“For me, the best part is just the fact that we could quit our everyday jobs and concentrate on the music full-time,” Locksmith states. “Trying to bring out an album at this stage is pretty amazing too. You’d never think you’d get to travel so much and get the chance to see so many countries. Actually, you never think that – I’m still amazed that we’ve even been able to leave the UK, to be honest. You just sort of don’t allow yourself to even consider it because it seems unattainable for such a long time. You’re just this kid from Hackney or whatever, and for the longest time that’s what you’re used to – how would you even consider the possibility that you’d get to do what we’re doing now?”
Understandably then, DJing on the other side of planet Earth seemed even more impossible to Locksmith who claims Rudimental are still pinching themselves that they’ll be visiting Australia this month. While familiar with all the clichés which foreigners often tend to associate with our country – there is some mention of “snakes and sharks” and Locksmith adds he is particular wary of “crazy spiders” – the DJ admits that the band is coming into our territory pretty much blind-folded.
“No idea, mate,” Locksmith laughs. “Nah, to be fair, I think we are coming in at it blind, but we do know that it’s a scene that is pretty similar to the UK from what we’ve been told. But, yeah, mostly we’re coming in with our eyes closed. It looks beautiful, though, it looks like an amazing country. Sorry, but crazy spiders come to mind straight away… But, we’re still coming in with an open mind! Because we haven’t been outside of Europe yet, the most interesting place for us so far has been Croatia. We never realised it has such a vibrant rave music scene out there and it’s such a beautiful countries too, the people are beautiful and lovely and there are always festivals going on over there. It was such a crazy vibe. I was really surprised to realise that so many people from the UK go up there just to let their hair down and just dance and party.”
In Australia, Rudimental’s fan-base is growing fast. In fact, while in the UK their smash hit single Feel The Love hit the single and dance charts at number one upon its release, over in Australia, they continued to smash it by hitting number one on the iTunes singles and dance charts, as well as peaking at number three on the ARIA singles and national airplay charts… Apparently, this is the first Locksmith has heard of it.
“What?” he shrieks. “Is that right? There you go. What do I say to that? No idea… I knew the song did well but I didn’t know the details. I think it’s just the energy of a track that is really important at the core. It’s definitely one of the essential bits of a track, it’s what actually attracts people to it. The lyrics are also really uplifting and positive and then you’ve got the trumpet coming in solo… There are just so many different elements in that song that come together and work together. I’ll tell you a secret – even now when we hear the track on the radio, we still find ourselves singing it a couple of hours later, it just sticks in our heads. There’s definitely something addictive about the song, you just start singing it without even realising you’re doing it.”
As Locksmith agrees, Feel The Love kicked in the doors and placed Rudimental firmly on the world’s electronic music map, but it’s also been a bit of a double-edged sword. While the success it brought to the group has been quite astonishing, it’s also raised the stakes in many ways, especially when it comes to the band’s forthcoming debut album.
“You’ve got to live up to that the next time around,” Locksmith points out. “Not only that, but you’ve got to continue to live up to your next move, and so on. It was such a cool thing to have people like Zane Lowe and Pete Tong really get behind you, they really loved this track…But it was also really scary because these are some really big names and they were wanting to take us under their wing. When people like that put their trust into your track, man, you don’t want to let them down. At the same time, you do feel that you deserve it because you’ve been working so hard for so long. Kesi [Dryden], Piers [Agget] and myself grew up with each other and we’ve always shared the same interests since we were kids, whether it was music, sport – we love football! – and even girls, if you like…I remember us waiting outside clubs at 4am, giving out CDs in the pouring rain to whoever walked past…”
Which is why Rudimental’s recent success has been long-time coming, according to Locksmith. That hard work is finally paying off but the challenge still remains – proving to the world that Feel The Love was anything but a one-hit wonder.
“We’ve got a lot more in the bag,” he insists. “All the things that have happened up until this day have been so new and fresh to us, it’s very exciting and we just want more of it! But we don’t plan on just sitting on the success of this one track, we’re not just a flash in the pan. We’ve got an album coming up soon, it’s coming along really smoothly and it’s one of those records that hasn’t really been done before. I can’t say too much about it yet but I can tell you that it’s so many different genres mashed in. It kind of starts off slow with a hip hop feel, then moves into house and then D&B… It’ll be really interesting to see how the fans take to it because we’ve only so far had success with one song which was at the D&B tip.”
And although Rudimental are bringing us a set with a difference – the upcoming Australian tour will see them perform a DJ set as opposed to a full-blown show – we will have the privilege of being among the first to get an indication of the album’s direction, according to Locksmith.
“Right now we’re still looking at our live show to see how we can show the world what we do in the best way possible. We’ve got quite a lot of live tours coming up before the end of the year but we’ve decided that next year we will definitely be in the full-swing of the live performance. We’re right into playing instruments as well, as we’ve all got instrumental backgrounds, so we’re definitely going to incorporate that into the live show. Kesi and Piers have been making music together for a few years now, and I was DJing on my own for a while, then Amir [Amor] came into the picture after we collaborated on some tracks together. So, basically, we ended up with a group that was four producers combining their skills, but all with a different musical background. We’re so across the board. I’m more into old school garage and house and the boys come from hip hop and R&B. We all like everything in between too, from The Fugees and Dr Dre to Sly & The Family Stone, James Blake and Mumford & Sons. It sounds really random but when it comes together it just clicks.”
BY BIRDIE
