Dance like you mean it
“A
sk them why they’ve sold out and only make dance music now, and why they’ve forgotten about their original fans!?!” You might think it’d be tricky to get truly riled up by BBC Radio 1 darlings Clean Bandit, but my friend (whose only stimulants were a Crunchie and a pint of Pepsi at the time of this outburst) managed it the day before I interviewed the band’s categorically beautiful, strongly jawed violinist, Milan Neil Amin-Smith. It might have been the Grammy that provoked her. Two nights earlier the four-piece – who formed while studying at Jesus College, Cambridge, in 2006 – swanned past mighty fellow nominees Basement Jaxx, Disclosure, Duke Dumont and ZHU to claim Best Dance Recording for their 2014 hit Rather Be, featuring Jess Glynne. You see, when Clean Bandit first started out they made electro-chamber music with a grimy, hip-hop tilt. They might have liked dancing – preferably at the now sadly defunct Kambar in Cambridge, where they hosted their own club night – but they certainly weren’t no dance outfit. Made up of Amin-Smith, cellist Grace Chatto, and Patterson brothers Jack (bass, sax, deck) and Luke (drums), as well as an array of guest vocalists, Clean Bandit came about after Jack began syphoning electronic ideas he had and mixing them in with classical recordings he’d made of Neil and Grace’s string quartet. They realised he was on to something, picked a name
Clean Bandit have had a mad 12 months, starting with the release of their debut album and culminating in winning a Grammy. Ella Walker spoke to violinist Milan Neil Amin-Smith to find out how it feels to return to Cambridge, the city where it all began.
(Clean Bandit translates as “complete bas****” in Russian), and in April 2013 made their single chart debut. The bassy, grimy Mozart’s House peaked at number 17, before being almost entirely eclipsed by the release of Rather Be, which Jack co-wrote with Disclosure’s lyricist Jimmy Napes. “Our sound has changed quite a lot,” admits Neil in a laconic drawl, punctuated by the odd jet-laginduced yawn. “In the early days we sampled a lot of classical music and also our instrumentals were much more hip-hop, but obviously now we mostly make housey-dance music and use original singing parts.”
evolving sound
Unfortunately for my friend, and all those other Clean Bandit fans who got hooked before Rather Be took to searing through the airwaves on what feels like an hourly loop, even a year on, they’re not about to start backtracking now. “I think we might possibly go a bit more hip-hop, but I don’t think there’s much chance of us going back to using more classical samples because [how we’re doing it now] just gives us more freedom.” I have to ask, despite the Grammy, and a recent BRIT Award nomination for Best British Single, are they sick of playing Rather Be yet? “No actually! I guess it’s because every time we play it, we’re playing it to a different crowd, and for them it’s the first time they’ve seen or heard this massive song being played live, and so you always get that from the audience: the sense of newness.” This isn’t Neil being diplomatic either, he genuinely sounds like he’s still excited to play the number one hit night after night after night – which bodes well; Clean Bandit sold out their upcoming Cambridge Corn Exchange gig almost instantly. “We’re actually going to come up the night before so that we can have a little reunion with the city,” he says languidly. “I can’t say I did row, but I think CAMBRIDGE MAGAZINE
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my lasting memories of the city will just be what an incredible place it was to walk around every day.” Neil first picked up a violin when he was just 2-and-a-half years old. “I used to live at Barbican and apparently my parents took me to a preconcert performance in the lobby and I just demanded a violin, and to be taught to play – and they obliged,” he laughs. On stage today he and Chatto perform with instruments that look like perfectly wrought, minimalist sculptures, yet he doesn’t feel that part of their job is to encourage more people to learn an instrument. “People wonder whether we’ve got some sort of manifesto to bring classical music to a wider audience, but I don’t think that’s ever been our objective,” he explains. “I do think people would and could enjoy learning a musical instrument, but I’ve not, I have to admit, every really thought of it as part of my own responsibility.” The chances are they have that effect by default. You see, watching them live makes making and playing music look like an unbelievable amount of fun. If you don’t dance like crazy to one of Neil’s violin solos, there’s something certifiably wrong with you. Then there’s the list of people they get to work with. Aside from their longstanding arrangement with Jess Glynne (who’ll be performing at the Corn Exchange gig too), they’ve collaborated with Sharna Bass, Rae Morris and Stylo G. Their list of hoped for future team-ups include Drake, Craig David and Sam Smith. “We’ve talked to [Smith] about it, but who knows what’s going to happen, we’re both really busy at the moment,” says Neil. “I guess for us that is quite a big part of the next record; who we’ll actually work with, because we don’t have a singer in the band, and we’ve not really got any names lined up at the moment. That’s something we need to start planning.” Have they begun writing the follow up to 2014’s debut album, New Eyes?
interview
Grace Jack
“In very small dribs and drabs,” he teases. “But we’ve got a month blocked off when we’re going to sit down and start work on it.” Awards season is currently getting in the way . . . Alongside the Best British Single category, the band is also up for Best British Group at this year’s BRITs. “We got to go last year and it was so exciting just to be there, but to get two nominations feels quite incredible,” he says, sounding awed. “We don’t really hold out any hope of winning but even just to be nominated; it’s going to be really cool to go as a nominee.”
party time
Serge Pizzorno, whose band Kasabian didn’t receive a nomination, was less pleased about their recognition though, spouting angrily: “It’s an outrage. Clean Bandit don’t even write their own tunes.” Fact is Serge, they do. “I don’t think we’ll be paying too much attention to what Kasabian say,” Neil concedes wryly. “It seems like their comments were quite illinformed.”
Luke
Neil
Even if they don’t win, no-one can prise that Grammy off them. “It was quite an amazing thing. We weren’t expecting it at all and when they announced it, it was such a shock but we had a really good time. “It was amazing watching all the performances at the Grammys, and then our record label had a party afterwards, and then Mark Ronson had a really small party that got shut down by the police unfortunately, then Disclosure and Sam Smith had quite a big joint Grammy after-party…” Despite the waves of exceptional, illegal after-show parties, Neil surprisingly doesn’t get all that starstruck. “I often don’t know who people are. I suppose I met Katy Perry, she’s quite famous,” he muses, remembering a toilet cubicle incident with the Fireworks singer at last year’s BRIT Awards. “The only time I got starstruck actually was when I was standing next to Ed Miliband at a concert, but I didn’t speak to him because I was so starstruck.” What would you have said if you’d been brave enough? “I don’t even know,” he says laughing. “Give me a job?!” CAMBRIDGE MAGAZINE
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•Clean Bandit plus guests Jess Glynne + Milk and Whiskey, Cambridge Corn Exchange, Sunday, March 8 at 7.30pm. SOLD OUT.