Rudimental Interview 2016

Things to do in Brisbane, Book Here

Unlock Massive Savings When You Book Online!

 

Twilight Climb (Most Popular)

Book Now

Whale Watching Adventure

Book Now

Twilight Kayak Adventure

Book Now

Fiesta De Kayak

Book Now

Brisbane Street Games – Wizard Game

Book Now

Art talks with Birrunga Wiradyuri

Book Now

They were only in Australia at the end of 2015, but Rudimental have already announced a return to our shores with a tour this May. Playing five shows including a hop over to New Zealand, we can’t wait to see the lads return to put on epic performances we’ve come to know and love them for. We caught up with Piers Agget to find out what they have in store this time around and how preparations are going for album three.

Travel to Western Australia

So, six months after your last Australian tour, you’re making your return; could you just not wait to come back?
I think so, yeah. It’s such a nice part of the world – it’s one of my favourite places to come to. Not just because the country’s so beautiful but the people are great. I can’t really speak highly enough of it! Every time I’ve been, we’ve had such a good time. Australia’s always supported us from the beginning so we love it.

Is there anywhere that you haven’t been that you would be keen to?
The one place I haven’t visited is the north, like Darwin. I have a cousin that used to live there and he told me about the crocodiles… I’ve been to Perth and Sydney – I’ve done those cities – but I’d like to check out what’s happening up north.

You’re all so much fun on stage, working with the crowd and bringing fellow musicians and singers with you; does that energy and togetherness continue off the stage?
Yeah, we’re all genuine friends and, when you tour with a band, you become like a family. When we come off tour, we end up missing each other and you end up hanging out with each other anyway. Pretty much how we are on stage is how we are. The reason why I run around like a madman is because I genuinely am a bit crazy. I’m loud; I’m the class clown. We’ve all got our own personalities and our live show is basically an exaggeration of our personalities through the music.

The four of you gel so well together that we recognise Rudimental as one, a whole, but do you each have specific roles?
We all have our talents; I’m good on the keyboards and writing; Kesi’s good at drums and keyboards; Amir’s good on guitar and producing. I think album two meshed them together and we all did different things and learnt a lot. We’re better musicians from the live show and I don’t really know what all of our roles are except we’re just a really good team. Amir’s a great producer – that’s one of his big talents. Personally, I like to bring things together, so I’ll grab something from Kesi, do something to it and then give it to Amir and then take it off Amir and give it to Leon and take it back off Leon! Everyone has their role but it does change. It’s definitely the most fun and exciting thing I’ve ever worked on and I feel lucky to have found these people because we disagree and argue healthily, and we’re all very like-minded in what we believe in and what we want.

Does that come through with each of your personalities?
Yeah, we’ve grown up together, so that’s really helped. Our personalities have changed and we’ve learnt off each other. We’ve learnt how to live with each other on a bus. We’ve learnt how to piss each other off and how to not piss each other off! We’re still together and we’re pretty strong.

At the start of Rudimental, it seemed important to you all to represent and share the sound of London, is it still that way today?
You can’t deny where you’re from and no matter what we do, London will always be in us, that’s why the house, jungle, garage and bass influence is always there. That’s always going to ooze out of us anytime we make music. But, naturally as a band, we’re going to change and we have changed. I feel like our second album is more soulful and, I don’t know where we’re gonna be in album seven, but I think it’s gonna be a really different place to album one. I can see us creating our own genre, hopefully! Particularly, as a band, none of us are the lead singer, so it’s even more fun because we can meet new singers and reinvent ourselves with every album, and that’s the whole point – we’re constantly looking for and nurturing new talent and bringing them on the road, it’s like the Rudimental school. We’ve actually already been writing the new album already. So who knows, you might get a new album pretty soon.

Do you have vocalists already in mind?
We’ve been working in the studio and writing and Googling people and thinking, “She’s got an amazing voice”, but that’s naturally something that we do every day. We love to find new talent so we’re always on the lookout for the next Ella Eyre, the next MNEK. What’s exciting about our job is that we can work with someone that inspires us as well as us helping them. I grew up listening to ‘60s and ‘70s soul from my mum and dad, so a good vocalist and a soulful voice is really important to us.

You mentioned about creating your own genre, so what would you call it?
Hybrid soul funk bass – that’s off the top of my head!

Cool! So, have you been on the road while writing?
We do have a touring studio that we set up – we did that in Australia on the last tour. Sometimes, you can wake up and be like, “I need to make a beat today” because you haven’t written a song or done anything creative for a week, and I feel a bit sick. You can make something, but it’s a different headspace to be back in the comfort of your home and get into that writing mentality and finishing songs. Finishing songs is really hard; it’s nice to be back and writing because we haven’t done that for a while.

Travel’s obviously a big part of what you guys do. Does it inspire you much creatively?
Just seeing parts of the world inspires you, but then also meeting different types of people from different cultures, you get to understand a little bit more and compare the way you live and the way others live. I always wanted to travel and luckily I’ve had the chance to travel with my job, and it goes hand in hand. Music is so different all around the world; you go to South Africa and your mind will be blown by the rhythms, and the same with Jamaica, and you can meet up with producers in Australia and they’ll bring a whole new way of thinking.

So where have been some of the most unexpected places that you’ve taken Rudimental to?
Cape Town and Johannesburg in South Africa were the most… Just to see black people and white people in the same crowd and being very multicultural, that was quite amazing. I’ve been to places in Eastern Europe that really took me back in terms of our music travelling to places I didn’t think it would. Even places like Australia – it’s so far away!

Looking ahead, the UK and European festival line-ups are slowly being announced; where can we see you back home this summer?
We’ve actually just announced the line-up for our own festival with Disclosure called Wild Life in Brighton. We’ve been working on that for a few months and it’s got Ice Cube, Skepta, Earth Wind & Fire – so I can’t wait. It’s something we’ve been working on for a while. We’re not going to be doing too many festivals this year; it’s going to be more about writing so we can deliver another album.

Rudimental Australia & New Zealand Tour 2016

Wednesday 4th May – Vector Arena, Auckland
Saturday 7th May – Riverstage, Brisbane
Sunday 8th May – Hordern Pavilion, Sydney
Tuesday 10th May – Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne
Wednesday 11th May – Adelaide Entertainment Centre Theatre, Adelaide

By Charlotte Mellor

@cmellor_03

Need Help With Your Australian Visa

Explore Darwin, Northern Territory