UK drum & bass quartet Rudimental will return to Australia later this year to tour their chart-topping debut album, Home.
Rudimental appeared seemingly out of nowhere in early 2012 with the release of their single 'Feel the Love', which entered the UK charts at number one. But lead songwriter and producer Piers Aggett says the transition from relative obscurity to successful musician wasn't something that happened overnight.
“We've actually been making music together for about six or seven years, but people must have felt like we appeared out of nowhere. It felt really inspiring because we were so adamant that we would crack onto writing and releasing more music. Life's definitely changed a lot. We haven't had a day off in over a year and we don't want one because we're touring the world and playing music and writing music in the studio; we're living our dream. Now we have the opportunity to work with people we couldn't have worked with before and we're getting used to the touring lifestyle and living away from home.”
The Rudimental signature sound is a melting pot of musical and cultural influences which defy any singular genre. Piers attributes the band's indefinable yet universal musical style to the multicultural community of Hackney in London where he grew up.
“Growing up in Hackney on my street I had lots of different cultures surrounding me – There'd be an Irish family with like 15 cute kids living in the house next door to me and an African family across the road, and they'd all blare different music out of their windows during the summer. You'd get Irish folk coming out of one window then reggae and drum & bass coming out of another, then there would be a little house party down the street that would be playing garage. It kind of makes you who you are and when we make music we use those influences.
“We grew up with rave culture and going to clubs and listening to things like jungle, drum & bass, garage, house, dubstep and American hip hop. I think first and foremost when we write music we do it like a band so we tend to write the songs first and then put the electronic side of things on afterwards, but I think a lot of people think it starts with a laptop. Our influences are so varied, we love soul music — Marvin Gaye and Otis Redding. We were weird little kids that had Dizzee Rascal and blues and jazz music on our iPods and I think that all naturally comes out when we're together.”
Rudimental have also demonstrated a knack for making music videos; 'Feel The Love' currently has almost 21 million hits on YouTube. Filmed on the streets of downtown Philadelphia, the video documents the Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club – a community project which teaches local youths how to ride and take care of horses.
“It's got a sense of reality and a sense of community. It's about choosing the right path and finding positivity in what people might perceive as stressful or dark places. We could do a video in a club with loads of girls dancing around or we could do something a bit more interesting with real characters. We're quite picky about not getting any actors in and making it authentic. 'Feel The Love' was filmed at a horse project in the ghetto with kids off the street and it was a theme that touched quite close to home for us because we've been involved in community centres.”
Whilst Rudimental plans to continue touring 'Feel The Love' internationally, Piers says that a follow up album can be expected sometime in the not too distant future.
“We've been putting in some lightning sessions this year and we've got a few ideas in the pipeline. We don't really want to take days off or holidays, when we try to do that we always just want to get back in the studio because we're bored. The ethos of Rudimental will always be about finding new artists and breaking new acts so the next album will definitely have some new talent that we've been fishing out of the pond from wherever that is, whether it be Australia, America, England or Europe. Wherever we can find it, it's just anything that inspires us.”
Rudimental will play the following shows in Australia:
Fri Sep 13 — Metro City (Perth)Wed Sep 18 — UC Refectory (Canberra)
Thu Sep 19 — HQ Complex (Adelaide)
Fri Sep 20 — Eatons Hill Hotel (Brisbane)
Sat Sep 21 — Festival Hall (Melbourne)
Tue Sep 24 — Enmore Theatre (Sydney)
Home is out now.
