Four years have passed since Chicago singer JC Brooks last released an album – 2013’s Howl – and a lot has happened since then. For starters, Brooks has parted ways with his record label Bloodshot Records and has dropped the old band name of the Uptown Sound, changing up personnel and going simply by his own name. The biggest change of all, however, is in the newly revamped sound Brooks is embracing on his new album The Neon Jungle, which is set for an April 7, 2017 release via Rock Ridge Music. The Neon Jungle finds the singer making a drastic leap forward from the exuberant throwback soul of the Uptown Sound to a sound more entrenched in disco and modern R&B and pop. And whereas much of the Uptown Sound’s material was deep and personal to Brooks – especially on Howl – Neon Jungle is, as Brooks himself describes, an album-length depiction of “one crazy, incredible night out.”
Maybe the best embodiment of that description is in the song “Jungle”, which we are excited to premiere on Glide Magazine today. The song feels like the humid air of a summer night in the city as it blends synths, percussion, and soulful harmonies for a sound that’s funky and sensual.
LISTEN to the song and read our chat with JC Brooks below:
What inspired the song “Jungle”?
Chicago – flat out. It’s a hard city if you’re out here grinding and it can change who you are if you let it. There’s some of the desperation and hardness from Upton Sinclair…my first encounter with Chicago was through that book when I was a kid. This song was inspired by the glossy filth of the big city and what you have to do to earn your place in it.
How do you think it sets the tone for the rest of the album, since it’s the first track?
I think it sets up the album because it’s a song about putting in that work and how the city will swallow you if you don’t fight. This album is about that well-earned wild night where you can at once escape the grind of the city but also submit to this…energy, that inner animal that all week long you have to tame and direct in order to make it to Friday night.
How was the recording process for that song? Was it an easy start-to-finish process for that song, or did it require extra work/tweaking to have it be what you wanted it to be?
It was pretty smooth and we had something that we all loved… and then we met this amazing dude, Isaiah Sharkey, who tours with D’Angelo and is currently touring as the guitarist with John Mayer. He advanced and enhances our sound. He rearranged it, and we jumped into the studio and recorded his version in a few hours. When we got the mixes, we were knocked out so we ended up using that version for the final album.
What kind of message do you hope this song imparts to listeners?
Struggle is inevitable…and if you want a thing, you have to be willing to sacrifice chunks of yourself while at the same time not losing sight of who you are.
This album is a complete 180 from the more classic soul type stuff you have previously done with the Uptown Sound. What made you decide to change musical directions?
This album sounds different, more eclectic because all our creative voices were represented. We didn’t want to climb back into the “throwback soul” box. I wanted to continue on the trajectory of (our last album) Howl, except where that’s a record about loneliness, this is about Chicago nightlife and self-reclamation.
You’ve also changed personnel – did you feel you needed new players to achieve this different sound you are creating on the new album?
Personnel has been changing for the past couple of years with the newest member being Alec, our guitarist. Honestly, we’re a new band now, and we now all have more of an artistic voice in the creation of the music – that definitely changes a lot. Plus writing together was new insofar as it takes a minute to understand someone’s creative language, so though we’d been playing together for a bit we had to develop rapport with entirely new facets of our creative selves.
JC Brooks releases The Neon Jungle via Rock Ridge Music on April 7th. For more music and info visit jcbrooksband.com.
Photo: Marisa Klug-Marataya
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