Rudimental: Ready to party at the Vines

Rudimental had been making music for about six years before they had their first hit last year.

Overnight success took years of hard work, writes Paula Yeoman

Piers Agget from British electronic outfit Rudimental struggles to find the words to describe this year and the 18 months of craziness that followed the phenomenal success of their breakthrough hit, Feel The Love. But when he does, there's no stopping him.

"It's been an amazing year. We've had a number one album, we were nominated for a Mercury Prize, there has been loads of live shows, we've toured the world - we've done Australia, America, Europe, the UK, and we're soon to do New Zealand. It's been is an absolute roller coaster of a year, but we're all so happy. We're living the dream."

Rudimental appeared to emerge from nowhere last year - four singer-songwriters/producers who stumbled on a good song and were thrust into the spotlight. But they'd been slogging away at it for years.

"For the world it happened very quickly, but three of us had been together for six years. I've been involved in making music, we all have, since the age of 13, 14, and we're 26, 27 now. It's been a long process of hard work and spending a lot of money and hours on projects going nowhere," says Agget.

It wasn't until they met Amir Izadkhah, who joined the band in 2011, that their fortunes changed. 'We started focusing on Rudimental full time. We made Not Giving In, Feel The Love, Hide and Spoons all in a couple of months. It just kind of took off for us and gave us a licence to carry on and make the album [Home] and to believe in ourselves."

Since then, non-stop touring has meant the band have had little time to let the magnitude of their success sink in, but the realisation hit them when they played at this year's V Festival in Cheltenham.

"It was the biggest crowd we've ever played to. It was 50,000 people screaming and singing Feel the Love. They had to close the field off for us and the organisers afterwards gave us some champagne and said they hadn't seen it that big since 1994 with the Prodigy, so it was a really big moment for us."

That's a hard act to follow for Kiwi festival Rhythm and Vines, where Rudimental is playing a DJ set alongside acts such as Empire Of The Sun, Wiz Khalifa and Shapeshifter. But Agget has high hopes and intends making the most of his first trip to New Zealand.

"We can't wait to share the DJ experience at New Year's and really have a party with you guys, because that's what it'll be. We like to mash up different genres. We can't wait to come out there."

And if you like what you hear at R&V, Rudimental is returning early next year for two shows with the full band.

Rhythm and Vines runs from December 29-31. Rudimental plays Auckland's Vector Arena on March 4 and Wellington's TSB Bank Arena on March 5.