Last week I sat down with Dan, Will, Kyle and Chris from Bastille backstage at Radio 1’s Biggest Weekend Swansea ahead of their performance on the other stage. Bastille, a band from the UK performed their new single ‘Quarter Past Midnight’.
How are you guys? Enjoying the day so far?
D- it’s been great thank you! We love it… checked out a few acts already like Sigrid!
You guys have been together for about 8 years now, how does this feel? Has anything changed or remained the same since you first started?
C- yeah! 8 years next month!
K- we are all 16 years older so
D- how has it changed? Ah, I don’t know! I guess we’ve been lucky enough to play big stages and we still try do stuff that feels like us! We love to show the world what we can do and make weird videos and with touring, we’re so lucky to get to travel and see places, we probably would never see.
W- I guess transitioning into not being the ‘brand new band’ anymore is slightly different
D- Yeah for sure!
Can you tell me about your new single ‘Quarter Past Midnight’?
D- Quarter Past Midnight is the opening track of our new album; we wrote and produced it! We made it at our studio that we built in South London! We wanted to feel totally euphoric and it’s essentially like a first chapter of our opening story of the record! We wanted to make something that felt very Bastille! I’m super excited that it’s out and we’re playing it for the first time ever today! We’re pretty nervous but also we’re looking forward to it!
What is your favourite song to perform?
C- Ask us after the gig because it might change to Quarter Past Midnight!
D- tonight we have a gospel choir so it’s going to be a really fun show! We’re playing on the Other Stage and we just want to have fun! We have 40 minutes, which for us is a very short set! We’re just really excited about having a party!
You guys probably get asked this all the time but Why Bastille?
C- Dan’s birthday! He’s born on Bastille Day!
What’s been your most embarrassing on-stage moment?
C- I got hit by a cupcake once
S – Oh strange!
C- yeah it was actually! Wait… it was a chocolate muffin actually! I actually forgot to play drums…
S- you forgot to play drums… how did that happen?
W- Oh he was definitely smashed!
D- I have too many to count like every time I walk on stage it’s embarrassing! I got electrocuted once
S- Wait, what?
D- yeah! I fall over quite a lot, falling off the stage!
C- Dan getting stuck on the speaker was a good one!
D- I actually stood on a broken glass bottle once and the glass went into my foot! That was more painful than embarrassing!
What advice would you give to someone that would like a career like yours?
C- do not tread on glass bottles!
D- Haha yes! For me, I think it can totally be down to circumstance and luck, however, the songs that you have are really important whether you like them yourself like we do or not! No matter how many good songs you think you have, you can always better yourself! Try and write something better
And if you could describe your band in three words, what would they be?
C- That Band Bastille
S- Nice one!
D – yeah I agree!