Pulse
After a successful charity flash-mob, the release of their debut single 'Jump' and an on-going school tour, Britain's Got Talent runners-up Twist & Pulse are making a name for themselves. Glenn "Pulse" Murphey took the time to chat to Female First about all this and the future.
-What was the original idea behind doing the flash-mob at the start of the month?
We were doing it to help out a charity called Fairbridge, which helped children who have been kicked out of school, or they have trouble at home, or homeless.
We came together with them to think of an idea with News International to raise some money for them, and that's how the idea came about. It also helps promote our debut single 'Jump', so that was the basis behind it.
-Who approached who to actually do the event?
News International approached us, told us a bit about the charity and asked if we'd like to get involved. It just went on from there, and we just pushed it forward. As it went on, the song got brought in and the idea just got bigger and better.
-For anyone who couldn't make it down, what did Twist & Pulse actually do for the flash-mob?
Basically, we were in Marble Arch and St. Katharine's Dock. We came out of nowhere and started the dance for our song. As we did that people walked through and passed.
Out of nowhere, we had our dance company appear and join in. Loads of dance schools, some friends and family, all joined in. That was our part for it. We kinda lead everyone in the routine, and then everyone left.
-Did you get a good turn-out for it?
Yeah, it was actually huge. We couldn't believe it. There were so many people there, so many dance companies.
We had a few other groups from the dance scene who came down to support it. We were selling ice creams to raise money, so everyone was down there. It was really good.
-Do you know how much you managed to raise, so far?
We got given £500, with the task to make it into £5,000. I haven't heard back about whether we made enough, but I'm sure we did.
-Why do you think it was so important to support Fairbridge as a charity?
The thing is, when young kids get kicked out of school and you don't have a home, it's hard to get experiences that your school, friends and family can give you.
Fairbridge takes them on trips, things you don't get to experience unless you have people around you to put you in the right places.
They've opened theirselves up to anyone, even people who got kicked out of school for doing something naughty, where people wouldn't wanna know. They put it all aside and take everyone for their own person.
They work with individual tutors for each person to coach them through whatever they've experienced. They do team building events, where they work with other people in the community who've had the same problems as them.
They used to working with people and they build up their skills. It's so important, because there aren't a lot of things like that for young people.
-Do you think you'd work with them in the future, and with other charities?
Yeah, definitely. If they needed help with anything else, we'd definitely be up for doing something with them.
-Would you look at doing a flash-mob for a less serious reason, just to get out and do it?
Yeah. Flash-mobs are fun and exciting because you don't know what's going to happen until it happens.
We promoted it online, so a lot of the people had learnt it on YouTube and just appeared.
So, we didn't know if a group of kids standing by a lamppost were going to join in. It was really exciting, so yeah we'd do another one.
-Do you think people in the public eye have a responsibility to use their platform to help out?
Yeah, that's the thing. With us, we're so lucky to have been on Britain's Got Talent and got our faces out there.
People are already attracted to watch what you do, we have a fanbase that will follow it. We can use that to raise awareness for other issues.
We help Dance Aid as well, which help other children in other countries. If we can raiase awareness for other places, that's a good thing to do.
-Moving to the single, how's the reaction been?
It's actually been amazing. We've been working on it so hard lately. We're doing a school tour at the moment, and obviously it's a completely different venture to get into the music industry.
All the kids are really getting into it, loads of people are learning the routine and sending in videos. We just did a primary school now, and all the kids were learning it in the playground. It's really good.
-What prompted the idea to write your own material?
We basically always did the music for our dance routines. We always mixed, put the vocals in and any other talking parts.
When we were in secondary school, we both used to rap and MC, so we thought, why not go for it fully and do our own tracks?
That's how 'Jump' came about. We produced the beat and wrote the lyrics. Then we thought, let's do it seriously and that's when 'Jump' appeared.
-Do you have a full album planned at some point?
Yeah. Well, at the moment we have three singles all sorted and done. We're pushing 'Jump' out there now, which is due out the 3rd July.
Hopefully it does really well and gets into the charts. Then, we'll move from there to the next one. Then, hopefully it'll be an album, a concert and a tour. It'll just keep growing.
-You've got a tour with Jedward coming up. How did that come about?
We did Celebrity Juice with Keith Lemon, and Louis Walsh was on the panel. He spoke to us backstage afterwards, and we got chatting with him and our management.
He said he loved what we did, and got us in touch with the people sorting out the tour. We went and had the meeting, and they said they'd love to have us as part of their carnival tour in August in Ireland.
So, we're doing it promote our record as well. We've got a nice half-an-hour to warm up the crowd and perform our three tracks. It's a great platform for us.
-Are you excited to get out to that kind of audience?
Yeah definitely. Their fan-base is so huge, and they're the same sorta age range as we have as well. It'll just be an amazing show. Full of energy.
-Once you've released more of the singles, are you hoping to get more of a crossover fan-base for the music side?
Hopefully. Some people are surprise we have a song. They don't really grip it straight away or grasp what we're doing. Once you hear the song, it sounds like our song.
The whole feeling of the beat, the way it's chopping and changing, the whole song is the reason we did it. Everyone can see that we haven't lost us in it. It's still Twist & Pulse but in our own song.
-You got your break with Britain's Got Talent. Who's been your biggest help since then?
When we first came off the show, we had management that put us straight into booking. The more you perform and put yourself in front of more people, the more they'll know what you do.
You'll get people looking out for it, you'll go to more corporate events and meet more people. It's just our fans really, because they're always asking for more from us.
Them asking for more gives people booking us a reason to, because they know people want to see what we're doing. We're constantly being creative and pushing each other.
-What message would you give to our readers?
Just thank you for the support. There's going to be loads more from us, and we're going to be pushing it out to make sure Twist & Pulse stay there for you guys. We couldn't have done it without you.
Female First - Alistair McGeorge
After a successful charity flash-mob, the release of their debut single 'Jump' and an on-going school tour, Britain's Got Talent runners-up Twist & Pulse are making a name for themselves. Glenn "Pulse" Murphey took the time to chat to Female First about all this and the future.
-What was the original idea behind doing the flash-mob at the start of the month?
We were doing it to help out a charity called Fairbridge, which helped children who have been kicked out of school, or they have trouble at home, or homeless.
We came together with them to think of an idea with News International to raise some money for them, and that's how the idea came about. It also helps promote our debut single 'Jump', so that was the basis behind it.
-Who approached who to actually do the event?
News International approached us, told us a bit about the charity and asked if we'd like to get involved. It just went on from there, and we just pushed it forward. As it went on, the song got brought in and the idea just got bigger and better.
-For anyone who couldn't make it down, what did Twist & Pulse actually do for the flash-mob?
Basically, we were in Marble Arch and St. Katharine's Dock. We came out of nowhere and started the dance for our song. As we did that people walked through and passed.
Out of nowhere, we had our dance company appear and join in. Loads of dance schools, some friends and family, all joined in. That was our part for it. We kinda lead everyone in the routine, and then everyone left.
-Did you get a good turn-out for it?
Yeah, it was actually huge. We couldn't believe it. There were so many people there, so many dance companies.
We had a few other groups from the dance scene who came down to support it. We were selling ice creams to raise money, so everyone was down there. It was really good.
-Do you know how much you managed to raise, so far?
We got given £500, with the task to make it into £5,000. I haven't heard back about whether we made enough, but I'm sure we did.
-Why do you think it was so important to support Fairbridge as a charity?
The thing is, when young kids get kicked out of school and you don't have a home, it's hard to get experiences that your school, friends and family can give you.
Fairbridge takes them on trips, things you don't get to experience unless you have people around you to put you in the right places.
They've opened theirselves up to anyone, even people who got kicked out of school for doing something naughty, where people wouldn't wanna know. They put it all aside and take everyone for their own person.
They work with individual tutors for each person to coach them through whatever they've experienced. They do team building events, where they work with other people in the community who've had the same problems as them.
They used to working with people and they build up their skills. It's so important, because there aren't a lot of things like that for young people.
-Do you think you'd work with them in the future, and with other charities?
Yeah, definitely. If they needed help with anything else, we'd definitely be up for doing something with them.
-Would you look at doing a flash-mob for a less serious reason, just to get out and do it?
Yeah. Flash-mobs are fun and exciting because you don't know what's going to happen until it happens.
We promoted it online, so a lot of the people had learnt it on YouTube and just appeared.
So, we didn't know if a group of kids standing by a lamppost were going to join in. It was really exciting, so yeah we'd do another one.
-Do you think people in the public eye have a responsibility to use their platform to help out?
Yeah, that's the thing. With us, we're so lucky to have been on Britain's Got Talent and got our faces out there.
People are already attracted to watch what you do, we have a fanbase that will follow it. We can use that to raise awareness for other issues.
Tagged in Britain's Got Talent