NPR’s Scott Simon speaks to Glass Animals frontman Dave Bayley concerning the band’s new album, which focuses on love and longing within the vastness of the universe.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Glass Animals are again with an album I will must politely name “I Love You So Bleeping A lot.” It is the band’s fourth album and its first since 2020. It’s crammed with expressions of vulnerability and longing.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “I CAN’T MAKE YOU FALL IN LOVE AGAIN”)
GLASS ANIMALS: (Singing) That is only one thing more about you I do not want in my life. By no means gave me goodbye, however you have been gone in highschool.
SIMON: Dave Bayley joins us now from New York. And, Mr. Bayley, I wager lots of people say this to you, it is so bleeping good to speak to you.
DAVE BAYLEY: Ah. Thanks. Really, I feel you are the primary. I have never performed many…
SIMON: (Laughter).
BAYLEY: …Interviews but. In order that’s the primary time. And it sounds good. It sounds good on the radio, that music, too. Very good second, to listen to that for the primary time.
SIMON: Let me ask you concerning the starting of your album. We’ll hearken to a clip known as – all one phrase – “Whatthehellishappening?” And it begins nearly like the beginning of a psychological thriller.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “WHATTHEHELLISHAPPENING?”)
GLASS ANIMALS: (Singing) And if I survive, if I survive, I will do that once more each summertime. I am so pleased with my palms tied. Being kidnapped is my factor in life.
SIMON: I imply, what a line. My…
BAYLEY: (Laughter).
SIMON: So pleased with my palms tied. Being kidnapped is my factor in life. Is the music about that or one thing else?
BAYLEY: I imply, it is a sort of metaphor. Principally, the final album took us on such a wild experience, releasing this album in a pandemic that ended up doing one thing that we by no means anticipated. It sort of blew up, and we have been all sitting there in our pants – pants in England is underwear – simply watching it occur from our homes ‘trigger we have been in lockdown. And there is only a sense of, like, detachment, simply being pulled alongside, being barely helpless. However there is a thrill to it.
So I assumed that was a pleasant metaphor, simply being kidnapped and thrown to the boot of a automobile and pushed. You do not know the place you are going. You are going very quick. And it is harmful for lots of causes. However the results of that music is you find yourself sort of falling in love with the kidnapper.
SIMON: Properly, my gosh. Properly, it is a music, proper?
BAYLEY: (Laughter) It is a music. It was simply how I used to be feeling. It got here out in a short time, that music. It got here out very quick, and I feel that truly works effectively with the subject material of the music. It is simply quick, spontaneous sort of stream of consciousness.
SIMON: I collect science fiction has been an affect on this new album.
BAYLEY: Massive.
SIMON: Any works particularly?
BAYLEY: I am an enormous “Hitchhiker’s Information” fan. And to be trustworthy, I’ve at all times wished to put in writing an area album, like, a sci-fi-tinged report. However each time I attempted, it simply got here out very chilly. It got here out very, like, area. The vacuum of area is chilly. It’s sterile. It isn’t obtained any life in it. And I lastly discovered a method to mainly use that to place perspective on very intimate – very earthly, intimate love tales and tales about human connection. That juxtaposition was actually highly effective for me. And I assumed “Hitchhiker’s Information” does that notably effectively.
SIMON: Yeah. How will we hear that musically – sonically, in case you please – on this album?
BAYLEY: I do not know if you recognize the unique “Hitchhiker’s Information” radio exhibits. Have you ever ever heard these?
SIMON: You already know, I’ve by no means heard them. I am definitely conscious of them.
BAYLEY: Oh, they’re value trying out. They’re superb. They have been again within the ’60s, ’70s, I feel, and so they have been soundtracked by BBC Radiophonic Workshop, which is simply, like, the primary synthesizers that had been made, have been used to soundtrack them. So I really purchased a load of these bits of kit. I wished to make seems like that that basically referenced that point and that interval. That retrofuturistic soundscape was an enormous a part of this report.
SIMON: Let me ask you about one other music, “Great Nothing.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “WONDERFUL NOTHING”)
GLASS ANIMALS: (Singing) Been an awesome gunfight. You drew blood. I set myself on fireplace. However you have had your time. Oh, you have had your time.
SIMON: Oh, my. Anti-love music?
BAYLEY: (Laughter) I feel it is – they’re all sort of anti-love songs. They’re love songs. Love is a fancy beast. And I say they’re love songs in a really broad sense of the phrase love – by way of, like, relationships with relations, pals and the mushy stuff. It is a mixture of all of it and all completely different sides, the nice sides and the unhealthy sides. And that is perhaps one of many darker sides. It is the connection between hate and love and the way linked they’re.
SIMON: We in all probability ought to be capable to infer this out of your accent, however you grew up in Massachusetts and Texas, did not you?
BAYLEY: I did. Yeah. I had.
SIMON: (Laughter).
BAYLEY: I moved round somewhat bit as a child, and my accent was a wierd one. My dad was Welsh – robust accent. And my mum Center Jap – robust accent. After which I went to Worcester, Mass. – robust accent. Then moved to Texas – robust accent. So you’ll be able to solely think about the monstrous mixture. I sounded very unusual. And once I moved to England once I was 12, I used to be simply – I simply hit a reset button.
SIMON: So when Glass Animals play South by Southwest, it is a homecoming for you.
BAYLEY: Yeah. Oh, I like it. I like coming to America. Simply – it does really feel like house. All of the nostalgia comes flooding again, and I feel there are quite a lot of references. There’s some nostalgic moments on this report that reference quite a lot of fairly American issues. And there is a music about rising up in Texas known as “I Cannot Make You Fall In Love Once more,” and it references a number of locations in Texas that I used to – my native haunts rising up.
SIMON: Is that this a extra private album for you?
BAYLEY: Yeah. Completely. I imply, it is essentially the most private to date. I at all times felt it was very egocentric to speak about your self in my household. It was such as you – preserve you to you. And I feel I slowly realized after writing one very private music on the final report and that – it was known as “Warmth Waves,” and it resonated notably effectively magically. And it simply made me really feel prefer it’s OK to put in writing one thing private. It is really extra highly effective.
SIMON: Might you arrange the music? We’ll hear somewhat of it now. However set it up for us first, please, in case you may – “Misplaced In The Ocean.”
BAYLEY: Oh, that is my favourite music on the report. This album is exploring all the different sorts, the ups and downs of affection in opposition to the context of the vacuum and magnitude of the universe. And “Misplaced In The Ocean” is the place the spaceship lands again down on Earth, and also you notice that is the place it is at. That is the place every part vital is going on proper in entrance of you if you’re again house with the folks and issues that you simply love. That is “Misplaced In The Ocean.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “LOST IN THE OCEAN”)
GLASS ANIMALS: (Singing) You get misplaced within the ocean. What do you do if you end up so damaged? The flood, the sensation comes over. How are you so beloved and so lonesome? You get misplaced within the ocean.
SIMON: It is a stupendous music.
BAYLEY: Oh, thanks. Thanks. I imply, I’ve heard it so many instances. I am a bit – it is…
SIMON: Yeah. Properly, that is – I suppose that is the method of constructing an album. However does the music remind us to cherish what’s proper in entrance of us?
BAYLEY: That is the thought. And that is the thought of the report, is there’s a lot happening and a lot taking place on this planet, and it is all so huge. It could possibly fully blow you off your toes in case you’re not cautious. And I feel I obtained blown off my toes for a bit, however – and the album takes you thru that. After which this music is realizing that these little issues proper in entrance of you, these human connections that you’ve, are so complicated and so vital, and the dimensions of them swallow the universe complete in case you actually give it some thought.
SIMON: Dave Bayley is frontman of the band Glass Animals – and their album “I Love You So Bleeping A lot.”
BAYLEY: (Laughter) That is inflicting us quite a lot of issues, that title. It is a advertising and marketing nightmare.
SIMON: Is it a advertising and marketing nightmare?
BAYLEY: It has been enjoyable, really. I fairly just like the – I feel it is good to have limitations. Every part’s so potential on this planet proper now. You already know, you are able to do something with a pc, and something you’ll be able to think about can occur. Whereas I like a little bit of limitation, and that is positively (laughter) – we will not print it anyplace or say it anyplace. So it is a good limitation to have. We now have to be artistic.
SIMON: Yeah. It has been so bleeping good to speak to you. You knew I might say that, did not you?
BAYLEY: I knew it. I knew it. Nevertheless it sounded good. It has been bleeping good to speak to you, too. Thanks a lot for having me on.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “LOST IN THE OCEAN”)
GLASS ANIMALS: (Singing) You get misplaced within the ocean. What do you do if you end up so damaged?
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