Bastille release contender for song of the summer “Remind Me”
Just as the weather begins to warm, Bastille have shared a contender for song of the summer with the release of new single, “Remind Me”.
A breezy, sensual and yet deceptively contemplative slice of pop, “Remind Me” demonstrates Bastille’s unrivalled ability to craft infectious melodies and irresistible hooks. Built around sliding funk guitars and Dan Smith’s distinctive vocals, the track grows until it reaches a chorus filled with baroque vocal harmonies, ominous bass and driving percussion, Dan’s voice aching with longing and heartbreak.
The video for the track is a mesmerising fly through of Bastille’s pioneering Give Me The Future Experience, launched this week on Oculus here. Formulated using footage from a special one-off show dubbed the ‘Futureverse’ gig, the band were able to bring the metaverse to a real-life physical performance using cutting- edge virtual production technologies. In a world first, fans from anywhere in the world were able to scan themselves into these worlds as stylized avatars and interact with the real-life band members as they performed on stage, re-inventing the metaverse meets live experience whilst elevating the human connection.
“Remind Me” began life in LA whilst the band were working with Rami Yacoub from Max Martin’s production team MxM. Speaking about “Remind Me” Dan says;
“I started working on "Remind Me" a few years ago in LA with some writer friends at the very beginning of the“Give Me The Future” album process. We weren’t really sure what it would be for but always loved how different it felt. Finishing it off in London with Mark Crew and the rest of the guys we’d wanted to make something sharp and minimal. The lyrics are about how our minds can taunt us with memories that play uncontrollably like scenes on a loop, so we set the track over this hypnotic, rolling guitar riff. We invited a bunch of singers to lend their voices to the track.
We’d been diving into a bunch of music from the 80’s that had sounded futuristic at the time, so it fits with the ideas of the past’s versions of the future that we explore across the album. This song was like a jumping off point for us a couple of years ago and helped shape the sonic tone of the whole GMTF album.
Plus, I’m a massive Michel Gondry and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” fan, and love how that film explores memory and relationships, so it was fun to nod to it.”
The track features background vocals from the band Fours and Zimbabwean-British singer Rationale.
“Remind Me” comes hot on the heels of Bastille’s critically acclaimed, Number 1 album, Give Me The Future. Called, “Their best album” by both Rolling Stone and Clash and, “the most expansive, yet cohesive record Bastille have put their name to” by NME, Give Me The Future explores a futuristic wonderland free from restrictions. Brimming with literary, cinematic and cultural references to films like Thelma & Louise, the artist Keith Haring and musicians like Phil Collins and The Police, the album is filled with danceable dreamscapes, providing an escapist universe where you can travel back and forward in time to be anyone, do anything, and embrace a new wave of technology, which enables us to get lost inside our imagination.
Having thrown themselves into co-writing for other artists in recent years, for the first time ever on a Bastille album, the band inched open the door to collaborators, working with venerable pop royalty such as Ryan Tedder (Adele, Taylor Swift) and Rami Yacoub (Britney Spears, Lady Gaga), as well as award-winning actor, musician, writer, creator, producer, director, and activist Riz Ahmed.
Bastille have just completed an extensive UK arena tour, the band are currently on a huge tour of the US before returning to Europe and the UK this summer for a string of festival sets, including Kendal Calling, and Reading and Leeds Festival. They then set off on a South American and European tour later this year.
UK Festival Dates:
Sun, Jul 31, Kendal Calling 2022, Penrith
Sat, Aug 13, Boardmasters 2022, Newquay
Fri, Aug 26, Leeds Festival 2022, Leeds
Sat, Aug 27, Victorious Festival 2022, Portsmouth
Sun, Aug 28, Reading Festival 2022, Reading
The four-piece has been experimenting and augmenting the Bastille sound since the release of their last album Doom Days in 2019, the conclusion of an unofficial trilogy. Last year, they released the GoosebumpsEP, featuring Graham Coxon on “WHAT YOU GONNA DO???” and producer Kenny Beats on the title track, as they continued to pen songs that seek to understand and offer escape from the modern human condition. Doom Days received huge critical acclaim and charted in the Top 5 in both the U.K. and U.S., the only U.K. band to have achieved this chart landmark alongside The Beatles and Queen in 2019. The record found the band at their most lyrically provocative, most accomplished, and most vital and charts the course of one night in search of distraction from the surrounding apocalypse (sound familiar?). During the course of 2019, the four-piece continued to cement their reputation as one of the world’s most captivating live bands, having played an extensive two month-long sold-out U.S. and U.K. tour. At the beginning of 2020, Bastille received their sixth Brit nomination and their second nomination for British Group. In January 2021, Bastille was the subject of ReOrchestrated, a documentary film that provided a revelatory and bracingly honest new look into the band’s journey so far, framed through their ReOrchestrated shows and diving into themes of motivation, anxiety, and imposter syndrome. With over 11 million records sold, 6 U.K. Top 40 singles, and 1.5 billion video views, Bastille continues to be one of the world’s most streamed bands.
