LSi caught up with Clean Bandit prior to their gig at The Cockpit on the October 21:

You’ve just finished playing and DJing at what must feel like every festival this summer, how did it all go?

Yeah it went great! It was our first big summer of festivals. I think last summer we only did six or seven, but this year we had two every weekend, pretty much. And it was amazing! Can’t wait for next year.

And now on to a headline tour! How will the preparation differ from preparing for the festival circuit now that it’s your own show?

We’ll definitely be doing a longer set as we were mostly limited to about half an hour at the festivals. We’ll be having a lot more going on: we’ll be able to set up visuals at each venue and probably more guest vocalists at some of the shows. Maybe a few extra strings which we just can’t do at the festivals, as it’s just logistically impossible. It should be a much bigger and fuller show.

How’s the album coming along, are you finished recording and can we expect a release date any time soon?

We’re hoping that our work on it will be done by the end of this year and it will hopefully come out in January/February, like the first months of next year. We’re nearing the end.

Having been Classically trained and you played in quartets, did you ever see yourselves gravitating towards dance music in the contemporary sense?

Erm, not necessarily playing violin in a dance act, but Grace and I – who are the two Classical musicians in the band – we used to run a club night at university which was based around the kind of bass and future garage scene, maybe like five years ago. And Grace used to sneak into (London club) Fabric from the age of like 15, so we’ve been into dance music for a long time.

Very impressively you’re latest EP ‘Dust Clears’ features remixes from the likes of Alt J, Friendly Fires and Russ Chimes. If you could have someone dead or alive to remix one of your tracks, who would it be?

Dream remix… Erm, I’d love to hear a Ramadanman remix just because I think he’s a genius. Erm
obviously we’d all accept a Calvin Harris or David Guetta remix (laughs), but I don’t know it would be something I’d necessarily listen to.

You’re playing Leeds on the 21st October at The Cockpit. If I’m not mistaken, last time you played in Leeds was with Disclosure (aside from Leeds festival – I’m talking within the city), how was it for you?

It was cool actually. The Cockpit… is that the one under the railway. Yeah that was really fun gig, we really enjoyed it. We went out, we had a really good time in Leeds, so it should be cool. I DJ’d in Leed too, the night before the festival.

And lastly, for the freshers, do you have any advice for people on how to get the most out of it music whilst at university?

I think just do as much as you can because you never have that time again where you don’t need to be earning money from doing music, so you can just do whatever. You can just try anything!

 

Adam Nealon