Riding high on the successful release of their new album, I Love You So F**king Much, Glass Animals’ lead vocalist Dave Bayley is excited to put out his new music, his Indian connection and studying India’s musical greats when he was younger. “I would love to come back to India. I visited the country at 16 when I came to meet my best friend. We visited parts of Delhi and Rajasthan,” he says. Along with Bayley, the British indie-pop band consists of guitarist Drew MacFarlane, bass guitarist Edmund Irwin-Singer and drummer Joe Seaward.
He fell in love with the country and Bayley hopes to return to India to perform this time. He tells us, “I'd absolutely love to come back and perform in India. We actually tried, really hard, to tour India before the album was out. But we weren’t able to make it happen m. It was too rushed and I think if we come, we have to spend a good amount of time here.”
Showing off his musical knowledge from the country, he says, “I was recently talking to someone about Indian musicians [and how] they are absolutely crushing it and breaking through here in England. I’ve heard of (late rapper) Sidhu Moosewala. Even (Canadian singer-rapper) AP Dhillon has really blown up in America by the sounds of it. (Singer-actor) Diljit Dosanjh is massive as well.”
However, his knowledge isn’t limited to the present crop: “When I was in school, I studied a little about Indian music. But, I also think everyone has a phase where they get into (late sitar maestro) Ravi Shankar’s music. I love soundtracks and for me, AR Rahman is so big, too.”
{{/usCountry}}However, his knowledge isn’t limited to the present crop: “When I was in school, I studied a little about Indian music. But, I also think everyone has a phase where they get into (late sitar maestro) Ravi Shankar’s music. I love soundtracks and for me, AR Rahman is so big, too.”
{{/usCountry}}The singer-songwriter spoke about the UK band’s runaway hit song, Heat Waves, which became viral during the pandemic. He says, “It’s surreal. I still hear it when I go on to Instagram and TikTok. It’s following me”. However, he adds, “But, on the other hand, it’s amazing to see that something I wrote in my bedroom has become so big. It was the first song I wrote which was very personal and it gave me a lot of confidence to write more such music. I used to be too shy to write them. So what I've taken away is that it's okay to write something very honest and apply that to all the songs going forward.”