Lately I've been Tweeting a lot about this amazing band called Bastille from England. I was lucky AND blessed enough to get to interview the lead singer, Dan Smith, for HelloGiggles. Now my job is to tell everyone I ever come in contact with to listen to them.
Okay, let me tell you how the interview with. First, I got severely nervous and sick the day before. Okay, it's no secret that I have some anxiety issues (some) but I had to do this interview right. I mean, I'm pretty much obsessed with the band (think how Kat vonD is over Him and Ville Vallo). So speaking to Dan, him knowing who I am, blew my mind. On top of that, I had to be professional. I take my writing quite seriously and I didn't want to come across as just a giggly fan. I'm a journalist!
When I was first connected to him through his management, whom I'd been e-mailing back and forth for a few weeks, she said "Dan, you're on with Angie Grace from HelloGiggles" and he said "Hi Angie!" I went "Hi Dan!", and I swear to God, you could literally hear me melting! How do I know this? I had to record the conversation to transcribe it for the site. So everytime I listened to it, all I could think was "I sound like a fool". I remember shaking, also. After I got the first question out of the way, I realized how normal and down-to-Earth he was! I mean, this guy does not take himself seriously at all! I even asked him how did he feel about being considered a sex symbol and he said "awkward". Okay, I love him. The way he speaks, saying "quite" this and "I'm an awkward guy from London", I wanted to say "You know you're a friggin' rock star, right? Like, girls are obsessed with you".
I held it together. After a few questions, it felt as if we were having a normal conversation, with me asking the questions. Then he started asking me questions, like asking me what did I think of the show "Twin Peaks". I then mentioned that I went to buy tickets for their show and found out they were already sold out and then found out the whole U.S. tour was sold out already and not only was he humble by this, he said that I should ask his management about getting on the guest list and then he said "I'd love for you to come". Yes, I've fucking replayed the tape recorder for all who have visited my house, live here, etc.
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I haven't heard from his management about that, yet, but I'm sure they're busy with the U.S. release of the album. He then tweeted me a few days ago when I pointed out the album was #4 on the iTunes chart and he tweeted back at me "It was good to speak to you last week". Yes, I died again. Twice dead.
It means so much to me to be able to know people I truly respect and enjoy their art. Knowing Sherri Dupree of Eisley means a lot to me. Knowing Josh Fadem means a lot to me. Meeting Chris D'Elia means a lot me. Now sorta kinda a little bit knowing Dan means a lot to me. And I just got tickets to go see them live at Jimmy Kimmel for Bry's birthday. Did I mention Bry also loves Bastille? We've both said that Dan is not capable of writing a bad song. He's amazing. Also, he uses the word "Mental" a lot. As in "Wow, that's mental!". Love it.
My favorite Bastille performance, thus far:
Bastille, "Bad Blood", Last.fm sessions
"Things We Lost in the Fire"
"Laughter Lines" (my current obsession)
Bastille on Conan performing "Pompeii", the first time I saw them. Which is weird, because I watch every Conan episode but usually skip the musical guest, unless it's somewhere I've heard of. I think this just happened to come on while we were talking and no one cut it off, then they came on and wow.
