Bastille have revealed details about their new album in this week’s NME cover interview.

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Speaking to the magazine as part of their Bastille: A Film Odyssey feature, frontman Dan Smith admitted that the band’s third album is well under way, and will be released early next year.


“We never really stop writing and recording, but I can confirm we spent a lot of this year writing our third album,” he said.

Speaking on the style and subject of the new album, Smith told NME: “We wanted to do something that feels a bit different, wanted to take it a step on from our last record and acknowledge that since we released that album the world seems an even more bizarre and tempestuous place.” However, he said the album wouldn’t “necessarily dwell on that,” and would serve as an “apocalyptic party record” instead.

Smith went on to compare the last album, ‘Wild World’, to the Matrix ‘blue pill’, “talking about the world, questioning it, being confused by it.” He added, “We’ve spent the last year singing songs about how abhorrent we find Donald Trump and Theresa May and people who preach hate and bigotry, with a stage production that involves footage of a shadowy politician figure.”

READ: Bastille: How they refined their politically charged festival show for a Euro crowd

The new album, on the other hand, “is us taking the red pill.” Smith explained that following the shut down of Rock am Ring after a terrorist threat, “it dawned on me that people look to music and art for escapism too, and I wanted to make sure we find the right balance.”


Smith also revealed that the new album would have a slightly retro sound. “We’ve put together a record of middle-of-the-night torch songs with elements of slightly nostalgic rave beats from the Fatboy Slim, Prodigy era.

“It sounds ridiculous but we want to make something that feels concise and short and for the night-time.”

Fans of the Bastille mixtape series, ‘Other People’s Heartache’, will be pleased to hear that a fourth edition will also be released soon. “It’s a bunch of very weird covers, a bunch of new tunes and some surprising collaborations.” You won’t have to wait too long to hear it either: “I can’t tell you what’s on it yet, but it will be out this year, with the album to follow early next year.”

Find out where to pick up your copy of this week’s NME here: https://www.nme.com/map/