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 stuffed 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 guess 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 achieved many…
SIMON: (Laughter).
BAYLEY: …Interviews but. In order that’s the primary time. And it sounds good. It sounds good on the radio, that tune, too. Very good second, to listen to that for the primary time.
SIMON: Let me ask you concerning the starting of your album. We will hearken to a clip known as – all one phrase – “Whatthehellishappening?” And it begins virtually 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 fingers tied. Being kidnapped is my factor in life.
SIMON: I imply, what a line. My…
BAYLEY: (Laughter).
SIMON: So pleased with my fingers tied. Being kidnapped is my factor in life. Is the tune about that or one thing else?
BAYLEY: I imply, it is a type of metaphor. Mainly, the final album took us on such a wild journey, releasing this album in a pandemic that ended up doing one thing that we by no means anticipated. It type 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 automotive 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 tune is you find yourself type of falling in love with the kidnapper.
SIMON: Properly, my gosh. Properly, it is a tune, proper?
BAYLEY: (Laughter) It is a tune. It was simply how I used to be feeling. It got here out in a short time, that tune. It got here out very quick, and I feel that truly works effectively with the subject material of the tune. It is simply quick, spontaneous type 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 sincere, I’ve at all times needed to jot down 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 is not received any life in it. And I lastly discovered a solution 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 significantly effectively.
SIMON: Yeah. How can we hear that musically – sonically, in the event you please – on this album?
BAYLEY: I do not know if you understand 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 actually 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 apparatus. I needed to make appears 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 tune, “Great Nothing.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “WONDERFUL NOTHING”)
GLASS ANIMALS: (Singing) Been an amazing gunfight. You drew blood. I set myself on fireplace. However you’ve got had your time. Oh, you’ve got had your time.
SIMON: Oh, my. Anti-love tune?
BAYLEY: (Laughter) I feel it is – they’re all type 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 – when it comes to, like, relationships with members of the family, pals and the mushy stuff. It is a mixture of all of it and all totally different sides, the great sides and the unhealthy sides. And that is possibly 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 have the ability 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 slightly bit as a child, and my accent was an odd one. My dad was Welsh – sturdy accent. And my mum Center Japanese – sturdy accent. After which I went to Worcester, Mass. – sturdy accent. Then moved to Texas – sturdy 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 find it irresistible. I like coming to America. Simply – it does really feel like dwelling. All of the nostalgia comes flooding again, and I feel there are lots of references. There’s some nostalgic moments on this report that reference lots of fairly American issues. And there is a tune about rising up in Texas known as “I Cannot Make You Fall In Love Once more,” and it references a couple 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 probably the most private thus far. I at all times felt it was very egocentric to speak about your self in my household. It was such as you – maintain you to you. And I feel I slowly realized after writing one very private tune on the final report and that – it was known as “Warmth Waves,” and it resonated significantly effectively magically. And it simply made me really feel prefer it’s OK to jot down one thing private. It is really extra highly effective.
SIMON: May you arrange the tune? We will hear slightly of it now. However set it up for us first, please, in the event you may – “Misplaced In The Ocean.”
BAYLEY: Oh, that is my favourite tune on the report. This album is exploring all the different sorts, the ups and downs of affection towards 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 understand that is the place it is at. That is the place all the things vital is occurring proper in entrance of you if you’re again dwelling with the individuals and issues that you just 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 good looking tune.
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 tune 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 occurring and a lot occurring on this planet, and it is all so large. It could possibly fully blow you off your toes in the event you’re not cautious. And I feel I received blown off my toes for a bit, however – and the album takes you thru that. After which this tune is realizing that these little issues proper in entrance of you, these human connections that you’ve got, are so advanced and so vital, and the scale of them swallow the universe complete in the event 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 lots 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 little thing’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 undoubtedly (laughter) – we will not print it wherever or say it wherever. So it is a good limitation to have. Now we have to be artistic.
SIMON: Yeah. It has been so bleeping good to speak to you. You knew I would 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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