Bastille Talks About Their New Album, Pokemon Go! And Poutine –  Hollywood PQ Exclusive Interview

We were lucky this weekend at Osheaga: sunny weather, unbelievable line-up and amazing opportunities to meet with international artists in Montréal for the once in a year event. We had the chance to spend a couple minutes with Chris Wood (Woody) (drums) and Will Farquarson (bass) of the rising English indie rock band Bastille, best known for their global success hit, Pompeii. For the first time ever at Osheaga, their performance wowed the thousands of fans gathered around the Rivière scene to see the band play it’s Bad Blood hits as well as some new unreleased tracks from their upcoming album, Wild World, to be released September 9th. We really digged their Rhythm is a Dancer cover and so did most of the fans who were seen dancing ad jumping all around. An amazing band to see live : if they’re in your area, go grab your tickets!

Just before the show, we meet with the two members who had much to say about Osheaga, their new album and even played a little game of Would you rather!

Hollywood PQ Exclusive Interview

Will: *in French* Hello, how are you?

HPQ: *in French* Hi Will! You speak French?

Will: *in French* Yes, for only two months, but the accent here (in Quebec) is a little strange to me. There is a lot of words that are strange as well!

HPQ: Right, and you Woody, you speak French?

Woody: No, but I’m learning German at the moment.

HPQ: So this is your first time at Osheaga, it’s great! Are you excited?

Will: I’m especially excited to find out how it’s pronounced … It’s Oshe-A-Ga?

HPQ: Yes, that’s it! But this is not your first time in Montreal, you were there in 2014. Have you had a chance to visit a little?

Will: I don’t remember looking around that much we were on a quite busy tour last time…

Woody: As it was in the middle of winter …

Will: Yes in the middle of winter. But it’s been really nice this time, we went out this morning, we bought clothes and enjoyed the central town.

HPQ: And how do you enjoy Montreal so far?

Woody: Really nice, I went for curry last night, not the most authentic Canadian food…

HPQ: And poutine?

Woody: I had my first poutine ever a few hours ago, it’s pretty good!

HPQ: If you had to create a festival similar to Osheaga, who would be your top 3 headliners?

Will: I have to go with the Red Hot Chili Peppers because I keep missing them even if all summer we’ve been following them around. It’s also Woody and I’s favourite band, especially when we we’re growing up. I would add Rage Against The Machine and Wu-Tang Clan.

HPQ: You have a new album coming out this fall (September 9), what your fans should expect? Will they be surprised?

Will: Hopefully. As we talked about before, every song is quite diverse on the album. We like it that until the vocal comes in when you push play, you’re like » who the hell is this ». This could be a rock song or a hip-hop song and then when Dan‘s vocal are coming then people are like… «Oh, it’s Bastille».

Woody: Yes we really try to make it as varied as possible, Will even got a promotion …

Will: Yes I play the guitar now. It’s fun. It’s kind of strange because, obviously every band in the world has a guitarist, but we never did before. The first time we didn’t have any guitar. I already played guitar, but when we decided to have some on the record we sort of made a feature out of it. When other bands use it, it’s usually very heavy. It’s funny because it’s something not so special, but for us, it’s really something new … WOW A GUITAR!

HPQ: Well it’s time for some Would you rather …

Woody: Oh god, I love these!

HPQ: So do I, haha! Would you rather live… forever live in Montreal or Toronto?

Will: Montreal

Woody: Yes, Montreal definitely Montreal.

Will: Isn’t the mayor of Toronto a lunatic crackhead or something?

HPQ: Yes it’s true, he was, but he died …

Will: Oh shit! Sorry he died of an overdose?

HPQ: Not sure, perhaps?

Will: Don’t take drugs kids! But seriously, Canada is really my favorite country, you even have a male model as Prime Minister. I really love your country.

HPQ: Would you rather… only be able to play Pompeii forever, or never be able to play music again?

Woody: Definitely play Pompeii.

Will: Yes I would also go for that.

Woody : Believe it or not, I’m really not bored of playing it.

Will : I still make mistakes when I play … and it been what, 6 years?

Woody: 5 years!

Will: You think in five years I would have this down, but even after all this time, I still cannot get it right.

HPQ: Would you rather… fight a Yoda sized Vader or a Vader sized Yoda?

Woody: I mean … you get fucked up either way so…

Will: I’ve never seen Star Wars.

Woody: There’s the villain and master, but in all cases you’ll end up choking on your own vomit so… you’re done!

HPQ: Haha, no doubt!

Woody: Would you rather …. fight one horse sized duck or horses 20 duck sized horses?

HPQ: Hmm … I think I would choose the big thing, the horse sized duck.

Woody: You imagine the beak on this thing? It would smash you.

Will: Yes small horses you only have to kick them!

HPQ: No, but have you seen Jurassic Park 2 ?! It’s not so easy!

Will: Oh, it’s true, but I think horses are not as well equipped in the teeth and claw department.

HPQ: Would you rather … take a hot shower on a hot summer day or a cold shower on a really cold winter day.

Woody: I hate the winter. Fuck it. A hot shower in the summer for sure. Winter is shit.

Will: Same, plus dangerous, the cold with the cold you could get hypothermia.

HPQ: That’s true. I agree with you guys. Would you rather … drink a hot fizzy beer or a cold flat beer?

Woody: I love Ales, so cold and flat is fine by me.

Will: I don’t really drink beer so it’s hard to say …

HPQ: A cola then?

Will: A hot cola sounds really nice actually!

HPQ: Would you rather … have hair for teeth or teeth for hair?

Woody: Teeth instead of hair that would be WICKED!

Will: That would be so fucking cool! But having to floss your head every night, it must be annoying.

Woody: But you don’t eat with your head …

HPQ: Another random question : Pokemon Go !, what do you think about it?

Woody: I played for about 8 minutes and got rid of it, I got bored.

Will: I think absolutely nothing. Except I quite like the way our manager says the name of the game sounds like Poké-Mungo.

Woody: At least it get kids out of the house and walking, so that’s good.

HPQ : Planning to return to Montreal soon?

Will: At the New Year we are planning a North American tour, we have not yet released the dates, but I can’t imagine we wouldn’t come here.

Woody: Yes because here (in North America), Pompeii really took off much later than in the UK and Europe so we have not toured in Europe for probably over two years, so doing there first, and next spring we’ll have North American dates.

You can follow Woody and Will on Instagram (Woody, Will) and Twitter (Woody). To learn all about what’s next for the band go to www.bastillebastille.com!

Photo credit: Karine Paradis