CLEAN BANDIT: There’s no place they’d rather be

What a crazy, thrilling year it’s been for Clean Bandit. Twelve months ago, the Cambridge quartet were an obscure novelty, touting an unlikely mash-up of classical music and r’n’b.

That was before ‘Rather Be’, their inescapable smash featuring vocalist Jess Glynne and a cheeky violin flourish — with over one million units shifted, it is the fastest selling UK single since ‘Spaceman’ by Babylon Zoo in 1996.

“We’d played ‘Rather Be’ at festivals last year and you could tell it was getting a reaction,” says the band’s Milan Neil Amin-Smith (his accent is as posh as his name). “It got a very different reaction from the rest of our set. Obviously everyone in the group and at the label thought it was special. Did we imagine it would take off to the extent it has? No way. You can never allow for something like that.”

Clean Bandit, it is fair to state, are not everyone’s mug of Earl Grey. Classical music is not renowned for its love of innovation — especially if said innovation involves plinky house beats and Amy Winehouse-style singing. Consequently ‘Rather Be’ has created rather a backlash among purists, of the opinion that, in sampling Mozart, Dvorak and others, Clean Bandit are engaged in a sort of music grave robbing. The guffaws have been loud and pointed.

“It is interesting what people have had to say about the record,” is Amin-Smith’s diplomatic response. “There are things we are very happy about in it, things that, given our time over, we might do differently. The response from our fans has been great — so we are satisfied with that.”

Like many overnight successes in music, Clean Bandit have been years in the making. Jack Patterson, Grace Chatto and Amin Smith met studying at Jesus College in Cambridge, where Amin Smith and Chatto played in a string quartet.

Patterson, Chatto’s boyfriend, recorded the ensemble’s performances, splicing the music and adding dance beats. Soon, they were collaborating as a band (to fill out the line-up Jack’s brother Luke was roped in) and attracting label attention.

Not afraid to come across as clever and well-educated, they chose as their name the English translation of a Russian phrase. Chatto and Patterson had studied in Moscow, where Clean Bandit refers to a ne’er do well skating by on charm and wits. Upon graduating, all four committed full time to the project and were snapped up by Warner Music.

”We’ve done this for a long time, says Amin-Smith. Initially, it was maybe one, two gigs a year. Gradually it amped up. Through it all we felt our music could attract a bigger audience. Nonetheless, it is fair to say we are surprised by just how big an following we have built.”

They had actually recorded ‘Rather Be’ before seeking a vocalist.“We needed the right person to sing it. Fortunately we discovered Jess — she totally took it to the next level.

Everyone was confident we would get somewhere. The level of exposure however, is beyond what we ever dreamed possible. We knew we had it in us to gain a substantial audience. To do that to the degree we have, though, is a complete shock.”

- Clean Bandit play Electric Picnic Electric Arena on Saturday. The album New Eyes is out now.