Munya Vomo
The first Electric Summer Music Festival, which is a one-day music experience sponsored by 5FM, has been postponed.
Originally scheduled for this weekend, the fest will now take place in two cities in January, starting in Cape Town on January 29 and then moving to Joburg the following day.
One of the main music acts on the line-up will be the Grammy-award winning UK band, Clean Bandit. The outfit comprises Jack Patterson (bass guitar, keyboard, vocals and piano), Luke Patterson (percussion), Neil Amin-Smith (violin, piano) and Grace Chatto (cello, vocals).
“We are really excited to come to South Africa. I am in London in a studio right now so it will be great to come through to your good weather. I have been to South Africa before, but on a personal level, and now it will be great to see how we fare as a band,” said Chatto who spoke on the group’s behalf.
The musicians will be coming to South Africa for the first time and are excited to come out to see their fans here.
“We love playing at festivals and from what I understand, South Africa is going to be like that. Our music requires a dance atmosphere so that comes out best in the open,” said Chatto.
“The other band mates want to do some safaris, but I doubt there will be time for that as the tour is only for a short time.
“I will stay over for a few more days, but I haven’t quite decided what I will do with the time while I am there,” she added.
Clean Bandit’s music makes use of classical instruments that are played to a pop sound – something not many young people are doing today.
“These days you do not see a lot of young people playing classical instruments so we have a market for what we do.
“The idea was to go back to the classics and play them in a modern way. So we create our music with that model and that style sets us apart from the rest,” said Chatto.
Earlier this year, the group won a Grammy in the Best Dance Recording category for their hit song, Rather Be.
“We had been nominated and did not think that it would lead to anything.
“We were really excited that we even got that nomination, but nothing prepared us for the actual win. We were shocked when they called our name out and the rest was history. That ceremony in Los Angeles was incredible,” explained Chatto.
The group’s members met at the University of Cambridge where they were not necessarily studying music.
“We have people in the group who studied history and economics and others did computer modelling and all that adds up to aiding the band somehow.
“I studied languages and I speak Italian and Russian which can be helpful when we are on tour in the territories where those languages are spoken,” said Chatto.