There are bands that are best suited to studio work and there are bands that are best seen live. Then there’s Rudimental, a rare breed of talented young musicians whose natural knack for mixing genres can be enjoyed anywhere, anytime.
Hailing from East London, the quartet has become known for their soulful drum and bass sound and infusing a good dosage of swelling instrumentation that never becomes too congested or contrived. They soared to No. 1 with both singles, Feel the Love (ft. John Newman) and Waiting all Night (ft. Ella Eyre) off their debut album, Home, helping both vocalists make a name for themselves.
On tour, however, is where the magic truly happens.
“The live show is pretty epic,” keyboardist Piers Agget told tabloid! over the phone. “We’ve got 10 people on stage — we’ve got three singers, a drummer, a guitar section and us four members of Rudimental playing our instruments, so it’s quite a party. It’s a big party on stage.”
Agget and his three bandmates, Kesi Dryden, Amir Amor and Leon “DJ Locksmith” Rolle, played Dubai’s Sandance just last year alongside disco legend Nile Rodgers. On Friday, the Rudimental boys are returning to the Atlantis event for another go with Clean Bandit, Empire of the Sun, Axwell ^ Ingrosso and De La Soul.
“When you hear the record, and then you come to see us live, you understand the band more and you get something a little bit different,” Agget said. “It’s all about the live instrumentation and vocals, rather than focusing on technology and visuals that other acts might do.”
Ahead of their show, he filled tabloid! in on what makes Rudimental so distinctive, and whether or not they’re planning to launch more up-and-coming vocalists with their sophomore album.
Between the four of you, how many instruments can you play?
I’m a keyboard player, Kesi plays percussion and keys, Leon plays keys, and Amir plays guitar and keys as well, so we’re a bit interesting. It’s something we’ve always wanted to do, growing up wanting to mix these live instruments.
You have various different vocalists on your songs. Who tours with you?
If we’re in London, we might be able to get some of the original vocalists on the songs, but we have our touring vocalists Anne-Marie, Bridget Amofah and Thomas Jules. Obviously, we’ve got quite a lot of different vocalists on the album and there’s lots of different timbres and sounds, so those three vocalists represent that.
Did you find working with different vocalists on the record to be fun, or a challenge?
We’re producers and songwriters, so we love working and collaborating with lots of different people. I guess it makes it exciting, you know? When we make our records, we get to be really picky and get to make each track sound different with a different vocalist. I think that’s what keeps the album interesting.
What was the process like with the first album?
We didn’t really plan as much — it was kind of a natural thing. We were just making music with our friends. People like John Newman and Ella Eyre, they were all friends that we were meeting in London, networking, bumping into in pubs and stuff.
Do you have more established artists on the second one?
We’ve gone for some of the old artists who inspired us from when we were young, but I don’t think we meant to do that — it was kind of how things were presented to us. We worked with George Clinton [of Parliament-Funkadelic], which was amazing — we’re massive fans of him. We’ve also done some work with Steely Dan. We’ve been to the studio with Nas. We’ve just been to the studio with Nile Rodgers and we were making music with [him], so we’ve got some amazing legends on there.
But we’ve got some new artists we’re looking to launch… and some of the old singers as well, from the first album, like Elle Eyre, MNEK and John Newman. We’ve kept the essence of the first album, but we’ve widened the family, if you like. But we definitely haven’t gone with some obvious pop collaborations that might have [been presented to] us. We haven’t done any tracks with Justin Bieber.
No Justin Bieber, but will Ed Sheeran be on the new album?
We’ve just been touring with him, and we’ve got a track, Bloodstream, which we wrote together in LA last year, and it’s on his album, and it’s going to be on our album as well. We’ve got our own version of the track — that’s exciting. He’s a good friend.
What’s the most surreal moment you’ve had on tour so far?
There’s been quite a few. I think for me, personally — other band members might say something else — playing Glastonbury in the Pyramid stage, and having to walk off-stage halfway through because of the lightning that hit. That was pretty surreal, that whole ordeal. I’ve grown up watching that stage for years, so to get the chance to play it was definitely very surreal.
Do you get anxious beforehand, when you play something like Glasto?
Nerves never go away. But nerves happen in different ways now. I’m sure, as a band, we don’t get as nervous as we used to. We love big crowds before we get on stage now, but there’s those few gigs — and I think doing a show in London, back in your home, that always makes me nervous, because your family and friends are there.
Are you excited about the Sandance bill you’ll be joining?
I haven’t actually seen the bill yet. Who’s on the bill? Is it Clean Bandit? We’d been there last year with Nile Rodgers and Jamiroquai, which was amazing. The hotel that we stayed in was amazing.
