Dan Smith Reveals What Song 'Set The Tone' For Bastille's New Album

On the eve of Bastille's Give Me The Future album release, singer Dan Smith gave fans a behind the scenes look at how he created its title track (earlier this week he did the same with "Shut Off The Lights").

"I wrote this tune in an afternoon with one of my best mates, Ralph Pelleymounter, who I used to be housemates with at university. I knew the album was going to be called 'GIVE ME THE FUTURE' and wanted us to write the title track together," Smith wrote on Instagram alongside a carousel of photos and videos. "We were talking about the advantages and pitfalls of Virtual Reality. We referenced books like 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?', 'Better than life', 'The Matrix' and the comic 'Heavy Metal', but all our chatting led us down pretty dark, dystopian paths. Apparently I was keen to steer the song into something positive, and the idea of escapism when we were all so trapped made a lot of sense at the time."

"Deep in lockdown Charlie Barnes added some amazing 80s Goth (The Cure) inspired electric guitars that massively elevated the track," he continued. "And then when we could all get in a studio together, we added the huge sounding strings which Jonny Abraham arranged which we layered up at One Eyed Jacks. Topped it off with some sci-fi/horror sound FX at the start to really set the scene and transport you into the world. This is the song that really set the tone of the album for me."

See his post below and look out for Give Me the Future on Friday (February 4).