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having to go down the legal route of getting things cleared this time with Wild World. But going down the official route was a very interesting process for me, seeing the boring intricacies of how that would work.”
Smith had no idea that his vision for Bad Blood would hit such a responsive chord with listeners, to the tune of nearly eight million records sold, worldwide. Bastille – so-named because his birthday falls on July 14, France’ s annual celebration of Bastille Day – was also nominated for a Grammy, and four 2014 Brit Awards, of which it won one for Best British Breakthrough Act. Naturally, its panoramic material soon began popping up in film and television soundtracks, like Teen Wolf, Made In Chelsea, The Vampire Diaries, even the animated Mr. Peabody and Sherman. And the band has a playful sense of humor about projects that it chooses – for the soundtrack to last year’ s Kill Your Friends
sample on“ Send Them Off!,” Smith searched in vain through Italian sci-fi movie archives for the original print – or any information about it – which he’ d first heard dubbed in stilted English. No such luck. So – rather than take any licensing chances – he decided to revise it and retool it to what it is now, the cryptic muttering“ It was a slight on my honor. So he deserved it.”
Working with co-producer Mark Crew again, Bastille added more jagged guitars to their usually fluid synthesizer centered mix, as on the riff-happy“ Blame,” which lyrically sketches a standoff between two gangsters. And they added plush strings to cloak the grim truths of“ The Currents,” a study of dangerous demagogues, loosely inspired by Trump and Conservative British Brexit agitator Nigel Farage. And Smith loves the contrast of“ Good Grief,” whose video boasts his disembodied head crooning moribund lyrics to an irresistibly bouncy melody.“ I’ ve lost all my grandparents and various other people in my life,” he sighs.“ And funerals are such an odd situation, because they’ re like this coping mechanism and a celebration of someone’ s life. But meanwhile, you’ re battling with
( director Owen Harris’ black-humored adaptation of John Niven’ s eponymous music-industry-skewering novel), they chose to cover The Sugababes frothy first single“ Overload.” Which might be Smith’ s greatest attribute – he simply refuses to take himself too seriously.
Ergo, he happily went down the legal rabbit hole for the Wild World album opener“ Good Grief,” he laughs, which crackles to life with Kelly LeBrock ' s archly intoned line from Weird Science:“ So – what would you little maniacs like to do first?” First, there was lots of red tape to sort through.“ And it all boiled down to finally getting an E-mail from Kelly herself, saying,‘ Yeah, I love this song. Cool – let’ s do it! And if you ever need me to come and play live with you, I’ m available!’” Smith says.“ And we were like‘ Whaaaat?!’ People could be quite confused, thinking,‘ Is this some sort of performance piece?’ We’ re not going to turn up – we’ ll just send Kelly LeBrock out onstage to do the gig for us!”
The bottom line, Smith adds,“ Is that I’ m just generally a huge and massive fan. And I just don’ t believe in snobbery at all, in music or in film. And everything’ s subjective, of course. And while art is there to challenge, also – to a lot of people – it’ s there as entertainment. And as a band, it’ s interesting – I definitely have the most pretentious taste in film. But it’ s nice to offset that that with other stuff that’ s just really enjoyable.” Sometimes, he’ s hit an aesthetic cul de sac. For the 1970s-era dialogue
these quiet, confused feelings and trying to get your head around someone not being there anymore. So I tried to capture the frenetic, mad drama that situation entails.”
The Wild World cover photograph follows Bad Blood suit. Resembling a film poster billed as a presentation from Bad Steel, it features two people perched precariously on a skyscraper ledge, a cityscape framed beautifully – perhaps ominously-- in the background. Look at it long enough, and you’ ll get a dizzying case of vertigo.“ We’ re really happy with that shot,” Smith enthuses.“ It’ s a visual version of what the album is about. And the whole point of the image is to present something that you can’ t not try to write a narrative into, because you’ re thrown into this situation, this moment. And it’ s entirely up to the listener to write the story of how they got up there, and what happens next. For me, it’ s quite a nice, simple visual of two friends just sitting there, in the context of this mad, wide world, and surveying their in the city, and in the wider madness of all this stuff that we’ ve created.”
With perhaps one grumbling to the other,“ You forgot the fucking sandwiches? Again?” Smith guffaws. Maybe, he says.“ Or like,‘ Dude! Where’ s your camera? You seriously didn’ t bring it?’” august 2016 illinoisentertainer. com 49