Luminites are a mixed group of males and females, aged between 17-22 from different parts of London. They were put together as a band, when Ben was discovered beatboxing on the streets of London by their now band management, and the rest is history. The band have been together for a few years now, working on building a fanbase by continuing to busk on the streets, and performing on school and club tours. I went down to meet them for dinner in Shoreditch to get to know them better and watch them perform live at an event. Afterwards I talked to them about how they met, how the band work together, their friendship and most importantly their music.

Firstly tell me the story behind Luminites, how did you guys get together?
JJ: The guys who are managing us they spotted Ben and were blown away by his beatboxing talent. They had a chat with Ben to see how they could channel his talent, and they had a few ideas. One of them, which they ended up going with, was Ben helping with finding a group of people to put together. I know Anthony (one of their managers) because my school is right next to his office, and I heard him speaking to one of my friends about music, and it was something I wanted to get involved in. They found us all in different ways, I sang in front of Anthony in his office.
Ella: I was at a small showcase night at a jazz café and they found me there.
Corey: I put loads of stuff on YouTube, and the managers spotted me whilst flicking through there.
Steph: I went along to a rehearsal with my friend to show my support. Anthony asked me to sing and I was like no because I’ve never sung before, and it just went from there really.
JJ: It wasn’t 100% that it was going to go that way, we work shopped some ideas, and we all loved each others sound, so we thought lets go for it, lets get the band together.
Did you gel straight away?
Ben: It was weird because usually when you put a group of such different people together usually there’s always a clash, even families everyone argues. We’ve all got along very well for some reason. I think that’s why we’ve stayed together and things are going well.
Ella: It’s a good thing we’re all different.
JJ: There was no gelling process. The second that we met each other we all had something in common, and the conversation got rolling straight away. It was really nice.
Ben: Where we all have different inspirations, we all have our own input. Imagine five people wanting to put into 1 idea; we all have to come to some agreement.
Ella: We know each other better now, so we know what works.
What do you all do to kick back and relax together?
JJ: We chill with each other, we like to have a laugh and we skateboard a lot. Were all really into skateboarding. The girls are all really good at it (laughs).
Explain your roles to me.
JJ: I play the keyboard and I’m also a vocalist.
Ben: I beatbox and rap, I’m like our drum kit.
Ella: I’m a vocalist
Steph: I’m a vocalist as well
Corey: I play guitar and rap, and I try to do a little bit of beatboxing.
How would you describe your sound?
Ben: (sings) ahhhhhhhhh
JJ: When it comes to our live performances we like really stripped back music. We use our keys, we use an acoustic guitar and vocal harmonies, and that’s one of main aspects.
Ella: It’s a bit edgy.
Ben: I’ve not seen many groups that have a beatboxer, that’s what makes us different.
JJ: It’s a unique element what Ben brings to the band, his percussion sounds aren’t meant to replicate that much of a proper drum kit. He’s got sound effects, synthy sounds and scratchy sounds.
Your initial performances was busking at London’s main tourist attractions, how did people react to you?
Ella: They gave us really good support. Considering nobody has to stop and they do, were proper grateful.

How different is street performing to club and school tour performances?
Ben: Clubs we use more backing tracks, schools we usually strip it back and it’s calmer.
Ella: They’re both wicked but in totally different ways. Schools are wicked because the kids are buzzing, they’ve come out of class, and they’ve seen a new band. With kids they love the latest things, they like to know something before everyone else, if some thinks in fashion next week, then they want one today. That’s what we love about them, they give us great support.
JJ: It’s nice because school kids don’t tend to see live bands. They enjoy it when they see a band come in and play.
Ben: They follow us on Facebook the school kids.
Any funny stories from your street performances?
Corey: We were doing a gig in Trafalgar Square, and this, guy he must have been about 50, he was obviously drunk because he was all over the place. He came and stood next to me, we were in the middle of a song, and he rocked along to it in front of everyone that was watching. Then he thought it would be funny to try and play my guitar while I was playing it. That was really weird.
JJ: We had another one outside Covent Garden, it was right outside the tube station and it was immediately after work, and there were loads of office guys drinking and stuff. It was really good; they appeared to be really enjoying themselves. Then we had to police officer’s come up to us and stop us. They got a bit ratty with us. Ben asked the crowd “Do you want us to stop?” Everyone was like “no no.” These police officers weren’t happy about it at all and pulled us to the side and said, “if your going to be like this we will arrest you.”
Ben: Westminster council has always been my biggest problem when it comes to busking. Everytime they come up there’s 2 of them and there was this one woman who came along and she had these pigtails and tried to stop our show, but we didn’t pay much attention.
Steph: There were so many people on our side booing her.
You recently started to write and record material, how does this work, as there are 5 of you?
JJ: We all have different ideas. We sit down and write some pieces and share our ideas, some are better than others, and my ones are usually the worst ones. We come to an agreement and we structure it like that, so it all fits and ties in together nicely.
Ben: If we’re doing a cover for an example, I’ll go home and learn the beats, Corey will go and learn the melody with his guitar, and the other 3 guys will learn the harmonies and the lyrics, then we come together and make our own arrangements.
Ella: Sometimes we make stuff up as we’re going, and we’re like ah that sounds good, we’ll put that in.
Ben: Even tracks that we’ve got finished we always have this thing were its not finished till it’s finished. Were still working on tracks that we think we’d finished a few months back.
JJ: You just think there are always things that need improving.
Is there a leader of the group?
All answer: No
Ella: There are 5 big personalities in one band
Ben: No-one’s the leader.
JJ: Everyone’s on a par with each other.
You have done a few cover tracks including Rihanna’s ‘Talk That Talk’ and Katy Perry’s ‘Part of Me’, how do you decide what tracks to cover?
JJ: We like ones that are relatively new. We do up-tempo’s, mid and some slow ones. It’s what we like the most, we all go home and research tracks, and when we come back we all chip in. If we’re all feeling it, we’ll say yes lets arrange it, and record it and stick it up on the Internet.
Ben: We all listen to different types of music. I might come in and say I like this hip hop track, Corey might say I like this rock track and the girls might like a Beyoncé track.
Individually what do you all listen to?
Corey: I like reggae, hip hop and rock
JJ: I like hip hop and stuff like Chris Brown, Eminem and Ed Sheeran.
Ben: I listen to mainly hip hop, some dubstep and drum n bass for beats, just whatever I can beatbox, dance and rap to.
Ella: I like something for absolutely everything. There’s not a genre of music where I can’t take at least one song.
Steph: I like bashment and D’banj and Leanne Rhymes and people like that.
Tell us about your recent track ‘Gotta Get Into It.’
Corey: It’s about chatting up a girl. It gives the listener both points of view. The woman whose getting chatted up, and the guy who’s chatting the woman up. The guys rap what the dude would feel in the situation.
Ben: The girls are saying you got to try harder, I’ve heard all this stuff before and it’s just not going to work for me.
JJ: Because we’re a mixed band we thought it would be cool to do the two point of view thing. There are so many boy bands and girl bands, but there’s not many mixed. Where the boys are quite cheeky we thought that concept would work, and the girls are like nah I’m not having it.
Ella: That’s what we’re like as well.
Ben: It’s a real reflection of us in a way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eguiddaFH28
What does the future hold for Luminites?
Ella: Just gigging really.
JJ: We don’t get anymore of a buzz than we do when we’re out performing, on the stage live.
Ben: That was my thing about busking you can set up anywhere and you don’t know what’s going to happen, you could get a crowd of 200-300 people. You’ve stopped a big crowd of people without telling them to stop. For them to stop enjoy it and clap it makes you feel good.
JJ: We don’t do things in half, we put everything into it, so in 5 years time if we could be at the 02, which would be amazing. We’ve just got to keep working hard and see where it takes us.
MTV Wrap Up Interview: Roll Deep [Interview]
The legendary Roll Deep Crew are back with a bang with the new mixtape ‘No Comment Star’, which hears them take their sound back to grime. The mixtape features the likes of Jammer and Opium and production from G Tank, Swifta Beater and more in the lead up to their album ‘10’. The Wrap Up’s Shireen Fenner was joined by some of the group’s members to talk early days, evolution, and fans…
The Wrap Up: For those who don’t know about Roll Deep, can you tell us how you formed?
Roll Deep: Roll Deep was a collective of friends and family that have grown up in the same area, just a family thing. Music wasn’t always the profession; we were just street people. In around 2000, Roll Deep was at the forefront of the grime scene and as we had Wiley in the group – obviously that helped! Later on, we got a record deal and got some commercial success with tunes like ‘Shake A Leg’. We had two no.1’s in 2010. Today is about the ‘No Comment Star’ mixtape – a couple members have grown up and other members have left, but it’s still the core.
TWU: There are currently nine members in Roll Deep. How do you decide who should be on what track?
Roll Deep: We don’t, it just happens naturally. It’s just whoever comes the strongest; the strongest survive basically. Sometimes not everyone likes the same song. Tania’s not on the mixtape because of the style of music, so it all depends on what’s needed when.
TWU: Members of the crew have changed and left in the 10 years you have been around. Has this affected the group and has it made it stronger?
Roll Deep: We’ve gone grey and wrinkly [laughs]. We are stronger, because we’re growing and learning every day. The core is still there, that’s never changed – Roll Deep is Roll Deep. Whoever comes and goes, the name is still Roll Deep and that’s what we’re representing.
TWU: I assume you’re all good friends. What do you do when you’re not in the studio recording in your free time together?
Roll Deep: Sex. McDonalds. Paintballing. We don’t do anything abnormal to the regular person that doesn’t make music. I can go to the shop on my own; I don’t need the whole crew holding my hand. We live regular lives outside of music.
TWU: How do you make sure you stay relevant with the ever-evolving underground dance scene?
Roll Deep: We stay in the loop. We are making all types of music as well. Regarding the underground scene, it’s not something we try to be a part of, we didn’t try to make a grime scene, we didn’t try to do new music, it’s just who we are and we just know how to express it. If we stay original with what we do, we are always going to be relevant.
TWU: How would you define Roll Deep and your sound now as you have grown over the years?
Roll Deep: I don’t think we have a particular sound because we do so many different types of music. At the end of the day we are artists who enjoy making music. People say ‘When I’m Ere’ wasn’t our sound, but we’ve got different styles. From then till now it’s just progressed, we’ve branched out and done more things from when we were just grime – now were versatile.
TWU: How do you feel when your fans say ‘this tune isn’t Roll Deep?’
Roll Deep: You’re not Roll Deep either! People that say them things don’t understand the music industry. People are like ‘grime grime grime,’ but they don’t buy the tune when we bring it out. We are going to make sure we push our CD ‘No Comment Star’ and that’s got some songs on there that will shut some people up and answer a lot of questions that people have been asking like, ‘Can they do grime still? Are they still good?’
TWU: Recently in an interview Nas said ‘we don’t chase pop, pop chases us.’ How do you feel about this statement and do you agree?
Roll Deep: Yeah we didn’t choose music; music chose us [all laugh]. That statement is a good statement though, I never looked at it like that. When I check it, it does look like that. We were Roll Deep, doing our thing on the underground, a major label came to us and saw that and said ‘we want to bring that to another level.’ We weren’t chasing a deal, it came to us.
TWU: What is the funniest or weirdest thing a fan has ever done or said to you?
Roll Deep: Some have got tattoos of our lyrics; people bring gifts to the building and just wait for us to turn up. Last year when we were on tour, people brought us collages of our albums that they made and cookies and stuff. I don’t eat anything that’s given to me, but we are just polite and say thank you. It’s cool; they’re just showing appreciation at the end of the day. Obviously you’re touching their lives in some way, but I’m not touching their food!
TWU: You’ve been doing press all day now, what’s the best question you’ve been asked and what is the most annoying question?
Roll Deep: ‘Where’s Wiley? Who is in Roll Deep?’ We don’t know the answer to either of them questions. The best question today has been ‘foreplay or f**k’? I just said no comment star…
TWU: Speaking of ‘No Comment Star’, the mixtape goes back to your grime roots. Why did you make this decision?
Roll Deep: Roll Deep are a collective of versatile artists who do different things, who just make music generally and appreciate all types of music. We always engage in that. People act like this is our first grime mixtape, but it’s not the case. We are always in a position where we can’t win, so we don’t try to impress anyone, we just do what we do. You can never please everyone.
TWU: What can we expect on the album?
Roll Deep: It’s called ‘10’, obviously to celebrate 10 years of Roll Deep – it’s got a range of stuff. It is a mash up of everything, but at a higher quality than a mixtape. We have got grimier ones that are high quality and better mix downs. Agent X is on there, so is S-X, Swindle, Wide Boys… there’s a range of people and music on there. We’re still waiting for the date, but it will be out this year.
‘No Comment Star’ is available to download now.
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