Rudimental: We've learnt to vibe on the chaos

With their highly anticipated debut album ‘Home’ set for release on 29th April, we got a chance to speak to the guys behind Rudimental, and try to find out what makes them tick, what we can look forward to with the album, and also how they’ve dealt with their meteoric rise to the top.

How did Rudimental begin?

We have all worked in and around studios making music in Hackney from our early teens. We actually came together as a foursome two years ago when Amir joined the band – Kesi, Leon and Piers had been making music and pirate radio shows together before then. When we came together one of the first tracks we made was ‘Spoons’, after that we made ‘Feel The Love’ and since then we’ve been writing and recording our debut album.

Your live shows are often described as carnival-esque, how did this style of performance come about?

The four of us all play musical instruments – guitars, keys, Hammond organ, percussion - so there’s already a lot going on on stage. Then we’ve also got a trumpet player, two vocalists and a drummer, so when we do our live show it’s actually eight or nine people on stage! And we’re all good friends, so we’re all having a good time on stage and it looks like a party. We vibe off the crowd too - the crowd play a massive part in our music. It’s like being in a carnival in Notting Hill, it really does sum up the vibe of our live shows.

What was the approach you took for the new album?

We ended up writing half of it on the road, 'Waiting All Night', was made in a hotel room in Glasgow! So as well as being inspired by our home in Hackney and all the different musical influences we grew up with – hip hop, drum and bass, jungle, soul - it ended up being inspired by festivals as well.

We actually recorded a lot of the instruments back onto the track from the live set. The great thing about this approach is that when we performed some of the tracks live, we started to get new ideas from the reaction of the crowd. This means a lot to us as the fans have had a really important part to play in the creation of our debut album. You can actually hear some of the screams and shouts from the crowd if you listen to some of the tracks carefully.

So we actually want to say a big thank you to the fans out there, because you’re on the album; you’re a part of it!

How do you handle your collective stardom? What, if anything, has changed?

The biggest change is the lack of sleep we get these days! But it’s all good - we’re hard workers. We’ve learned to vibe on the chaos. The best time to make music sometimes is when you come off stage and you’re buzzing. We still take London transport, or ride our bike to work. Nothing’s really changed. It’s integral to us to stay true to where we come from. It’s a part of our sound, that’s a part of the reason that we called our album ‘Home’.

So which artists excite you the most?

I read in the Metro today that Shuggie Otis is back! He’s a big soul artist that we’re influenced by. In terms of our live act, we take inspiration from artists as varied as Parliament Funkadelic to Major Lazer, hence the eclectic carnival vibe on stage. Musically, we all come from music backgrounds so we get excited by so many different artists and genres - it’s hard to sum it up in one sentence! We grew up loving the UK club culture, pirate radio DJs, jungle, garage but at the same time blues, guitars, organs and above all, soul… so our sound, our inspiration – is a combination of all of those things.

Thank you Rudimental!

Rudimental's album is available to pre-order here.

Catch Rudimental performing right throughout the summer at festivals such as Latitude Festival (18th-21st July), and Global Gathering (26th-27th July).

Get your tickets now before they sell out!