- I remember finishing the song to send it off to get mixed
and having a bit of a freak out moment.
Mark, our producer,
and our A&R guy at the time was in the room,
we were playing the final version of the song.
I was like, "(beep) is this, is it a bit ridiculous?"
It's so big.
I was like, "Is it a bit stupid and embarrassing?"
And I was almost trying to shut it down
and they both were like, "Stop it, stop it."
- [Announcer] The wonderful Bastille!
♪ Does it almost feel like nothing changed at all ♪
♪ And if you close your eyes ♪
♪ Does it almost feel like you've been here before ♪
- [Producer] So, from what you're understanding,
what are we about to talk about?
- We are about to talk about what it was like
to write and release "Pompeii,"
which was, I guess, internationally our first single,
and the way that it completely changed all of our lives
and means that like nearly 10 years later,
I've still got a job making songs, sort of, I hope?
I'd been making songs as a teenager,
but I was very kind of shy and self-conscious.
I had no aspirations to take it anywhere.
I didn't want to play in front of anyone else.
It was genuinely just a thing I did for myself.
When I went off to university in Leeds, my mates heard some
of this music that I'd recorded and then someone entered me
into this competition where every year,
10 artists would win this thing.
It sort of peaked with a gig at a proper venue
that you had to sell tickets for.
I had to drink quite a lot to have the courage
to get on stage and it was an absolute (beep) nightmare.
I think I was kind of so wrapped up
in what other people thought,
I wish I'd been able just
to sort of chill out a bit. (laughs)
I'd left university, so I'd moved home with mom and dad,
and I remember working on "Pompeii" there
just in my old bedroom, which is kind of weird
- When he's starting at square one,
he writes the song of his life.
- On one level, it's obviously about the kind of victims
of the volcano eruption.
All of these people were kind of frozen in the poses
in which they died,
and for some reason my brain at the time drew a line between
that and the feeling of going nowhere
that I felt in my own life.
So it became about that sort of frustrated feeling
of not really knowing what's gonna happen
and where your life is gonna go.
I didn't come up through any kind of songwriting training
or musical training at all.
It was never particularly calculated, you know,
I was never thinking, "This is how a song must be."
It's just what came naturally
and what felt like it fitted that form.
- When you talk about pop cliches, 2011, 2012, 2013,
it felt like every musical act on the radio had
to have a dubstep breakdown.
Years later, you can hear that song and you're like,
"Oh yeah, that's 2012."
But Bastille never rocked the dubstep breakdown.
With "Pompeii," it's kind of hard
to pinpoint what year it was made.
- If you're looking back and trying to analyze
why it did well, that's probably why.
I think a combination of that, funny synth stabs,
big epic drums and tom hits.
A real baseline, my really weird voice that sticks out
'cause it doesn't sound conventional at all,
and this huge chant.
I remember with the the chant, the eh-oh bit,
I think initially it was like a keyboard riff
and I wanted it to be a guitar riff but I can't play guitar.
So yeah, there was limitations to what I could do by myself.
I guess the tension in me, as a weird self-loathing,
self-conscious person, is to make your own music
and put it out innately comes with having
to sort of push yourself as a person
or what you do to other people,
which I guess always sat quite weirdly with me.
I just liked the idea of being in a band
and also being able to share it with other people
and draw on other people's ideas and thoughts
and creativity and to be on stage as a group.
We all met in London kind of through friends
and through music quite a few years ago
and we properly started the band at the end of 2010
and locked ourselves away practicing for a bit
and then started releasing singles on vinyl
and mix tapes and EPs
and just played a lot of gigs. (laughs)
The thing to aim towards was probably to get a record deal.
We played loads of tiny little venues
and then at the same time we were putting out songs
and had the kind of gratification
of getting to watch the music get shared online
and also start playing shows up and down the country.
A manager came on board and we started working with Mark,
who we've done literally everything with,
and he had a little studio in South London as well.
- The studio wasn't a particularly nice place. (laughs)
- We sort of record and rehearse in like,
gray parts of London that aren't particularly pretty.
- A windowless basement,
in this sort of complex of other windowless basements.
- I think back to that time
and I think of it being really late at night,
and just, yeah, trying to figure out how
to play these songs.
- When Dan first brought "Pompeii" to us,
I remember kind of playing it
and we were running through it.
And it was like, "Oh yeah, yeah, actually,
it's quite, I dunno, it's all right."
- I think I played it to a friend at some point
and she was like, "Yeah, it's fine." (laughs)
I don't think anyone we worked
with thought, "Yes, that's it."
- Anyone claiming that they had picked
that out as the hit is a liar.
- You know, just because it sounded epic,
didn't necessarily mean it sounded like
it was gonna be successful,
'cause we had no concept of what that meant.
But then we were off playing it
in tiny little toilet venues around the UK.
- We were rehearsing before a show
and then Dan was like, "Should we play it tonight?"
And we were like, "That's nuts."
And we're like, "Actually yeah, why not?
We'll give it a shot."
And then we spoke to our manager and she was like,
"There is no way you are playing this song tonight.
That's insane."
And then I remember us getting to the gig,
we did a few songs, and Dan, he was just kind of like,
"Oh this is a new one, this is called "Pompeii."
And I remember our manager, you just heard her sort
of out in the crowd and she was like, "Bastards!"
- And that was really surreal.
We were like, "Oh, this is working." (laughs)
- It was completely different
but it was simple enough and catchy enough to work.
- We signed a record deal at the end of 2011.
Over the course of 2012,
we were releasing singles and EPs,
and growing our fan base, playing bigger gigs.
- Even though it was rock, it was danceable.
So they just found like the perfect blend
of everything where they were still respected
as a rock band, but they were loved on pop radio.
- In the UK, there's a radio station called Radio 1,
who support new artists,
and we were kind of working our way up the playlist.
- The best thing that happened was when Radio 1 started
to play Bastille in general because it's so hard
to get on radio,
and particularly in the UK compared to America.
- And then that led us into 2013,
which is when "Pompeii" came out,
I think first week of the year,
and it got played on Radio 1
and this song was suddenly everywhere.
♪ But if you close your eyes ♪
♪ Does it almost feel like nothing changed at all ♪
♪ And if you close your eyes ♪
- Like, how many people were there?
I don't, really that many people care about it?
And they were amazing.
It was weird.
- So "Pompeii" blew up and suddenly it was in a chart battle
with Justin Timberlake and we lost out to "Mirrors"
but we were number two on the charts.
And then the next week, our album came out,
and it went straight to number one
and it sold a ridiculous amount.
"Pompeii" just didn't go away.
That first year, 2013,
it was the album being big
and just kind of us chasing "Pompeii" all over Europe
and then suddenly it's massive in Australia.
We're like, "What the hell? Australia?"
- Then all of a sudden "Pompeii" was like, "Right,
now you're going out to America for a few months."
(plane engine roars)
- When a band comes from overseas,
a band that might be slightly different,
like what lane do they fit in?
Sometimes it's confusing. - It is.
- Being a UK band that breaks in the US.
- It is, yeah, there's a lot of weird
and wonderful windy roots.
- Revisits and stuff, yeah. - Yeah.
- So are you confused right now?
- I have no idea what you said.
- I dunno what just happened.
- Yeah, I'm so excited.
I can't believe, I cannot believe it's happening.
- You hear kind of all the kind of horror stories
of UK bands going over there
and just how difficult it is, and it was, you know.
It's huge and we just aren't used to it as a band,
growing up in the UK
- Brought my keyboards, we've got the, all of our-
- That's for the whole tour? - Yeah.
- That's all you brought? - This is all the instruments
that we brought.
We're fully prepared. (laughs)
Fully prepared. - All these cases are
just literally- - We have arrived in America.
(upbeat music)
- So we'd gotten over there and everyone's really excited
and then Dan's voice was wiped.
- When you lose your voice in America.
- Dan had tonsillitis or lost his voice
on that very first show.
He fought through for the first half of the show,
which is the worst thing to do.
It just tore his voice apart
and then everyone else helped us sing the last few songs
and it was just, it was like, yeah, it was crazy.
(upbeat music)
- [Producer] Can you tell us what the feeling is like
to finally break as an artist?
- I don't know if there is really a point at which you break
or anything and I think we are probably the worst people
to answer that question, so I don't know.
I don't know what the feeling is.
I also don't know if we've broken.
I hope we didn't break. (group laughs)
As 2013 was finishing, we signed with a label in the States,
they started testing "Pompeii" in the US.
- So we hear "Pompeii" December of 2013
and then a month or so later, they're playing on SNL.
- Which was (beep) terrifying
- Being introduced by Leonardo DiCaprio.
It doesn't get any bigger than that.
- It was really fun to be there.
It was really exciting and getting to watch the sketches
and the rehearsals and stuff was amazing.
And a really welcomed distraction.
But I was absolutely terrified,
particularly 'cause in the week leading up to it,
people kept saying, "You know, it's a really big deal."
- We get it. - We get it.
But yeah, it was fun.
We especially enjoyed the after party a bit too much.
- I think once you get on SNL,
it makes you a next level act.
- It just didn't really stop, the touring.
Yeah, I think they kind of just looped America twice
with the venues getting bigger.
(upbeat music)
When Dan first started,
he wouldn't even face forwards on stage.
He was normally like glued to the keyboard side long.
So then fast forwarding to jumping up
and down to "Pompeii" was a pretty big jump forward.
- I think that "Pompeii" kind of transported us.
It was just a lot quicker.
It was like kind of going through a portal
and it was like, "Right, where you want to get to?
You are here now," and it's happened like this
and you now just have to kind of carry on from this point
that this song has transported you to.
- In the US, if a song gets properly played at pop radio,
it really properly seeps into the consciousness.
It's in sports games, it's on TV shows,
suddenly it's in video games, in film trailers,
like it was in "Glee" I think at one point as well.
- In the UK, you'll wash a single out
and then maybe the next month you'll have another one
and it's quite a quick turnaround, whereas in America,
new music just gets played for a lot longer.
And you know, once people hear a song enough,
whether they like it or not,
just that familiarity is like, "Oh, I guess I like it."
Which I think was kind of part of it.
(upbeat music)
- It recently, I think end of last year,
hit a billion streams, which is completely incomprehensible
because it's kind of nuts when a new song hits
a billion streams, and it's a huge hit.
And the idea that this was big, you know,
however many years ago, it's just nice to see
that the song has continued to grow and grow and grow.
It's been a thing on TikTok recently,
which is just (beep) awesome.
♪ But if you close your eyes ♪
- Songs like "Pompeii" don't necessarily age
as much as other things just
because they sound so unique at the time
and it still kind of sounds as different now as it did then.
- It doesn't blow my mind that "Pompeii" is still a big song
but it did kind of blow my mind recently
because I was singing the song,
and then my son, who is nine years old,
he started singing along with me.
And I thought to myself, "How do you know this song?"
It's the testament to what a good song it is
because it has that classic element to it.
It feels timeless.
- Some of our music is really famous,
but we're not that famous as people.
So you know, our lives feel, despite being in a band
and touring and everything, relatively normal.
I like to go backpacking with friends every year
and I had this weird experience where I found myself
at the top of a volcano.
There was a Dutch guy, there was an Israeli guy,
and there's a Guatemalan guide.
And eventually the Dutch guy was like,
"So you said you make music?"
And I was like, "Well, I guess we've had some songs
on the radio."
And the Dutch guy was like, "Try me. What is it?"
And I was like, "We have a song called Pompeii."
He sort of didn't believe me and then was like,
"We are literally on a volcano
and you are the volcano song guy?"
And he was cracking up.
And then the Israeli guy was like, "Oh my God,
we had that song at our wedding two weeks ago!"
And I was like, "What the (censored)."
And the Guatemalan guy
that didn't speak any English was like, "Hey,"
and started singing along to the song.
It sounds totally made up.
But I was literally stuck at the top of volcano in Guatemala
with a Dutch guy, an Israeli guy,
and a Guatemalan guy who all knew the song
for very different reasons but had no idea who I was.
As someone that doesn't celebrate moments,
that was a real nice moment in terms of like,
A, it's hilarious and B, it means, you know,
we somehow succeeded in making music that people know
but not having to be dependent on us as people.
♪ Eh-eh-oh, eh-oh ♪
♪ Eh-eh-oh ♪ - Bastille's legacy
is a big pop rock band
that has a hit single that they can play until the end
of time and that song will outlive the band.
- It's not a Christmas song, but you know, like,
the songs that are just always there.
For it to be even half as big
as it is now in another 10 years,
I'd be more than happy with that.
- A lot of people over the years have asked us
if we're bored of it or if we resent it
or have come to hate that song,
and I just feel massively grateful for it.
Like it's really cheesy, but it was so uncalculated,
it was so unthought out,
we were never trying to write a hit.
It just is one of those wonderful little accidents
that completely changed our lives.
♪ But if you close your eyes ♪
♪ Does it almost feel like nothing changed at all ♪
I remember when our manager called and was like,
"You're nominated for two Grammys."
Everything like that, that came through, we were like,
"What? Us?"
♪ How am I gonna be an optimist about this ♪
It's just completely mad.
This is a (beep) song that I wrote by myself in my bedroom.
♪ Does it almost feel like nothing changed at all ♪
Within the charts, alongside songs written by like,
10, 15 people with dozens of producers,
and I was like, "Me and my mates made this.
This is (beep) insane."
♪ Eh-eh-oh, eh-oh ♪