INTERVIEW: Bastille Reveals The Messy Inspiration For "Good Grief" | Behind The Song

Behind The Song is a reoccurring feature, where we take an in-depth look at a track and its back story because, let's be real, there's nothing like getting the scoop about a record directly from the artists themselves.

Bastille knew that they wanted to create something that diversified their catalogue when they started to work on their sophomore album, Wild World, so the South London-helmed indie pop band went full throttle with an agenda to experiment with guitars, hip-hop production and even dabble in the strange and unusual. For Dan Smith, Kyle Simmons, Will Farquarson and Chris Wood, the fruit of their labor resulted in the 19 track-collection, which drops on September 9 and includes lead single “Good Grief,” a joyous sounding record that explores the good, bad and in between stages of loss.

Earlier this month, the British foursome took to iHeartRadio HQ for an exclusive one-on-one interview to chat about the single, their interest in sampling 1985 flick Weird Science and what makes this forthcoming LP that much different for fans.

Song Details

Artist: Bastille

Title: “Good Grief”

Album: Wild World

Producers: Dan Smith, Mark Crew

Writers: Dan Smith, Mark Crew

Release Date: June 16, 2016

The Inspiration Behind "Good Grief":

Dan: “It's just about trying to capture this messy, complicated process of any kind of loss, and through any process when you're just getting on with your life. There can be moments of huge highs and lows. It's just trying to find a route out the other end, and get some optimism and the contrast between euphoria and despair and trying to find a middle ground.”

The Kelly Le Brock Sample From Weird Science:

Dan: "Hearing an old song, or an old movie, whether you've seen it, it kind of it takes you somewhere and it automatically puts you in a place. All of our songs are weird stories and we like to see each one with its own little scene. It's all about using the lyrics in the song and the production to create an environment … an atmosphere.”

The Story Behind The "Good Grief" Music Video:

Dan: “We wanted it to be surreal rubrics cube, where you take these 10 kind of familiar images from the movies, some from the music videos and flip them on their heads and intermingle them, and play a visual game. It's just meant to be a surreal dream sequence. . . .It's just a massive big jumbo. We wanted to make something that [was] sort of as dark and euphoric and confusing as the song itself."

On The New Album Wild World:

Dan: “I think we just felt like the album is very diverse and we require a lot of different influences and sounds. Will plays a lot of guitar on the record and there is a lot of electronic stuff as well, and a lot of hip-hop star production as well, and then guitar music and anything and everything in between and this song just felt like a good way into it. There aren't really any other songs on the record that sound like this one, but I guess it's quite tricky to pick [the lead single. None of them really sound [alike].”

Chris: “It's quite funny when you put [the tracklist] together. The batch of songs as well. [We say] this one is absolutely guaranteed, so it will be on the album and some just end up coming through.”

Wild World is scheduled to drop on September 9 via Virgin EMI. Click here to pre-order the LP now!

Photo: Katherine Tyler for iHeartRadio