TGtS Meets...Luminites

Since appearing on BGT earlier this year, Stephanie Edwards and her bandmates have been hard at work in the recording studio. We caught up with Luminites fresh from laying down some new tracks for their debut album.

What can fans expect from your performance at The Big Summer Session?

Ben: We're really excited to be honest! Since appearing on BGT we haven't had the opportunity to get out and perform much yet, so we're just going to show up and absolutely smash it, when we're performing on stage together it's such a great feeling and we all have such a good time. 

Steph: We can't wait to see everybody there!

How did you guys get together?

JJ: We all used to do a lot of gigs around Covent Garden as individuals and were spotted by our manager, Anthony who was putting a band together. Instead of having a conventional drummer, he wanted to put together a group with a beat boxer and singer and a rapper and so on.

How do you go about choosing which songs to cover? 

R-tizt: It varies, sometimes we might like the hook, or chorus or melody of a song and then try and put our own spin on it. We tend to only cover new songs, but that doesn't mean that we wouldn't be up for doing something a little more retro one day.

Steph: The great thing is we all listen to such a mixture of genres and styles, so we're never short of ideas. We'll go home and check out covers online and then come together and chip in our ideas. 

When can we expect to hear some music from you guys, how would you describe your sound?

Steph: We're in the studio right now, so hopefully we'll have some new material for the fans pretty soon! Because we've got so many musical influences it's hard to think of one word to describe our sound. We've beeen working so hard though, so we're really looking forward to hearing what the fans think. If you ask me, it's going to be really good. 

Runners up on tv talent shows are notorious for doing better than the winner, do you think that not winning the show was a blessing in disguise?

Steph: We felt blessed to be on the show in the first place, let alone getting all of the way to the final. We were overwhelmed and shocked by the public reaction, so we were incredibly grateful to have gotten as far as we did. 

Which artists do you aspire to be like?

Steph: We all love the Black Eyed Peas, so when Simon compared us to them on BGT it felt amazing. 

How have your lives changed since appearing on BGT?

JJ: If we hadn't been on the show, we'd still be rehearsing all of the time and working really hard, but its incredible what doors BGT opened for us, it's a brilliant platform for emerging talent like ourselves. We recently did a gig at the Royal Albert Hall and we performed for the Prime Minister which I wouldn't have dreamed of doing before the show, it's not something that happens every day. We've got touring commitments coming up pretty soon as well, which we're all pumped for, I think it's already sold out which is just mind boggling. 

What's the strangest tweet that you've reviewed from a fan?

Steph: We interact with our fans a lot, so you can imagine some of the random things that we get asked! I get people asking to marry me quite a lot. It's nice when the fans tweet me asking where I got an oufit from - I like those tweets...keep those ones coming guys. 

Ben: Someone tweeted me asking if they could touch my hair once which was pretty random. 

R-tizt: Someone’s taken a picture of a guy that they thought was me on a train before and @ mentioned me, but it wasn't me at all, it was just some other dude with crazy hair.

Photo - Left to Right: R-tizt, Steph, JJ, Ben