Clean Bandit Artistfacts

2008-
Grace ChattoCello, percussion, vocals2008-
Jack PattersonBass, keyboard, vocals 2008-
Luke PattersonDrums2008-
Neil Amin-SmithViolin, piano2008-2016
Grace Chatto, Jack Patterson, Luke Patterson and Neil Amin-Smith met while studying as undergraduates at Jesus College, University of Cambridge The quartet formed Clean Bandit after they performed at the National Rail Disco in 2008 and witnessed the response to their music first hand onstage.

"From that first performance that we did at this club night, we all knew it was something we wanted to do," Grace Chatto told Radio.com. "It was such an electric atmosphere at the gig and it was really exciting."
The band's name comes from an English translation of a Russian phrase with a meaning of "utter" or "complete bastard." Grace Chatto and Jack Patterson lived in Moscow for a period and their landlady used to refer to a friend of theirs as a Clean Bandit, though she meant it affectionately. The name stuck and they decided to take it as a band name.
Neil Amin-Smith got the highest mark in his year at Cambridge upon completing a masters in economics. As a result, he was approached by both MI6 and the Foreign Office.
Grace Chatto once taught cello at a London music school. Unfortunately she lost her position after the school authorities got wind of the video for "Mozart's House," in which we briefly see Chatto covering her bare chest with a violin.
When Clean Bandit first formed, Grace Chatto and Jack Patterson were in a relationship, Neil Amin-Smith was Grace's best friend, and Luke was Jack's brother. Grace and Jack split after their first album. "When Jack and I broke up we decided that Jack would stay at home and start writing the second album, rather than tour with us," Chatto remembered to Q magazine. "The happy side of that is that Jack wrote loads of amazing stuff."
When Clean Bandit recorded their debut single "Mozart's House" they were broke and couldn't even afford to use the London Underground. Grace Chatto asked MTV why they weren't playing their self-directed video for "Mozart's House" and she was informed it would only play it once the song had some traction on radio. She gathered enough money together to give a radio plugger the equivalent of a month's rent in cash and within a few weeks Radio 1 was playing the clip. "Then, all of a sudden," she told The Guardian, "all these lawyers and managers contacted us."

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