Say ‘Rudimental’ and you instantly think of drum & bass; the English d&b band signed to Asylum Records which consists of Piers Aggett, Amir Amor, Kesi Dryden and Leon Rolle.
A recipient of several awards, including the Brit Award and the Mobo award for best album, Rudimental has also been nominated several times for a Mercury Prize in 2013 as well as the MTV Europe Music Awards for Best New Act, and Best UK and Ireland act, achieving multiple Platinum awards for record sales globally including the UK and Australia.
Among their best tracks are ‘Spoons’, ‘Waiting All Night’, ‘Feel The Love’, and ‘Not Giving In’.
Along with this impressive list of achievements, Rudimental were set to debut in Malaysia back in 2014 at the Future Music Festival. The show however, was cancelled at the last minute following several deaths that took place within the festival grounds.
That did not deter them, though. They made a strong comeback this year with Urbanscapes — Malaysia’s Creative Arts Festival — and they had an amazing concert at KL Live on May 1.
Not just that. They also played an extended set along with local stars at the intimate Urbanscapes Hotel Takeover exclusive party. Meanwhile, I had the exciting opportunity to ask them a few questions and get to know them on a more personal level.
What stands out the most about being on tour in Asia?
The best thing about our job is the chance to try the (different kinds of) food and see different cultures; to see the nice markets. And it’s always good to see the crowd, which is slightly different from back home. We were really excited about coming in to Malaysia because last time, we were scheduled to play here it got cancelled. We are especially excited to try some curries.
If you had a chance to sit in on a recording session, the people being dead or alive, who would it be?
Lauryn Hill and Prince
Your first album was absolutely amazing, what happened with your last album? It wasn’t as raw as the first and sounded more commercial.
Well, we’ve been touring for a lot, and the last album came from being on the road for the last two years and actually playing what we played live or what we felt worked live. It also had a lot of funk influence because we are big fans of George Clinton, Otis Redding, and so on.
Were you following some kind of trend?
When we made the first album, we didn’t know we were going to do it for a massive crowd, for lots of shows. Naturally, getting to the second album, it (has been) more about our process.
The second album is probably more closer to what we are in terms of the types of music we love. Every song and every album is going to be a journey, and our second album was following our journey on the road. It will definitely keep evolving.
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