It was ages ago now, but when we started Bastille, I didn't necessarily want people to know or care if it was a band, and it came from a place, really, of just much rather having people listen to the songs rather than caring about the people making it.
— Dan Smith
'Saturday Night Live' was 100% the most surreal TV we've ever done. Leonardo DiCaprio was on the same show.
I'm quite a reserved person, but when it comes to being on stage, something just clicks, and I sort of run around like a mad man. I find myself jumping in the crowd, climbing up on things, and dancing absolutely atrociously. I like to see the whites of everybody's eyes, jump around with everybody.
I don't necessarily feel 100 per cent comfortable standing up on stage in front of lots of people, but I don't think most people would. It's a pretty bizarre thing to do. It can also be absolutely incredible having thousands of people singing back lyrics that you might have written in your bedroom or wherever.
I love wearing Converse or Vans and wear a lot of bombers or denim jackets. I'm also a bit of loser, so wear a lot of film and band T-shirts. My friends say that I look like a cartoon character because I'm always wearing the same kind of stuff.
Whenever we're on the red carpet, we look like competition winners. It's a joke.
Most friendship groups will have someone who starts a new relationship, and you just don't see them for four months. And that's always kind of sad, almost like an inverted break up. I guess the ideal situation is that whoever the new partner is can be subsumed into the friendship group.
I'm a massive pessimist.
I love the studio. I love writing and producing both for us and for other people.
I once went on a date where the girl drove and so couldn't drink. I was nervous, so drank quite a bit - it didn't end amazingly. As much as I love movies, I think cinema dates can be weird because you essentially sit next to each other in silence for a couple of hours.
I love David Lynch's style. Someone once thought I was his son, so I must have been doing an alright job at emulating it.
It would be wicked to do a mad '90s tune and make it a duet with Rihanna. I love her new album 'Anti.' I'm into quite dark R&B.
When we first started out we only had five or six songs we could play live, so if we ever got an encore, we used to do our cover of City High's 'What Would You Do?' We'd be playing it and people's mouths would be moving singing all the words, but they'd be thinking, Where is this song from? It's such a brilliant pop song but the lyrics are so dark.
There's a lot of variety in our gigs, our records, our mixtapes, and our videos.
I generally wear a lot of black clothes, and I think that comes from wanting to be as neutral as possible. We use a lot of visuals on stage, so I kind of hope people are watching those and not looking at me.
There are moments, when you're playing your songs to thousands of people, which are amazingly satisfying. I'm very self-critical, so I find it hard to go along with moments like that.
