With an ear for trip-hop and psychedelic indie pop, UK act Glass Animals are making their debut Australian tour next month. Frontman David Bayley checks in from their Oxfordshire base.
Being your very first Australian tour, is there anything you are looking forward to seeing or trying while you are over here? Koalas mainly. Seeing one. Not trying one. I’ve never seen one before. Are they friendly? They look friendly. I’ve also heard that Australians are up for a party, so looking forward to some wild and crazy shows.
What has been the most embarrassing thing to happen on any tour? Ummmm, there have been a few. We went on tour a few months ago, and Drew forgot to bring shoes. He spent the entire two weeks barefoot. OOOH, and once we were supporting this metal band called Acid Mothers Temple — they’re four old, wise Japanese men — and we finished, and they went on stage to do their show, but then I realised that I’d forgotten a guitar cable on stage… and we really had to go… SO… in my slightly tipsy state, I thought it would be ok to crawl back on stage while they were playing and steal the cable back. I waited till they were all rocking out with their eyes closed and went for it in front of hundreds of people in the crowd. I finally got to my cable, looked up, and one of the dudes from the band was staring into my soul. I was pretty sure he was going to put some curse on me. then I crawled slowly away.
Over the years of touring have there been any standout venues? Any that you wouldn't want to visit again? We were doing a gig [in] Barcelona once, and on our way to the show we found out the venue we were meant to play in had collapsed. Hopefully we won’t play many more venues that are so structurally unsound. We ended up playing in a tiny sweatbox bar down the road and it was one of the funniest gigs we’ve done. Also did a venue called Berghain in Berlin — AMAZING sound system in there.
Your new single, ‘Gooey’, has just been released... It started off as a beat I was doing for a hip hop artist. It was just the drums/ percussion and the bassline and the little gloc riff. As I was fixin’ up the beat and adding other bits and getting the production right, the chords popped into my head and then the vocal line followed. At that point we went into the studio and the rest of the guys tinkered around with it too and we worked it into the final version.
When songwriting do you find it is a collaborative process? So far, I’ve done the songwriting, but I think that’s my change in the future. The other guys have started writing stuff too and it’s wicked.
Can you take us through the recording process for Glass Animals? Sure! The tracks normally start off as just chords and a vocal line in my bedroom. I’ll start laying down the instruments and programming drums and beats and riffs that suit the chords/ vocal. I’ll normally have everything sketched out and most of the production/ soundscape done by the time we get into the studio as a full band to lay down more tracks/ re-record tracks to add a live element. We’re always sampling things we’ve recorded live, chopping it up and using repetitive phrases. I think that comes from listening to lots of early hip hop records and Madlib’s Beat Konducta stuff religiously.
How would you describe your time in the studio? We had a great time. Lots of fun. We record anything that we think could make a cool sound that’ll fit into the track, no matter how weird. Joe played Ed’s leg in one track on the record… and we used a couple kids toys and we sampled someone biting into an apple, and some of the dudes laughing. I recorded the vocals for ‘Gooey’ lying down holding a pineapple, just to get the vibe right y’know?
Did you stumble upon any challenges while recording that you didn't expect? Personally, I always find myself having so much fun recording and getting so caught up in it that I forget it’s actually quite hard work. We’ll all end up working too late and forgetting to eat and totally passing out under the synths in the studio.
It's been said that you draw a strong strong connection between your music and art work; are there any artists that particularly inspire your music? For sure. I think as a band we all have very visual reactions to music. Joe for instance sees every one of our tracks as a colour, which is pretty crazy. And I like music that takes you to another world… like a musical holiday. I think some artwork can have a similar effect on people; it can transport you away from reality into another land for a bit. I’m really into Hockney, Klimt and Dali and there’s a Cuban artist called Alberto del Pozo who is really amazing.
Are there any plans at this stage for the future of the band? Lots of plans…we’re busy at the moment. We’re going to SXSW where we’ll be playing a silly number of shows… I think like nine in six days. We’ll also have a studio out there where we’ll be working on some collaborations with some of our friends. Then Australia! Then festivals. Then a UK/ European tour. And at some point this year we’ll be releasing our first album, which I’m seriously psyched about.
Do you feel that your music has evolved since you began playing together? Definitely. The first tracks we released were quite tame. I was personally a bit self-conscious… I hadn’t really told my mum I was making music and I had no idea what she’d think, so those first songs weren’t anything to wild. I think we’ve left those feelings behind, and the stuff we’ve been working on lately is rawer, wilder, and bigger, and hopefully better.
Do you feel the band is a 24/7 commitment, or do you find you able to get time away from the band to pursue other interests? The band is a big commitment, especially lately with the album coming out relatively soon. My other interests all revolve around making music. I love making beats with hip hop artists and working with rappers and other singers on their projects.
In your opinion what has been the biggest achievement of the bands career to date? It’s gonna sound lame, but the biggest achievement is having written a record we all really love as a band, and as best friends and that we had a lot of fun doing it.
Written by Darcy Love
Glass Animals Tour Dates
Wed Apr 2 - Ding Dong Lounge, MelbourneThu Apr 3 - Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
Fri Apr 4 - The Hi-Fi, Brisbane
