Fresh off a Grammy win for Best Dance Recording, British fusion group Clean Bandit has quietly worked under the music world’s radar for the past nine years and finally made the big break they deserve within the last year. The group, founded in Cambridge in 2006, consists of members Jack Patterson, Luke Patterson, Grace Chatto, and Milan Neil Amin-Smith; three of them met while studying at Jesus College, University of Cambridge (they later added Luke Patterson on drums). Chatto and Amin-Smith provide the classical elements to the groups’ music, using both violin and cello accompaniment while both Jack and Luke provide the new-age portion with bass guitar, keyboard, and percussion.

Despite obtaining their first Grammy this past year, Clean Bandit, whose name is a translation of a Russian phrase similar in meaning to a British slang term “Utter Rascal”, has not had an easy journey to stardom. Early on in their career as a group, many record labels refused to sign them to any deals as they were thought of as a “joke band” with their unique style and messages in their music. However the group overcame their rejections and opted to produce their own music and invite guest collaborators on their own, proving to various record labels that they are in fact a serious group.

Their debut album New Eyes, dropped last June and has steadily gained traction with the re-release of key singles, most prominently last summer’s techno anthem “Rather Be” featuring Jess Glyne. If trends persist, the next big singles are bound to be “Extraordinary” and “Real Love”, both similar in nature to the “Rather Be”; providing a sense of continuity to the album, while also delivering sounds that have hardly been heard before. Clean Bandit’s fresh sound can soon be heard live, with the kickoff of their first ever tour in both the UK and the United States, starting in early March.