Bastille’s music has a unique blend of indie pop and rock, with thought-provoking lyrics, making it one of the most memorable live bands today, and a band that also had a spectacular start. Their debut single “Flaws” was an instant hit, and a decade ago the album “Bad Blood” was released, featuring perhaps the band’s most successful single “Pompeii”, which made the band very famous, topping the charts in many countries and winning the Brit Award for Best British Single. Since then, Bastille has released several more hits, including “Good Grief”, “Happier” and “Quarter Past Midnight”. The band has also won numerous awards, and all three albums that followed were successful.
The band consists of four members: Dan Smith (lead vocals, keyboards), Kyle Simmons (keyboards, backing vocals), Will Farquarson (guitar, bass guitar, backing vocals) and Chris “Woody” Wood (drums, backing vocals).
The name of the band, as you can easily guess, is associated with the annual Bastille Day celebration on 14 July, and the band’s leader Dan was also born on 14 July. The band members don’t spend their days locked in the studio – several of them have even starred in an episode of the cult TV series “Game of Thrones”. One of the musicians also appeared in a short film with legendary singer Rihanna. Over the years, their music has been featured in several cult TV series such as “The Vampire Diaries”, “Rookie Blue” and “Finding Carter”.
The founder and lead singer Dan Smith had been writing songs since his early teens, but he didn’t share his music until that fateful moment in 2007 when a friend pushed him to enter the Leeds Bright Young Things competition – where the debutant was a finalist and gradually began to make music his life. After graduating from Leeds University, he moved to London and formed Bastille with three musicians.
Dan’s social activities are also inspiring: in 2019, the band leader ran a marathon for the first time in his life to raise money for a breast cancer charity. In an interview, he admitted that this is a sensitive personal topic for him. Dan’s lyrics are not so much about personal experiences as they are about stories from the modern world, Greek mythology or David Lynch’s cult films.