Biography

Clean Bandit are a British electronic music group formed in Cambridge in 2008. The band consists of Grace Chatto, Jack Patterson and Luke Patterson. Their 2010 single "Mozart's House" reached number 17 on the UK Singles Chart when re-released in 2013. In January 2014, they scored their first UK chart topping single with "Rather Be", a collaboration with Jess Glynne, featuring elements of both classical and dance music. They also reached number 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

In 2015, "Rather Be" won the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording. Their 2016 single "Rockabye", which features rapper Sean Paul and singer Anne-Marie, became their second number-one hit in the UK, becoming the Christmas number one single for 2016 in its seventh consecutive week at number-one. The song became an international chart topper for the band, and also charted at number 9 in the US. Clean Bandit have sold over 13 million singles and 1.6 million albums worldwide.

2008–12: Formation and career beginnings

Band members Grace Chatto, Jack Patterson, Luke Patterson and Neil Amin-Smith met while studying as undergraduates at Jesus College, University of Cambridge. At the time, Amin-Smith, who attended Westminster School was leading a string quartet together with Chatto, who attended The Latymer School.

The band's name, Clean Bandit, comes from a translation of a Russian phrase; the meaning is similar to the English phrase "complete bastard", though Patterson later stated that it is actually a more affectionate term similar to "utter rascal".

2012–15: New Eyes

Clean Bandit, along with singers Florence Rawlings and Elisabeth Troy, at Way Out West in Gothenburg, Sweden, August 2014.

In December 2012, the group released their debut single "A+E", which peaked at number 100 on the UK Singles Chart. It was the lead single from their debut studio album New Eyes, released on 2 June 2014 by Atlantic Records UK. On 29 February 2012, they released the video online for their single "UK Shanty", featuring supermodel Lily Cole. On 29 March 2013, they released the album's second single "Mozart's House". The song peaked at number 17 on the UK Singles Chart. The album's third single "Dust Clears" charted at number 43 on the chart. The album's fourth single "Rather Be" featuring Jess Glynne was released on 19 January 2014 and topped the UK Singles Chart. It was the fastest-selling song released in January since 1996 and ended 2014 as the year's second best-selling song in the UK (after "Happy" by Pharrell Williams), selling over 1.13 million copies. "Rather Be" also reached number 1 in Austria, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and number 2 in Belgium, France, Italy, New Zealand and Switzerland. It also charted on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 10.

On 14 April 2014, the band made their TV debut on the BBC's Later... with Jools Holland. In May 2014, they also announced a 14 date headline tour of the UK. In September 2014 they performed with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra at MediaCityUK. The band collaborated again with Jess Glynne, after their hit song "Rather Be", on their single "Real Love". It reached number two on the UK Singles Chart.

In February 2015, "Rather Be" won the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards. The group recorded a 30-piece orchestral version of "Rather Be" at Abbey Road Studios for Marks & Spencer's Christmas 2015 advertising campaign. During the course of the rest of 2015, the group have constantly been on all sorts of tours around the world to promote the post-release of New Eyes and carried on through into the early months of 2016.

2015–present: Second album and Neil Amin-Smith's departure

Grace Chatto of Clean Bandit with Elisabeth Troy at FIB 2015.

At the 2015 Coachella Festival, the group performed the song "Disconnect", featuring vocals from Marina and The Diamonds. On 27 May 2016, they released their first single since March 2015, entitled "Tears", and features vocals from The X Factor 2015 winner Louisa Johnson. The song peaked at number 5 in the singles chart a week after they performed it on Britain's Got Talent.

On 19 October 2016, an announcement on their Facebook page stated that violinist and pianist Neil Amin-Smith had decided to leave the group. Neil made a separate announcement to this effect on his Twitter account. Two days later, the group released their first song without Amin-Smith: "Rockabye", which features rapper Sean Paul and singer Anne-Marie. "Rockabye" became their second number-one hit in the UK, and remained at number one for nine weeks, and went on to become the Christmas number one single for 2016. The song became an international chart topper for the band, becoming number 1 in the UK, Republic of Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland and a Top 5 hit in Canada, France, Norway. It has also charted at number 9 on Billboard Hot 100 in the US.

On 17 March 2017, the trio released "Symphony", a collaboration with Swedish singer Zara Larsson. They gave their first live performance of the song on The Voice UK on 18 March 2017.

As of late April 2017, the band have recently been in the studio with Sam Smith working on a "comeback single".

Music style

Clean Bandit are an electronic, classical crossover, electropop and dance-pop band. The band mixes electronic music with classical pieces by composers such as Mozart and Shostakovich. The band would like to think of their music involves tongue-in-cheek humour but this has yet to be verified.