Clean Bandit is an electronic group from Cambridge, England founded in 2009. The group consists of four members: Jack Patterson on the bass guitar, keyboard and vocals; Luke Patterson on the drums; Grace Chatto on the cello and vocals; and Milan Neil Amin-Smith on the violin. In January of 2014, they released their first single to hit the number one spot on the UK Singles Chart, “Rather Be.” In the United States, “Rather Be” reached the number 12 spot on the Billboard Hot 100.

They music style of Clean Bandit can be described as a mix of electronic/deep-house music with elements of classical music. The music that they make uses elements from classical compositions from Dvorak, Beethoven, and Mozart. They released their single “Mozart’s House” in 2013 and the song reached  #17 on the UK Singles Chart. A lot of their music can be considered humorous at times as many record labels refused to sign the band because they thought that they were a comedy band.

In a world where a lot of electronic artists these days are hiring production interns to produce their own music, Clean Bandit actually produces their own music. Jack, Chatto and Amin-Smith all met while attending Jesus College at the University of Cambridge. Chatto and Amin-Smith were leads in a string quartet. Chatto was Jack’s girlfriend while at college, and he would record remixes to Chatto’s vocals from time to time. One of their songs, Motzar’s House, eventually materialized and thus began the journey to becoming an electronic band.

Their band name comes from the minds of Chatto and Jack Patterson. They both lived in Russia for a bit, so “Clean Bandit” is a direct translation that from Russian to English that is used to mean “complete bastard” or “utter rascal” in British terminology.

The other night Xavier Capdepon completed his remix of Clean Bandits’s most famous song, “Rather Be” with vocals from Jess Glynne. Check the song out below!