Die BRIT-Award-prämierten globalen Arena-Headliner Jungle veröffentlichen am 14. August das neue Album „Sunshine“, zusammen mit dem Musikvideo zum gleichnamigen Titeltrack. Über elf Tracks hinweg entwickelt „Sunshine“ den charakteristischen Mix aus Soul, Disco, Hip-Hop und elektronischer Musik von Jungle weiter. J Lloyd, Tom McFarland und Lydia Kitto setzen dabei auf einen wärmeren, offeneren Sound, der von vielschichtigen Harmonien und warmen Klangfarben geprägt ist.
„Sunshine“ als Gefühl und Hoffnungsträger
Nach dem explosiven, energiegeladenen „Volcano“ wollten Jungle bewusst kein „Volcano 2“ machen. „Sunshine“ steht stattdessen für eine ruhigere Form von Selbstbewusstsein. Inhaltlich geht es um Hoffnung, Verbindung, Akzeptanz und den Glauben daran, dass bessere Tage vor einem liegen. „Sunshine“ ist dabei weniger als Verweis auf Sommer oder Wetter zu verstehen, sondern als ein Gefühl – ein innerer Ort, den man sich vorstellt, wenn man nach vorne blickt. „It’s a place you carry around in your mind. Somewhere you imagine when you’re looking towards better days. It represents light, vibration and energy. It doesn’t tell you how to feel, it simply exists“, erklärt die Band.
Die Melodien basieren auf Samples von vorherigen Werken
Bei der Produktion setze die Band dabei gänzlich auf ihre Intuition. Inspiriert von ihrer Liebe zu samplebasierter Musik begannen Jungle, sich selbst als Sample-Quelle zu betrachten – eigene Stimmen, Gitarren, Demos und organische Aufnahmen wurden zerlegt, verfremdet und neu zusammengesetzt. So entstand ein nostalgischer, warmer Sound, der vertraut nach Jungle klingt und sich gleichzeitig spürbar weiterentwickelt: „Lydia übernimmt auf vielen Songs des Albums die Lead-Vocals, während wir drei immer wieder gemeinsam in geteilten Harmonien zusammenkommen. Diese gemeinsame Stimme fühlte sich für uns besonders wichtig an.“
Nächsten Monat startet die umfangreiche Welttournee von Jungle. Die Tour umfasst die bislang größten Headline-Shows der Band und führt bis ins Frühjahr 2027 durch Nordamerika, Europa, Großbritannien, Australien und Lateinamerika. Hierzulande sind gleich drei Shows geplant. Im November spielen sie in Hamburg, Berlin und München in den jeweiligen Stadien.
Vom Debüt zur globalen Erfolgsgeschichte
Jungle wurden 2013 in London von Tom McFarland und J Lloyd gegründet, bevor ihre langjährige Kollaborateurin Lydia Kitto 2024 offizielles Mitglied der Gruppe wurde. Mit einer euphorischen Mischung aus modernem Disco, Soul und Hip-Hop sowie außergewöhnlichem visuellen Content, geprägt von erstklassiger Choreografie, sorgte die Band bereits mit ihrem selbstbetitelten Debütalbum „Jungle“ 2014 für Aufmerksamkeit und erreichte damit die Top 10 der britischen Charts. Der Aufstieg setzte sich mit einem weiteren Top-10-Erfolg durch „For Ever“ (2018) sowie „Loving In Stereo“ fort, das 2021 Platz 3 der UK-Charts erreichte. 2023 etablierten sich Jungle mit „Volcano“ endgültig als globale Größe. Das Album erreichte Platz 3 der britischen Charts und enthielt mit „Back On 74“ ihren bisher größten Hit, der sowohl im Vereinigten Königreich als auch in den USA mit Platin ausgezeichnet wurde.
Jungle – „Sunshine“ World Tour 2026
05.11. – Hamburg – Barclays Arena
08.11. – Berlin – Uber Arena
12.11. – München – Olympiahalle
13.11. – Wien – Wiener Stadthalle
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The Making of Sunshine
When we finished Volcano, it felt like we’d made the most explosive record we could. It was bold, energetic and constantly pushing forwards. We knew we didn’t want to make Volcano 2. We wanted to make something that felt more settled. Sunshine became about confidence in a quieter sense. The songs breathe more. The performances are more organic. There’s a warmth that runs through the whole record, both musically and emotionally. We found ourselves writing about hope, connection and finding light rather than chasing bigger moments.
For us, sunshine isn’t about weather or seasons. It’s a feeling. It’s a place you carry around in your mind. Somewhere you imagine when you’re looking towards better days. It represents light, vibration and energy. It doesn’t tell you how to feel, it simply exists. Once we realised that, it naturally became the title of both the song and the album. One idea kept coming back throughout the making of the record. We’ve always loved sample-based music, particularly records where familiar sounds are chopped up and transformed into something completely new. Instead of asking ourselves what we should sample, we started asking, „What if we sampled Jungle?“ That idea became a thread running through the whole album. Homemade vocal samples, guitars disguised as different instruments, collages built from separate demos and organic performances all helped create something that feels nostalgic, warm and unmistakably ours. Lydia sings many of the lead vocals across the record, while the three of us come together throughout in shared harmonies. That collective voice felt important. Looking back, every song seems to be moving towards something. Love, reconciliation, acceptance and optimism. Even in the moments of uncertainty or heartbreak, there’s always the feeling that better days are ahead. That’s what Sunshine means to us.
1. Come Back To Me
This was one of the first songs that really pointed us towards the sound of Sunshine. The production is driven by a deep low-end groove and homemade samples of our own voices, but the original idea was actually much stranger. We wanted it to feel like you were tuning an old radio and somehow landed between two stations, where two completely different genres were bleeding into each other and accidentally creating something beautiful. Lyrically, it felt like the perfect way to begin the album. It’s about distance, longing and believing someone will eventually find their way back to you. It introduces one of the central ideas that runs through the whole record. Even in moments of uncertainty, there’s always hope.
2. Sunshine
This became the emotional centre of the record. We’ve always loved sample-based music, so our ambition here was to make it feel like someone had sampled a Jungle record and flipped it into something new. The strings and instrumentation gave it this nostalgic quality that made everything feel familiar while still moving forwards.
For us, „Sunshine“ isn’t about summer. It’s about optimism. It’s the idea that happiness and better days are always somewhere ahead of you, even if you haven’t reached them yet. Once we understood that, we realised it wasn’t just the title of a song, it was the title of the whole album.
3. Where Are You Now?
This started entirely from the rhythm section. We built the drums first, then jammed bass and guitar over the top until something clicked. The slide guitar became one of our favourite parts of the song. It almost gives the track a Hawaiian influence, especially in the middle section, where those expressive bends bring another emotional colour to the arrangement. It’s one of the emotional anchors of the album. The song asks questions rather than giving answers, but it never feels defeated. Like so much of Sunshine, it’s searching for light rather than dwelling in darkness.
4. Move Like You Do
This was us taking modern sample culture and applying it to disco. Heavy swinging drums, chopped samples, funky keyboards and synths all combine to make one of the most rhythm-driven songs on the record. We wanted it to feel immediate from the very first beat. There’s something beautifully uncomplicated about the message too. Sometimes connection isn’t about finding the right words. Sometimes it’s just about moving together.
5. Romeo II (feat. Bas)
This actually began with a song Lydia had written. We flipped parts of it into a hip-hop beat and gradually realised we had something that felt like the next chapter of „Romeo“. In many ways, it ended up feeling more deserving of the title than the original. Having Bas on the record felt completely natural. Rather than feeling like a feature dropped into the album, his verse expands the conversation and gives the story another perspective while keeping the warmth and intimacy of the record intact.
6. Carry On
This song picks up the tempo we’d explored on tracks like „Back On 74“ and „Let’s Go Back“, but emotionally it comes from a very different place. We’ve always thought of it as our folk song.
There’s something about the melody and the songwriting that feels rooted in classic 1960s songwriting.
The string arrangement at the end became one of our favourite moments on the whole album. It takes what starts as a deeply personal song about holding onto love through disappointment and opens it out into something much bigger and more cinematic. It’s one of the emotional pillars of Sunshine.
7. The Wave
„The Wave“ went through one of the biggest transformations on the record. It started life around 135 BPM and had a completely different energy. The foundation was this guitar-based sample we’d made that had a Brazilian feel to it. There was something really cinematic and searching about it, but it wasn’t quite landing.
When we slowed it down, everything changed. Suddenly it had this driving disco pulse that gave the song much more weight and emotion. Sometimes the biggest production decisions are the simplest ones, and this was definitely one of those moments. Lyrically, it’s one of the songs that best represents what Sunshine is about. Every relationship goes through difficult moments, but there’s something powerful about choosing to stay when things become uncertain. We wanted it to feel reassuring without becoming sentimental.
8. Someday, Somewhere
This one started with an organic drum performance. We built everything else around that feeling, experimenting with a guitar synthesiser and using it to play sounds that weren’t really guitar at all. The whole track grew out of those textures, while the classical guitar remained at the heart of the arrangement. It has a tropical warmth to it, but there’s also a real sense of longing. „Someday, Somewhere“ is built around the belief that distance doesn’t have to be permanent. It’s about trusting that life has a way of bringing people back together, even if that moment feels a long way off.
9. Natural
„Natural“ came from two completely different worlds. I had an instrumental demo sitting around for a while that had what we’d describe as a classic Jungle feel. Chorus guitars, loads of swing and some of the dreamier harmonic language we’d been exploring elsewhere. Separately, we had the song „Natural“ with very little production around it.
It was Lydia’s idea to put the two together. As soon as we tried it, it felt obvious. Those moments don’t happen very often, where two completely unrelated ideas suddenly become one song, but this was one of them. It ended up becoming one of the most effortless tracks on the record.
10. Reflection
Production-wise, we kept coming back to dub and rare groove while making this song. We loved the space those records leave around the instruments and wanted „Reflection“ to feel like it lived somewhere between those two worlds.
The lyric is about losing someone to their own reflection. Watching somebody slowly disappear into their own vanity and becoming consumed by themselves. It felt important that the production stayed restrained and spacious, letting that idea breathe rather than forcing it.
11. Heavy On My Soul
This song began with a classical guitar. We pitched it down to create the bassline, and from there it slowly grew into the closing statement of the record. We went through a lot of different vocal ideas before Lydia found the verse that unlocked the song. She also wrote the string arrangement that closes the album, which became one of our favourite moments on the whole
record. We always knew we didn’t want Sunshine to end with a big dramatic finale. We wanted it to end with acceptance. The title says it all. Sometimes doing the right thing, growing as a person and holding onto hope all carry weight. That’s part of life.
When we look back at the album now, that’s probably what Sunshine means to us. It’s not about pretending everything is perfect. It’s about believing there’s always somewhere brighter to head next.
and then 