Bastille are a British indie pop band formed in 2010. The group began as a solo project by lead vocalist Dan Smith, but later expanded to include keyboardist Kyle Simmons, bassist and guitarist Will Farquarson and drummer Chris "Woody" Wood.[1][2]
After an independently released debut single and a self-released EP, the band signed to Virgin Records.[3] Their first studio album, Bad Blood, was released in March 2013 and entered the UK Albums Chart at number one and included the hit single "Pompeii" which peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart. Bastille was nominated for four Brit Awards at the 2014 ceremony, winning the British Breakthrough Act.[4] As of August 2021, the band have sold over eleven million records worldwide.[5][6]
History
Formation and early releases (2010–2011)
Bastille logo
Bastille debuted in July 2010 with their limited edition 7" single that featured the two tracks "Flaws" and "Icarus". Released through London-based independent record label Young & Lost Club, only 300 copies were pressed.[7] One of the copies found its way into the hands of Alex Baker, presenter of the unsigned/independent artists radio show on Kerrang! Radio. Baker started to support Bastille on air, and the band began to find an audience. They released the EP Laura Palmer themselves later in 2011.[8] After releasing further tracks online through sites such as YouTube and MySpace, the band's audience started to grow.[9] In December 2011 Smith signed a contract with Virgin Records.[3] The group subsequently secured a few support slots and later performed at major UK festivals including Glastonbury, the Isle of Wight, Redfest, Reading and Leeds Festival and Blissfields. The band also recorded and released two parts of their mix-tape titled Other People's Heartache for free.[9]
On 27 April 2012, their first official single release, "Overjoyed", was released through Virgin Records, as confirmed by EMI on 1 May 2012.[10] Following its video premiere in November 2011, popular music publication, Q Magazine introduced the track as its 'Track of the Day' for 7 March 2012.[11] The second single to be released from the upcoming debut studio album, Bad Blood, was the title track, "Bad Blood". An accompanying video for the single was released on the band's official VEVO channel on 29 June 2012, and digitally through Virgin Records on 20 August 2012. Bastille was also named 'New Band of the Day' by The Guardian in July 2012.[12] The song charted moderately at number 90 in the United Kingdom and saw the group's first entry into the chart. In August 2012 the band performed at UK festivals like Reading and Leeds, as well as supporting British singer-songwriter Emeli Sandé. They later played a small headlining tour, titled 'Flaws Tour' in October 2012, with Swiss Lips as their support act. in November 2012, the band performed at Hong Kong's Clockenflap Music and Arts Festival, their first outside of Europe. Their third single, a re-release of their first 7" non-album single "Flaws", was a commercial success, earning the group their first position in the UK Top 40, debuting at number-twenty-one.
In February 2013, Bastille confirmed the release of the fourth single to be taken from Bad Blood, "Pompeii". The song was positively reviewed by critics, reaching number two in the United Kingdom and number five in the US. Their debut album Bad Blood was released on 4 March 2013, and placed at number one in the UK Albums Chart. On 11 March, Bastille was announced to be playing at the Reading and Leeds Festival in August 2013.[13] In an interview with Digital Spy in March 2013, "Laura Palmer" was revealed to be the fifth single to be released from the album, by lead vocalist, Dan Smith.[14] It was released on 3 June 2013, and an accompanying video for the track premiered through the band's official VEVO page on 12 April 2013.[15] The group joined English rock band Muse as a supporting act on their The 2nd Law Tour in May 2013 and did so again in June 2013.[16] In May 2013, Bastille released their Haunt EP in the US via iTunes. On Saturday 6 July the band headlined their first UK summer music festival at Blissfields.[17] Smith was quoted as saying "We're massively excited about our first ever headline slot at a festival. Particularly because we love Blissfields so much, and because they've been so supportive to us over the last couple of years." The performance coincided with the band appearing on the cover of a national music publication, Notion magazine, for the first time. On 24 August 2013, "Things We Lost in the Fire" was released as the sixth single from the band's debut album.[18] A music video for the song was shot in Vilnius and Kėdainiai, Lithuania.[19] On 3 September 2013, Bastille released their Bad Blood album in the US via iTunes.[citation needed]
On 9 October 2013 Bastille released a new single, "Of the Night", a mash-up of the songs "The Rhythm of the Night" by Corona and "Rhythm Is a Dancer" by Snap!. The single debuted at number two on UK Singles Chart. The song was promoting All This Bad Blood, a reissue of the band's debut album, released on 25 November 2013. In January 2014 Will Farquarson said in an interview with Billboard magazine that the band had already started to work on its second album in between tour dates.[20] The band performed on Saturday Night Live on 25 January 2014. On 4 February 2014 Bastille won the BRIT Award for Best Breakthrough Act and performed a remixed version of "Pompeii" with Rudimental and their song "Waiting All Night" at the ceremony. Two hours after their appearance, sales of Bad Blood were up by 132% to give them a second week at number one in the UK album chart and "Pompeii" had climbed 29 places in the singles.[21] On 1 April 2014 the Official Charts Company announced that Bad Blood was the biggest selling digital album of 2013, and Number 11 in the over-all Official Artist Albums Top 40 of 2013.[22] Also in April 2014, the band performed at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. On 31 May 2014, the band took part in the Annual KROQ Weenie Roast in Irvine, California, performing among other bands including The Neighbourhood and Fall Out Boy. On 13 July 2014, Bastille played at T in the Park. In September 2014 they released the last single from Bad Blood, "Oblivion". The Bad Blood Tour finished in 2014.[23]
VS. and Wild World (2014–2017)
Dan Smith (2015)
In late 2013 Bastille began to play new songs called "Blame" and "Campus". Another song called "Oil On Water" was played during sound-check and leaked online.[citation needed] They began proper work on the album in 2014,[24] and planned to start recording it in September.[25] Farquarson said that they had "16 or 17 tracks" demoed already for the album. He also said “We’re going into the studio in September to record; hopefully by then we’ll have 20 or maybe more. I think it’s always better to have more material and whittle it down. Our producer has gone on tour with us, so we’ve been doing things on our days off and during sound-checks."[25][26] Dan Smith said the album will include more guitars saying "we didn't have much of that on the first album and it may not end up on it but it would be quite interesting to try it out. We feel quite free. If we want to go quite electronic then we can and if we want to go rockier and indie then we can."[26] On 21 October 2014 Bastille announced their third mixtape, VS. (Other People's Heartache, Pt.III) with the release of their song "Torn Apart", featuring the artists Grades and Lizzo, on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show. They also wrote and recorded the song "The Driver" for the re-score of the film Drive which was released a week later and also featured on the mixtape. VS. (Other People's Heartache, Pt.III) was released on 8 December 2014 and featured the Gemma Sharples Quartet, Haim, MNEK, Tyde, Rationale, Lizzo, Grades, Angel Haze, F*U*G*Z, Braque, Rag'n'Bone Man, and Skunk Anansie. In November 2014, Bastille was featured on the Band Aid 30 version of "Do They Know It's Christmas?".[27] They were nominated for Best New Artist at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards,[28] but lost out to Sam Smith.[29]
In 2015, Bastille recruited a new touring member, Charlie Barnes.[30] On 22 September 2015, Bastille released a non-album single called "Hangin'". It was announced via Facebook that their second album would be released in 2016. Also, during that summer, the band debuted two new songs live: "Grip" and "Snakes".[31] In April 2016, the band debuted a new song entitled "The Currents" during their performance at that year's Snowbombing festival in Mayrhofen, Austria.[32]
On 2 June 2016, the band uploaded a trailer including an excerpt from the then-unreleased song Two Evils announcing the name of the album to be Wild World.[33] On 9 June, it was announced that the band's new single, "Good Grief", would be released on 16 June 2016.[citation needed] On 16 June 2016, Annie Mac debuted "Good Grief" on her BBC Radio 1 show as the "hottest record in the world." The track was immediately released to radio, streaming services, and for purchase following the debut.[34] In an interview with Mac following the song's premiere, Dan Smith revealed that their second album would "go through a variety of sounds, but it is very much us [Bastille]." On 24 June 2016, Bastille performed the songs "Good Grief" and "Two Evils" live for the first time at Glastonbury Festival as part of their set on the Other Stage.[35] On 30 June 2016, Bastille announced the release of the second LP Wild World and embarked on their Wild Wild World Tour in July.[36] Released on 9 September, the album reached the top of the mid-week sales chart,[37] while the band set up pop-up shops in London, New York and Los Angeles to promote the release.[38] On 16 September, it was confirmed that Wild World had reached #1 on both the U.K. and Scottish album charts.[39] The album won "Best Album" at the 2017 NME Awards.[40] On World Record Store Day 2017, the band released an original song titled "Comfort of Strangers."
The band announced their third studio album, which was released on 14 June 2019.[41] Speaking to NME, Smith said "We never really stop writing and recording, but I can confirm we spent a lot of this year writing our third album."[42] On 1 September 2017, the band headlined the annual Pilton Party[43][44] Held at Pilton Worthy Farm, home of Glastonbury Festival. On 23 November 2017, Craig David and Bastille released "I Know You,” the second single from David's album, The Time Is Now. The single peaked at number 5 in 2018.[45] On 9 May 2018, "Quarter Past Midnight", the first single from the group's third album Doom Days was aired on BBC Radio 1.[46] On 17 August 2018, Bastille and Marshmello collaborated on the single "Happier", which reached a high of 2 on the UK Official Charts in October 2018 and the Billboard Hot 100 in February 2019.[47][48][49] In early December 2018, the band announced a release date of 6 December 2018 for their single "Grip" which features EDM duo Seeb. Also released was "Other People's Heartache, Pt 4" on 7 December 2018 which featured the likes of Craig David, Jacob Banks, James Arthur, Kianja, Lily Moore, Moss Kena, Rationale, Swarmz, and S-X.[50][51][52] A limited edition Record Store Day 2019 version of the mixtape was released in independent record shops on 13 April 2019.
On 25 April 2019, Bastille released the second single and title track from their third album Doom Days. On 2 May 2019, the third single from the album, "Joy", was premiered on Scott Mills' show on BBC Radio 1.[53] A fourth single, "Those Nights", was released on 4 June 2019 and was premiered on Beats 1 with Zane Lowe.
On 17 May 2019, Bastille was featured on American pop duo FRENSHIP's song titled "Won't Let You Go" on their debut album Vacation. On 14 June 2019, the band released their third album Doom Days.[54][55] It reached the top 5 in both the UK and US.[56] The band made their Pyramid Stage debut at Glastonbury on 28 June 2019 as part of their promotion of the album. On 20 September 2019, they released 'Million Pieces' from the Doom Days album at the Abbey Road studios with The Chamber Orchestra of London, which was one of the new songs on the extended album Doom Days (This Got Out Of Hand).[57][58] A music video for the band's song "Bad Decisions" was released on 25 September 2019.[59] The fifth single from Doom Days, "Another Place", was released on 25 October 2019 with Canadian singer Alessia Cara, as a rework of the original song on the album, with the second verse being changed to one written by Cara.[60] On 6 December 2019, an extended version of the album was released with 11 new songs titled Doom Days (This Got Out Of Hand).[61]
The band was one of 23 artists to feature on the Live Lounge Allstars cover of the Foo Fighters song "Times Like These" to help raise funds for the COVID-19 pandemic. The song was released on 23 April 2020, and 8 days later, became the band's third UK #1 single.[62] On 30 July 2020, Bastille released a new song with Graham Coxon titled "What You Gonna Do???".[63]All This Bad Blood was released as a limited edition 2LP for Record Store Day 2020, for the first time on 29 August 2020.[64] On 22 September 2020, the band released a new song titled "Survivin'" which premiered on Apple Music's Zane Lowe Show.[65] "What You Gonna Do???" and "Survivin'" were accompanied by another single "Goosebumps" on the EP, Goosebumps EP, released on 4 December 2020.[66] "Goosebumps" was released on the same day and features Kenny Beats.[67]
The band released an ReOrchestrated version of their song "Warmth" from their second album Wild World as an Amazon Music exclusive on 15 January 2021.[68] The audio was taken from their ReOrchestrated live show from the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg from 4 January 2020.[69] An EP entitled "Roots of ReOrchestrated" was released on 19 March 2021.[70] The band headlined Standon Calling festival on 27 July and Latitude Festival on 29 July with their ReOrchestrated show.[71][72]
On 23 June, they released the first single from their upcoming album, entitled "Distorted Light Beam".[73] The song was co-written and co-produced with OneRepublic lead singer Ryan Tedder.[74] On 15 July 2021, Bastille released the second single and title track from their fourth album Give Me the Future.[75] On 10 August 2021, Dan Smith confirmed that a fourth album had been finished and already been pressed on CD and vinyl.[76][unreliable source?] On 18 August 2021, the third single "Thelma + Louise" was released, with an accompanying music video released on 2 September.[71][77] On 1 October 2021, Bastille teased the fourth single from Give Me The Future.[78] On 19 October 2021, they released "No Bad Days" and Dan Smith, speaking with Zane Lowe, said that the album would be released on 4 February 2022. "Shut Off the Lights" was released on 14 January 2022.[79] The album became the band's third UK number one album.[80]
An extended version of the album, Give Me the Future + Dreams of the Past was announced on 28 July 2022 for release on 26 August.[81] Singles "Run Into Trouble", with Brazilian DJ Alok, "Remind Me" and "Revolution" were released on 1 April, 9 June and 28 July, respectively, ahead of the album.[82][83][84]
On 14 June 2023, the band released "No Angels", a mashup of The xx song "Angels" and "No Scrubs" by TLC, featuring Ella Eyre, originally featured in the band's 2012 mixtape Other People's Heartache, Pt. 2. In conjunction, they announced a celebratory double album Bad Blood X to commemorate the 10th anniversary of their debut album Bad Blood.[87] On 1 September 2023, the band released a commemorative orchestral rendition of "Pompeii", collaborating with composer Hans Zimmer on the project. Titled "Pompeii MMXXIII", the release of the song coincided with the 10th anniversary of the track's original release in 2013.[88]
Name and musical style
The name of the band derives from Bastille Day, which is celebrated on 14 July, Smith's birthday.[89]
Their song "Pompeii" is featured in the 2014 movie Mr. Peabody & Sherman. The band's song "The Driver" was used in the re-scored soundtrack of the 2011 film Drive produced for the BBC by Zane Lowe for its October 2014 TV broadcast.[103] The band also featured on the Kill Your Friends (2015) soundtrack with a cover of the Sugababes debut single "Overload". On 9 November 2017, the band released a music video for “World Gone Mad”, a song for the Netflix movie Bright. Their song "Those Nights" was used in 2020 movie All My Life.[104]
On 10 February 2021, the band released their Amazon original documentary "Bastille - ReOrchestrated".[105]
Bastille's music has also been featured in the simulation game The Sims 3 in the Supernatural DLC, specifically the song "Laura Palmer" which is dubbed over in the video game's language of Simlish.
In 2017, all members of the band, and tour manager Dick Meredith, featured as extras in the final episode of season 7 of Game of Thrones.[131] Simmons and Meredith made the cut, whereas Smith, Wood, and Farquarson were cut out.
Band members
Current members
Dan Smith – lead vocals, piano, keyboards, guitar (2010–present)
