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Clean Bandit straddles the line between the concert hall and the club, combining live, classically derived string arrangements with gurgling electronic beats.

It’s a formula the British quartet—Neil Amin-Smith, Grace Chatto and Luke and Jack Patterson—stumbled upon while studying together at Jesus College, University of Cambridge, according to Amin-Smith.

“It was a combination of experimentation and Grace and I—the classical players in the band—wanting to play with our friend Jack, who was making electronic music,” Amin-Smith said in a recent phone interview.

“He had recordings of what we were doing, and he started mixing it up and chopping it and sampling, and we just liked what he’d done and decided to carry on with it.”

Audiences are gradually warming to the concept. “Rather Be,” Bandits’ digitized symphony of a single, cracked the Billboard Hot 100 earlier this summer. When reached in mid-September, the musicians were gearing up for their first-ever U.S. tour.

This will be your first full U.S. tour, but you previously played one-off shows in New York and L.A. Had you been to the U.S. prior to that?

We’d never been as a band before, but I’d been to New York with my parents once when I was a lot younger. I’d spoken to Dan [Smith] from Bastille, and he said doing shows in America was unlike doing shows anywhere else because the audience is so up for it. I guess I listened to him, but I didn’t appreciate what he meant until we played the first show. In the U.K. the audiences … give you less.

I read after the L.A. show you ended up partying with [adult film star] Ron Jeremy.

[Laughs.] Yeah. I went to bed at about 3 a.m., and the other guys met Ron Jeremy after that … [and] ended up driving around in his car. To be honest, I was happy to get the sleep because it was a really grueling schedule. We played on breakfast TV in New York, and that entails getting up at 2 a.m., and we were already getting over jetlag. I think I still got the thrill of Ron Jeremy by seeing the photos and hearing the stories.

With British acts there’s often this pressure to break in the states. Is that something you’ve felt?

I know what you mean, but in a way that pressure has lessened in the last year or two because the way people like Disclosure and Bastille have had success. It feels less unachievable, so it’s not something we’re worrying about as much. We’re coming from a place where we didn’t expect this kind of chart success in the U.K., let alone anywhere else. We’re just taking everything as it comes, and not trying to get ahead of ourselves by having any grand ambitions.

Being one of the classical players, do you have a preference between concert halls and rock clubs?

It’s such a different thing. With classical music you don’t interact with the audience at all. The music is a one-way thing, and the audience sits there in silence until the end of the performance. In some ways that’s nice because it makes it more intense. But then it’s also nice to play in non-classical settings where there’s more interaction with the audience and people can be much more expressive.

Are there any other unexpected combinations you favor, like peanut butter and pickle sandwiches or something?

When it comes to food I’m very conservative. I’ve never even brought myself to try a peanut butter and jam sandwich, which is not even unconventional. I’m quite bread and butter.

You work with a number of guest vocalists. Who would be your dream pairing?

I guess Beyonce. But who wouldn’t say that? I personally think it’d be cool to do something with Peter Cole, and I think Jack would also like to work with Drake.

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How would you rate yourself as a vocalist?

The reason we use these guest vocalists is none of us has a very powerful voice. I sometimes sing live, and Grace sings on one of our latest singles, “Come Over.” So I guess we all can sing, but none of us have voices powerful enough for the tracks we’re trying to make.

Considering the band name, I wanted to ask if you’ve ever stolen anything?

Grace and I once ordered takeout from somewhere and we went to pick it up and they gave it to us and we were like, “OK, thanks. Bye.” It wasn’t until hours later—after we’d gotten on the tour bus and driven hundreds of miles—that we realized we hadn’t paid for it. That was quite embarrassing.

Do you have any physical or mental attributes suited to a career as a burglar?

I’m incredibly light, so maybe that would be of some use? But I’m also clumsy and have bad eyesight, which wouldn’t be helpful trying to find work as a master criminal.

Andy Downing is a RedEye special contributor. @redeyechimusic @andydowning33

Clean Bandit: Sept. 22 at Lincoln Hall (2424 N. Lincoln Ave. 773-525-2501). $18.