Entertainment
free music: bastille
we’re obsessed with this twin peaks-loving musician.
Besides his sweet-tempered synth pop sound, there are more than enough reasons to give Dan Smith a coveted spot on your iPod. This South London musician loves random historical and pop culture references. Whether it's titling a song "Laura Palmer" (based off the murdered Twin Peaks character) or dubbing a track "Icarus" (inspired by Greek mythology), there's more to Bastille than just hooks and sugary melodies.
He also released his first single, Icarus/Flaws, last week on U.K. label Young & Lost Club- just in time for Bastille Day (we're not sure if this is just a coincidence, but it's still pretty awesome). So get to know Bastille here and download his brand-new song below.
How did you get started in music?
I started writing songs when I was a teenager but was a bit embarrassed about it and never really told anyone. When I was at uni a friend encouraged me to enter a music competition and I ended up being one of the winners. That forced me to do some proper recording and get out and play gigs, so I guess it all kind of started from there.
If you had to describe your sound to someone who's never heard it before, you'd say...
I guess I try to write interesting songs with vocal heavy and percussive arrangements. There's a mix of live instruments and electronic stuff as well.
The story behind "Flaws" is ...
There are some people who seem ridiculously comfortable with who they are and don't really care what others think, and then there are those who want to please everybody and try to adapt themselves. There isn't a story behind it really, I just wanted to write an optimistic song.
How did the music video come about? Did you expect it to become so popular?
There's an incredible house-fire scene in "Badlands" which I was going to use for a song of mine called "Things We Lost in the Fire". The scene looks amazing, but I was probably being a bit too literal with it. I thought it might be better to edit something from the film that took all the darker elements away and made it quite optimistic because it's such a beautifully shot film. I was happy with it but I had no idea what other people would think, but luckily it seems to have worked and some people like it.
If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be?
Probably Rhianna because, let's face it, there's no other way I'm ever going to be able to be in the same room as her.
