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Grace - Clean Bandit

Can't really go wrong with Johannes Seb. And a bit of Coolio. Anything to get us performing on chairs and looking a little less 'prim and proper' - not that there's anything wrong with that as a look per se.
                                                                                   
Have any technical issues arisen from your classical/hip hop/electronica fusion?
                                                                                   
Ssegamic: The word fusion reminds me of a dodgy East End restaurant

Grace: Haha, I hate the word too. There have definitely been some technical issues amplifying our instruments. There still kind of are ... It's very hard to get a good wooden sound with a 10p transducer attached to the tummy of a violin. But unfortunately, this sound doesn't seem to get any better unless you spend 1 million pounds.

Wandeck: I love everything fusion. I especially love oriental fusion cuisine and shameless jazz fusion.

Shiry: The viola as an instrument is in no way acoustically disadvantaged, and does not need to be amplified. It sounds beautiful just the way it is.

What are your main influences?

Ssegamic: I love (the old skool) Craig David actually and that is no lie (have you heard him MC?)

Milan –Sseg I love Craig David too!! Today I have listened to Rewind many times and also You Don’t Miss Your Water (‘Till the Well Runs Dry)

Grace: I love Jacqueline du Pre and Steven Isserlis.

Lydia: Bands like Arcade Fire use violins like electric guitars- that's cool! I also love the way Rufus Wainwright plays really virtuosic classical piano in his bombastic pop
songs.

Grace: Lydia I've never heard you say 'bombastic' before. I love Shaggy by the way, especially his classic with RikRok, that in fact we may do a delightful cover of...

Shiry: I fully intend one day to have a threesome with Itzhak Perlman and Pinkie Zuckerman in the green room at Carnegie Hall, despite the generational/spousal/location issue. We will make lots of string playing babies.

In your own words you are very much a live act. What has been the audience reaction to your music so far?

Ssegamic: Most people don't expect the live strings in a club - that is what makes us different. Audience then go mental when the basslines kick in.

Grace: Yeah, and it's so fun to see those mental people. Before Clean Bandit, I, and I think the rest of the quartet too, had only ever performed in silent (apart from the odd cough between movements) concert halls.

Shiry: And sometimes, even claps. I hate it when people clap between movements.

Grace: Oh I love it. They do it in Russia a lot - if something is good, it will get a clap, even during the music if it's really good (like in jazz performances). I think it's great. I just hate all those elitist rules of classical performance that seem to just make for embarrassed non-enjoyment, which is a shame because there's a lot of enjoyment to be had... 

Do you have any plans to release any of your music in the near future?

Ssegamic: We should release it on cassette tape or minidisc (remember them), some old skool shit so only cheapos who didn't want to invest in ipods can hear it - now that's exclusive

Milan: These songs do not need releasing. They will lock down your aerial all by themselves.

What's your dream collaboration?

Ssegamic: Thriller Michael Jackson, maybe even young MJ, but not post-Earth Song Michael Jackson.

Grace: I don't feel like there's all that much room for collaboration, because it is already a collaborative act. But it might be nice to get some sexy female vocals involved in some tunes.

Milan: We would probably be interested in hearing from Dario G though.

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Milan - Clean Bandit
Shiry - Clean Bandit
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