joy’

Australian indie-dance group The Jungle Giants have released their new album Experiencing Feelings of Joy! The release of the full LP follows their recently released single “A Moment Like That”.

The Jungle Giants are the brainchild of one-man music machine Sam Hales, who overcame one of the darkest periods of his life after the dissolution of a decade-long relationship, to compose the music found on the new LP. The Jungle Giants will tour Australia and New Zealand this summer with more world-wide 2026 dates TBA.

The Jungle Giants are undeniably Australian indie-dance royalty, with their last album, 2021’s Love Signs, reaching #1 on the ARIA charts with multiple platinum certified singles in tow. The forthcoming fifth full-length album, Experiencing Feelings Of Joy, is an apt title not only for the listener, but its creator. Careening from crushing personal loss to hopeful exuberance, it’s an album Sam Hales could only write after thinking he’d never be able to write again.

Hales has always prided himself on being “a full-on, extreme kind of guy,” but by mid-2022, the cracks were starting to show, just as he had arguably reached a creative apex: playing in and writing hits for two globetrotting dance bands simultaneously, with the second of these, Confidence Man, booked to play Glastonbury. He was also engaged to their singer, following a ten year artistic and romantic relationship. Then, in classic Hales fashion, everything happened all at once.

In the space of only a few months, Hales tore up his leg in a jetski accident and was confined to a hospital bed, played Glastonbury on crutches after intense rehab, split up with his fiance and parted ways with Confidence Man. “I had to reform what my life was,” he explains. “In all honesty, I experienced a lot of depression over that period because unfortunately I’m one of those people who process things on delay.” Back in Australia, Hales, who possesses the sort of natural drive that has allowed him to teach himself every instrument and produce records himself, found himself floundering for the first time.   

“I was going through heartbreak, right? And then I started to get writer’s block, which was such a foreign concept to me. I’d always thought it wasn’t real! But my value system had changed. I’d left this band and I’d left my fiance and it was all enveloped by music. So for a while there, music was really painful.” He ended up in therapy, but more crucially, enrolling in The Artist’s Way, a 12 week creative program that allowed him to understand what was blocking his ability to make music.

“I had to dig. I had to really bring up these emotions, so that I could start writing these sad, hopeful or joyous songs. When I was just making a dance banger, I felt reasonably capable. But it didn’t feel good. It didn’t feel like it was about what was in my heart or head. These are songs that were about the ending of my engagement. About loss, missing my partner.” 

The most enduring dancefloor tunes are always tinged with melancholy, something Hales channelled on tracks like the thumping earworm ‘Where Can I Put All My Love?” and the 90s acid-jazz orchestration of “All The Time In The World”. Hales, who always writes from the rhythm section up, pushed himself further than ever on Experiencing Feelings of Joy, from commissioning live strings (“they provide this natural emotion, it just sounds like a warm blanket on a cold night”) and bookending the record with songs for the two most important women in his life; his mother, on the delightful sing-rap opener “Tell Me How It Feels”, and ex-partner, Grace.

With a record big on feelings and even bigger on floor-fillers, Hales has naturally refocused his sights on world domination. “It just feels good to be spreading joy and love on a global scale,” he says. “I’m lucky to have an immigrant mum from Ireland. I grew up being very exposed to an international outlook.” 

Whether he’s getting a taco before a show in Mexico or kicking back with friends in Melbourne, Hales is thrilled that he’s managed to tap into something dormant but very real. “I’d overextended and kind of cooked it, but I really found myself,” he says. “That’s where the joy comes from, having this unwavering hope even after experiencing adversity. This record is the culmination of everything for me, because I’m so in love with it and I’m so addicted to music again.

I will never stop making Jungle Giants music; it’s who I am and it’s only going to get bigger.” Now, out of a year of life-altering heartbreak, Hales re-emerges hopeful and emotionally grounded as The Jungle Giants continue to evolve with optimism, creative freedom and a fearless sense of fun.

Upcoming Tour Dates:

MAY

12 – Brisbane, Australia @ The Brightside

13 – Sydney, Australia @ Oxford Art Factory

14 – Brunswick, Australia @ Howler

16 – Armidale, Australia @ The Big Chill Festival

JUNE

05 – Castlemaine, Australia @ Theatre Royal

06 – Melbourne, Australia @ Forum

12 – Sydney, Australia @ Enmore Theatre

13 – Brisbane, Australia @ Fortitude Music Hall

19 – Canberra, Australia @ UC Refectory

20 – Adelaide, Australia @ Hindley Street Music Hall

JULY

03 – Forth, Australia @ Forth Pub

04 – Hobart, Australia @ Odeon Theatre

10 – Wellington, New Zealand 

@ Meow Nui

11 – Auckland, New Zealand @ Powerstation

12 – Christchurch, New Zealand @ James Hay Theatre

18 – Perth, Australia @ Astor Theatre