Mit ihrem neuesten Werk „&“ begibt sich die britische Band Bastille auf eine spannende musikalische Entdeckungsreise, bei der sie sich von historischen Persönlichkeiten, vergessenen Figuren und faszinierenden Lebensgeschichten inspirieren lässt. Frontperson Dan Smith spricht im Interview über die Entstehung des Albums, seine kreative Zusammenarbeit mit anderen Künstler*innen und die tiefgründigen Themen, die in den Songs behandelt werden. Besonders hervorzuheben ist der starke Fokus auf Kollaboration und das Erzählen von Geschichten, die oft von Missverständnissen oder gesellschaftlicher Unterdrückung geprägt sind. In einer Welt, in der individuelle Erlebnisse und Perspektiven oft übersehen werden, möchte Bastille mit „&“ eine Brücke zwischen Vergangenheit und Gegenwart schlagen und den Zuhörenden neue Einblicke in das Leben von Menschen geben, deren Geschichten es wert sind, erzählt zu werden. In diesem Interview spricht Dan über die Inspiration hinter „&“, seine Zusammenarbeit mit Greenpeace und die persönlichen Erfahrungen, die das Album prägten – von historischen Persönlichkeiten wie Marie Curie bis hin zu aufregenden, tiefgründigen Momenten der Selbstentdeckung.
Frontstage Magazine: The concept of “&” seems like a tribute to extraordinary people and stories. What inspired you to focus on these themes for this project?
Dan: I’ve always loved writing songs inspired by other people and stories that I’m fascinated by. With this album, it just seemed like it could be really interesting for me to dive deeper into that and formalise it as a concept. There’s a limitless number of stories about pairs of people or pairs of ideas that can be tapped into, so this album is kind of just the beginning of a bigger project of learning about people and things I don’t know about, and using writing as a way to find out more about their stories.
Frontstage Magazine: With “&” there’s a strong emphasis on collaboration and storytelling. How did this creative process differ from your previous albums?
Dan: The process of writing for this album was a return to me writing mostly by myself, and writing at home, with no premeditation around what it might be for, other than just the idea of making these songs because I wanted to enjoy the process. But it was also an excuse to collaborate with a whole bunch of new people. I worked with a brilliant and hilarious academic called Emma Nagouse to uncover some of the stories of people from history and culture who I hadn’t heard of. She was an amazing sounding board throughout the entire process, especially when I was struggling to find a way into some of the stories. I also got to work with some other artists, Moira Mack, Charlie Barnes, and a whole load of other musicians. And while I did a lot of the writing by myself at home, when it came to recording it was massively collaborative. I asked a load of friends, musicians, and other collaborators to come along to a residential studio in a barn in the countryside of England to work on the recording. I love that you can hear everyone’s musicality, and the warmth and the realness of it across the record. This project was very much me chasing ideas that I thought were interesting. There was no big intention with this project other than to learn and make songs I loved.
Frontstage Magazine: The song “Intros & Narrators” sets the tone for the album and carries an important environmental message. How did the collaboration with Greenpeace come about, and why was this context significant to you?
Dan: The “Intros & Narrators” music video came about on a trip that I was invited to take with Greenpeace to The Sargasso Sea – which is in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle. I hadn’t planned to shoot the video there, but we were staying on the one of their boats “The Arctic Sunrise” for a week and learning about the deep oceans. On one of the days, we had a spare half an hour out in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle, and the idea for this video popped into my head, so I did a quick 30 second elevator-pitch of the idea to one of the filmmakers who was also on board. He loved the idea and was happy to shoot it with me in the half hour break we had, so I mapped out the shot I wanted him to film and immediately jumped into the sea – fully clothed – and swam out as far as I could. We only had one chance to get the shot, and luckily managed to capture what we needed. It only really hit me how insane it was to be out in the deep ocean by myself once I’d started to swim back to the boat. I’m massively proud of the video. Not only because of how it looks, but I love that it will forever have a link to that trip and to Greenpeace. They are an amazing organisation, and I can’t believe I have the opportunity to go and stay out on the deep ocean for the first time in my life and learn so much about the importance of the seas in helping sustain the planet. I think everybody who isn’t a psychopath feels worried on some level about climate change, but also a bit paralysed about how to be useful. As an organisation they believe in being positive and proactive which was really inspiring to hear.
Frontstage Magazine: Many songs on the album, like “Eve & Paradise Lost” and “Emily & Her Penthouse In The Sky,” highlight misunderstood or overlooked figures. Why was it important for you to bring their stories to life in your music?
Dan: I tried to use the process of writing these songs, and researching them, to learn as much as I could about all the different experiences of life that these people had. It’s pretty amazing to understand, or try to understand, not only the struggles that people face now all the time, but in different times in different societies how challenging things could be. Someone like Marie Curie, who literally changed the world with her ideas, had such difficult experiences. Doors were shut to her because she was a woman, and she faced challenges in the world of academia, and generally in society. When I was writing these songs, I don’t remotely see myself as any kind of expert or authority on any of them, it was more just about using the writing process to find out more and try to understand more. But I’ve become a massive fan of loads of these people, and I really hope that people who listen to the album and want to learn more go down the same rabbit hole as me when it comes to finding out about them.
Frontstage Magazine: “&” feels like an invitation to step into other lives and forge connections. What reactions do you hope to evoke from your listeners, and what do you want them to take away from this album?
Dan: I wanted to make a load of songs that I thought were really beautiful. I’m really proud of how the album sounds, I think it’s a really different palette to what people might expect from Bastille. I hope it’s intimate, and intriguing. Whilst the basis of the album is quite small and acoustic, there are moments that explode into something big and orchestral, or heavy and unexpected. So, I hope that album feels like an interesting journey via these amazing lives. I hope all the songs can be different things to different people, but also the reason the titles are so ridiculously long is that if people wanna search up who the songs are about… There’s enough information for people to do that and find their own way to these characters. We dive deeper into all of this on the podcast Muses I worked on with Emma, which was a fascinating way to find out more about all the figures in the album, why they are remembered as they are, or why they aren’t remembered at all and what that says about us.
Fotocredit: Joe Herridge
