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Glass Animals

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Glass Animals
Dave Bayley performing with Glass Animals in 2016.
Dave Bayley performing with Glass Animals in 2016.
Background information
OriginOxford, England
Genres
Years active2012–present
LabelsWolf Tone, Caroline International, Harvest Records
Members
  • Dave Bayley
  • Drew MacFarlane
  • Edmund Irwin-Singer
  • Joe Seaward
Websiteglassanimals.eu

Glass Animals are an English indie rock band from Oxford consisting of members Dave Bayley (lead vocals, guitar, tambourine), Drew MacFarlane (guitar, keys, backing vocals), Edmund Irwin-Singer (bass, keys, backing vocals), and Joe Seaward (drums).[2] The group released their debut album ZABA in June 2014 as the first release on producer Paul Epworth's label Wolf Tone, and their second album How To Be A Human Being on August 26, 2016, to critical acclaim. The band has toured internationally and featured on line ups at festivals such as Glastonbury,[3] Coachella,[4] Bonnaroo,[5] Lollapalooza, Reading/Leeds,[6] Falls Festival, Southbound and Bestival.

Background

2012–15: Zaba and various EPs

Bandmates Bayley, Seaward, MacFarlane and Irwin-Singer were all friends in school but did not start playing together until all four attended St Edward's School, Oxford. The band released their debut EP, Leaflings, on May 28, 2012, while they were still at university, which included the single "Cocoa Hooves Part II". It was released on independent label Kaya Kaya Records, a subsidiary and imprint of XL Recordings (part of the Beggars Group of labels). Lead singer and guitarist Dave Bayley had originally planned on going to medical school at London King's College after graduating, but his plans changed once Adele's producer Paul Epworth saw the Glass Animals performing in London and signed them to his label Wolf Tone.

In 2013, the band put out another single, titled "Black Mambo". It appeared on on Glass Animals' second, self-titled EP, which was released on November 12, 2013. "We didn’t really know anything about the music industry or the music world. We were just trying to figure out who we were, what sounded good to us," said lead singer Dave Bayley.[7] The EP featured a collaboration with Jean Deaux, a soulful hip-hop teenager from Chicago, titled "Woozy".

The following year saw the band releasing three more singles: "Pools", "Gooey", and "Hazey", along with a small remix EP of Gooey that featured the song "Holiest", a collaboration with Argentine indie pop singer-songwriter and producer Tei Shi.

All five singles released over the previous three years were featured on the band's debut album, Zaba (stylized as ZABA), which was released on June 6, 2014. The album received generally positive reviews and brought the band to over 7 million listeners on Spotify the following year, and the songs "Gooey", "Black Mambo", and "Toes" were the most popular from the album on Apple Music. Two deluxe versions of Zaba was released in August 2015.[8] The Amazon version had exclusive stripped versions of the singles "Gooey", "Black Mambo", "Hazey", and "Cocoa Hooves", while the iTunes version included bonus tracks "Psylla" and "Exxus" (previously released on the band's second EP, Glass Animals) along with remixes of "Black Mambo" and "Gooey".

The band performed the single "Gooey" on Late Night with Seth Meyers[9] in 2014, and again on The Late Show with David Letterman[10] on February 24, 2015, and toured extensively after Zaba, visiting both hemispheres and played over 130 shows in 2015 alone. Their October 2015 US tour included two sold out shows at The Wiltern in LA and sold out shows across America including T5 in NYC, The Riverside in Milwaukee, and The Midland in Kansas City.

A collaboration with American hip hop recording artist Joey Bada$$, titled "Lose Control", was released on October 6, 2015. The idea for the song was apparently sparked during a randomly shared studio session.

2016–17: How to Be a Human Being

On May 16, 2016, the band released the lead single, "Life Itself", from their sophomore album How to Be a Human Being.[11] It featured a more boisterous, percussion-driven sound than their previous singles and peaked at number 14 on Billboard's Alternative Songs chart and spent 26 weeks on Sirius XM's Alt-18 chart, peaking at number 1. Dave Bayley stated in an interview that the song was about "a sci-fi obsessed dude who spends most of his time alone inventing strange things and writing stories about ray guns or looking for aliens on Google maps."[12] The band also created a website based on the character from "Life Itself".

On July 25, a second single from the album, "Youth", was released. The song was supposedly based off of a devastating story that a stranger once told the band about her son. Dave Bayley said in an interview that the strange combination of happiness, sadness, and nostalgia in the song "kind of made me feel like my heart was being ripped apart but [was] also optimistic in a weird way... that combination of emotions is what this song is getting at."[12] The band also revealed that the upcoming album would follow in the footsteps of singles "Life Itself" and "Youth"—each song would tell the story of a different character.

Four days before the release of the album, on August 22, the band released a third single, "Season 2 Episode 3", about a girl who "spends her entire time watching TV, lounging around, not doing anything, being high, eating mayonnaise from a jar."[13] It featured a prominent sample of the beat from "I Live Above the Hobby Shop" by Chicago synthesizer McFabulous. The song was used in Apple's "Shot on iPhone by Linda H." advertisement.[14]

The full album, titled How to Be a Human Being, was released on August 26, 2016 by Wolf Tone and Caroline International in Europe, and Harvest Records in the United States. The album received critical acclaim for its "sense of wonder" and "immediate impression", though it was also met with some mixed reactions, for critics felt that it was somewhat premature. On January 4, 2017, Glass Animals performed their song "Pork Soda" from the album on the Late Late Show hosted by James Corden.

After their performance on the Late Late Show, Glass Animals visited Laneway Festival's in six different cities (Singapore, Sydney, and Auckland, among others). During their time in Australia, their three singles from How To Be A Human Being -- Youth, Life Itself, and Season 2 Episode 3, respectively -- came in at 38, 63 and 98 on Triple J's Hottest 100.

Band members

  • Dave Bayley – Lead vocals/Guitar/Tambourine
  • Drew MacFarlane – Guitar/Keys/backing vocals
  • Edmund Irwin-Singer – Bass/Keys/backing vocals
  • Joe Seaward – Drums

Discography

Studio albums

List of studio albums, with selected chart positions
Title Album details Peak chart positions Sales
UK
[15] 		AUS
[16] 		BEL
(FL)
[17] 		BEL
(WA)
[18] 		FRA
[19] 		NED
[20] 		SWI
[21] 		US
[22]
Zaba 92 12 — 162 — — — 177
How to Be a Human Being[24]
  • Released: 26 August 2016
  • Label: Wolf Tone, Caroline International
  • Formats: CD, LP, digital download
 23 11 68 151 120 77 87 20
"—" denotes albums that did not chart, or were not released in that country.

Extended plays

Title Released
Leaflings

2012

Glass Animals

2013

Singles

List of singles as lead artist, with selected chart positions, showing year released and album name
Title Year Peak chart positions Album
AUS
[25] 		CAN
Rock
[26] 		MEX
Air.
[27] 		US
Alt
[28] 		US
Rock
[29]
"Black Mambo" 2013 — — — 23 42 Zaba
"Pools" 2014 — — — — —
"Gooey" 40 — 25 19 26
"Hazey" — — — — —
"Lose Control" (with Joey Bada$$) 2015 — — — — — Non-album single
"Life Itself" 2016 — 48 — 14 21 How to Be a Human Being
"Youth" — — — — 29
"Season 2 Episode 3" — — — — 42
"Pork Soda" 2017 — — 48 — —
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.

References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ Glass Animals (New band of the day No 1,635), by Paul Lester; at The Guardian, London, Thursday 7 November 2013 07.00 GMT. Retrieved on 28 February 2014.
  3. ^ Digital, Pretty Good. "2015". Glastonbury Festival - 24–28 June 2015. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
  4. ^ "Best Hard Core: Off! - 20 Best Things We Saw at Coachella 2015's Weekend Two". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
  5. ^ "Bonnaroo 2015 Day 1 Thursday Recap: Tove Lo, Glass Animals, Dej Loaf, Unlocking the Truth | Billboard". Billboard. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
  6. ^ "Glass Animals, 2015, Reading and Leeds Festival - BBC Music". BBC. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
  7. ^ "Embarrassing moments and how they got their unique sound, Glass Animals [Interview] - EARMILK". EARMILK. 23 June 2015. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
  8. ^ "Muzoic - Album release ZABA (Deluxe) by Glass Animals". muzoic.org. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
  9. ^ "Watch Glass Animals Get "Gooey" Again on Late Night With Seth Meyers | The Lefort Report". www.thelefortreport.com. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
  10. ^ "Watch Glass Animals play 'Gooey' on Letterman". DIY. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
  11. ^ "Glass Animals tickle the feet with new single "Life Itself" — listen". 17 May 2016. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  12. ^ a b "Glass Animals: Track-By-Track Guide to How To Be A Human Being". pastemagazine.com. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  13. ^ "Glass Animals, Human Beings: Interview & Photos • Howl & Echoes". Howl & Echoes. 26 August 2016. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  14. ^ "Apple iPhone Shot on iPhone by Linda H. Commercial Song by Glass Animals". tvadvertsongs.com. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  15. ^ "CHART: CLUK Update 21.06.2014 (wk24)". zobbel.de. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  16. ^ "Discography Glass Animals". Hung Medien. australian-charts.com. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  17. ^ "Discographie Glass Animals (Flanders)". Hung Medien. Ultratop. Retrieved 9 January 2016.
  18. ^ "Glass Animals albums (Walloonie))". Ultratop. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  19. ^ "GLASS ANIMALS DANS LES CHARTS FRANÇAIS" (in French). Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique / Lescharts. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
  20. ^ "Glass Animals MegaCharts" (in Dutch). MegaCharts / Dutchcharts. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
  21. ^ "GLASS ANIMALS IN DER SCHWEIZER HITPARADE". Hit Parade. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  22. ^ "Glass Animals – Chart History". Billboard.com.
  23. ^ "Upcoming Releases - HITS Daily Double". Hits Daily Double. Archived from the original on 8 August 2016. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  24. ^ "Glass Animals - Life Itself". BBC.co.uk. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  25. ^ "Discography Glass Animals". Hung Medien. australian-charts.com. Archived from the original on 29 January 2015. Retrieved 9 January 2015. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  26. ^ "Billboard.biz". billboard.com. Retrieved 25 July 2015.
  27. ^ "Mexico Ingles Airplay". Billboard.biz.
  28. ^ "Glass Animals – Chart History – Alternative Songs". Billboard.com. Billboard Magazine. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  29. ^ "Glass Animals – Chart History – Hot Rock Songs". Billboard.com. Billboard Magazine. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
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