Review Fix Exclusive: Ali in the Jungle’s Timothy Holmwood Talks Origin in Music And More

Review Fix chats with Ali in the Jungle’s Timothy Holmwood discusses his origin in music, as well as the band’s new track. “Drunk Generation.”

Review Fix: How did the project start?

Timothy Holmwood: We formed Ali In The Jungle eight years ago when at school. We wanted to distinguish ourselves from all the other bands who were our age; at the time, minimalist guitar bands were sweeping the nation, making their own The xx and AM knock off groups. Although we like both those artists, we chose to mix 70s piano-rock styles with a post-punk revival set up, and take to putting our spin on as many sub-genres as we fancied, for the sheer fun of it.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Holmwood: We try to change how we write and like to swap instruments with one another from time to time to keep things fresh and create songs that are distinct from one another. Although I write the lyrics and melody, we all contribute equally to the music. Everyone’s distinctive playing styles contribute to a wholesome Ali In The Jungle sound, in which everyone’s talents are felt. Ideas come to us at random; a lot of the time people make mistakes that sound great, and we run with those.

Review Fix: What’s your standout song? How was it written?

Holmwood: ‘Drunk Generation’, a raucous mixture of post-punk and glam rock styles. Lyrically it’s very us, as it talks about something sort of serious but through a constant string of jokes and references. I started this one in a hot summer, when everyone our age had become pub-sessed. I was bouncing off the walls having discovered the main piano part and vocal line, I called our lead guitarist Chris over straight away! Chris put himself on bass duty, giving the piece an Andy Rourke-esque bass performance, while our bassist Sam played drunken chords on guitar and displayed his glam rock influences in his lead guitar work. Ali wanted his drums to be as upbeat as possible, but punctuated by crazed drum fills, to show the crazy elation a drunken night can have, as well as the loss of control that comes with it.

Review Fix: What are your goals for 2020?

Holmwood: To get as many people listening to our debut EP ‘Anyway’ as possible! We’ve got two more music videos coming out soon: ‘I Don’t Even Know You’ and ‘People Change’. We’re making sure we can rebook as many shows from our EP mini-tour as possible, and keep getting heard.

Review Fix: How do you want your music to affect people?

Holmwood: We’d love to make more people really excited about indie/alternative music, and inspire them to explore the avenues we’re exploring. If we can ignite an excitement in our listeners that gets them going through their days with our songs happily in their head, then that’d be awesome.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Holmwood: Aside from the ‘I Don’t Even Know You’ and ‘People Change’ music videos I mentioned, we’re recording music for a short film called Making Waves, to be shown on BBC iPlayer! Later on this year we hope to record again, and eventually end up on a label and be in position to record an Ali In The Jungle album!