RITUAL may be rising stars, but they’re already hitmakers: the trio are the minds making some of Britain’s biggest tracks of the past few years, as songwriters and contributors to the likes of Dua Lipa, Little Mix and Avicii. Ready to step into the spotlight themselves, their new project Dreamers Never Learn is revealing itself through a series of mesmerising singles, the most recently a collaboration with Tove Styrke entitled ‘Love Me Back’ which you can press play on below. We get to know the three who make up RITUAL with 10 very important questions…
Describe your music in 3 words…
Adam: Heart break anthems.
Who’s your greatest influence?
Adam: The list of musicians would be too long, I couldn’t just pick one but I would say they’d all be artists that poured their heart and soul into their records and made honest music. Outside of that my biggest influence is my mum, when I was 13 she gave me a guitar and said I could be anything I wanted to be.
Tommy: Anyone working hard, making something different.
What does music mean to you?
Adam: It means we have a way of communicating with people we’ve never even met but who feel the same as us, it’s everything.
Tommy: When I’ve put it on it’s my mood, when I’m making it it’s my passion and when I don’t like it it’s probably one of those things to someone else anyway, so it always has a purpose. We’d all be lost without it.
Gez: For me it’s the perfect way to communicate with people I don’t even know, to say the things that I truly feel that I wouldn’t necessarily say to those closest to me at times. It’s such a massive part of my life, it’s how I relax; how I express myself; how I communicate, how I celebrate, it’s everything.
Who’s the last person you called?
Tommy: Our live sound technician Tom.
Gez: Axident (norwegian Producer).
What did you talk about?
Tommy: Building our live set, drummers, guitar amps and why I haven’t sent him any songs yet. Then we got cut off.
Gez: I’m in Oslo on a writing camp, he was calling to say we should start late, I’m all for it!
One item of clothing you couldn’t live without?
Adam: We did a photo shoot recently at dawn on the coldest day of the year and I’m pretty sure I would have died without my leather jacket so maybe that.
Tommy: Adidas Sliders.
One album you couldn’t live without?
Tommy : Nirvana Nevermind was the first album I discovered on my own so I’ll pick that, I guess. And I still have it, and I’m still alive.
Adam: Probably For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver, I’ve got a thing where I listen to re: stacks on repeat for like 45 mins every now and then. It makes me feel better about anything.
Gerard: Otis redding Live in Europe. My mum used to play Otis redding in the car all the time when I was growing up so he’s always been a special artist for me. I picked up this record when we were on tour in Brussels and I love it. His vocal is so raw and it brings back great memories of our first tour.
What’s your favourite way to spend £10?
Tommy: Lunch.
Adam: On something that’s normally cheap but for £10 you get a really good one, like a smoothie or something.
Gez: New socks. You never regret buying socks.
How about £100?
Tommy: Dinner.
Adam: A couple of PAX Era Pods by Blue River, look it up.
What’s next for you?
Tommy: Our second single, probably my favourite of the lot.
Adam: The next single from our new project, Dreamers Never Learn. It’s a song some fans who’ve heard us live have been waiting for.
Follow RITUAL on Instagram here and check out their new song, ‘Love Me Back’, with Tove Styrke below now. Dreamers Never Learn project will be out later this year.
