English rock band Bastille was formed back in 2010 in London and started off as a solo project by singer-songwriter Dan Smith, who later decided on forming a band. The four-piece band, comprises of Christ “Woody” Wood, William Farquarson, and Kyle Simmons. Bastille signed with Virgin Records in December 2010 and their debut single “Overjoyed” was released in April 2012.
The band’s first studio album, “Bad Blood” was released in March 2013 and debuted atop the UK Album Charts. Following the success of “Bad Blood”, Bastille has won the British Breakthrough Act at Brit Awards 2014 as well as received several nominations including a Grammy Award for Best New Artiste at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards.
Having gained a huge following across the globe, Bastille recently made their way to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as part of their “Bad Blood” Asia Tour.
Bastille performed at KL Live on January 3rd (Saturday) and gave fans a rockin’ start to 2015. As it was Bastille’s first time here in Kuala Lumpur, we sat down with the English lads for a quick chat to find out if they were as excited to be here as we were.
Hey guys! Welcome to KL.
Dan: I was called lazy for calling it KL. Someone was like “Oh you lazy foreigner!” I thought everyone else called it KL till someone scolded me, I felt bad.
Haha awwh! Everyone calls it KL so don’t feel bad. Anyway, where do you get your musical inspiration from?
Dan: I think a lot of the songs just come from things that are generally interesting. From films to books to TV shows to the stuff that we’ve learnt in school. Particularly with the first album, I was keen of putting the emphasis away from me and us as people as there are more interesting things in the world. But that’s just for me personally.
As we are now just moving into a new year, what would you say is the highlight of 2014?
Woody: I’m going to say getting married. I’ll probably get shot if I don’t (laughs).
Bastille: Oh Woody’s wedding was definitely a highlight for all of us.
Will: We all played at Woody’s wedding and his friends are obviously musicians and so loads of them got together and played different songs and it was amazing. Then we went up and we were like “We are not as good as his friends who turned up.” Our performance was by far the worst of the night.
Kyle: It was embarrassing. We were doing covers, we weren’t at his wedding doing Bastille songs.
Dan: I think we should give a shoutout to Chrissy because she often reads Malaysian media.
Woody: LOVE YOU!
Kyle: Anyway, it’s been such a ridiculous year for us. So much has happened.
Dan: In the US, we started this year playing Saturday Night Live and we ended it getting nominated for a Grammy, the Brit Awards, playing festivals across the world, it’s all been so crazy and so amazing.
It sounds like you guys have had a fantastic year. One last question, what is the one song that you can never get out of your head, even if you tried?
Woody: I can’t think of it. Hmmm. Oh I know! George Michael’s “Careless Whisper”.
Dan: I’ve had Taylor Swift’s “Trouble” stuck in my head a couple of times (laughs).
Kyle: I don’t know. What have I heard recently? I don’t know, it’s weird because our lives exists around music and there’s so much of it in there so I don’t think there’s one in particular. Like each morning, I’ll wake up and there will be a song in my head. The other day it was Gabrielle’s “Rise” and the next day it’s another track, so I can’t just pick one.
Will: “Left Hand Free” by Alt-J. Actually, if you work in the studio and you’re working on a chorus bit, it plays in your head over and over again (laughs).
Thanks so much guys!
Bastille: Thank you so much! It was lovely meeting you.
We’d like to thank our friends from Universal Music for making this interview happen.
For more on Bastille, hit up these platforms: Website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
