Dan: We were looking for a band name and it’s quite hard to name yourself and my birthday is on the 14th of July which is Bastille Day in France, la Fête nationale. So out of desperation, we were like, Bastille sounds different, and we googled it and no one else called themselves that. And ever since then, we’ve been battling against history in the Google search engine. Obviously the very famous French prison and massive national holiday’s are always going to win out on that one.

Dan: The upcoming album is kind of like a sad party album. It’s about going out for a night and trying to ignore the world that feels like something that’s imploding and it’s about distracting yourself with alcohol and friends and bad stuff. It’s about escapism and hedonism, and it’s kind of euphoric and sad. I think it’s some of the best music we’ve ever made.

Dan: I guess walking on stage is quite surreal. i guess it never becomes normal and i think there must be a part of me that switches into another state because I don’t think id be able to stand up in front of that many people if I was thinking about it too much, but my favorite thing to do is just jump into crowds and run around and pretend I’m not in the band and i’m just at the gig because i wanna be and climb up on stuff. you know i’ve had a lot of accidents in the past - I’ve electrocuted myself, I’ve fallen off speakers, I impaled my foot on some glass. I had to get bandaged up and then come out and finish the gig.

Kyle: I play a lot of piano up there, I can’ t really move around so I just play my piano. I kind of look around, see how Will and Woody are doing because Dan is just doing his own thing. I don’t know what he’s doing half the time. I just kind of have a couple of beers and not imagine that there’s thousands of people looking at what I’m doing. 

Dan: Paul SImon, The Fugees, Vampire Weekend, David Lynch, Frank Ocean, James Blake, The Beatles, The Beach Boys - there’s too many to name. I guess we take inspiration from everywhere - from books to film to music to shit that has happened in our lives. 

Dan: I don’t drink to cope with it. I guess try and think beyond it a little bit, try and distract myself, spend time with people that you are comfortable with. And that’s what we’re surrounded by - our crew who we really know and we’re all friends so that creates a nice environment within it. Doing a gig is strange and abnormal, and standing up in front of those people is scary. In loads of these jobs, there comes with weird points that make you feel out of your comfort zone.

Woody: I distract myself by throwing drumsticks at Kyle on stage.

Kyle: My anxiety grows the more drumsticks hit me from behind on stage. I mean, the anxiety dies down over the years because it just becomes normal because you do it so much. Just distract yourself.