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Clean Bandit: Making music for the masses

SINGAPORE — Contrasting styles; fun mixed with melancholy. That’s how cellist Grace Chatto describes her band, Clean Bandit.

SINGAPORE — Contrasting styles; fun mixed with melancholy. That’s how cellist Grace Chatto describes her band, Clean Bandit.

“That’s something that I can hear in the songs, that funny and happy vibe, but there’s also a sadness in there,” she said over the phone.

Fans can get a chance to hear that too when the band pops into Singapore for a concert at The Coliseum in Sentosa in November.

The band’s name, Clean Bandit, is derived from a translation of a Russian phrase; which is supposed to be an affectionate term similar to “utter rascal”, but there is nothing rascally about their music. The Grammy-winning quartet — which also includes multi- instrumentalist Jack Patterson; his brother, percussionist Luke Patterson; and violinist/pianist Neil Amin- Smith — trades in electronic dance music mixed with classical music.

They got their start after Chatto, who had been studying the cello at a music conservatory in Moscow, went to Cambridge to further her studies. There, she met Amin-Smith and formed a string quartet. Later on, Jack, who was seeing Chatto at the time, come up with a new musical idea.

Explained Chatto: “One day, he had the idea to add some dance elements to the classical music. He wrote some basslines and beats around it and we made a club night to perform this music live and things kind of went from there. That was about seven years ago.”

The band have come a long way since then. They released three EPs — 2010 (2010), OriginL ClassC (2011) and Live From France (2012) — and garnered a respectable following before they were signed by Atlantic Records.

Early last year, they had their big break with their single, Rather Be, featuring Jess Glynne on vocals. “We decided to release that song because when we were performing it at festivals in the United Kingdom, people were reacting fairly well to that song — they were smiling and singing along,” said Chatto.

However, it took a while before the song even got released. Clean Bandit decided to record it with many different singers and friends of theirs, but, said Chatto, the band was “never quite satisfied with the recordings”.

“Then about a year later, we met Jess Glynne and we recorded the song with her and everybody agreed that her version was their favourite,” she said.

The song was propelled by a video that band made themselves. It featured actress Haruka Abe running around Tokyo as she lip synced to Glynne’s vocal. Interestingly, the band found Abe by chance.

“We found her online. I was searching for ‘Japanese actresses living in London’ — because we were going to film bits of it in London,” recalled Chatto. “When I saw her photograph and showreel online, we immediately knew we wanted her to do it. And she was amazing! She was so great at acting, but she was also helping us interpret as well, because she spoke fluent Japanese and English. So when we were running around Tokyo making the video, she helped a lot.”

To say that the song did well is an understatement. Upon its release, Rather Be shot to the top of the UK charts, spending four weeks at No 1. In August this year, the song hit triple-platinum status. (Only six other songs have attained this status: Elton John’s Candle In The Wind, Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud, Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk, Pharrell Williams’ Happy, Will Young’s Evergreen and Cher’s Believe.)

In the United States, the song peaked at No 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, but it was enough to earn Clean Bandit a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording earlier this year.

“It was a surprise that it did so well — but it was a good surprise,” said Chatto.

The parent album, New Eyes, released last year, also achieved similar success, hitting the top spot on the UK Dance Albums chart, bowing in at No 3 on the UK Albums chart and peaking in the Top 10 on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart.

For Chatto, the best thing success has given her is the opportunity to see the world.

“It’s getting to travel everywhere around the world and seeing new places with people whom I love being with,” she said, although she did have a caveat: “I must say it can be quite cramped living on a tour bus and travelling long distances. It’s like camping, and sometimes some people can get on your nerves. I’m not saying who though!”

Still, there were some changes the band members had to adjust to. Clean Bandit had always imbued the DIY spirit: Producing their own music, managing their gigs themselves, and even making their own music videos. But the situation started to shift.

“It was quite a steep learning curve. We’ve always tried to do everything ourselves — make our own music videos and produce everything — and when we started to get successful, people tried to get us to stop doing everything (and) get other people to produce songs or make the music videos,” said Chatto, who has been dubbed “the one who gets things done” by the band.

More changes in the band’s dynamic were in store, albeit of a more personal nature: As they rode the wave of success, Chatto and Jack Patterson broke up.

“Jack and I started the band quite soon after we met and got together and we broke up a year ago but we’re still good friends,” she said.

Still, that hasn’t hampered the creation of new music, even if the song- writing process has changed. “Jack is writing a lot on his own … whereas we wrote more together last time. But it’s still exciting … just to see what he does,” said Chatto, who added that the band was already workshopping new material.

“We’ve got loads of new songs and new collaborations—but I don’t know when it’ll come out. We’re still trying to decide which will be the first song to push out next. Hopefully it’ll be some time towards the end of this year,” she said.

“We’ve got loads of new songs and new collaborations—but I don’t know when it’ll come out. We’re still trying to decide which will be the first song to push out next. Hopefully, it’ll be some time towards the end of this year,” she said.

Another thing that excites Chatto is their coming concert in Singapore, not only because it’s her first time coming here, but it also affords her a chance to catch up with her Singaporean friends whom she met while studying in Moscow.

But what can the crowd expect for the show here? “It’s quite a dancey atmosphere, with live instruments such as cello, saxophone, keyboards. The drums are electronic, but they’re played live. And we also have a few singers. The main one is Elizabeth Troy and she can do most of the songs on the album. I can’t wait to get there.”

Clean Bandit performs Nov 25, 8pm at The Coliseum, Hard Rock Hotel, Sentosa. Tickets at S$68 from Sistic.

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