Clean Bandit are deep in their creative flow

Clean Bandit’s musical journey has always been marked by unexpected turns — they landed a Grammy for their 2014 tune “Rather Be” only seven years after forming the group at uni (Cambridge, if you’re wondering), have seen a switcheroo of members and have segued into unchartered genres. The group’s recent exploits? A remix of “Cry Baby” featuring country artist Tanner Adell following their departure from Atlantic Records. Clean Bandit isn’t just trying to get a piece of the country-pie, though. Grace Chatto — who “rejects” the notion of being the face of the group — says Clean Bandit is simply “in a beautiful creative flow right now”. Case in point? On vacation in Miami last year, the trip spontaneously transformed into an intensive month-long creative session, yielding the best part of twenty songs with artists from across South America. 

“Maybe the best month of my life,” Chatto says of the prolonged Miami stint. It’s clear, then, that the group aren’t resting on their laurels — they actually have a new track,”Tell Me Where U Go”, dropping with Tiësto and Leony tomorrow. Their overall sentiment, though (despite being in Spotify’s Billions Club alongside legendary acts like Queen and Coldplay) encompasses a refreshingly uncomplicated perspective on success. With each member bringing their own expertise to the table, the rest is simply about “randomly juxtaposing different sound worlds in a (hopefully) pleasing way”. At the end of the day, the group just hopes they’re still “able to make creations that uplift some people”. And, with two Ivor Novello awards, a Grammy and multiple BRIT nominations in the bag, you could say the band have done okay so far by just following their musical curiosity wherever it leads them.

Amber Rawlings: How are you? How’s life treating you?

Grace Chatto: Very well thank you, we are in a beautiful creative flow right now.

AR: “Cry Baby” has always been a significant track for you, sitting in the UK singles charts for over ten weeks. What made you decide to collab with Tanner Adell for the recent remix?

GC: Tanner Adell is one of my favourite artists right now. She’s very badass and has the most amazing powerful voice and is an inspirational lovely person. We connected on IG at first. She came to London for her first show here and I was telling her about this country-leaning song we made, called “Cry Baby”. She was like shut up, I have a tattoo on my leg that says “cry baby”. The rest is history.

AR: You’ve consistently blended unexpected musical styles. There’s obviously your classical training in there, then you pivoted to electronic pop… Doing country feels pertinent, though. What’s driving this particular evolution? It’s obviously more than just wanting a piece of the country pie?

GC: We actually made the song four years ago and we’ve just always loved country music. But we weren’t able to release it at the time, so we released it now — happy!

AR: And this remix comes after you guys dipped your toes into the Latin scene. Is this just musical restlessness, or is there something more strategic at play?

GC: I wouldn’t say there’s anything strategic in the mixing of musical styles that we are obsessed with — we have always been randomly juxtaposing different sound worlds in a (hopefully) pleasing way. We found ourselves in Miami at the start of last year, which was supposed to be a holiday with Jack’s girlfriend, but, like, wherever we go, we couldn’t help going to a studio for a bit. This escalated, and we ended up staying for a month and made about twenty songs with artists from all over South America. It was insane. Maybe the best month of my life. The most productive and creative anyway. So far, two songs have come out, one with the major Colombian band Piso 21 and young genius Jhosy, and one with the wild Puerto Rican rapper Darrell. These sessions were so exciting and I absolutely love both songs. We aim to release the rest of the songs this year.

AR: Grace tends to be the public face of the band, while Jack drives the songwriting. How do you balance those different roles within Clean Bandit?

GC: I reject my role being the public face of the band! I’m shy, but the boys are more shy so I do tend to talk more maybe. Jack is a chord and melody maestro composer and incredible producer. I executive produce the records and produce with Jack, and I produce or co-direct the music videos. I also write the odd lyrical concept but we usually collaborate with singers or top-line writers on our songs and focus on the ‘music’. Jack is also a fantastic director and cinematographer and film editor — making music videos has always been just as important to us as the actual songs, and, in fact, we spend at least half of our time creating these. “Cry Baby” has been our re-entry to filmmaking and it was the most epic film project we’ve ever done. Luke is an amazing drummer and works a lot on the live creation of sounds. He is also a great producer and DJ and remixer, as well as the most brilliant film editor and certified drone pilot. So we all have quite specific roles in both the music making and the filmmaking, but of course we overlap a lot and co-create in varying ways.

AR: Leaving Atlantic Records must have been equal parts exciting and daunting. How has that changed your approach to making and releasing music?

GC: It was not daunting actually — it was perfect. We had a brilliant run together releasing lots of fun projects, but it was time for us to leave and forge a new path for our next chapter. It was sad to part ways with some great people, but we are still friends and it would have been more daunting to stay.

AR: The video you put out for the Tanner remix is significantly more stripped back compared to your previous videos. Tell me about that.

GC: Since it was a remix, we never intended to make a full music video for it. But we were filming some content together for social media around town and inside the previous music video set (a train that my dad built). By the end of the day we had so much footage that we decided to stitch it together into the full length of the song. Luke did this, and it turned out super cool but, yeah, it’s not a music video as such. Even though it actually is. By accident!

AR: There’s obviously that little cameo from Francis in the video for the original version of “Cry Baby”. What internet celeb would you pop in your next video? The Schooner Scorer perhaps?

GC: We consulted with Francis Bourgeois on how to render the exteriors of the train that we were making. We had a good FaceTime with him about that — he’s obviously so knowledgeable and we share a love for trains. We really like him and asked him if he wanted to play the part of the train conductor (which you’ll see in the Ruger edit), and he also played the part of a business man passenger. It was more about a shared love than anyone being a celebrity… I’m not sure who the Schooner Scorer is, but I’m sure we can find a role for them!

AR: You’re part of Spotify’s Billions Club, sharing space with the likes of Queen and Coldplay. Does that legacy feel like a blessing or a pressure?

GC: Blessing. Grateful people are enjoying the songs.

AR: Compared to how musicians come up now – via TikTok or Instagram or whatever – you’re quite “old school”. You’ve had classical training. Do you think that has a place anymore? In this streaming-driven landscape?

GC: Of the musicians coming up on TikTok there is probably the same mixture of classically trained and not classically trained as there was before, in pop music. The change is more about how people can reach wide audiences in a different way now via TikTok, rather than what training they’ve had or not had in terms of their musicality. One does not need classical training to make amazing music, which was also the case for many decades before we started.

AR: Similarly, music consumption has changed dramatically since you started. How do you maintain artistic integrity in an era of algorithm-driven playlists and TikTok-length attention spans?

GC: We are of the YouTube generation. But we love making short, tiny films also. For us, the battle for maintaining artistic integrity has been more when songs become hits — it can be challenging to hear one’s own voice after that because there are then a lot of people with a lot of opinions.

AR: All things said, I feel like something that’s symptomatic of how good this landscape can be is Leo Stay Trill’s remix of your song, “Rather Be”. How was it seeing your music get new life in that way?

GC: I like him a lot — we made it together. So great to hear his flow on the “Rather Be” chords. 

AR: You’ve been pretty vocal politically, consistently endorsing Labour. In an era where musicians are often told to “stick to their craft”, how do you see the role of artists in broader social conversations?

GC: I voted for Labour my whole life but, when Keir Starmer became the leader and with everything that’s happened since, I do not support the party at the moment. Politics is life, so I think it’s appropriate for anyone to talk about it, whatever their ‘craft’.

AR: With over a decade in this industry, what does success even look like anymore?

GC: I’d say success for us is being able to make creations that uplift some people.

AR: What’s next for Clean Bandit?

GC: We will release some higher tempo music, and the rate of release will also be at a higher tempo!