Meet Marvin Humes’ new band, LuvBug

Marvin Humes experienced major chart success during his five years with former X Factor boyband JLS, releasing five albums, shifting millions of records, winning two MOBOs and even creating their own line of condoms – the latter of which is kind of iconic.

Now Marvin’s returning to the charts with a new group and a new sound – but this time he’s in the producer’s seat. He’s teamed up with his friends The White N3rd and the Grammy-nominated JKAY, to form a trio of producers that call themselves LuvBug.

With their debut single Resonance out now, I caught up with Marvin and JKAY to talk about their new music, the chances of a JLS reunion and whether we can expect to hear Rochelle from The Saturdays on one of their tracks…

So how did you guys come to form LuvBug?
Marvin: “So basically the group came together about 18 months ago. I’ve known JKAY since we were both pretty young, we grew up literally only two streets apart – so cut forward to when JLS split as a group, I realised that what I wanted to do next was create a dance record.”
JKAY: “We’ve worked a lot on the music over the past year and a half, and we basically decided to make it all official in the last few months. Resonance is a great introduction to LuvBug, so it’ll be good to see the reaction it gets.”

When can we expect the album?
JKAY: “There’ll be a few more singles before the album drops, so it will be next year at some point when it comes out, definitely. We’re really looking forward to releasing it!”

[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csYUGJLtZnw[/youtube]

 

Your first single is a collaboration with Talay Riley; who else have you worked with on the album? 
Marvin: “We’ve worked with a lot of people, actually! There have been some incredible artists like MNEK, Angel Haze, Kareem Taylor and a few more. We’ve got a lot of cool features on the album. There’s also a track we wrote with JB from JLS too, which was really cool to do.”

Will you guys be touring at some point soon?
JKAY: “Of course, we’ll be touring festivals next year around the UK in support of the album. We can’t wait to get out there and play the music for people.”

Marvin, would you ever return to JLS for a reunion tour or even a new album?
Marvin: “I don’t think so; I think that door’s closed. We achieved so much when we were together, and we had the best time, but I just don’t really see it happening in the future.”

Was your desire to move onto a new sound one of the reasons behind the band’s split?
Marvin: “We’d achieved so much together and had so much success in the UK. We’re all just doing our own thing now really.  I mean, Aston [Merrygold] has signed a solo deal, which is incredible for him and I’m sure you’ll hear more from him soon. We all keep in touch and try and see each other as much as possible, there’s so much love there still between us all. Aston’s actually interested in doing something with us…”

You’ve also been doing a fantastic job co-presenting The Voice; what do you think of Rita Ora replacing Kylie as a coach?
Marvin: “Kylie was clearly a fantastic addition to the show, she was amazing this series. But we all knew from the start that she could only be a judge on the show for one series because she had her tour already planned. I’m looking forward to Rita Ora though. I mean, she’s having so much chart success at the moment with her music in the UK especially, so it’s a really big deal to get on on the show. It’s Rita Ora!”

JLS posed for Attitude back in 2011; would you ever return for another shoot… maybe for the next Naked Issue?
JKAY: “Hahaha! Oh my god, I’d have to hit the gym mate! I would definitely have to work out, but sure.”
Marvin: “Yeah, I can’t see why not!”

I know you’re married to Rochelle from The Saturdays, Marvin, but would LuvBug ever consider working with the group? 
Marvin: “It’s funny you say that actually, Rochelle has come into the studio for us and recorded some demo vocals for a track so we can see how a track sounded with a voice on it. I mean, she has an absolutely fantastic voice and she’s so incredibly talented, so of course, I don’t see why not if we decided we wanted to do that!”

Attitude recently went to see The Saturdays on their ‘Greatest Hits’ tour in London – did you manage to see it?
Marvin: “I was actually there in London too! It was fantastic, they were all brilliant. They’ve achieved so much as a band, it’s great to see.”

Was there ever any cheeky competition between yourself and Rochelle over chart positions when you were still in JLS?
Marvin: “I guess maybe there was a little friendly banter between us, but nothing more than that! We never actually released singles at the same time so it was never really a thing we had to worry about!”

LuvBug’s debut single, Resonance, is out now.