Didcot sixth form student and Angels N’ Bandits singer AJ Ruhomutally is working on a Nickelodeon campaign to encourage teenagers to stay in touch during lockdown.
The 17-year-old student and her band are taking part in the Nickelodeon YouTube show called Spill the Tea - The Scoop by Nick.
The show is part of the channels new UK campaign, #KidsTogether which aims to give tips for staying healthy and ideas for activities to do at home during the pandemic.
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The band Angels N’ Bandits is a fusion of urban RnB and rap music and is made up of three girls and two boys. They have been playing together for almost seven years and have a large teenaged following.
Spill the Tea is recorded all from different lockdown locations and is all about gossip. The band also educate their fans about staying at home and stress the importance of talking to friends and family.
AJ lives with her family in Steventon and she is also adjusting to lockdown as she teaches herself A-levels from home, has daily band meetings and practices dancing and singing. She also makes sure to do live chats for her fans.
The singer explained why she believes it is so important to stay in contact with friends and family.
She said: “I really think it is important because sometimes I struggle with mental health myself and it is good to look after yourself during this time. A lot people have been asking us for advice.
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“It is just important to make sure you do communicate, and you are not just stuck in your room on your phone all day.
“Make sure you are actually going outside and interacting with neighbours from six feet away and going on walks and just making sure you are interacting and are not just by yourself.”
Lockdown has put almost everything on hold for Angels N’ Bandits.
When lockdown was announced the band were on tour and they still had another week to go. Luckily, they had already decided to stream online shows for the fans that could not make it, so fans did not entirely miss out.
However, the tour has now been postponed until late August and they have their first EP on the horizon which will be released sometime this year.
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AJ is trying not to get bogged down with the here and now, but is still missing music and writing with her band members. She said: “I can’t wait to get back with my band and just write some songs. We are always together.”
The teenager is enjoying working with Nickelodeon. She said: “So far it has been great, they have been so nice and so kind. It is difficult to get all this content together online when we are not together, but it seems to be working so well.
"After Lockdown we hopefully will be filming more but we cannot really move forward with the lockdown in place.”
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