Top 35 Dan Smith Quotes

I remember being obsessed with ‘The Score’ by The Fugees. I used to listen to a lot of really melodic music with a lot of harmonies. The Beach Boys used to make me happy, and Simon and Garfunkel, and I used to listen to a lot of film soundtracks as well.

The first turning point, when I stopped doing things by myself and the Bastille project began, was the inclusion of more electronic music into the sound.

When ‘Flaws’ went to No 21, we thought it was the most chart-bothering thing we’d ever do. We had a little party and started thinking about the next album.

I was obsessed with harmonies and how to put songs together in lush soundscapes. But I don’t know what it was all about, really.

I made a lot of the first album on a laptop in my bedroom after college and after work.

It would be wicked to do a mad ’90s tune and make it a duet with Rihanna. I love her new album ‘Anti.’ I’m into quite dark R&B.

I’m not interested in writing overtly autobiographical songs. I would rather explore interesting stories. I like the idea of the songs being evocative and distinctive, so I have in my mind the atmosphere that a film could evoke. I like to think of them existing in their own little world.

I once went on a date where the girl drove and so couldn’t drink. I was nervous, so drank quite a bit – it didn’t end amazingly. As much as I love movies, I think cinema dates can be weird because you essentially sit next to each other in silence for a couple of hours.

One of the best things about being in a band is that we’re so lucky to be able to travel the world. It takes us to all these cities that we’ve never seen before.

There haven’t been many examples of times when we’ve done a cover and not put it out in some form.

It was quite nice having a routine, going to the studio every day and finishing off ‘Wild World’.

Often, with our music, there’s quite a lot going on, so people hear melodies that sound up and catchy, and production, and maybe don’t really listen to what the songs are about, so it’s nice to sing a song like ‘The Currents’ and really mean it.

I write songs, but the guys play on them, they have opinions on them, and we tour together and spend all our time together.

Mark Crew, the only producer we’ve ever worked with, has been joining us on tour as often as possible.

‘The Shining’ is operatic and sensational and… really shocking. It has this amazing meld of classical music and modern interpretations of classical music, and incredible imagery. From the set design to the costumes, there’s so much to unpack.

Most friendship groups will have someone who starts a new relationship, and you just don’t see them for four months. And that’s always kind of sad, almost like an inverted break up. I guess the ideal situation is that whoever the new partner is can be subsumed into the friendship group.

‘Fire Walk With Me’ was so divisive because the tone was so different than the TV series. But now television is almost more of a free medium than cinema.

I generally wear a lot of black clothes, and I think that comes from wanting to be as neutral as possible. We use a lot of visuals on stage, so I kind of hope people are watching those and not looking at me.

I don’t necessarily feel 100 per cent comfortable standing up on stage in front of lots of people, but I don’t think most people would. It’s a pretty bizarre thing to do. It can also be absolutely incredible having thousands of people singing back lyrics that you might have written in your bedroom or wherever.

After everyone’s gone to bed, I still find myself sitting at the computer writing songs. It’s a nice reminder that this has always been a kind of hobby that I get on with because I really love it.

I’ve never been interested in diarising my life through song. So much stuff has been done before. So many people have brilliantly articulated the pain of heartbreak or the joy of love or whatever. Those elements exist in our music, but I guess I strive to write about unconventional things instead.

I think basically, there are some bands and acts who feel the need to cultivate a persona or act a certain way or get quotes or whatever, because they feel like that helps them get promotion, and I feel like we’re a band who have always just made music that we love and kept ourselves to ourselves and got on with it.

It’s fun to take songs from a completely different context and reframe them. We did two mixtape albums called ‘Other People’s Heartache’ and ‘Other People’s Heartache Pt. 2,’ which were full of those kind of covers and mash-ups, mixed with film music and film quotes.

‘Saturday Night Live’ was 100% the most surreal TV we’ve ever done. Leonardo DiCaprio was on the same show.

It was ages ago now, but when we started Bastille, I didn’t necessarily want people to know or care if it was a band, and it came from a place, really, of just much rather having people listen to the songs rather than caring about the people making it.

I love David Lynch’s style. Someone once thought I was his son, so I must have been doing an alright job at emulating it.

I’m a massive pessimist.

We love to visit Las Vegas. It is so much fun, so iconic; it is always a pleasure.

There’s a lot of variety in our gigs, our records, our mixtapes, and our videos.

I’m into really terrible, trashy American horror films. I think the ‘Final Destination’ ‘sinquology’, to phrase it, is brilliant! It’s un-toppable in terms of how incredible it is.

Our favourite album that we always listen to in the car is ‘2001’ by Dr. Dre, which is just the ultimate album of all time.

Reading interviews with other people, I see them say, ‘All I want is for our band to be massive’, but it was never an ambition of ours to be in a band that’s this big. That’s so far from how my mind works that I find it puzzling. There’s nothing wrong with being ambitious, but we’re not.

Sometimes it’s necessary for your sanity to hone in on the things that you love and the people you enjoy hanging out with.

In ‘Good Grief’, in trying to create this sense of the huge downs and ups, stumbles of this process, we’re almost using the music to make it uplifting, so it’s not completely hopeless.

The idea of doing film and music together is an absolute dream.