Limelight: Jung People

Canadian post-rockers Jung People, formed by childhood friends Bryan Buss and Jordan Bassi, started their musical journey as a duo in 2011.

For their first proper full-length album Gold Bristle, the pair collaborated with recording engineer and producer Howard Bilerman (whose past credits include Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Arcade Fire) and began to incorporate more elements into their sound: violins, keyboards and double bass.

It wasn’t long before they expanded to add these elements to their live shows, too.

“We really loved working with just the two of us, and we didn’t try to overlay too much information as we wanted to perform it live as a duo as well,” explains Buss. “But then we started writing other layers and instruments we’d been wanting to experiment with. These songs needed those instruments, so we got our long-time friend Darren [Young, double bassist] and a few other friends to join and turn Jung People into what it is now.”

The band’s live show is a constantly shifting spectacle, and their line-up is rarely the same from one gig to the next. They range from performances with six instrumentalists to simply Buss and Bassi as a duo, and as such their audiences never know quite to expect. Jung People tease the listener through an ever-changing musical landscape, inspiring tales and pictures in the mind of their audience. “We try to play with dynamics,” says Buss, “and make the audience feel a sense of moment, where things are so small, and moments where things are overbearing, and use that to give them a cinematic experience.”

Jung People’s next musical venture takes this one step further, as they work on the soundtrack for upcoming sc-fi film release Empyrean, which is arguably their most involved and complex work yet. Jung People are composing and recording the full soundtrack for the movie, incorporating not only all of the band members, but also five members of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra to add yet further dimension to their work.

Empyrean should be out before the summer with the album soundtrack to follow shortly after, and Jung People are planning to make their first UK visit by this time next year.

“Hopefully we’re going to try and put that together this coming year, either in fall or next spring,” says Buss. “We’re a fully DIY project, from planning tours to packaging and sending out our own music, and while that’s very challenging, it’s also hugely rewarding. We have good links with the UK, so it’s about time we come over to appreciate what the UK has to offer.” FH