Exclusive Interview with Clean Bandit

We sat down with Neil from Clean Bandit before their sold out performance in Brooklyn. The Electronic Pop Band from the UK is quickly taking the world by storm, their new single 'Rather Be' has already racked in over 70 million views on Youtube.
Checkout the interview below...

No other act that jogs my memory blends such classical instrumentation with dance floor ready beats.
How did you guys come up with the inspiration to blend such diverse sounds?

It was definitely more of an experiment at first.. Grace and I were playing classically together. Then Jack made some recordings of what we were doing and he started messing around with the recordings and throwing beats under them. We really liked what he was playing back to us, so a few weeks later we put about 10 songs together and played our first gig! After that, we never really stopped doing it.

So how does it feel to go from that first gig in the UK to sold out shows in LA & NYC??

Yeah... over the past 6 months it's really been amazing! Being able to come and play in America... It's insane that we are able to perform and tour in the UK and Europe, It's on a whole other level that we are able to perform and sell out and people sing along... It's mind-blowing!!

Rather be is at what... 68 Million Views?!? And now there are tons of remixes coming out of the woodwork.  Any you really like..?

It's cool that people are remixing it but I have to admit... there are not a lot of remixes of 'Rather Be' that I loved.
There is one by 'The Magician' which is really cool.

One by 'All About She' is good.  
And another one by 'Affelaye' which is not like a dance remix at all, it's just a really nice piece of music.

We read in an interview, Clean bandit means 'Utter Bastard' in Russian...?

[Laughs] Well, Grace and Jack used to live in Russia. One of their friends used to call Grace this Russian expression which means "complete bastard" but the direct translation into english is "Clean Bandit."
We just though it was funny and we went with it.

So then... What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten?

When we were in Japan filming the video for Rather Be. We ordered squid one night and when it came... it was completely alive on the plate!
They cut its head off in such a way that it was still alive... they didn't sever it's brain or whatever.  So we starting eating bits of this squid as it was still alive and yeahhhhh... haha.

US City or Landmark you most looking forward to visiting/exploring?

Hmmm...

[Interupted by Barista]

Barista: So... What kind of music do you play..?

....

[She goes away].

Moving on...
Have you seen a generally positive reaction to your live act because Clean Bandit is more than just a DJ?

There is a great live element, I think when compared to other acts yeah... they are a bit limited, stuck behind their stacks, they can do a bit more but not much.

Going off that , you also do DJ sets. So how often do you do DJ sets compared to Clean Bandit live sets?

Quite a few. I do all the DJ sets and definitely quite a few. About 2 a month. Not a lot at the moment because the band has gotten much busier.
I typically, at least now, I'm playing more deep house style stuff.  I used to play more more garage, dubstep, and like future-garagey kind of stuff.

Any artists on your wish list that you'd like to work with?
Woodkid!! He is a genius.

And Beyonce <3

Can you recall the moment when you were like... AHA! There is a career in this!

Hard to say, the first two years or so we didn't actually make any recordings.
I guess things didn't start becoming more serious until we made our first music video. As soon as we put that online we started to get a lot of views and interest.

What is a UK Based Sitcom (Like Skins & Shameless) that you think would be great in America.

Haven't seen a lot in the past few months because we haven't been in England but... there have a been a lot of, not Sitcoms, but Drama.

There was this show taht was called Braud Church that was so Amazing. Tense and Beautiful. That'd be cool if it was remade in America.

We'll be back in America for a big fall tour. Our Album is out now so go and get it!!