Felix meets | Formation

felix catches up with Formation while they’re on tour with Jagwar Ma. Another notch on their belt after playing Glastonbury, Field Day and having their song Pleasure chosen for the FIFA 17 soundtrack. In the room are front-man Will Ritson, his twin brother Matt (synths), Jonny Tams (bass) and Kai Akinde-Hummel (drums).

They heard the FIFA news from their manager while at Glastonbury, but this isn’t the only benefit of their recent successes.

“There’s some things we’ve always wanted to do,” explains Kai, “like get some free shoes.”

“That’s a big one!” jokes Jonny. “We may as well give up now!”

Surprisingly this hasn’t yet lead to a bump in their following, but something else did.

“We noticed a big spike after Beyoncé released a song called Formation,”

“People were like: this ain’t Beyoncé!” Laughs Kai.

“I still think if you put us in Google you wont find us,” guesses Will.

Humour and humility go hand in hand with Formation, but this can’t be said for everyone.

“You get backstage and some people are so big it’s like they’re not even a human being,” laments Will.

Perhaps their identity stems from the closeness of the band. Will and Matt are twins and have been writing music together since 2013. Working with family would be unthinkable to some, but this band thrives on it.

“We don’t really know any different,” starts Matt.

“We all share musical interests and like working together. So Matt and Jonny both play bass, me and Kai play drums, and Sash does synths. We all do different bits and whoever comes up with the best plays it,” continues Will.

But what do Kai and Jonny think of the arrangement?

“Let’s talk when they’re not around,” laughs Kai. “It’s good, we’re always working towards something. Will’s a drummer too, so I always get a second opinion.” Sash usually plays synths, but the band are one man down for this tour. This isn’t the only challenge facing a band new on the scene.

“We had to carry our own gear [at Glastonbury] and the place is massive. It takes like 45 minutes to get across,” sighs Will.

If people said Formation were a country-funk band, we’d be like ‘not really’

“It takes 45 minutes without gear!” Kai chimes in. “The whole place was flooded, it was like a river.”

They didn’t let this dampen their spirits.

“When you see it on TV it’s all sunny and everyone’s all high and stuff. This year people were falling all over the place, but everyone was cool and helping each other out,” explains Will.

Claiming influences from A Tribe Called Quest to Pink Floyd, they’re wary about labelling themselves with a genre.

“People like to put things into a certain box. I think it makes people uncomfortable if they can’t make comparisons,” suggests Kai.

“If people said Formation were a country-funk band, we’d be like ‘not really’,” laughs Matt.

“Send us a link to that band!” Jonny jokes.

“If you were going to call it anything, it’s pop music,” finishes Matt.

Speaking of Pop, the band recall meeting Kylie Minogue at their record label’s Christmas Party.

“Kylie was so nice. Genuinely like really nice. She’s legit,” comments Matt.

“Last Summer we played at a pub in the middle of Somerset with Kylie Minogue and Duran Duran. The article afterwards with the photo of Matt next to Kylie was like ‘Kylie Super Fans’,” laughs Kai

Recording with house producer Leon Vynehall and Ben Baptie this year, they hope to see their debut album released early next year. Big things lay in store for this group, but felix doesn’t think it’ll change them.

“We don’t want to get lost in the fame. We don’t want to feel like we can’t talk to someone. We just want to be the same. You never want to lose who you are.”