Tonight, Bastille kicks off a series of intimate U.K. shows to preview the band’s upcoming album, Give Me the Future. For frontman Dan Smith, the run allows him to return to one of his “favorite things in the world.”
“I think about the countless hours I’ve spent crammed up against complete strangers, sweating and shouting along to music that I love,” Smith tells ABC Audio.
As heard in the singles “Distorted Light Beam” and “No Bad Days,” Give Me the Future is perhaps Bastille’s most electronically-driven album. Fittingly, its themes are related to technology and virtual spaces, which Smith hopes to represent with a “stage space that feels totally transportive and totally futuristic.”
Still, Smith wants to stay true to the grounded nature of the live show, which he feels is the “antithesis” of Give Me the Future.
“To use the language of our album, the gig is like the ‘Shut Off the Lights’ moment,” Smith says. “It’s being pulled into reality, it’s being tangibly close to other people, these things we’ve not done for a couple of years.”
“It’s about human contact,” he adds. “It’s about being in a room with other people, with strangers who have this common enjoyment of one thing.”
After the winter U.K. run, Bastille will return to their home country in the spring for a more expansive tour, followed by a trip to the U.S. kicking off in May.
“I’m excited for people to see the show,” Smith says. “And to hopefully explore, like we do with the videos and everything else, the ideas of the music and the ideas of the lyrics in more depth on a bigger scale.”
Give Me the Future arrives February 4.
Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.