Tonight will see thousands of freshers descend onto the union for the annual Freshers’ Ball. Loads of great performers are set to take to the stage including Ms. Dynamite, Grandmaster Flash, Modestep, and Sub Focus. We were lucky enough to catch up with Britain’s Got Talent alumni Luminites earlier today about their plans for the big night.
So we’ve been listening to your new single ‘Do Something’ and it sounds like there’s a lot of different influences in there. Are there any bands or artists that are out that are influencing what you’re doing?
Steph: We like a lot of bands but we all have different music tastes so Corey will like…
Corey: …Rock, hip hop, rap, reggae, all kinds of big mixes and then you’ve got JJ that likes…
JJ: …Yeah the mainstream stuff like hip hop with commercial elements, like Chris Brown and Tinie Tempah, that sort of thing.
Steph: I love a lot of country music, and house music and reggae, I love a lot of that.
R-tizt: I like a lot of dubstep, my house, my hip hop, and some classical man!
JJ: And I think that’s what we want a lot of with our music, get every single influence that we have involved, so one song really won’t be the same as the one before. It’s always a different personality that’ll go into it.
Have those influences inspired you to do any covers? You’ve done quite a few in the past with Britain’s Got Talent and on YouTube.
Steph: Um, well at the minute we’re performing ‘Hurts So Good’ which is on the EP preorder with ‘Do Something’, so it’s like a little package for everyone.
R-tizt: And that was a special moment for us to be able to do that on BGT because that was our first audition, it got a great reaction, and then Simon said he liked the song, so for us that’s one of our favourite songs to cover.
‘Do Something’ is out on November 10th and you put out the video for it just the other day! Why have you chosen that one for your first single?
R-tizt: It’s not too out there, it’s a bit laid back and it’s got a positive message.
Steph: We just wanted something for our first single to have like a feel-good vibe. Nothing too serious, where we can put out a positive message. A pick yourself up kind of thing, but nothing too serious!
Is there an album in the pipeline or is that top secret?
JJ: Hopefully! We do hope for there to be an album but at the minute we’re really concentrating on ‘Do Something’, as you can imagine. We’re performing it now – we haven’t performed it that many times – so it’s nervous, it’s exciting… it’s a bit of a 50/50! It’s the first song that we’re actually putting out to the public.
How’s the reception been to it so far?
Steph: Luckily enough it’s been really, really good! I think for some people it’s a bit different from what they saw on BGT but for the people that knew us before, and people that have seen us live, they know that when you see Luminites, the show’s so different. We’ll do like a song that’s up that you can dance to, and then we’ll slow it right down and everyone can chill, so I think, yeah.
You have a huge following on Twitter, how’s that all been, reacting to everything?
Steph: That’s honestly been amazing. We put the video up three days ago and since then it’s trended worldwide twice, so they’re showing so much support, they’re so passionate, so that’s incredible. For coming off BGT, we kind of expected to be forgotten, especially now X Factor is on, but they’re still loving Luminites!
JJ: Yeah the support isn’t stopping and we’re so grateful for that.
Is it weird playing student gigs, is it a bit weird because you’re the same age as most of the people you’re playing to?
Steph: Me and JJ would actually be in uni if we weren’t doing this!
JJ: Yeah we’d be freshers! We’d be there tonight!
R-tizt: I wouldn’t say weird, I think, if they enjoy music then hopefully they’ll like it, but it’s kind of cool to see people our age liking the kind of thing that we do.
Steph: …and students go wild on freshers’ week so that’s good!
And what can freshers’ expect from your set tonight?
R-tizt: Lots of noise! A good vibe and noise!
Steph: We’re just going to have fun, and usually out set, we judge it by the crowd, so whatever they’re feeling, we might change a song last minute on stage just to please them because it’s all about the audience and them having a good night.
Corey: We hope so, the audience for us, they’re a huge part of our show, so us four when we’re on stage, we interact with each other, and that’s everything to us. The crowd just add to that, we want them to be vibing off it, and as it’s Freshers’ Ball, we want them to be partying hard!
Luminites will be performing on the Garden Court stage at 11pm. Their single ‘Do Something’ will be released on 10th November.
