Clean Bandit cherished lockdown because it afforded them the time to nurture the 20 songs they had penned pre-pandemic.

The chart-topping trio - who recently returned with their single, 'Tick Tock', featuring Mabel and rapper 24kGoldn - have plenty more tunes in the pipeline after the coronavirus crisis gave them the chance to spend quality time producing their next batch of material.

Grace Chatto - who is joined in the 'Rather Be' group by brothers Jack and Luke Patterson - told the Daily Star newspaper's Wired column: ''We wrote 20 songs or so in the month before lockdown started, just the bare bones, so during lockdown we just worked on producing them.

''So it was beautiful to just have that time and that creative space to work on stuff we had started when we were in LA.

''Now we have loads of songs with various lyricists and friends out there, it was perfect timing and just what we needed to get our head around all this material we had started.''

Meanwhile, Grace has revealed 'Tick Tock' is about being ''obsessed'' with a guy.

The 34-year-old star explained that ''being in nature'' during the lockdown enabled her to ''see the bigger picture again'' and helped her to move on.

On what inspired the upbeat disco track, she explained: ''We wrote it just before the pandemic and I was feeling a little obsessed with a guy - you know that annoying thing where you don't wanna be obsessed but you are?

And if I find myself in that situation I do something I love and something which makes me feel satisfied in another way.

''In lockdown I enjoyed going for walks.

''I found being in nature makes you see the bigger picture again.''