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Bastille have spoken out about what fans can expect from their upcoming second album, saying that they 'don't want to repeat ourselves'.
A band whose popularity and success has continued to grow since their 2010 inception and subsequent release of hit debut album Bad Blood, Bastille spoke to Gigwise to reveal the new sound and direction of their next LP.
Discussing the possible directions of the new album following their recent HP Connected Music show in London, frontman Dan Smith said: "We never really wanted to be one thing or make one kind of music - we've always messed around with stuff," and notes the bands' differing tastes in music as key to this development - something Bastille perhaps did not, in hindsight, explore to it's fullest on Bad Blood.
"The influences we have and I have are very, very diverse and maybe quite mish-mash, and I think how it came out (the first album) didn't really represent those types of music," he said.
"Influences for me were much more picky, there was stuff like a drum sound or a hip hop track that I liked - but you don't necessarily hear anything hip hop."
Watch Bastille's video for 'Oblivion' below
Approaching the second album in a slightly more carefree manner the band appear to be open to the idea of experimenting with both RnB and guitar-driven sounds, Smith said: "Not having any guitars in the first album and then the next one where we do, is, for us a new place to go.
"Obviously it's the most used instrument in the world - but within our sound it could be seen as a rockier direction."
Stating that it was band mate Chris Wood's "obsession with rock music and heavy drum stuff" that influenced it and that it worked well alongside his and Kyle Simmon's love for "current producers, upcoming RnB people and soul singers."
The record is therefore the result of many ideas and inspirations, as Smith admits: "We went into the album process thinking 'let's just do whatever the fuck we want and then when we have a collection of songs together we'll see how it fits and decide what to do with it.'"
He continued: "(With this record) we don't want to repeat ourselves at all, we just want to have fun with it and as long as the songs are good, which hopefully they are, that's all we really care about", concluding that the second album will be "quite different from the first."
Currently in the middle of a busy tour, which takes the band across Europe and winds down in the US, Smith seems genuinely humbled as he reflects on his bands meteoric rise to stardom: “It’s mad that in that time (between now and when the album dropped in March, 2013) we went from Shepherds Bush right up to Brixton and Ally Pally – things have gone better than we could have expected.”
He admits that it is this unexpected success, and subsequent high demand for gigs, that has slowed down the recording of the album in its entirety, but that he never stops writing new music for release: "It's really important to keep releasing music, we've always done that with our mixtapes and with the records and EPs that we put out".
Taking time to reflect on the process of recording the first album, which Smith "sort of pieced together" with the help of the unofficial fifth member of Bastille, Mark Crew, the Bastille frontman concluded that the band enjoy working in this way, recording in "make-shift studios in little back-stage rooms".
The light show at Bastille's HP Connected Music show was an innovative new music experience powered by HP technology for the Next Generation of music lovers, in which the audience were in control of an interactive dance floor that directed the visual experience at the gig.
Bastille will play at the upcoming V Festival in Chelmsford 16-17 August. For ticket information visit Gigwise Tickets.
Below: 13 exclusive photos of Bastille rocking Somerset House, London
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