Chicago – U.K. quartet Clean Bandit mix classical with electronic and deep house. Brothers Jack (bass and keys) and Luke Patterson (drums), along with childhood friends Grace Chatto (cello) and Milan Neil Amin-Smith (violin and piano) make up the band that first gained attention in 2013 with the single “Mozart’s House,” blending a Mozart tune with house, with help from Love Ssega. They eventually went on to compose their own string pieces, laid down with drum and bass, while collaborating with more artists such as Stylo G and Sharna Bass. In May of 2014, Clean Bandit released their critically acclaimed debut LP New Eyes (Atlantic), and just last month, the group won a Grammy for the single “Rather Be,” featuring U.K. singer Jess Glynne.

In anticipation of Clean Bandit’s North American tour, Best New Bands spoke with Neil Amin-Smith. We talked “Real Love,” getting fans to smooch on camera, and his “must have” for tour.

You broke into the scene with “Mozart’s House,” a song in which you mix house music with Mozart. How did the idea to mix new and old come to be?

It was kind of experimentation. Grace and I were in a string quartet. We had a friend named Jack [Patterson], and he was making the recordings of what we were playing. He started messing around with them. It wasn’t really like a deliberate plan. It just happened.

I read somewhere that when you first started out, you guys would mix more reggae and hip-hop beats with classical. Do you feel like maybe you’ll go back to that or are you planning to stick to house?

It’s hard to say. I guess people know us for house music now, but I don’t think we’ll completely stick to that in the future, even though our album New Eyes has three or four house tracks.

Speaking of New Eyes, you recently released the single “Real Love,” which is from the special edition of your debut album. What was the inspiration behind “Real Love”?

We recently played a gig in Moscow, in Russia, where we kind of felt uncomfortable about playing there without making some sort of statement about sexuality, so we used that song “Real Love” to try and make some sort of slogan around all love being real love.

Let’s talk about the music video for a moment. How did you go about getting some of your “fandits” to smooch for the video?

They’re all fans we met at gigs on tour. We toured for the month of September… [After each show] we’d go outside and there’d be people waiting outside and stuff. When there were couples, we’d just approach them. Most of them agreed. (laughs)

You guys don’t have a singer in the band, so you hire singers to tour with you. Do you think at some point the band might grow and add a permanent singer or do you prefer the creativity that comes from multiple collaborations?

I don’t think we would have a permanent singer now because we’re just quite used to working in this way. I think being able to have different singers on every track gives us quite a lot of freedom that we just wouldn’t have in terms of genre and the types of voices that we can work with.

You’re kicking off a North American tour. Do you have a “must have” for touring, something you just love?

I have this artificial candle. It’s made of wax, but it’s electric. It has a light inside it and a little paper thing at the top that waves, and the light increases like it’s flickering, so you get that candlelight effect. I have that in my bunk. It gets me through.

Clean Bandit is on tour now. Head over to the Clean Bandit facebook page for a list of dates. New Eyes is available for purchase on iTunes.

Photo of Clean Bandit by Joshua Schulz

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Sarah Hess

At the age of six, Sarah Hess discovered True Blue by Madonna. This resulted in her spending hours in front of the bathroom mirror with a hairbrush microphone, belting out "La Isla Bonita" off key. Her love for music only intensified over the years thanks to her parents; her mother exposed Sarah to The Jackson Five and had her hustling to the Bee Gees, while her father would play her albums like 'Pet Sounds' and 'Some Girls' from start to finish, during which he'd lecture on and on about the history of rock & roll. Sarah would eventually stumble upon rap and hip-hop, then punk and alternative, and fall madly in love with Jeff Buckley and film photography.

After attending The School of the Art Institute in Chicago, Sarah went on to study education at Dominican University, earning a degree in history. When not teaching, writing, or taking in a show, she is most likely to be found with a camera to her eye or hanging out in a darkroom.


You can follow Sarah Hess on twitter at @Sarahhasanh and view her music photography on her website: smhimaging.com.

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