What You Gonna Do???

Album: Goosebumps (2020)
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Songfacts®:

  • The thumping first single from Bastille's Goosebumps EP is much more guitar-driven than the band's previous material. "This next phase feels like a new beginning," said frontman Dan Smith. "It's about completely tearing up our process, being spontaneous and starting again."
  • Lyrically, the song serves as a warning of the pitfalls of living life behind a screen.

    Sally's never outside
    Got a screen to hide behind
    She says she's happy on the inside
    And got a lot of friends online


    Frontman Dan Smith questions how billions of ears and eyes are fiercely fought over, yet so few use it for anything worthwhile. "Whether we're outside or online we're perpetually hit by so many people vying for our attention," he explained, "but we're just left rolling our eyes at how rarely it's for anything that decent or funny."
  • Dan Smith handled the production with Bastille's regular producer, Mark Crew. Bastille recorded the punk rock track at Smith and Crew's studio in London, One Eyed Jack's.
  • As well as Bastille, Crew has produced a number of other artists including Rag'n'Bone Man, The Wombats, James Arthur (including the single 'Empty Space), and Freya Ridings (the single "Castles").
  • The song features Graham Coxon of Blur on guitar and vocals.
  • The London-based British/Iranian animator Rezza Dolatabadi directed the video. A mash-up of mixed media using illustration, photography and live action, it portrays the loss of reality when technology takes over. The visual took seven weeks to make.
  • Dan Smith told ABC Audio he wanted to record a more guitar-driven song to do something different on their 2019 dance-based album Doom Days. "I guess I really wanted to scratch the heavy, rock, indie, almost punk itch that I sometimes get," he said.

    That rockier sound, Smith added, feels reassuring in the coronavirus era. "In a year where we're not playing shows and nobody's playing shows, to put out a song where I can kind of close my eyes and imagine that I'm jumping around on stage, there's a catharsis in that," he said.

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