My journey with Bastille began many years ago, when I was Freshman in High School, several months after their hit single "Pompeii" began to stream on popular US radio stations. In a rather natural progression of events, after listening to the song for quite a while, I was lounging on break at ballet listening to "Pompeii", and I decided the sound was really cool and I wanted to know more about this band. I popped over to the iTunes store and purchased the only album that was found in their name. After that it was a quick and violent fall down the rabbit hole...
Before I discovered Bastille (around 2013/2014), I considered the Neon Trees my all time favorite band. (As a self-proclaimed "band girl" or whatever, I take the matter of "favorite band" very seriously.)
I loved their enthusiastic lead singer, the fact that they had a female drummer and their vintage, 80's style sound that was reminiscent of music my parents listened to when I was a kid. Don't get me wrong, I still adore their music and regard Tyler Glenn as one of the greatest vocalists and activists of our time, but something about Bastille just seemed to fit a little bit more as "my" favorite band.
I still don't know exactly what it is that drew me to them so intensely. Maybe it was the fact that they were not very well known in the US, being a British band, making them a bit more mysterious. They only had one popular single at the time I found them and a lot of people regarded them as a one hit wonder. Maybe it was their infectious sound, able to be both upbeat and melancholy at the same time, like no other band can. But, most likely, it is the enigma that is their frontman, creator, writer, and co-producer, Dan Smith.
Dan Smith, where do I begin. I'll start with the basics so I don't get too overwhelmed.
Dan Smith was born in London in 1986, and his parents are originally from South Africa, both lawyers. His mother paid her way through university being a folk singer, and if any of his talent is hereditary it no doubt came from her. He majored in English Language and English Literature at the University of Leeds while writing about film and music for the student newspaper. A film fan from a very young age, he wanted to be a director or an editor until he realized he was "more of a fan than a filmmaker." Of course, when I found this out I was like 'holy shit this man is literally me where did he come from and where has he been all my life.' Before college I had originally wanted to go to film school, then after spending a few years at UW I discovered my passion lies more in the music industry than it ever did in film.
Dan had been writing music with an electric piano and his laptop in his bedroom in South-West London since the age of 15, but he always kept his music a secret from the world, that is, until he was persuaded by a friend in 2007 to enter the Leeds Bright Young Things competition, which he ultimately became a finalist in. After that, he never achieved mainstream success in his solo career but he continued to write music.
Upon graduating college, he moved back to London and continued to pursue his music career. Eventually, this led to the creation of a band with keyboardist Kyle Simmons, bassist and guitarist Will Farquarson, and drummer Chris "Woody" Wood. They named the band Bastille.
When I first discovered the band I found myself asking "why Bastille?" Of course, I was well aware that some band names don't derive from anything or don't have a meaning; a trend that's becoming more and more popular now. A quick google search and some nagging world history in the back of my mind (possibly from the one time I watched Les Miserables) revealed that Bastille referred to a medieval fortress, armory, and political prison in Paris known as the Bastille that was stormed on the 14th of July in 1789. The prison was seen as a symbol to the French people of the monarchy's abuse of power, and it's fall was a turning point in the French Revolution. July 14th became known as Bastille Day and is celebrated as France's Independence Day or French National Day, formally called la Fête nationale or The National Celebration. (Your history lesson for the day.) The lead singer, our man Dan Smith's birthday just happens to land on July 14th, and despite not having French roots, the band was named Bastille. Despite my seemingly extensive knowledge, I'm unsure whose idea it actually was. And, because of the name, the fans of said band were eventually named 'Stormers', referencing the event that took place back in 1789.
One of the most lovable things about Dan Smith is that he's beyond humble. In countless interviews and acceptance speeches he expresses that he can't believe people even listen to their band let alone like it. And he still says such things now, even after their debut album Bad Blood entered the UK charts at number 1, winning a Brit award and being nominated for countless other awards, including a Grammy. Many musicians and celebrities will often say things like "I just can't believe I have this many fans," but for some reason, the way Dan says it, you feel like he believes it. I've seen him give this "I literally can't believe people even come to our shows" speech several times in person, speaking to a venue full of people; he fully seems to believe what he's saying. He became widely famous later in life than most music stars (although he's barely over 30 at the time I'm writing this), but aside from being a generally quiet and introverted person, that's the only other reason I can attribute to his constant self-deprecating speeches. He's clearly not saying it just to be polite or just to appear humble. It seems as though that's actually how he feels, even after all this time.
As I said, Bastille came from very humble beginnings. Because of the internet today there are many artists that have rampant fanbases even before they release their first single. It was not such a story with Bastille. Dan wrote all of their songs in his bedroom, they practiced at night after working one, sometimes two, jobs. They drove themselves around Europe, sometimes playing shows to no one at bars. He's said in an interview with the NY Daily News that he made the logo for their band on Microsoft paint.
Their true beginning, before the release of Bad Blood, was with one of the most poetic and classically romantic forms of music, the mix-tape. They took various radio classics and sound bytes from famous cult classic films (whose idea do you think that was?) and fused them together into songs and mashups with deep rooted messages. Dan and the rest of his band would cover the songs, remixing them and giving them a completely new feel and sound. The band would often be accompanied by guest artists, similarly up and coming indie artists in the UK, that would provide either more vocals or a rap verse. This resulted in a 2 volume mixtape called Other People's Heartache that was released online for free; they couldn't charge for it because they had used the songs and the film clips without copyright permissions. But before their official debut with "Pompeii" and Bad Blood, the mix-tapes had to be removed from the internet for the same reason.
Much later, after they gained fame with original songs, the band has publicly recognized OPH, as many fans have found copies of it online and asked about it. They've stated that they will never be able to re-release it officially, despite the fact that they could get copyright now, because it was once released free of charge, and they wouldn't be allowed to sell it (despite many fans ready to pay for it). But, Dan has since encouraged fans to continue finding illegal copies to download, because despite being illegal, the albums were still important to the band's beginning and helped shape their style today. Dan Smith, encouraging kids to download music illegally. Dan Smith, a man for the people.
Some of the famous songs covered on Other People's Heartache included "Dreams" (Fleetwood Mac), "Thinkin' 'Bout You" (Frank Ocean), "No Scrubs" (TLC), "Private Dancer" (Tina Turner), "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" (Rose Royce), "Sweet Nothing" (Calvin Harris), "Blue Jeans" (Lana Del Rey), "Titanium" (David Guetta), and others.
Despite being wildly illegal, Bastille was praised for these albums. Many reviews said they demonstrated the power of a "good cover," and despite having several original albums, Bastille continues to cover songs to this day quite often. What they accomplished with OPH was something rarely seen in covers, rather than just playing and singing the song the same way the original artists did, they flipped the songs on their head and made them completely different, yet just as beautiful. The could take an upbeat song and make it a ballad or take a sad song and make it as happy as any radio song. Dan Smith and his band mates always executed them flawlessly, and they continue to express that type of creativity and talent in covers today.
Popular songs from OPH such as "What Would You Do?" (a City High cover) and "Of The Night" (A "Rhythm is a Dancer" by Snap! and "The Rhythm of the Night" by Corona mashup) were later redone and released legally on the reissue of Bad Blood, an extended version titled All This Bad Blood. "Of The Night" went on to debut as number two on the UK singles chart.
To the satisfaction of long-time fans, Bastille stayed gloriously close to their roots with their highly anticipated second album, Wild World, going back to including ominous sound bytes of famous films, this time with copyright permission of course. The first single released from it in June of 2016 was "Good Grief" which begins with a piece of dialogue from the cult classic Weird Science (1985) starring Kelly LeBrock. During their press run, they performed the song with THE Kelly LeBrock on the Ellen Show. Dan himself tweeted many times about how crazy it was that the reference came full circle and fans like myself were equally geeked to see Dan's crazy movies references come to life.
Other People's Heartache is just one of the many uniquely creative facets of Bastille's and Dan Smith's history. After releasing a few original tracks in July, 2010 with an independent London record label, the band began to gain popularity on YouTube, MySpace, and eventually found themselves getting airtime on the radio. In December of 2011, Dan signed a contract with British-American record label, Virgin Records, which subsequently landed them spots at major UK music festivals.
When Bad Blood was released on March 4th, 2013, it placed number one on the UK Albums Chart. On the 3rd of September, it was released in the US via iTunes (where I subsequently bought it with an iTunes gift card, the beginning of a beautiful journey). The band went on a headlining tour in 2013-2014, which started out being called the Bad Blood Tour, but as it evolved to numerous different legs in all regions of the world, it began to adapt and divide into several names, all with Dan's signature cinematic style. Some of the names were Bad Blood Returns, The Good, The Bad Blood and the Ugly Tour, and Bad Blood: The Last Stand. Despite being a lot younger at the time and not as savvy in navigating the concert scene as I am now, I managed to catch them on The Last Stand, which, despite making their way around the country and the globe many times before, actually WAS the last stand for Bad Blood, before they went back to the studio to record their second album. (They had come to Seattle headlining once before and played a gloriously small venue, and as I wasn't a fan at the time I wasn't there. Thankfully, I think that's the only time I missed them.)
But, with that brief recount of Bastille's history, time to get back to our main subject.
One of the main reasons that I am endlessly infatuated with the man is his songwriting abilities. Some of his early songs he did solo back in the day include "Dictator," "Alchemy," "Words Are Words," and "Irreverence," all of which are some of my FAVORITE songs of his and are only available in low quality YouTube videos. He doesn't look back fondly on these early pieces, and has said before that he doesn't like it when fans bring them up to him, and that he's embarrassed by them. But they are some of the most interesting masterpieces of odd lyrics I've ever seen, and I genuinely enjoy them along with other long time fans, despite the fact that you'll have to rely heavily on lyric videos because at this time Dan's accent and speed at which he sang sometimes caused him to be hard to understand. "Alchemy" still has this really low quality music video he made with it so if you look into any of them I suggest looking into that one because it gives a little intel about the indie low budget music scene in London from over a decade ago.
He even went on a TOUR, which was presumably around 2009, when the song Alchemy was released. The tour was so small, and he was barely known at the time, there are barely any details, photos or videos of it. Occasionally in the bowels of Pinterest I will see a glorious picture of the "old days" which weren't old days to me because I was 11 and was listening to the Kim Possible soundtrack on a boombox.
In reference to this 'solo' era, another odd fact to note about Dan Smith's endlessly interesting life, is that he had this electric keyboard. It was painted in white letters spelling out his name "Dan Smith," similar to the way band's have their logos emblazoned on the drum set. It became a thing, the 'Dan Smith keyboard,' and he took it to all his solo shows and it became iconic to his small group of fans.
It wouldn't necessarily be that big of a deal, a graffiti-ed keyboard, except for the fact that it was stolen. Band gear is a hot commodity to steal, something I have discovered being more and more involved in the music community, because it's worth a lot. But Dan's fans at this time regarded the keyboard so lovingly, it was a big loss that it was stolen. I'm even lowkey mad about it even to this day, because imagine how cool it would be if the keyboard was still around, like as a relic. Hand-painted by a musician who never gave up on his dreams.
It's well known that Dan is the primary lyricist and songwriter of Bastille. Once I found this out I was hooked on learning more about Dan and Bastille because the band has some of the most interesting lyrics I've ever heard. His song topics for the band have consisted of everything from 80's films, classic literature (influenced by the degree he got in university), horror movies, Greek mythology, and the story of how his parent's met. One of his favorite TV shows and directors, Twin Peaks by David Lynch, influences a lot of his writing, and is the subject of one of their hit songs from the first album "Laura Palmer." Another hit song, "Icarus," is focused on the Greek myth from where it gets it's name. "Daniel in the Den," one of my favorites from the first album, stems from the story of Daniel in the lions' den from the Bible, while also alluding to the singer's own name. "The Weight of Living Pt. I," is a song beautifully centered around the literary classic, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge that most AP literature classes have to cover. In fact, I think we covered it in my Sophomore AND Senior year in my Honors English track. Finally, on the extended version of Bad Blood, there's a song called "Durban Skies," which tells the story of his parents and how they met, fell in love and got married in South Africa.
Transitioning to the second album, Wild World, Dan once said on Twitter that the song "Send Them Off!" is supposed to be Othello meets the Exorcist. The entire album, interestingly enough, is supposed to be commentary on the human condition and the impact of the media, which I found endlessly interesting when they toured the album and had a fake newscaster introducing each song with ominous and seemingly unrelated news stories that centered around the world ending and other tragedies. The song "Four Walls (The Ballad of Perry Smith)," is a ballad centered around the classic In Cold Blood providing commentary on the death penalty and other difficult themes from the classic novel based on the true crimes. Dan said about the book in an interview "I think that's the thing that's so interesting with In Cold Blood, it's so beautifully written, and it's such an engagingly constructed kind of narrative, but then you constantly remember that this actually happened. There's something about watching fiction or reading fiction and knowing that it's fiction where it's maybe not as disturbing as it should be. But then knowing these things [in In Cold Blood] are real, there's something so eerie and creepy about that." This is another book we had read and analyzed on my AP English track in high school and you know my nerdy ass jumped at this reference.
I think one of the main reasons I fell in love with Dan's work is all of these elevated literary references. Up until I graduated high school I was a huge book worm and writing nerd, and as I was listening to the first album and picking up on all these references, I was shocked as I had never before encountered an artist that wrote about such elevated topics that only lovers of classic literature would understand. I had only heard songs about love or heartbreak or parties or youth, it hadn't even occurred to me that a rock band could write songs centered around classic literature. After that I was pretty hooked.
More evidence about Bastille's stellar scholarly influence just arose on good ol' Twitter. A Twitter user by the name of @OspreyRebecca tweeted a photo of her English Literature textbook.
The textbook highlights Bastille's song "The Weight of Living Pt. I" and the related literary reference The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, both mentioned above. I would literally scream if I saw this in a textbook. I spare you the suffering of going into deep details of metaphors and the like, but literary analysis was one of my FAVORITE things in high school.
A key feature of Bastille is that this silly band really likes to write songs about sad things but in happy tunes, a group that tends to love paradoxes, if you will. It sounds weird, but Dan likes to explain to audiences nearly every show how his band sings about depressing topics and stories but in upbeat radio-ready tunes. The first hit,"Pompeii," for example, is about the massive and destructive explosion of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. that buried the entire Roman city of Pompeii, the once sophisticated and thriving community, in ash and pumice. However, it's written so cheerily that it gets played on radios around the world as a fun pop rock hit, and had you never listened to the lyrics you may have thought it was maybe about a fun party, when in reality its about ash-covered corpses talking to each other. Similarly, "Good Grief," from the second album, is a euphoric pop track about life after death where Dan reflects on the grieving process. The juxtaposition of the positive music and sad lyrics is jarring and thought-provoking, which is exactly what Bastille sets out to do.
Another fun fan fact I'd like to include (which is extremely less scholarly than the previous tidbits) is the obsession with Dan's quiff. It was like 2014 or whatever so I was like 17 at the time and when my mom caught me using the word 'quiff' (which sounds dangerously close to the word queef) she flipped a biscuit, until I spelled it out and explained the difference. Through the online fan community I was avidly involved in, I learned this is a word used mostly in Europe, more specifically in the United Kingdom to describe a piece of hair, especially on a man, brushed upward and backward from the forehead. The dictionary definition states "the quiff is a hairstyle that combines the 1950s pompadour hairstyle, the 1950s flattop, and sometimes a mohawk. The hairstyle was a staple in the British 'Teddy Boy' movement, but became popular again in Europe in the early 1980s and faced a resurgence in popularity during the 1990s."
In the fan community this hair thing (displayed in high definition above) became a big deal, and I can't lie it was a big deal to me too. I love a man with a quiff apparently (or so I discovered after falling in love with our man Dan Smith). Bastille's original photographer, who I followed for a long time as a fan of his photography, Gregory Nolan, took some really intense profile shots of it, as seen above & below. So, this quiff became a big deal among fans of Dan, and they tracked its growth and the way it was styled for different award shows. It kind of became its own entity, and deservedly so. I mean look at this man he looks like a unicorn.
I can't deny that I'm infatuated too, I printed out a picture and cut it out all nice and shit and put it on my family's Christmas tree one year and now my mom can't even get the piece of paper unstuck from our star. So, since whatever year that was, Dan has graced our tree, with picturesque glasses, quiff and all.
But, a few years ago, it started circulating that Dan was tired of his hair, and said that he wanted to shave his head. This sent a lot of fans into a panic, INCLUDING ME, of course. I was sure this was the end of my beloved quiff, and I wasn't sure how I would react to my precious Dan with a buzzcut.
But, as my Bastille phase ended, the quiff panic dissolved as well. While we all panicked, nothing really became of the "I wanna shave my head" threat. And although I understood Dan not wanting to have to flip his hair all around like a tween boy band member anymore, I didn't wanna part with the quiff. But it seemed like I didn't have to, because years passed, I went to college and I stopped following my man so closely in the fan community, and the quiff was still there.
ALL UP UNTIL MAY of 2018, when he actually did the deed. Bastille released a video for their single, Quarter Past Midnight, which is assumed to be a single from their third album. LIVE, like LIVE when recording the video, our friend Dan actually did it, after several years of threatening us, Dan shaved his head. On camera, no less. He even tweeted photos of the video shoot with the caption "It's buzzcut season" (which to me looks like a Lorde reference).
Honestly, I'm glad that he finally did what he's been wanting to do for years, seeing him happy and bald is way better than seeing him jaded in a hairstylist's chair. I know what it feels like to be defined by your hair, and I totally understand where he's coming from. And who knows, maybe it'll come back someday. While it took a little getting used to, I discovered I still loved our boy Dan endlessly, and I don't think anything at all, appearance-related or otherwise, could stop me from being in love with this unlikely celebrity.
My first encounter with Bastille was in November of 2014, a story for a different post, because it's too glorious and precious a story. The concert just happened to fall about six months after I fell in love with the band, it couldn't have been a more perfect time in my life for music and discovery, I was over the moon with joy and passion.
I was a junior in high school, and it was also my first general admission concert experience, one that was followed by dozens and dozens of euphoric concert pit experiences, the beginning of a lifelong love affair with live music. My personality is extreme, I get severely passionate about things for short amounts of time. So my friends and family thought my Bastille obsession would be over quickly. Obviously, now five years later, I don't have a Bastille fan account on Instagram anymore nor do I only listen to their music at all hours of the day. But, while I often get distracted by other bands and pop culture phenomenons, whenever I'm reminded of Bastille, I'm immediately overcome with warm memories of that summer I spent pouring over Bastille's discography and countless interviews with Dan Smith learning about his endlessly interesting mind and the beautiful songs he wrote. In an interview, Dan, the straight-A student and avid film geek, was once called "the quiet man who can't stop singing," and as a lover of music but also someone who is shy and more reserved, I could never imagine a musical artist that I can relate to more. I am still hopelessly in love with Dan and what he's done with his music, and I'm so thankful for the experiences my love of Bastille has given me. It's really hard to determine a favorite band or artist, especially if you're a music nerd, but since Bastille and Dan Smith have found their way into my heart, I've never had a problem answering if someone asks.
