Bastille are a band from South London, England, formed in 2010. Bastille started out as a solo project by singer-songwriter Dan Smith, who later decided to form a band. The quartet consists of Dan Smith, Chris 'Woody' Wood, Will Farquarson and Kyle Simmons. The name of the band comes from Bastille Day; the day Dan Smith was born.
EMI Music announced Bastille as one of its new signings to Virgin Records on 1 December 2011. Bastille debuted in June 2011 with their 7" single, "Flaws"/"Icarus" (released on Young & Lost Club). This was then followed by their Laura Palmer EP later in 2011. After adding a few more tracks online, the band received a lot of attention, helping secure some support slots. During the summer of 2011, they performed at a number of major UK festivals; including Glastonbury, Isle of Wight and Blissfields.
On 27 April 2012 "Overjoyed" was released; the debut Virgin Records single from Bastille. This was confirmed by EMI on 1 May 2012. After the video release of "Overjoyed" on YouTube, Q Magazine introduced the song as its track of the day for 7 March 2012.
"Bad Blood" was released on Virgin Records on 20 August 2012. Following the video release of "Bad Blood" on youtube, Bastille were named the New Band of the day, by the Guardian news on 25 July 2012.
Bastille performed at the major UK Reading and Leeds Festivals in August 2012. They played an October 2012 headline tour, with Swiss Lips supporting them, and also supported Emeli Sandé.
Bastille's song "Flaws/Icarus" featured in the soundtrack of the UK Channel 4 television show Made in Chelsea, and "Weight Of Living" was part of the soundtrack for FIFA 13. "Of The Night", Bastille's dual cover of both Snap!'s "Rhythm is a Dancer" and Corona's "The Rhythm of the Night", was used to advertise Dancing on Ice in the run up to its 2013 series.
Bastille played their first show outside of Europe on 3 December 2012 at Hong Kong's Clockenflap Music & Arts Festival.
Bastille's song "Oblivion" featured in the soundtrack of the television show The Vampire Diaries in the Season 4 Episode 9 titled O Come, All Ye Faithful.
They will be supporting Two Door Cinema Club on their UK tour throughout January/February 2013 and will tour through Europe in April to promote their debut album.
On 27 January 2013, the band released two mixtapes : Other People's Heartache Part 1 (featuring covers, among others, of "Blue Jeans" by Lana del Rey, "The Rhythm of The Night" by Corona) and Other People's Heartache Part 2 (featuring covers, including, "Sweet Nothing" by Calvin Harris, "No Scrubs" by TLC and "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac).