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Just as electronic music feels like it’s dying, a new artist always seems to come in and breathe life into what is sometimes seen as a tired format. Clean Bandit have done just that, bringing a classical music influence to a the standard dance format to create something that feels newer than ever.

The group is comprised of Jack and Luke Patterson as multi-instrumentalists, Neil Milan Amin-Smith on violin and piano and Grace Chatto on vocals and cello. The group's album “New Eyes” is full of hits like the undeniably catchy single “Rather Be,” allowing the band is taking the world by storm. 

Before the band’s stop in Phoenix on Tuesday, Sept. 29, I talked with Chatto on how such a fusion of styles could turn into the massive pop success that is Clean Bandit.

Hi Grace! Thanks for chatting with me. What’s been going on with you and Clean Bandit today?

We’ve just been in the studio today in London and we just finished. It’s very special. I’m not really supposed to say too much yet, but we’ve had an amazing day.

You are a cello player with a background in classical music. It’s a unique role for a pop group. How does that play into the songwriting process of Clean Bandit?

When we first started, we used to take bits of classical music. Then we’d find bits that we liked, looped them and then add bass lines and then we always tend to think about the lyrics last. Now we tend to start with drum beats and piano.

You’re all classically trained musicians, yet you’re writing songs influenced by electronic dance music. This is a genre that some would argue does not take talent. How did these two worlds meet?

I met the violinist from playing classical music in our local area in London. We played in an orchestra together when we were little. Jack, I met at university. We were playing at university studying different things. He took an interest in the classical music I was playing. He heard all the rehearsals and concerts. One day, he added dance elements to this classical music. We thought it was great. Then we kind of performed it at a nightclub and it just felt amazing. That was about seven years ago. It just kind of developed from there.

Clean Bandit has now taken this form as a huge successful rock band/pop group. Did you see yourself and the band in this position when you first started playing music or was this something that naturally happened for you?

No, I definitely didn’t see it at all. I really loved pop music and dance music, I was clubbing a lot in my teenage years. I had only played classical music throughout my life. It’s such a different experience because the audience’s are so different, like they way they react. In a way, more rewarding performing dance music because everyone’s dancing where in classical concerts you can’t really tell how the audience is feeling because they are very quiet. There is more of a connection with the audience.

How do your parents feel about all of this success? Did they expect you to be living this type of rockstar life?

I don’t think anyone expected it. But they’ve been really supportive, they used to drive us everywhere, to festivals in the night and they would help us carry all our gear and my dad helped us record stuff. It was all very makeshift and we made a lot of our music videos ourselves. They’ve been quite a big part of the project from the beginning.

What can fans expect from this upcoming run of shows in the U.S?

We’ve got new songs. We’ve got a song with Marina and the Diamonds called “Disconnect,” which we actually performed for the first time at Coachella festival. But it’s now a part of our set so we’ll be playing that on this tour. That’s really exciting because it’s quite different to everything on our album “New Eyes,” partly because her kind of style, how she sings, is very distinctive and interesting and also because it’s more kind of acoustic the way we play it live. There’s a lot of live acoustic cymbals and bass guitar.

What is your role in a live setting? Are you playing cello the whole time or are you playing other instruments?

I’m definitely not playing cello the whole time. I’m playing it here and there and then I have this electronic steel drum instrument that is like a MIDI instrument and sometimes I play the bass lines on that, but it’s kind of a percussion instrument.

Was this electronic instrument tough to learn coming from a background of playing “real” instruments?

It was actually. I started playing it because two of the songs called “A&E” and “Come Over” have steel drum parts in the recordings. I originally bought a real steel drum and tried to learn it enough to just play these two songs. It was really difficult. The MIDI electronic instrument is easier to play but at the same time it’s still a very new thing playing a percussion instrument. It’s a different way of thinking.

Talk to me a little bit about “Rather Be.” I’m sure you’ve played this song thousands and thousands of times now. What’s it like having that huge single now in your catalog?

I’m not sick of it. I really like playing it everyday. It’s just kind of strange. I remember when Jack wrote the riff. It was almost three years ago now. That kind of riff that we play on the strings. We were just traveling on the metro at the time. I thought, “Oh that’s cool.” But I never thought, "That’s going to be an amazing song."  It’s just so fun playing it because you can just see how people are reacting. It feels like such a joyful moment everyday.

Thanks, Grace. 


Reach the arts editor at jhgolds2@asu.edu or follow @misterjacobgold on Twitter.

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