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[warm music]
[Dan] Um... we are... for Bastille,
I think we're just going to work on new music,
and we're about to tour in Australia and New Zealand.
Yeah, I think we're just going to do some ReOrchestrated shows
and concentrate on making-- making a really great new album, hopefully.
What about you, what's 2020 for you?
[violins playing]
[crowd cheering]
[Dan] It's obviously been a super surreal year.
And the idea that a year ago, you know,
we would have been locked down for however many months
and everyone, you know, hiding away in their houses,
it was almost like totally unthinkable.
And it's so interesting seeing the world like collectively gasp and stop.
I was like a very introspective, self-conscious teenager, like a lot.
And so for me, this whole, like, this whole phase of my life
when we've been in a band has been
this tension between loving making music
and the satisfaction of creating something
with, like, just really not liking being on stage.
Suddenly, we were like...
...at the pinnacle of whatever mainstream is,
and we'd never aimed to that or perceived
that that was even an option for us.
Relentlessly touring for years and years and years,
obviously, there's moments that are fucking amazing.
And not to say that we're not grateful for it,
but like anything that people do a lot,
like any job, you come to a point
where you've just, like, had enough.
[crowd cheering]
For a band of their size and of their popularity,
they'd done hundreds of shows with the same model.
I'm not thinking about what I'm playing, I'm thinking about
pulling daft faces to try and put Will off or something like that.
I think I was trying to figure out what track, which was really boring,
like four songs had gone passed,
and I hadn't even registered that I played in it.
I don't know whether it became boring
or whether it became tiresome or kind of--
or samey, but ReOrchestrated just blew that out the water.
[light dramatic violin playing]
["Million Pieces" by Bastille ft. The Chamber Orchestration Of London playing]
♪ I breath in hard ♪
♪ Don't speak because it's like a bitter pill ♪
♪ You blow my mind ♪
♪ You make my heart beat ♪
When I was at university, I was making
sort of linear narrative, weird pop music at the piano,
inspired by people like Regina Spektor and Antony & The Johnsons...
I just met him at a pub in Wimbledon,
and-- and, like, he was very much on his own then.
It was a lot more left-field sort of stuff as well
than like-- with a loop pedal.
Um, that fucking loop pedal. [chuckles]
We would rehearse in his bedroom, just kind of haul some gear down the road
and then playing to sort of empty rooms and whatnot,
and for a period we were kind of like Spinal Tap with drummers
where they're always just combusting, I think Will was like our seventh
bass player or something, but he finally stuck.
It was presented to me as, "There's this guy, do you want to play for him?"
And I think the idea was, eventually there might be some money
to pay you, like a session rate for it.
Then he invited me around for dinner, because he's super, super, like, amicable like that.
But for me that was like--
because I was sort of a complete misanthrope,
I'm like, "What's this guy's game?" [chuckles]
It was the first time for-- at that point in years
that I had just heard something I was like,
"I really, really want to be part of this."
But we're like, "We're going to try make it band,
we need a keyboard player."
And so we just asked everyone we ever met,
and the only person who said yes was Kyle.
After I think maybe the third or fourth time that he said that,
the next day I woke up and I was like...
..."Maybe I'll message that--
message that-- that Dan guy."
♪ Icarus is flying too close to the sun ♪
Remember this!
♪ Icarus's life ♪
[Dan] Yeah, we played like most pubs, tiny venues,
drove ourselves up and down the country.
We used to cram everything into a car we borrowed off our friend's mom.
Kyle and Will would be wedged in the back,
keyboards across them, drums everywhere, only Woody and I could drive,
so we had to do all the driving.
And driving five hours to get to Wrexham to play to eight people.
♪ Ooh, listen to my voice ♪
Having to do a gig was terrifying.
I think I had to get just really shit-faced
to get out there and play.
I love you all.
[Kyle] He had very clear visions,
but was-- he just didn't want anyone to know who he was.
But inside of him was all these things that I felt everyone should listen to.
It's like, that's trapped inside of this, I was like,
"God, what are you going to do?"
[Dan] We came up sort of as an Indie band.
We'd get written about quite a lot on blogs,
and people would watch our videos and come to our gigs,
and that was like-- that felt really good.
Do you mind if we get a photo with you guys?
No, not at all.
[Chris] As you go, the venues you play
maybe go from being completely empty to like maybe half-full
or something, and it gradually sort of built momentum a bit.
We've just been on a-- a sort of ten, 12 day tour of the UK.
We started in Ireland, then Scotland,
and then like down through-- down through England.
Weirdly the whole thing kind of sold out,
so, um, which made the experience...
...I think a little bit more relaxed.
["Pompeii" by Bastille playing]
♪ Many days... ♪
[Dan] We were, like, playing to
what started to become actual crowds,
which was pretty nuts on its own.
♪ And if you close your eyes ♪
♪ Does it almost feel like nothing's... ♪
[Mark] Bad Blood, the first album,
pretty much the whole of it was made in my studio
under a tower block in Battersea,
um, just like a small industrial unit basically, with low ceilings.
It was like the size of someone's cupboard.
Like, you had to literally climb over the drum kit
to get in the front door. It was that tiny.
You're having to self-promote and write and play music,
and it costs you money, and you're having to do it,
you know, in and around school or uni or work...
We basically had to go and find time in between our day jobs that were paying the rent.
-[Will] How you doing? -[Dan] How are you doing?
That period where I was sort of doing that three times a week,
and getting in at three in the morning, getting up for a job at nine the next morning.
-[Dan] New haircut. -It's cold.
That felt like endless, like, just interminable pain.
And then we got a record deal and everything got a little bit better.
["Things We Lost In The Fire" by Bastille playing]
Kind of stressful time, because you're always aware
if this doesn't happen then that's that.
[Dan] It's good that they made a tweet that was four letters too long.
-Shit. -[laughter]
[Will] I can go and interfere with Kyle, that'd be funny.
[Dan] Are we just doing everything we can for the police to come this time?
The usual things like magazines, press, radio, TV,
um, just either really didn't like us or completely ignored us.
[Kyle] No one seems to know where we're doing it...
...so I'm hoping, I'm going to make a triangle... sort of our thing,
and make it point down to where we're going to be playing,
so then they know.
So, we've already got one, two...
...young guys who didn't understand what was happening,
old lady, red hair, that's five.
It's going to be more than us already,
so... it's a-- that's a mark-up on our...
-There you go, we've done it! Done Norwich. [chuckles] -Can we leave now?
-Isn't this what we're here for? -[Dan] Why is this 100 times more awkward than yesterday
-Or the day before. -We were late for ourselves.
-Just a load of idiot kids. -Yeah.
Four awkward blokes turning up to an industrial estate in--
Is it seven? It is seven. Yeah, it's seven.
[indistinct chatter]
♪ Icarus's life ♪
♪ It has only just begun ♪
♪ It's just begun ♪
["Icarus" by Bastille playing]
I always just like loved doing it.
You know there's things that you're drawn to.
But it was also always like kind of coupled with
what I suppose now would probably be called,
like, lots of anxieties.
I'm not singing there.
We played Reading, and I remember feeling like,
"Fuck, maybe we're not heavy enough to be on the bill."
[indistinct chatter]
In a little tent and it was fucking rammed,
and I remember playing the first chords of the song...
[Dan singing]
...and the whole crowd started singing it,
and it blew my mind.
♪ Can you listen to my voice? ♪
[Dan] So we put this song called "Flaws" out.
It went in at like number 20 in the charts, which was insane.
And at the time, like, you know, we're driving around in a little van,
playing shows around the country, and we suddenly had this song
that was in like the top 40.
And I literally can't communicate to you how...
...beyond anything we'd imagined that was.
[playing piano]
♪ You have always worn your flaws upon your sleeve ♪
♪ And I have always buried them deep beneath the ground ♪
♪ Dig them up, let's finish what we've started ♪
♪ Dig them up so nothing's left untouched ♪
♪ Ooh ♪
[woman] Goodbye, Dan!
[cameraman] That was fucking mental!
[unintelligible]
-That was a little bit unexpected. -Man, that's so weird.
[man] There's a hole in my heart for you, Dan.
[Dan] And then at the very beginning of 2013,
um, we put out "Pompeii," which...
...you know, I never knew it would do what it did,
and it just, like, it just fucking blew up,
and it was mad, like, who the fuck were we?
I remember listening to the chart, they ring up the people.
-[Chris] Yeah. -To be like, "Are you number two in the what?
You're number two."
But we're like... "Yeah!"
Hello, Bastille, how are you?
-Hi. -We're good.
You are number two in the Official Charts.
Yay!
[woman on radio] The brilliant Bastille with "Pompeii."
I really hope they're number one next week,
such lovely boys and such an amazing song.
♪ Eh-eh-oh, eh-oh eh-eh-oh, eh-oh ♪
[fans] ♪ Eh-eh-oh, eh-oh eh-eh-oh, eh-oh ♪
[crowd cheering]
[upbeat drum music]
On a day out with the lads on a horse and cart.
Is that too much to ask?
Just eating some noodles backstage at Saturday Night Live.
I got my suit on for the Grammy's.
Yay!
[crowd cheering]
[Dan] That album went to number one.
It literally changed all our lives...
...critically, like, it got panned.
[fireworks banging]
Suddenly, all these people had to react to this album
from this band that they'd never really cared
or heard of... like, obliterated us.
It's weird that at that time
that should have been celebratory,
as someone that's a bit of a pessimist anyway,
I think I was always expecting it to fall apart.
For most of it, the band wasn't signed, it wasn't like we weren't trying
to please anyone. It was just do what we wanted at that point.
They didn't really fit in,
so, you know, they never were considered trendy.
That's why I want to see them become successful
and sort of put a finger up to everyone.
Like, "What are you, an Indie Band? What are you?"
Like, and that's so indicative of the slightly old school perspective
of an arm of the music industry and the music press at the time.
It's like, "No, but that's-- Like that's--
That's such an insane way to think."
It's not like, "Hey, like, go,
like, go and live in your own-- go live in a little box."
[Dan] As a, like, young 20-something,
who's a bag of nerves at the best of time,
and to sort of... fumbled his way into this-- that position I wasn't expecting,
it fucked me up, like... really did.
It was like such a-- it was mainly like embarrassing.
And I guess as someone with impostor syndrome,
it didn't help with the old impostor syndrome and, like, levels of shame and stuff.
[violin playing]
But it's such a cliche to have been derailed by a bad review.
I have always been so driven to-- to show people--
and maybe it comes from being this weird band
that have these odd moments that are really mainstream,
that are just the tip of the iceberg of what we do.
And often the meat and bones of what we do
that I think is really interesting and exciting,
that stuff just gets lost, and I think it's picked up on by our fans,
but maybe lost elsewhere.
And so I feel maybe that...
...has driven me to constantly want to
try and show people... these other sides of what we do.
[guitar playing]
Yeah, but I actually think even if you're doubling up,
maybe go up in inversion, so it's... [singing]
I guess the obvious, easy thing to do after our first record would have been to...
...to look to more trodden paths that exist
and work with big established people
and take help from outside.
And it might have been an easier route
and maybe even a bit, like, more fun or whatever,
but I guess I felt really set in our process,
and really proud of it. It was ours and it had seemed to work,
so-- so we did that.
[upbeat music]
I'm very much the least trained person in the band.
Basically, like, sort of, management had a word with the boys,
and they had to come to me and say,
"Kyle, like, you're not-- basically you're not good enough."
But instead of just being like, "You're gone
and we'll get someone else in."
It's-- it was...
..."This is what we've been presented with."
If we have it on the end and we get through an entire song
and then at the end it fails, then we have to do the entire song again.
You just need to back yourself, you'll get it right. You got way harder parts than this.
I know sometimes there's just a mental block thing.
And so, like, then I--
you know, I left the pub and made calls,
and I had to go, you know, go and get lessons.
And it leads into the fact
that Bastille is, like, a supportive place.
And they want me to still be part of this thing that's happening,
so I will prove to them that, "Yes, okay, then I will be good enough."
["Things We Lost In The Fire" by Bastille playing]
If you want it, then you just-- you just put more work in.
-Whoa! -Vibes, vibes, come on!
You're gonna smash your heads.
I got to the place that I was auditioning,
got introduced to the guys,
and everyone was just really nice,
and I played the songs.
I mean, I was absolutely terrified
because I was like, "This is such a huge opportunity."
They called me up the next week to say, "You've got the job."
[playing guitar]
Going into Wild World ,
the world was a different place, there's all sorts of things going on,
went quite-- quite big and global on a lot of the content.
-Hey? -How about that, mate.
The world was going in a very strange direction.
Society felt like it was dividing irreparably.
["Send Them Off!" By Bastille playing]
♪ Set me free from my jealousy ♪
[Dan] I felt like it would be disingenuous to not incorporate that a bit.
♪ I want to be free as I'll ever be ♪
All the different single and the little videos
and sort of stuff that we did, were presented by this, like,
this, like, overarching kind of ominous,
kind of conglomerate company.
[TV news jingle]
This, like, fake, evil news anchor behind us
on the big screens kind of ranting at the audience.
["The Currents" by Bastille playing]
When anybody...
Talking about, like, the rise of sort of...
...populism and that sort of thing, and, uh,
Trump, which at the time, didn't feel like it was going to happen, or Brexit,
and boy were we surprised at the result of that.
[playing saxophone]
[Dan] That Glastonbury, 2016,
when we found out that Brexit had happened, and I woke up
and we had to play on stage that day,
and that's all that anyone could think about.
[Chris] We sort of realized that
people probably go to gigs to have a break from all that as well.
They don't need to have, like, 24/7 news media just rammed down your throat.
[Dan] Good to be here. Thank you so much for having us today.
[crowd cheering]
On this very, very weird day, we can't think of anywhere better to be,
so thank you so much for coming to check us out.
Right, let's have a fucking awesome weekend.
[Dan] It's like, "Fuck," the people there that weekend
who were kind of in mourning for this big change.
They didn't-- Well, you know.
♪ I miss you more ♪
"This is our last weekend to not think about this until it's real."
Almost. You know, festivals are an escape, gigs are an escape.
They're, like, transportative, that's the point.
I just had this sort of epiphany moment.
[violins playing]
I felt like putting production to one side,
and putting all the concepts of everything and stripping it back down to just...
...just the bare bones of the music.
Well, I was asked by this-- this amazing homeless charity
called Streets of London to do a gig for them to raise money.
They suggested Union Chapel, which is a venue in London in a church that's really beautiful
and that I've been to countless shows at
but had never been able to play, so I was really excited at the opportunity.
I wanted to make it special.
[Kyle] You can't just have a big,
full band smashing around in the Union Chapel.
While we're at it, we can just kind of completely re-frame our own songs.
[Dan] And I spoke to Jonny, and he was up for,
you know, rearranging a lot of the songs.
[Jonny] The whole Bad Blood era,
I guess I was just more in the background,
you know, they were up and coming, and there wasn't the same scope
for, like, adding to the live show.
Um, but it was on the back of that album,
Dan called me up and was just like,
"I've got an idea
for a tune that is, like, is going to need brass,
so why don't you come down and bring some other guys with you."
And we went down to the tiny, little room
in Battersea and recorded "Send Them Off!"
["Send Them Off!" By Bastille playing]
And, yeah, I guess featuring on that tune
probably just gave Dan the idea
that when him and the band went out on tour again,
it could be an idea to have some extra musicians.
I've been in pop and rock bands and also been in orchestras.
It was something that I really believed could be
an exciting way of presenting songs and arranging songs.
When Bastille came out, turned out my mate, Woody
is the drummer. I was like, "What, that's mental."
And they were just like, "We need someone
who can vocalize and choir-rise
and look at the Bastille music
from a traditional standpoint in this amount of time."
My mate was like, "Mate," and I was like, "Mate."
But then, it was-- it was a challenge but it was fantastic.
I probably made about 20 to 25 scores
in about ten days to two weeks before,
because it was such a late thing.
I love the fact you say rehearsals,
um, because that would mean plural, which means more than one.
Uh, in this instance, we had one rehearsal.
You're going to change, you're going to change.
Let's just try and we'll get there.
I'm burning quite bad.
I'm not playing. What are you guys playing at that beat?
Four. They all look like me.
[crowd murmuring]
[choir singing]
Obviously, I think we knew deep down we could do a good job,
but because the rehearsal and everything was done
such by the sort of seat of our pants,
there were times where it could have gone wrong.
Come on, mate. It's awesome, this is awesome.
I'm terrified as well.
[crowd cheering]
Hello.
[crowd cheering]
We are Bastille and friends, and it's such a pleasure
to be here for Streets of London,
so thank you so much for everybody for coming.
[crowd cheering]
I'm terrified so I'm not going to talk very much.
[woman] Love you, Kyle!
[vocalizing]
♪ I was left to my own devices ♪
♪ Many days fell away with nothing to show ♪
♪ And the walls kept tumbling down ♪
♪ In the city that we love ♪
♪ Grey clouds roll over the hills ♪
♪ Bringing darkness from above ♪
♪ But if you close your eyes ♪
♪ 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? ♪
♪ How am I going to be an optimist about this? ♪
♪ We were caught up and lost in all of our vices ♪
♪ In your pose as the dust settled around us ♪
♪ And the walls kept tumbling down ♪
♪ In the city that we love ♪
♪ Grey clouds roll over the hills ♪
♪ Bringing darkness from above ♪
♪ But if you close your eyes ♪
♪ 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? ♪
[Dan] It was rough as fuck and probably filled with mistakes,
but we pulled it off,
and it just felt really special.
[Senab] There was something very intimate and very sensitive
about the approach to Bastille's music
in comparison to the guns blazing that people are used to.
♪ Oh, where do we begin? ♪
♪ The rubble or our sins? ♪
To very specifically remix every song
in a live context is a bravery
that I can say a lot of artists wouldn't do in any way, shape or form.
[Dan] To start with "Pompeii," to completely strip it away,
and make it just a cappella with some singers.
And to take away the chanting and the hook that people know,
everything was about it was undermining expectations.
♪ But if you close your eyes ♪
[crowd cheering]
Coming out with our second album and playing arenas,
we're set about to make a third album that was all about escapism,
but I'd been thinking about that gig we did, that charity,
and how amazing it had been, and I just came up
with this idea of trying to do it again,
and it just got in my head.
It felt kind of like-- like a great idea not fully realized.
Looking back, I-- if that was the only thing we'd ever done,
I'd thought, "Oh, that doesn't represent who I am
and it certainly doesn't represent what these players can do."
I would have been happy with it happening that once.
[Dan] I wanted to do something...
...that felt different and felt real,
and pretty much everyone
across the board was like, "Why the fuck would you do that?
You have a third album to be making,
that's kind of more important."
And that album has to be delivered,
I don't know, like eight weeks after Christmas.
[Dan] I'm just quite up for working as quickly as possible.
Just trying to get as much stuff to an exciting playable point.
Get together an entire gig's worth,
like tour's worth of touring on the orchestral thing.
That's going to be a fuck load to-- to learn right--
like, right at the top of the year before we go into the campaign,
because we have to learn the orchestral stuff for all these people.
-We have to work closely with Jonny on that. -And also learn
how we're going to be playing all of this stuff as well.
We'll just plan it out, and then I think, you know, the point of doing the tour
leading up to Albert Hall, obviously we want it to be good,
but it's that it gets, the show gets tighter and tighter.
-I just-- -[Kyle] We know the songs.
I know what he's saying,
I want us to be, like, fucking nailed
and good to go by the time we start touring proper.
Touring is expensive, and injecting an extra like
15 musicians into that scenario means more buses,
more hotel rooms, like, more crew.
There was never any idea that anything would come of it commercially.
Like, I don't know, them sort of saying,
"This isn't going to make you any money." It's like,
"Well, okay, well, then I'll stop being in a band
and become a fucking stockbroker," like, what's the--
I mean, he couldn't be a stockbroker, he shouldn't do that.
I sort of do think you're doing it at the wrong stage
of your career. You're really hot,
and when we're still climbing,
which I think Dan sometimes has a problem
of actually enjoying it
and therefore wants to do other things.
So, like the orchestra,
because it'd be just too easy to have loads of hits
and hits and hits and make my life easier and everyone else's, wouldn't it?
As a concept I love it.
It was so much fucking work... for everyone.
[Dan] I feel like anything worth doing in the creative world
has always got to have a bit of, you know, stress involved,
um, a bit of jeopardy, blood, sweat and tears,
all the usual cliches.
If you drastically change what you've done,
you can definitely get it a lot more wrong,
but the rewards can be a lot bigger,
and I think that's probably what-- what drives Dan.
This project is-- is one that no one asked for,
but then again, no one fucking asked for our band to exist, so fuck you.
[trumpets playing]
[Dan] Any idea that, like, music with strings or orchestration or classical stuff
couldn't be modern and couldn't be relevant,
I just thought was bullshit. I think we now-- like, one of the nice things
about the age we live in at the moment is the fact that
like, genre feels, like, irrelevant.
Welcome, everybody. Thanks for coming in on Sunday
and joining us on this adventure,
but we need to be on it today. We don't have a lot of time.
We've got to try and have Dan do as little talking as he can
because he's got to save himself.
If he wants, he'll talk a lot,
because he's so passionate about this,
but-- but thank you very much. Crack on.
-[all applauding] -Okay.
You fucking tell them, mate.
Bringing people into our-- our world
and making it more about them than us
and letting the songs be the songs,
and I step away and be the least impressive things on stage,
that was what it was about.
[singing]
[playing guitar]
Somewhere at home, like, I've got these pad of notes for each song,
like, "Play this trigger here.
This sample there, stop playing here..."
Just trying to unlearn muscle memory
really quickly from songs that we'd spent the last
three or four years touring almost nonstop.
Eventually it goes...
I don't want the drum part to sound too perky.
Like, so I want it to drive...
Yeah, a lot of notes being made,
scribbled down and things being changed on the fly.
-All right, so in the chorus? -Yeah.
You still do the tom thing,
I'm gonna stick with the beat underneath it.
Okay, sure thing.
Yeah.
[playing xylophone]
[Will] There is one where I have to play, um, I play piano.
It's very much my third instrument, and yeah, I remember that was kind of exciting.
I was like, "Which buttons do I push now?"
["Weight of Living Part 1" by Bastille playing]
[Kyle] I get to rehearsals early and I leave rehearsals late,
just 'cause I need the extra time more than the boys.
And that kind of lives inside you
around these people who are just-- who are just like,
"Oh, what's that song? Bosh, I've got it."
I'm just like, "What the fuck?"
Okay. And it might take me longer.
["Quarter Past Midnight" by Bastille playing]
-Are they doing the off-beat, "Yeah, yeah, yeah"? -Yeah.
-Then we're gonna do it with the rest. -Okay, cool, sweet. Um, yeah--
That was different to what's on the album.
[Kyle] We weren't available for loads of time to do it.
We had to fit these rehearsals in.
In the recording there's a... [singing]
[Kyle] In amongst them, and like, just like,
"Okay, just have a couple days rehearsal before you go off on tour."
Is anybody doing a part that resembles... [mimics instrument]
And it just wasn't enough time for me just to feel-- to feel comfortable.
The set's really different now. And also there hasn't really been a lot going from in it,
-so you might be right. -I've got a lot of parts, so that's the last change we make.
-Yeah? -[Dan] In that song?
Yeah.
-Changed the whole fucking thing. -I did not change everything.
[Charlie] Well, I'm a bit of a nerd and I love rehearsing,
it's one of my favorite bits about being in a band.
The ReOrchestrated project is by far my favorite thing
I've ever done musically at all, not even just with Bastille,
just full stop, it's my favorite thing.
["Oblivion" by Bastille playing]
♪ You always take it farther ♪
♪ Than I ever can ♪
[organ playing]
[choir singing]
As a young teenager,
I got like-- I was quite big.
Growing up, you know, like, kids are mean,
life is-- life is pretty mean, and that was like part of my identity.
I've always been really physically self-conscious,
so it is fucking weird to have pursued this thing.
But I think that's part of the tension of this.
I fucking love being able to make music and create stuff.
I played the violin and the piano when I was a kid,
and, you know, I used to sing in a choir, but I gave it all up...
...to get into university in order to give the illusion
that I had a more rounded life.
I tried to rejoin the orchestra at my school
but I hadn't played the violin in a long time and I was very bad and didn't practice,
so I was basically
the only 17-year-old in the orchestra
in the thirds violin section, which is like the easiest section.
It was all, like, ten-year-olds.
Then there was this one concert where the dress rehearsal was in the day.
I remember getting up to chat to someone,
and I put the violin down on the chair next to me,
and little did I know... that the kid next to me, whose chair it was,
had comeback and moved the violin back on to my chair.
So I finished the conversation, went to sit down
and just heard this almighty crunch, ping.
It's the sound that doesn't leave you in a hurry,
of physically crushing your own violin with your ass.
There were no spare violins in the school,
apart from one quarter sized child's violin.
So as the big kid already, having to then play,
like, a little mini violin that I already couldn't play...
Um, yeah, that pretty much sums up, like, my teenage years.
Maybe this whole ReOrchestrated thing is-- is-- my, uh-- my personal revenge.
["Icarus" by Bastille playing]
♪ All of your flaws and all of my flaws ♪
♪ They lie there hand in hand ♪
♪ Ones we've inherited ones that we learned ♪
♪ They pass from man to man ♪
♪ There's a hole in my soul ♪
♪ I can't fill it I can't fill it ♪
♪ There's a hole... ♪
Maybe there is something, like, really audacious
and cheeky about thinking that us
as some, like, band could wander into a room
as amazing and beautiful as Royal Albert Hall
and get on that stage that has so much heritage and history.
♪ ...your flaws and all of my flaws ♪
[Kyle] It was really, really weird
kind of just doing the soundcheck,
having to look around and just thinking, "What am I doing here?"
♪ ...from man to man ♪
♪ There's a hole in my soul ♪
♪ I can't fill it I can't fill it ♪
♪ And there's a hole in my soul can you fill it? ♪
[Will] It's kind of, it's weird, sometimes venues are more impressive when they're empty,
and I just remember that being the point,
I was just looking up sort of starry-eyed
at this beautiful venue.
♪ And I have always buried them deep beneath the ground ♪
-♪ Dig them up ♪ -♪ Up ♪
♪ Let's finish what we've started ♪
-♪ Dig them up ♪ -♪ Up ♪
♪ So nothing's left untouched ♪
♪ All of your flaws and all of my flaws ♪
♪ When they have been exhumed ♪
♪ We'll see that we need them to be who we are ♪
♪ Without them we'd be doomed ♪
♪ There's a hole in my soul ♪
♪ I can't fill it I can't fill it ♪
♪ And there's a hole in my soul ♪
♪ Can you fill it? Can you fill it? ♪
♪ You have always worn your flaws upon your sleeve ♪
♪ And I have always buried them deep beneath the ground ♪
♪ Dig them up ♪
♪ Let's finish what we've started ♪
♪ Dig them up ♪
♪ So nothing's left untouched ♪
♪ Ooh ♪
♪ When all of your flaws and all of my flaws are counted ♪
♪ When all of your flaws ♪
♪ And all of my flaws are counted ♪
-Do you want to give a speech? -No speeches.
-Fuck yeah, lads. -Cheers!
Well done, well fucking done!
♪ In your eyes ♪
♪ In your... Albatross ♪
♪ Let it go ♪
♪ Let it go, your... ♪
So happy.
It's like my face is just permanently in this position.
♪ ...shoot it down ♪
♪ When you just can't shake the heavy weight... ♪
It was just gorgeous. It kind of wraps all the way around.
-"We love you, Dan!" -"We love you, Dan!"
[laughter]
♪ The weight of living ♪
♪ Oh! ♪
[crowd cheering]
♪ Ooh! ♪
♪ La, la, la, la, ooh ♪
You know that was-- the Royal Albert Hall was one of the most memorable nights
we've had with the band, so, yeah, it's... [stutters]
I'm glad they went through the pain to get it all done.
♪ Ooh ♪
Was just really affected by how amazing it was
to stand on stage with some incredible gospel singers and those musicians.
And so, the process of ReOrchestrated ended up bleeding into Doom Days .
Well, the thing that was interesting with that is
it's kind of an experiment in relinquishing control,
which I think was harder for certain members of the band than others.
Maybe it's just something in me, but everything always feels like
a bit of an uphill struggle with us.
As important as that stuff is to me and I love it and I want it to be great,
like, it is what it is, and you shouldn't...
...fucking destroy yourself in the process of making it,
like, you know, Mark, our producer always says, like,
with a song, no matter who you did it with or how you did it, you want to be able to,
if you're going to sing it every night, look back on it and have a nice association.
And so, yeah, I've started, like, now collaborating way more.
It just takes the pressure off, it's a shared responsibility.
And that was way more fun for us,
and, I think, a way better process with better results.
["Divide" by Bastille playing]
♪ ...summer nights destroy everything... ♪
[Will] That was actually a really nice time because it was
a bit of a break from touring,
and it was the first time we'd sort of sat down
and we'd written all the songs at the same time.
[Dan] And Senab and loads of the singers ended up
singing across the tracks.
[singing]
It's very delicious to work with an artist
who is willing to give you room to be creative
and to be trusting.
It was all just a kind of, like a bit of a mixing pot
of all the people that we'd kind of been hanging out with for the last year or so.
["Million Pieces" by Bastille playing]
[Dan] We have all these different arms to what we do, but as time goes on,
they all kind of bleed into each other and they spill in and out of their lanes,
and that's nice to have those intermesh.
[playing piano]
[violins playing]
I'm just so... indescribably proud of
and in awe of Jonny and what he pulled off.
[Jonny] Here's my chart, there are 25 songs here.
What I've done is I've just broken it down into the different instruments.
And, um, it's just the case of trying to cover
all of the instruments in all of the tunes.
[Dan] It's nuts when you sort of look to someone that you know really well
and have lived on a tour bus with
and you know on a real, like, interpersonal level,
and then to have these moments of like realization that you're like,
"Fuck me, you're a genius, you're, like, actually a genius."
[music playing on computer]
So yeah, you're just getting the full range of midi treatment. Here's the brass.
Wonderful. Just got to...
...trust that it's going to be okay once-- once people are
playing it on real instruments.
[Chris] The opportunity came about through Channel Aid,
they said, "Do you want to play with a full full orchestra?"
We're like, "Okay, this would be a mad step up." And like, why not?
Hamburg... I mean, yeah, they kept just--
they kept just getting a bit bigger and bigger every time.
-[Dan] Where are we, Jonny? -We're in the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.
-How's it going? -It's going great.
-What's the gig about? -This gig is about ReOrchestrated,
but just bigger and more adventurous than last time.
[Dan] This is a 53 piece orchestra, a 12 piece gospel choir,
the five of us in the band and, you know, any extra help,
and there's 70 plus people on stage.
-Yeah. -Yeah, so that's--
That, and it turns out that that is enough.
Yeah, yeah.
["Those Nights" by Bastille playing]
We are performing Bastille ReOrchestrated today
with Bastille and my orchestra, Baltic Sea Philharmonic,
and I'm very happy to start the '20s with a bang.
There's rather a lot of people at band practice today.
[orchestra playing]
[chuckles] This is the biggest ReOrchestrated show in the round in a different country,
streamed live.
Uh. [huffs]
And we went and did a rehearsal with them.
And that was the day before, and that was it.
[instruments warm up]
It was loosey-goosey at the start, there's bits where
I had to go and say, "This thing is not clicking."
[Will] It's just a different world, so, for instance,
you know, we all play with a metronome, with a click in our in-ear monitors,
and classical musicians play by sight.
We'd be playing along just not even looking at them,
and they're like, "Do you want to make some eye contact?"
Because that's just the world they move in.
We can say to someone, "Drop eight bars after that chorus, blah, blah."
They would know, whereas the classically trained lot would be like,
"Oh, is that after J, like, bar 54?" They need to know the specifics of it.
[violins scaling]
We're fortunate that Jonny and Senab, in particular, they speak both,
so they can kind of, like, almost translate for the others
if we're trying to articulate something but can't quite get it across.
If I sing it I'm sorry.
[drums playing]
You know, this was about really celebrating and enjoying
some fucking amazing musicians who-- who just deserve that.
And we happened to be-- we happened to be the vessel,
our songs happened to be the vessel.
When you meet people who've been, like,
arranging and sight reading since they were six years old,
and it's just second nature to them, it's...
...like, totally honest, it's hugely intimidating,
and you're left feeling a little bit vulnerable at times.
-I feel inadequate. -Yeah.
And old.
I've definitely had some tougher times
where I have struggled a bit with it.
Every single thing you do is caught by at least one camera phone,
if there's not already a professional film crew there,
that just made me feel so scared
about, like, how easily I might get found out.
And I started getting so, like, vicious with myself
if I didn't feel like I was being absolutely perfect.
I don't want to play in front of these people, if I'm honest with you,
it's embarrassing and I...
...shouldn't be here with them. [chuckles]
It's kind of stressful having to sing after every single time
one of these guys takes a part, and then I have to sing.
Sounds like someone just crashed the car.
[orchestra playing]
[Jonny] I don't know if this is just me being obsessive,
but every time there's a ReOrchestrated show, I change stuff.
[Dan] How can we rearrange these songs in a way that is totally unexpected?
How can we have little moments
that are, like, really hair-raising, goosebump inducing.
Even from our most loyal, hardcore fans,
what can we do to surprise them?
♪ ...if you like go back ♪
[orchestra playing]
[violins warm up]
[speaking in German]
-Yeah, yeah. -How are you feeling?
Some of it's weird.
Walk out wearing that, are you gonna--
We'll try not to screw it up!
Have a good time.
-Thank you, mate. -Enjoy it, mate!
[exhales nervously]
And watch it live on channel-aid.org,
come join us.
[warm orchestral music]
[unintelligible chatter]
Hello, we are at the Elbphilharmonie.
-Feeling ready? -[unintelligible]
Hey.
The strap works.
[crowd cheering]
♪ When you play it hard ♪
♪ And I try to follow you there ♪
♪ It's not about control ♪
♪ But I turn back when I see where you go ♪
♪ Are you going to age with grace? ♪
♪ Are you going to leave a path to trace? ♪
♪ But oblivion ♪
♪ Is calling out your name ♪
♪ You always take it further ♪
♪ Than I ever can ♪
I remember, particularly with the choir and Senab, who-- who leads that choir,
the contributions that they made
that just completely blew my mind and I had nothing to do with.
Those moments where some of the moments that made me feel most proud.
♪ I'm the lesser of two evils ♪
♪ So keep looking ♪
♪ Just keep looking into my eyes ♪
♪ And as the lesser of two evils ♪
♪ Oh, it pays ♪
♪ To be the nice guy sometimes ♪
-♪ There are two ways to skin tonight ♪ -♪ Skin tonight ♪
[Dan] The important thing was getting everybody on stage
at least one moment that was theirs.
[Senab] Dan, he's a person first.
Everybody on the stage matters.
♪ The lights the lights, the lights ♪
♪ They cut a path across the room ♪
♪ The lights the lights, the lights ♪
♪ A blinding look from me to you ♪
♪ And I'll be a rabbit in the headlight ♪
♪ We'll never get to heaven ♪
♪ Are we running in the headlight? ♪
-♪ We'll never get to heaven ♪ -♪ Those nights ♪
♪ When your friends are gone ♪
♪ When you're holding on for someone to leave with ♪
♪ Those nights when you crave someone ♪
♪ To be there at dawn ♪
♪ To wake with because aren't we all just ♪
♪ Looking for a little bit of hope these days? ♪
♪ Looking for somebody you can wake up with? ♪
♪ Looking for a little bit of hope these days? ♪
♪ We are, we are ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪
Bastille is really a redefinition
of pop and rock and everything, I can't really define it into a category,
and that's what I love about them, uh,
because the less definition something has,
then the more attracted you are intuitively to it.
It is-- its is so, uh, full of love
and full of-- full of generosity and beauty.
We're just very lucky to be in the same boat with Bastille.
[crowd cheering]
[inspirational music]
[Kyle] Actually, there was like six songs left and I was like, "That's been ten minutes."
Fun, felt really brief.
-[Kyle] Yeah, it was good. Jesus... -But good.
...that was amazing, that was so much fun.
[all cheering]
[Dan] The best thing in the world is when something that I think is amazing
or something that we've done that I'm really proud of,
that other people agree, and this is the thing that, like, it would be so hard
to come to that show and not be won over by the spirit of the whole thing.
[Dan] Thank you so much.
[Kyle] Like, I accidentally just played piano
on stage at the Elbphilharmonie with all these--
with all these classic trained musicians.
I'm not saying that I'm now up to their level, but, I don't know, like,
I can put up a fight, basically, you know.
I'm not going to win, but at least I'm not getting knocked down on first round.
During those shows when it's going well,
obviously I'm shitting myself, I'm going to fuck it up,
but in those moments where I'm not having a panic attack... [chuckles]
...it's so amazing to be in the middle of those rooms.
I am so grateful for everyone that's there,
and I get obviously such a thrill out of moments of the gig
and hearing people sing along and seeing...
...seeing-- seeing the crowd, and getting to be on the stage with my friends, you know,
is something that is indescribable.
There's a point in the show where Bim, uh, sings,
in a song called "Fake it," the introduction,
and it literally, every time she opens her mouth and sings that note,
it's like someone's ripped my heart open.
♪ Ooh ♪
♪ Ooh, yeah ♪
♪ Ooh ♪
♪ Ooh, yeah ♪
♪ Drive around ♪
♪ Night time, nowhere to go ♪
♪ Melt me down ♪
♪ I'm like wax to your jokes ♪
♪ Lost and found ♪
♪ Knocking heads, laying low ♪
♪ There's no point reliving crimes to lose this ♪
♪ Still want to waste all of my time ♪
♪ I want to waste all of my time ♪
♪ Still want to waste all of my time ♪
♪ I want to waste all of my time with you ♪
♪ Oh, my lover my lover, my love ♪
♪ We can never go back ♪
♪ We can only do our best to recreate ♪
♪ So don't turn over turn over the page ♪
♪ We should rip it straight out ♪
♪ Then let's do our very best to fake it ♪
♪ Show me joy ♪
♪ Flower through disarray ♪
♪ Let's destroy ♪
♪ Each mistake that we made ♪
♪ Then restore ♪
♪ Color back to the gray ♪
♪ There's no pride in sharing scars to prove it ♪
♪ Still want to waste all of my time ♪
♪ I want to waste all of my time ♪
♪ Still want to waste all of my time ♪
♪ I want to waste all of my time with you ♪
♪ Oh, my lover my lover, my love ♪
♪ We can never go back ♪
♪ We can only do our best to recreate ♪
♪ So don't turn over turn over the page ♪
♪ We should rip it straight out ♪
♪ Then let's try our very best to fake it ♪
♪ Help me turn a blind eye ♪
♪ Days and nights we lost to weakness ♪
♪ Help me turn a blind eye ♪
♪ Days and nights we lost to weakness ♪
♪ To weakness ♪
♪ Oh, my lover my lover, my love ♪
♪ We can never go back ♪
♪ We can only do our best to recreate ♪
♪ So don't turn over turn over the page ♪
♪ We should rip it straight out ♪
♪ Then let's do our very best to fake it ♪
♪ Oh, oh, my lover my lover, my love ♪
♪ We can never go back ♪
♪ We can only do our best to recreate ♪
♪ Don't turn over turn over the page ♪
♪ We should rip it straight out ♪
♪ Then let's do our very best to fake it ♪
I've never been more creatively fulfilled or, like...
...or moved by something that I've been involved with.
The Dan that I started working with when we did the Union Chapel
is the Dan of the current...
...reorchestration of, uh, Palladium,
uh, Hamburg, different people.
It's like he does yoga every day or something.
I'm there, I'm present. I can hear everything.
I can hear myself.
You're part of something organic and big, and it's amazing.
It makes me really happy, it's something I want to share with people.
♪ ...night and we've had many of them ♪
I think if we'd started on that night
in Union Chapel and said,
"Oh, well, in X amount of time we need to headline the Albert Hall
and we need to play a show at the Palladium with X amount,
or, like, Hamburg with 50 piece orchestra."
It would've seemed way out of our reach,
but it was just the case of coming back to it and just...
...I don't know, just-- just not giving up on it, really,
that made it as, um, as fun as it was.
♪ Does it almost feel like ♪
We were going to do the Palladium, and it was kind of,
"Well, you know, someone needs to conduct."
And then it was just like,
"Yeah, Jonny, just do it, you can do it, mate."
And he did it. It was amazing to watch him do that.
[orchestra playing]
I-- I, you know, should've been really nervous, but I just felt really comfortable
when we were in that amazing old theater and it was sold out,
and the stage was, you know, creaking because there were so many people on it.
It-- that just felt like our-- our normal,
and that's-- that's, you know, that's what we're used to.
["Blame" by Bastille playing]
So, yeah, you certainly couldn't expect what then happened,
you know, in the following weeks.
Yeah, that turned out to be, like, our last gig for-- for quite-- quite a while.
I think if we'd known that was our last night out for a while we probably would've...
[chuckles] ...I don't know, made a few different plans.
I'd like, didn't really say, "Bye" to anyone, because I was like,
"I'll see you all in a few weeks anyway."
And then all of a sudden, the world stopped.
There are some gigs that are just, like, I don't know,
a little slip on a key or whatever like that,
and it's just like, "Oh, God, if I died--
if I died tonight, I'll be so pissed off that that was the last show I did."
If that happens to be the last show forever,
I can sleep comfortably with that for sure.
Just seeing everyone just-- just do everything really well.
Crew and the whole team had just banded together
to, like, to sort of do this, and where it was and who it was for,
every box was ticked in terms of a sort of...
...just it sort of working just kind of perfectly.
[crowd cheering]
I think that's why it's kind of sad that music, live music particularly
is obviously so heavily affected,
and it's going to be such a long time until we can do it again.
Because I think it's about sort of being together in one space
and it's about closeness.
In spite of the fact that creatively there's a lot of stifling,
and we can't go and do gigs and we can't do rehearsals,
music, it will always remain a light.
I think that it's sort of causing this excitement and this bubble,
so when things eventually get back to normal,
I just think it's just going to be
an explosion of just... fearlessness,
and obviously Bastille did that prior to lockdown,
so only God knows what they're going to do now. [laughs]
[crowd cheering]
[unintelligible chatter]
Yes! Nice one, everybody.
♪ School's out forever ♪
To go from that to there being no gigs at all
and everyone being completely divided and--
and-- and, you know, forcibly isolated has been mad.
[singing "Snakes" by Bastille]
You know, it's forced me to slow down a bit and think about...
...I don't know, just having space in your head
and having space in your day.
Also, like, I think, like, a lot of people who make stuff
or want to be creative, you know,
you're always thinking about the next thing
and wanting to surprise people
and be interesting
and keep yourself interested.
There's such a weird, self-centered whirlpool of an ecosystem
about-- sometimes being on a band or being on tour, you know.
You can get lost in it, and...
...and things can seem way disproportionately important.
So recreating success can feel, like, important, but that's ridiculous.
Though I suppose there's a point to be proven,
and there is no point to be proven.
We're lucky to do this.
[singing "Snakes" by Bastille]
[gentle orchestral music]
♪ Staring down the barrel of a 100 tons ♪
♪ It might be getting older but the night's still young ♪
♪ We never never give up on the lost boy life ♪
♪ So here we are escaping from the world outside ♪
♪ Carried away ♪
♪ Hold up, wait ♪
♪ Carried away ♪
♪ Hold up, wait ♪
♪ Oh, what would your mother say if she could see what we're doing now? ♪
♪ Oh, what would your mother say if she could hear what we talk about? ♪
♪ The waves are crashing down on you and me again ♪
♪ Again, again ♪
♪ The waves are crashing down on you and me ♪
♪ I'll see you on the other side ♪
♪ Get carried ♪
♪ Get carried away ♪
♪ Caught up in ♪
♪ Caught up in the waves ♪
♪ Carried away ♪
♪ Hold on, wait ♪
♪ Suddenly we're falling through the Twilight Zone ♪
♪ Watch the party playing out in slow motion ♪
♪ So tie a ribbon around my arm and throw me in ♪
♪ Is it an apocalypse or nihilism on your lips we sink or swim ♪
♪ Oh, what would your mother say if she could see what we're doing now? ♪
♪ Oh, what would your mother say if she could hear what we talk about? ♪
♪ The waves are crashing down on you and me again, again, again ♪
♪ The waves are crashing down on you and me ♪
♪ I'll see you on the other side ♪
♪ Get carried ♪
♪ Get carried away oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ Caught up in ♪
♪ Caught up in the waves ♪
♪ The air hit me on the way out ♪
♪ Did it make me more sober or make me more drunk ♪
♪ I couldn't quite remember ♪
♪ The vision of you and of me ♪
♪ The air hit me on the way out ♪
♪ Did it make me more sober or make me more drunk ♪
♪ I couldn't quite remember ♪
♪ The vision of you and of me ♪
♪ The waves are crashing down on you and me ♪
♪ Again, again, again ♪
♪ The waves are crashing down on you and me ♪
♪ I'll see you on the other side ♪
♪ Get carried ♪
♪ Get carried away ♪
♪ Caught up in ♪
♪ Caught up in the waves ♪
♪ The waves are crashing down ♪
♪ They're crashing down ♪
♪ The waves are crashing down on you and me ♪
♪ I'll see you on the other side ♪
♪ Get carried ♪
♪ Get carried away ♪
♪ Caught up in the ♪
♪ Caught up in the waves ♪