Stereoboard Chat To Bastille's Dan Smith About Being One Of The UK's Biggest New Bands (Interview)
Sunday, 10 February 2013
Written by Katie Territt
At the moment, you can't seem to turn on the radio or open a magazine without hearing about Bastille. The London quartet are fast becoming one of the biggest new bands in Britain with a sold out tour coming up as evidence of their growing popularity. On the verge of their debut album release, Stereoboard caught up with Dan Smith, the voice and creator behind the band.
Bastille started out as Dan's solo project before becoming a full band. "I didn't feel massively comfortable doing a solo thing so I'd always wanted Bastille to be a kind of band or project (in the least pretentious way possible). There was never a question in my mind about not touring as a band. I've always written and recorded by myself, but pretty much from the start I got Woody, Will and Kyle involved in the live side of things and we've been building that alongside the recording process."
With huge support from not only their large fan base, but from radio, magazines, newspapers, etc, it must add to the excitement of releasing their music. "We've always been lucky that people seem to have just found our music, so it's weird as we're heading towards releasing the album to feel our songs getting a bit more of a push. It'd be nice if more people discovered our songs, but it's a strange feeling.
We are constantly taken aback by the fact that some people seem to like our music and come to our gigs and stuff. It feels awesome to think that some songs that I wrote and then recorded in my room are being played by complete strangers."
Bastille's debut album, 'Bad Blood', is due for release in March, and it's been a long time coming. "I guess a lot of the writing and recording that I've done up to now has been gearing towards this album, so it's been quite weird having to put a full stop behind all that work knowing I'll never be able to go back and do anything else to the songs. It is exciting to be releasing it finally. It's strange for me that it's finished now, but I'm looking forward to thinking about making a bunch of new songs."
The band have already released singles 'Flaws', 'Overjoyed' and title track 'Bad Blood' from the album, and they seem to be a good indication of the sound that's to come from the debut. "Yeah I think they probably are to a certain point. I wanted to try out slightly different things on each song. Some are quite intimate, others are really epic, and there's a mixture between live sounds and electronic ones. Whilst I'm sure the songs aren't radically different to each other in other peoples' minds, to us we were trying something sonically new (for us) from song to song. I hope that comes across."
One of the standout album tracks is the single 'Flaws', a beautiful song, more than capable of inducing goosebumps. Did Dan always hope to evoke emotion in the listener through the songs on the album? "I've never really set out to write anything too emotional and it never occurred to me that people would find something relatable in my songs. But I do kind of want to leave them up to interpretation as much as possible, so I guess it's a really nice thing that some of them have meaning to some people."
Bastille are soon to embark on their very own headline tour beginning at the end of February and continuing throughout March. With the tour sold out, the band are looking forward to getting out on the road. "We're all really excited about our next tour. It's a very weird feeling knowing that it's sold out and that we'll be headlining by far the biggest venues that we've played so far. We're getting a bit of practice in at the moment though - we've just set off on a UK tour supporting Two Door Cinema Club which has been loads of fun. The venues we're playing with them are massive, so it's a good insight into what it'd be like to be a proper band.
At the moment we're having a great time seeing bits of the country and the world that none of us have seen before. I can imagine bits of it could become quite repetitive, but as long as I'm able to write and record alongside touring as much as possible I hope it'll continue to be this much fun."
Alongside the UK tour, Bastille have also announced a tour throughout Europe. "We have absolutely no idea what those shows will be like. We're kind of seeing the European dates as starting from scratch, so the optimist in me is imagining us playing to nobody in tiny toilet venues."
As well as the tour, album release and tons of press, the band have had the opportunity to do some amazing things already such as selling out their own show at Camden's Koko, and playing the iTunes festival. Has there been a favourite experience on the journey yet? "We've been so lucky so far… Reading was a massive highlight, as was being able to record the strings for the album at Abbey Road. We also got to play at a festival in Hong Kong at the end of last year which was our first long haul trip as a band. It's quite a varied job being in a band so it's hard to pick I guess."
So with lots of exciting things on the horizon, what else is the band hoping to achieve on the road to stardom? "We're hoping to play as many festivals as we possibly can. We've got a bunch in the pipeline but nothing we can announce yet annoyingly. We want to travel as much as we can. I'd also like to keep writing and recording, both for Bastille and for a bunch of other things as well."
It certainly looks like Bastille have a determined and ambitious outlook for their career. What they've already achieved as a band is quite exciting, and that's all before they've even released their debut album. Their sold out tour and European dates are bound to draw in even more fans to jump on the bandwagon, and if the singles to date truly are an indication of what is to come from 'Bad Blood', then we're all in for a real treat - and the band are in for even more success than they've already been lucky to experience. One of Britain's best new bands? Without a shadow of a doubt!
Debut album 'Bad Blood' is released on 4th March 2013. Bastille embark on a UK tour later this month.
Thu February 28th 2013 - O2 Academy Liverpool, Liverpool
Fri March 1st 2013 - Liquid Room, Edinburgh
Sat March 2nd 2013 - Oran Mor, Glasgow
Mon March 4th 2013 - 53 Degrees, Preston
Tue March 5th 2013 - Club Academy, Manchester
Thu March 7th 2013 - Mo Club, Southampton
Fri March 8th 2013 - Waterfront, Norwich
Sat March 9th 2013 - The Institute, Birmingham
Sun March 10th 2013 - The Cockpit, Leeds
Tue March 19th 2013 - Leadmill, Sheffield
Thu March 21st 2013 - Rock City, Nottingham
Fri March 22nd 2013 - O2 Academy Oxford, Oxford
Sat March 23rd 2013 - Cardiff University Students Union, Cardiff
Mon March 25th 2013 - Brighton Concorde 2, Brighton
Wed March 27th 2013 - O2 Academy Bristol, Bristol
Thu March 28th 2013 - O2 Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Fri March 29th 2013 - O2 Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Sat April 6th 2013 - Mandela Hall, Co. Antrim
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Bastille started out as Dan's solo project before becoming a full band. "I didn't feel massively comfortable doing a solo thing so I'd always wanted Bastille to be a kind of band or project (in the least pretentious way possible). There was never a question in my mind about not touring as a band. I've always written and recorded by myself, but pretty much from the start I got Woody, Will and Kyle involved in the live side of things and we've been building that alongside the recording process." 
