#madradar

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       I remember stomping through the glossy marbled floor of Harrod’s department store back in my hay days of London, ready for a new day. My morning commute would have just ended and I am armed with an umbrella in one hand, a coffee in the other, and an unprecedented excitement in my head. An intriguing fella, always with an endearing and cheeky smile, a smile that told stories of charm and mischief, manned the department right behind mine. We had one clear goal in common, it was to sell dreams to the wealthy, to the wandering faces that walked in and out of the marble and golden walls of this ancient landmark of a department store. There is always more to a person than meets the eye, and at times it can be sussed out faster with some than with others, but what I remember about Mark, aka Maear Seaon was the way he talked. He was always poetic, always fluid as if in song when sending his morning greetings. That was all that stuck at the time, and several years passed, new countries lived in, jobs expired and new adventures began.

A mere stumbling on social media exposed where this soul had ventured off to, into the deep depths of London’s music scene, more precisely he became immersed in the hip-hop and rap genres. He was no longer selling dreams of lifestyle and product to the wealthy, but selling the truth to curious souls. Maear, Bones, A Boy Called Ric and MoSick together make up Jungle Brown. Together they created Flight 314, their first debut album taking after the name of a whole pi. So here I am seated in their cosy London studio filled with the nomadic objects of everyday life, trinkets and gems gathered from all over the world such as a coconut carved into an ashtray, asking him how and why and what made him do what he is doing. It was about taking control over his creative desire, putting into a tangible form and fruition his thoughts and ideas. And with that his entrepreneurial spirit kept taking off into further heights, taking him to the stages of the Jazz Café, the 02 Centre and London’s annual Carnival alongside the likes of Ghostface Killah. They have been doing what they love for years, as far back as when they were young’uns growing up in Bournemouth, until one day they reached their revelation, of joining up forces and going full throttle with their love for music.

A slight interlude as Bones the producer walks through the door, a bit thrown off with my presence in what is their sanctuary of a creative space, but it doesn’t take long for him to warm up and spill the beans on life and music. The challenge for him in making music is to always…

“…have belief in yourself and enjoy your own music regardless of what other people think.”

But then comes to mind the question, who are you making music for? Is it being created for the enjoyment of yourself or others? For your self-satisfaction? It is a question that artists of all likes debate with morally and internally; to what extent do they retain the authenticity of their work once it is a product, should it be shared with the world, should it adapt to various audiences or just be? That feeling of ‘self-belief’ can sway after numerous rejections, trials and tribulations but it is this exact feeling, once conquered, that keeps the momentum of creating. For Maear, it is “staying excited with your own hype” when not everyone understands what you are about from the get go. He continues on to describe an imaginary vortex, a picture he painted so well as an unearthly incubator of creativity and energy, that he needs to stay connected to in order to pursue his dreams.

The root of Maear’s inspirations come from “the idea that you can represent ideals, truths and ideologies in music” which may ultimately empower the listener by affirming their own thoughts and experiences. And hence his artist name – Maear (power) Season (moment), come rain or come shine, the truth will always take precedence.

“Music imitates life yet also creates life.”

Yet when dissecting his lyrics, they are far from crystal clear as he toys with innuendos, metaphors and subliminal messages to deliver the truths that he discovers along the way; truths on love, life and relationships. In Repeat, you can hardly guess that he is actually speaking of maintaining a relationship in our modern world, fueled with desire and counteracted by a lack of soul-to-soul understanding. For Bones, his inspiration comes from the people surrounding him, and to lay a beat as a foundation for heavy loaded lyrics to sway over. He grew up listening to the likes of Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, moved by the sounds of Soul, Jazz and Funk from the 70’s and 80’s on vinyl. And of course, WuTang Clan, A Tribe Called Quest, Al Green and Otis Redding also rank highly on his list affirming his eclectic capabilities. Jungle Brown release their own work digitally and have pressed their album on vinyl. For them, it was necessary to have a variety of mediums to appeal to a wider range of people, for those who want a quick sound, yet also for those who take their time “digging.”

We dabble in and out of life stories, and the realistic necessity of an artist to maintain a part-time day job. This exact reality falls under Bones’ theory that we are living in a parallel universe, where we are constantly debating within ourselves, between our reality, experience and our imagination. Remember Froot Loops? Bones was so sure that it was always Fruit Loops, a mere example from countless similar stories of how easily we can be misguided, enwrapped in our own ideas with a loss of sense, self-awareness and vision of what is actually around us. And so, it is through their music that they try to represent the truth that is at times greater and grander than other ideologies. Their unconventional backgrounds “from a typical rapper” means that their stories within themselves are different, and they represent the truth as it is, giving life to their ideas.

Jungle Brown will unveil their second album soon. For Flight 314 –

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/flight-314/id1057510917

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