Bastille feel “super privileged” to be a chart-topping band and still lead normal lives.
The pop group – comprising Dan Smith, Kyle Simmons, Will Farquarson and Chris ‘Woody’ Wood – catapulted into the limelight in 2013 when their debut album ‘Bad Blood’ shot to the top of the charts, and they’ve insisted from the very start they never set out to seek fame.
Speaking to Southampton’s community-run site In Common, frontman Dan said: “That’s been a preoccupation of ours, right from the beginning.
“We never expected to be a mainstream band. Obviously we wanted people to listen to our music and come to our shows, but we didn’t think we’d ever be in the charts. When ‘Pompeii’ and the first album blew up, it was such a shock and it didn’t feel that real, and I think it was a preoccupation of ours to sort of separate that from our actual lives.”
Fortunately, the ‘Happier’ hitmakers can largely go about their daily lives without people stopping them in streets.
Dan continued: “We weren’t on the TV at all, we didn’t do that much press, we weren’t in people’s faces, but a lot of people heard our music. I think ten years down the line, we feel super privileged to have a bunch of songs that a lot of people know, but we can also live pretty normal lives and people have no idea that it’s us.”
Kyle added: “It’s always quite difficult getting that line right between success and fame.
“Obviously, we want to be successful in what we do. We’re really happy and proud of the things that we release, all things that get made, through the music, the visuals and everything, but obviously to gain that level of success, a certain amount of fame or notoriety comes with it and it isn’t something we’ve ever courted.”
Woody added: “Ultimately we’d rather the band name was the face, rather than any of us was the face.”