NPR’s Scott Simon speaks to Glass Animals frontman Dave Bayley in regards to 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 am going to should 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 not executed 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 in regards to the starting of your album. We’ll take heed to a clip referred to 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 am going to do that once more each summertime. I am so proud of my arms tied. Being kidnapped is my factor in life.
SIMON: I imply, what a line. My…
BAYLEY: (Laughter).
SIMON: So proud of my arms tied. Being kidnapped is my factor in life. Is the music 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 experience, 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 music is you find yourself type 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 really works nicely with the subject material of the music. 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 specifically?
BAYLEY: I am an enormous “Hitchhiker’s Information” fan. And to be trustworthy, I’ve at all times needed to write 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, house. The vacuum of house 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 nicely.
SIMON: Yeah. How will we hear that musically – sonically, should you please – on this album?
BAYLEY: I do not know if you already know the unique “Hitchhiker’s Information” radio exhibits. Have you ever ever heard these?
SIMON: You recognize, I’ve by no means heard them. I am definitely conscious of them.
BAYLEY: Oh, they’re price 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 truly purchased a load of these bits of apparatus. I needed to make seems like that that actually 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 excellent gunfight. You drew blood. I set myself on hearth. 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 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 – by way of, like, relationships with members of the family, associates 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 possibly one of many darker sides. It is the connection between hate and love and the way linked they’re.
SIMON: We most likely ought to be capable of 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 a little bit 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 after I moved to England after 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 adore 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 referred to 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 music on the final report and that – it was referred to as “Warmth Waves,” and it resonated notably nicely magically. And it simply made me really feel prefer it’s OK to write down one thing private. It is truly extra highly effective.
SIMON: May you arrange the music? We’ll hear a little bit of it now. However set it up for us first, please, should you may – “Misplaced In The Ocean.”
BAYLEY: Oh, that is my favourite music on the report. This album is exploring all the differing types, 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 all the things essential is occurring proper in entrance of you whenever you’re again house 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 when you’re so damaged? The flood, the sensation comes over. How are you so liked 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 assume 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 concept. And that is the concept of the report, is there’s a lot happening and a lot taking place on the planet, and it is all so huge. It may utterly blow you off your toes should 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 advanced and so essential, and the scale of them swallow the universe entire should 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, truly. I fairly just like the – I feel it is good to have limitations. Every thing’s so potential on the planet proper now. You recognize, 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 wherever or say it wherever. So it is a good limitation to have. We’ve to be inventive.
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. However 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 when you’re so damaged?
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