Laneway: Welcome to the Jungle

Jungle is performing at Laneway festival 2015.

Lydia Jenkin talks to Josh Lloyd-Watson, founder of one of the hottest bands of 2014.

Curtis Mayfield, Beach Boys, Joy Division, Marvin Gaye, Hot Chip - rising British band Jungle are all of these, and none of them. Their songs are full of deep catchy grooves, sunny seductive vocal harmonies, all sorts of eclectic tropical electronic effects, and above all, incredible arrangements that really, really, make you want to dance.

Founded by Tom McFarland and Josh Lloyd-Watson, they've come out of nowhere to be one of the hottest bands of 2014. Having released their self-titled debut in July, and an impressive set of videos featuring some of the most brilliant choreography seen this side of 2010, they were nominated for the Mercury Prize, the BBC Sound of 2014, and found themselves playing sold-out venues across the US and UK. Here Lloyd Watson tells us a little about Jungle ... .

*FIND THE 2015 LANEWAY MAP AND TIMETABLE HERE*

On meeting Tom McFarland:

I met T when we were about 10, when I moved in three or four doors down from him. All the kids would hang out on this wall over the back, sort of like West Side Story I suppose. There's something beautiful about that because it was before the internet was in your house or on your phone, so kids would just hang out rather than being online.

I remember I tried to sell T my guitar, and he didn't buy it, but we both began messing round on the guitar more, and then around 14 we started recording things and making beats on a PC, with a USB microphone, really basic. I don't think any of them were any good, but it was just the process that was important.

On the thinking behind their music videos:

I don't think Jungle are doing anything groundbreaking by putting dancers in videos, but there are a lot of music videos these days where you feel a bit blinded by all the lights, and the fast cutting, and how in your face they are because they're desperate not to lose your attention, and we kind of wanted to do something kind of opposite.

It's about building that world that we escape into when we make music. The reason we're not in our videos is because I'd much rather watch a 6-year-old girl breakdance, or two best friends roller skating, than some guys pissing around with instruments - we want to create something that matches the escape we feel in our heads, something that's far more interesting than ourselves.

On their influences:

What we see visually is a massive influence on what we create sonically. We've been quite influenced by Grand Theft Auto - it was originally created by a Scottish man who'd never been to America, and it was his idea of a fantasy American culture really, glamourising American culture, and I think that's influenced us for sure. We have these visual ideas of what Venice Beach and Miami and Copacabana are like, and they end up being a strong visual concept for a song like The Heat while it's being written - that scene and those characters that we imagine, they influence the music, and then in some cases they go on to become the focus of our videos, or the visuals that appear on the record sleeve or something.

On their live show:

We need a fair few people to do it all, so there's seven of us on stage. We try to do it all as live as we can, so we're playing multiple instruments and singing, we've got backing vocalists, two drummer-percussionists, and we've got samples that we're playing live through different instruments. We switch things up. We really enjoy exploring that line between electronic and live sounds, and how that can blur when you're making this world between the two.

Who: Jungle
Where and when: Performing on the Mysterex Stage at 4.40pm at Laneway Festival, Monday January 26
Listen to: Jungle (2014)

• TimeOut has five double passes to Laneway to give away. To enter, simply head to our Facebook page and tell us who you're most excited to see. Winners will be drawn Friday, January 23 at 5pm. Tickets will be emailed to winners ahead of Monday's event.

- TimeOut