When the Fountain Hills High School marching band hits the field this season, they’ll be taking the audience on a musical journey through a vast wilderness.

“Welcome to the Jungle” is the theme for this year’s marching program, with each of the four songs that make up the show meant to give audience members a very specific experience.

Lorenzo Rivera (Band manager, mellophone), Grant Gibson (drum captain, center snare) and Carla Naranjo (drum major) said they’re all excited for this year’s marching show.

“It incorporates a lot of different genres of music, all tying back into the concept of a trip through the ungle,” Naranjo said. “For example, our first song, “Welcome to the Jungle,” is a rock song by Guns N’ Roses, and then we go into a song called “Extremis,” which is like a war song.”

Following the conflict of “Extremis,” listeners will travel through “Baba Yetu,” a song Naranjo said is lush and reminds you of an African Safari.

The fourth and final song from the set is “I want to be like you,” from Disney’s The Jungle Book.

“It really is a show that crosses a bunch of global, cultural areas,” Naranjo added.

According to Rivera, this is one of the rare instances of the FHHS taking a symphonic piece, “Extremis” and “Baba Yetu,” and turning into a marching piece, which should provide a unique sound in the middle of the show.

“Even ‘I want to be like you,’ is unique for our show, because it’s a jazz piece that’s been reworked for marching band,” Rivera continued.

Gibson continued.

“And then Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ is a rock song, so we’re pretty much doing four songs that weren’t written to be marching band songs,” he added. “The tempos are exciting. The first two songs are really intense and in your face, then in ‘Baba Yetu’ we calm down a little bit, and the ‘I want to be like you’ has a really strange structure to it. That makes it fun.”

The trio agreed that the whole show should be exciting for fans to see, mainly because it’s a unique combination.

“It’s so different from other shows we’ve marched to,” Naranjo said. “We don’t usually play such extreme music. We sort of went outside of the box this year, playing across so many different genres and formats. I think the audience is really going to enjoy it.”

As always, the band program is large and in charge on the FHHS campus, with about the same number of marching members as the big squad from 2015.

“We’ve got a lot of good freshmen coming up this year, too, and they’re really pulling through,” Gibson said. “I think the makeup of the band is really good and we will have a really good show.”

Add those new members to the experienced upperclassmen, and the trio said they’re expecting big things out of the 2016 marching season.

“I think we have so many members because of the community we create,” Naranjo added. “So many people are drawn to that. In band, we’re all so passionate and have the same goal. Then we work, work, work, work, work for it and, when the show is over, that feeling of ‘wow, I did it,’ is really rewarding.”

The band will add more numbers and choreography to the show as it progresses through the football season, so keep an eye out for the latest developments during halftime of home football games in the coming weeks.

“I want them to be flabbergasted,” Rivera said.

“You have to be a beast to do some of these tunes,” Gibson added. “I hope that vibe gets into the stands and they feel it, too.”

As for instructor Lynn Truby, she said she’s equally excited to see this year’s program come together.

“I hope [the audience] enjoys the theme, from the guard costumes to the music,” Truby said. “It’s sort of a little story in the jungle. This safari lands in the jungle and, at first, they think it’s great. But then they learn that there’s also danger in the jungle, which is the second song. All of a sudden, the third song is everything rising out of the ashes and the hope for the continuation of life. Then we end with a party in the jungle. The safari group is now a part of the jungle.”

Truby also agreed that, along with being a young group, she’s got a lot of talented musicians on her hands.

“We’ve got students who care about school and students who care about each other,” she added. “That makes it even more enjoyable for me. It makes it feel like all of the work that I’ve put in is appreciated and that they are willing to match it.

“I think it’s going to be a really good season.”