Two years ago you couldn’t watch TV or listen to the radio without hearing Clean Bandit’s hit song “Rather Be”. Ever since then the world has been waiting for the second album from this British group and FINALLY their new single “Tears” has landed on YouTube. But their full album won’t be coming out until 2017.
Clean Bandit is the mastermind of college mates Jack Patterson, Grace Chatto, and Neil Amin-Smith. Neil and Grace were working together in a string quartet at the time, and when she started dating Jack Patterson, the three formed a band. Jack also recruited his brother Luke, now the drummer, into the fold. While Chatto and Jack dated throughout most of their first album, they have since broken up. Interestingly enough, their newest single is “Tears”. Both however have confirmed that the breakup wouldn’t affect the band and has even helped them with new material.
Band members of Clean Bandit during a Rolling Stone photo shoot. (Photo credit: rollingstone.com)
What’s unique about Clean Bandit is that their hits tend to feature an outside artist. With “Rather Be” the vocalist was British artist Jess Glynne. With “Tears”, which I suspect will be another big hit for the band, the featured artist is the winner of UK’s The X Factor in 2015, Louisa Johnson.
Louisa Johnson during Britain’s The X Factor. (Photo credit: www.thesun.co.uk)
Band member Jack Patterson wrote the song with Sam Romans (a music producer) and describes the song as ‘a 1990s vision of a breakup song’. When you watch it, you can definitely see why. While the beat feels 90s, the video itself is something out of the future. “Rather Be” rang out with “no place you’d rather be” than with your new love, while “Tears” focuses on “I’ll get over you” after a break up. A perfect follow up to their previous album. While “Rather Be” was shot in Tokyo, “Tears” was shot in Cannes and, like most of their music videos, was directed band member by Jack Patterson.