Saturday Conversation: Bastille’s Dan Smith On His Love Of Literature

In the discussion about Bastille’s mostcurrent album, & (Ampersand), lead vocalist Dan Smith shared his extensive enthusiasm for storytelling—a style that resonates deeply throughout the music and serves as the motivation for the album.

This collection welcomes listeners on an expressive journey through tales of human connection, cooperation, adversity, and love, showcasing Dan’s artistry in weaving stories that show our shared experiences.

The album opens with “Intros and Narrators,” where Dan’s poignant last line, “Never lay your trust in the storyteller,” serves as a modest tip of the intricacies fundamental in storytelling. It sets the tone for an album that balances individual reflection with wider styles, highlighting that the stories we encounter are typically layered and diverse.

As Smith puts it, “I think it’s desiring to discover the relatable core—the human component—what’s the heat and intimacy that resonates with everybody.” What struck me most throughout our discussion was Dan’s real humbleness and his dedication to promoting other artists. He articulated a belief that music serves as a vessel for connection, specifying, “This album is not implied to be a history lesson; it’s about pulling on threads that I believe are actually fascinating and perhaps alittle less talked about.” This commitment to checkingout stories, both widelyknown and unknown, changes “&” into a lively testimony to the appeal of humankind.

The album itself is both raw & lavish, intimate & cinematic, commemorating the complex tapestry of human experiences. Dan’s capability to communicate complex feelings while keeping an available and relatable narrative design is a trademark of his songwriting. “It’s about numeration with what my location in music is,” he shared, showing on the individual nature of this job. In a world where storytelling stays an vital part of our presence, & records the essence of what it suggests to be human, advising us of our shared desire to link through stories that resonate with our hearts and minds. (Sage Bava)

Steve Baltin: Where does your love for literature stem from? Was it something that was early in life? Did you researchstudy rather a bit in school?

Dan Smith: Good concern. I constantly enjoyed reading as a bit of an escape, in much the verysame method as like movie and TELEVISION, and I guess journalism. But I studied it at college. As part of that, was fortunate sufficient, I think, to get to checkout the work and lives of loads of actually interesting individuals. I guess I mostly had desired to be a movie reporter since I was truly fking lazy and the concept of viewing movies all day truly appealed to me. So, I went to college to do that, however certainly fell in love with loads of various authors. For me, what was so fantastic about studying English was this window into various durations that was fantastic. I’ve constantly had that and liked reading as an escape, specifically on trip and before the band took over my life in a lot of various tasks. I’d have rather a long commute throughout London to get to work. It’s apparent as anything, however the transportive capability of books and of literature to put you in the mind of someone else has constantly been something that I’ve actually liked. And an escape from the daily. So, with this album, as a songwriter, I’ve constantly actually liked utilizing other stories and minutes in history or individuals that I believe are interesting or genuine or imaginary as a leaping off point to start writing a tune and as a method in to reveal something that I believe is remarkable or something I desire to state. With this album, it was simply a case of recognizing I had a coupleof of these currently, and I desired to formalize it into the concept of the album. I typically discover often having some guidelines that are set either by you or somebody else can be extremely motivating. In a method, even however they’re technically restraints, they’re really actually releasing. This, for me, I indicate, atfirst it was sets of individuals. It was like Leonard and Marianne, Bonnie and Clyde. I didn’t actually desire to fall into the trope of twentieth century well-known couples. That led me off on a bit of a course. We’ve made principle albums before, however this feels like the veryfirst time I’ve been conscious of in my adult life of having the time, area and liberty to simply work on this and absolutelynothing else. I made most of the album from a demonstration pointofview at my kitchenarea table and it was so good. I felt like the luckiest individual in the world to get up every day and in my working life and imaginative life, all I truly had to do was select which story to choice up and dive into that. It was, for me, simply a truly pleased cooled imaginative time and one that I guess I’d been alittle daydreaming about for years. So, getting to sit in it for a bit was fantastic.

Baltin: As a one-time hopeful reporter what director would you most love to sit down with?

Smith: That’s such a difficult concern. Childhood me was consumed with [Stanley] Kubrick. I believe adult me is a bit more mindful of these remarkable creatives, the expense that comes with the art they made bymeansof their individual lives, the individuals in their lives, the individuals they worked with, and I believe a somewhat more contemporary thinking about that would haveactually been a somewhat hard discussion about whether it’s warranted to reward individuals a specific method in order to accomplish fantastic things in an creative world or any world for that matter. So that’s fascinating. David Lynch is somebody I love really deeply from a imaginative viewpoint. I was fortunate adequate to chat to him assoonas, however there’s an outright stload of concerns that I didn’t ask that I dream I had.

Sage Bava: Storytelling is an intrinsic part of our mankind, main to how we link with one another. Whether through movie or music, it shows our ingrained love for stories and world-building. What I discover especially amazing about your music is how available it is while likewise being exceptionally deep. You checkout complex and often abstract styles yet present them in a method that feels relatable. Can you talkabout the balance inbetween these components? How do you draw motivation for resolving such deeply human styles while making them engage on numerous levels?

Smith: Yeah, for me, I requirement to comprehend things to procedure them. If it’s somebody’s life I puton’t understand much about, or a idea that intrigues me however likewise challenges me, I discover that drives my desire for availability. With the individuals included on this album, I’m mesmerized by both the widelyknown and the lesser-known characters who haveactually done impressive things, pressing versus