Bastille ReOrchestrated

Um... we are... for Bastille,

I think we're just going to work on new music,

and we're about to tour in Australia and New Zealand.

Yeah, I think we're just going to do some ReOrchestrated shows

and concentrate on making-- making a really great new album, hopefully.

What about you, what's 2020 for you?

It's obviously been a super surreal year.

And the idea that a year ago, you know,

we would have been locked down for however many months

and everyone, you know, hiding away in their houses,

it was almost like totally unthinkable.

And it's so interesting seeing the world like collectively gasp and stop.

I was like a very introspective, self-conscious teenager, like a lot.

And so for me, this whole, like, this whole phase of my life

when we've been in a band has been

this tension between loving making music

and the satisfaction of creating something

with, like, just really not liking being on stage.

Suddenly, we were like...

...at the pinnacle of whatever mainstream is,

and we'd never aimed to that or perceived

that that was even an option for us.

Relentlessly touring for years and years and years,

obviously, there's moments that are fucking amazing.

And not to say that we're not grateful for it,

but like anything that people do a lot,

like any job, you come to a point

where you've just, like, had enough.

For a band of their size and of their popularity,

they'd done hundreds of shows with the same model.

I'm not thinking about what I'm playing, I'm thinking about

pulling daft faces to try and put Will off or something like that.

I think I was trying to figure out what track, which was really boring,

like four songs had gone passed,

and I hadn't even registered that I played in it.

I don't know whether it became boring

or whether it became tiresome or kind of--

or samey, but ReOrchestrated just blew that out the water.

["Million Pieces" by Bastille ft. The Chamber Orchestration Of London playing]

When I was at university, I was making

sort of linear narrative, weird pop music at the piano,

inspired by people like Regina Spektor and Antony & The Johnsons...

I just met him at a pub in Wimbledon,

and-- and, like, he was very much on his own then.

It was a lot more left-field sort of stuff as well

than like-- with a loop pedal.

Um, that fucking loop pedal.

We would rehearse in his bedroom, just kind of haul some gear down the road

and then playing to sort of empty rooms and whatnot,

and for a period we were kind of like Spinal Tap with drummers

where they're always just combusting, I think Will was like our seventh

bass player or something, but he finally stuck.

It was presented to me as, "There's this guy, do you want to play for him?"

And I think the idea was, eventually there might be some money

to pay you, like a session rate for it.

Then he invited me around for dinner, because he's super, super, like, amicable like that.

But for me that was like--

because I was sort of a complete misanthrope,

I'm like, "What's this guy's game?"

It was the first time for-- at that point in years

that I had just heard something I was like,

"I really, really want to be part of this."

But we're like, "We're going to try make it band,

we need a keyboard player."

And so we just asked everyone we ever met,

and the only person who said yes was Kyle.

After I think maybe the third or fourth time that he said that,

the next day I woke up and I was like...

..."Maybe I'll message that--

message that-- that Dan guy."

Remember this!

Yeah, we played like most pubs, tiny venues,

drove ourselves up and down the country.

We used to cram everything into a car we borrowed off our friend's mom.

Kyle and Will would be wedged in the back,

keyboards across them, drums everywhere, only Woody and I could drive,

so we had to do all the driving.

And driving five hours to get to Wrexham to play to eight people.

Having to do a gig was terrifying.

I think I had to get just really shit-faced

to get out there and play.

I love you all.

He had very clear visions,

but was-- he just didn't want anyone to know who he was.

But inside of him was all these things that I felt everyone should listen to.

It's like, that's trapped inside of this, I was like,

"God, what are you going to do?"

We came up sort of as an Indie band.

We'd get written about quite a lot on blogs,

and people would watch our videos and come to our gigs,

and that was like-- that felt really good.

Do you mind if we get a photo with you guys?

No, not at all.

As you go, the venues you play

maybe go from being completely empty to like maybe half-full

or something, and it gradually sort of built momentum a bit.

We've just been on a-- a sort of ten, 12 day tour of the UK.

We started in Ireland, then Scotland,

and then like down through-- down through England.

Weirdly the whole thing kind of sold out,

so, um, which made the experience...

...I think a little bit more relaxed.

We were, like, playing to

what started to become actual crowds,

which was pretty nuts on its own.

Bad Blood, the first album,

pretty much the whole of it was made in my studio

under a tower block in Battersea,

um, just like a small industrial unit basically, with low ceilings.

It was like the size of someone's cupboard.

Like, you had to literally climb over the drum kit

to get in the front door. It was that tiny.

You're having to self-promote and write and play music,

and it costs you money, and you're having to do it,

you know, in and around school or uni or work...

We basically had to go and find time in between our day jobs that were paying the rent.

- How you doing? - How are you doing?

That period where I was sort of doing that three times a week,

and getting in at three in the morning, getting up for a job at nine the next morning.

- New haircut. -It's cold.

That felt like endless, like, just interminable pain.

And then we got a record deal and everything got a little bit better.

["Things We Lost In The Fire" by Bastille playing]

Kind of stressful time, because you're always aware

if this doesn't happen then that's that.

It's good that they made a tweet that was four letters too long.

-Shit. -

I can go and interfere with Kyle, that'd be funny.

Are we just doing everything we can for the police to come this time?

The usual things like magazines, press, radio, TV,

um, just either really didn't like us or completely ignored us.

No one seems to know where we're doing it...

...so I'm hoping, I'm going to make a triangle... sort of our thing,

and make it point down to where we're going to be playing,

so then they know.

So, we've already got one, two...

...young guys who didn't understand what was happening,

old lady, red hair, that's five.

It's going to be more than us already,

so... it's a-- that's a mark-up on our...

-There you go, we've done it! Done Norwich. -Can we leave now?

-Isn't this what we're here for? - Why is this 100 times more awkward than yesterday

-Or the day before. -We were late for ourselves.

-Just a load of idiot kids. -Yeah.

Four awkward blokes turning up to an industrial estate in--

Is it seven? It is seven. Yeah, it's seven.

I always just like loved doing it.

You know there's things that you're drawn to.

But it was also always like kind of coupled with

what I suppose now would probably be called,

like, lots of anxieties.

I'm not singing there.

We played Reading, and I remember feeling like,

"Fuck, maybe we're not heavy enough to be on the bill."

In a little tent and it was fucking rammed,

and I remember playing the first chords of the song...

...and the whole crowd started singing it,

and it blew my mind.

So we put this song called "Flaws" out.

It went in at like number 20 in the charts, which was insane.

And at the time, like, you know, we're driving around in a little van,

playing shows around the country, and we suddenly had this song

that was in like the top 40.

And I literally can't communicate to you how...

...beyond anything we'd imagined that was.

Goodbye, Dan!

That was fucking mental!

-That was a little bit unexpected. -Man, that's so weird.

There's a hole in my heart for you, Dan.

And then at the very beginning of 2013,

um, we put out "Pompeii," which...

...you know, I never knew it would do what it did,

and it just, like, it just fucking blew up,

and it was mad, like, who the fuck were we?

I remember listening to the chart, they ring up the people.

- Yeah. -To be like, "Are you number two in the what?

You're number two."

But we're like... "Yeah!"

Hello, Bastille, how are you?

-Hi. -We're good.

You are number two in the Official Charts.

Yay!

The brilliant Bastille with "Pompeii."