Bastille

Lead singer Dan Smith's solo endeavor gave rise to the British indie pop group Bastille in 2010. The band's lineup was shortly solidified when Kyle Simmons, Will Farquarson, and Chris "Woody" Wood joined. Their self-published EP and independently released debut song gave them early exposure and secured them a record deal with Virgin Records. When their first studio album, Bad Blood, was released in 2013 and debuted at the top of the UK Albums Chart, it marked their big breakthrough. The breakthrough song "Pompeii" from the album propelled them to international stardom and won them a Brit Award for British Breakthrough Act in 2014. When "Flaws" and "Icarus" were released in 2010, Bastille's career took off, garnering early radio backing and a burgeoning internet fan base. A record deal with Virgin Records and notable festival appearances, such as Glastonbury, Reading, and Leeds Festival, resulted from this early success. Their music, which combined elements of alternative rock, synth-pop, and indie pop, became very popular and resulted in sold-out tours and rising festival billings. All This Bad Blood, a reissue of the band's debut album, and extended touring—which included Saturday Night Live appearances and supporting roles for well-known acts like Muse—kept the band's success going. The mixtape VS. (Other People's Heartache, Pt. III), which they released afterward, demonstrated their capacity to work with a wide variety of musicians. With the chart-topping success of their second album, Wild World, which was released in 2016, Bastille further cemented their place in the indie pop world. Their third album, Doom Days, explored themes of escape and contemplation within a party scene, demonstrating the band's ability to write anthemic pop songs with reflective lyrics once again. Bastille's fourth album, Give Me the Future, was published in 2020. It explored themes of technology and human connection and showed how their music and subject research had continued to evolve. Over the course of their career, Bastille has garnered a devoted worldwide following and established themselves as one of the UK's most inventive pop groups thanks to their catchy tunes and thought-provoking lyrics. Their name, drawn from Bastille Day on Smith's birthday, and their music, covered in different media outlets, emphasize their wide-reaching influence in the mainstream and indie music worlds.