Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic“Happier,” the Marshmello/Bastille collaboration, has become the highest-charting hit of both artists’ careers. Bastille, best known for their hit “Pompeii,” is usually considered an alternative band, but frontman Dan Smith says wanted to work with Marshmello because he was a fan of the EDM superstar’s work.
“I’d started the song and everyone was very excited by it but I felt like it would be better as a collaboration,” he tells ABC Radio. “I had heard loads of Marshmello’s stuff on the radio, obviously, and was a really huge fan of his track with Khalid, ‘Silence,’ so I reached out to him and sent him the song, and was flattered that he seemed to love it.”
Dan and Marshmello started working on the song together online and then finished it together at Mello’s studio. “It’s been just such a fun process,” he says. “It’s been a bit different for us, we’ve never really done anything like this before, and it’s crazy to see how well it’s doing.”
One thing “Happier” does have in common with previous Bastille songs — like their smash hit “Pompeii” — is that it combines sad lyrics with upbeat music. As Dan puts it, “There’s tension in our music…you’re like, ‘I dunno, should I be crying or dancing?'”
“Happier” is Marshmello’s second big pop hit of 2018, following his Anne-Marie collabo, “Friends.” Anne-Marie told ABC Radio that the whole time she worked with him on that track, she never saw Marshmello with his helmet off. But Dan says he had the opposite experience.
“I, up until recently, hadn’t met him with his helmet on. Maybe I’m not supposed to say that,” he laughs.
Bastille will release a new album called Doom Days in 2019.
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