Glass Animals are a British indie rock band formed in Oxford in 2010. Led by singer, songwriter, and producer Dave Bayley, the group also features his childhood friends Joe Seaward, Ed Irwin-Singer, and Drew MacFarlane.
Bayley wrote and produced all three Glass Animals albums. The first, Zaba (2014), spawned the single “Gooey”, which was eventually certified platinum in the United States.
Their second full album, How to Be a Human Being, received generally positive reviews and won in two categories at the 2018 MPG Awards for UK Album of the Year and Self Producing Artist of the Year, as well as a spot on the Mercury Prize shortlist. The third, Dreamland, their first fully autobiographical album (Bayley had said he felt it was selfish to write about oneself), including the single “Tokyo Drifting” which peaked at number seven on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart.
The band released their debut EP, Leaflings, on 28 May 2012, which included the single “Cocoa Hooves”. The EP was released on independent label Kaya Kaya Records, a subsidiary and imprint of XL Recordings (part of the Beggars Group of labels). At the time, lead singer and guitarist Dave Bayley was attending medical school at King’s College, London but left after Adele’s producer Paul Epworth saw Glass Animals performing in London and signed them to his label Wolf Tone.
In 2013, the band released Black Mambo / Exxus EP in Europe and Glass Animals EP in the US.
The digital release of the track “Black Mambo” brought the band their first attention through online reviews. The Glass Animals EP also saw the band collaborating with Jean Deaux, a soulful hip-hop teenager from Chicago, on a song titled “Woozy”.
In 2014, the band made their first visit to the US, performing at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. They released three more singles: “Pools”, “Gooey”, and “Hazey”, along with a collaboration with Argentine singer-songwriter and producer Tei Shi.
All five singles were included on the band’s debut album, Zaba, which was released on 6 June 2014.
The band performed the single “Gooey” on Late Night with Seth Meyers in 2014, and again on The Late Show with David Letterman on 24 February 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 Theatre in Kansas City.
On 16 May 2016, the band released the lead single, “Life Itself”, from their second album How to Be a Human Being. “Life Itself” peaked at number 14 on Billboard’s Alternative Songs chart and spent 26 weeks on Sirius XM’s Alt-18 chart, peaking at number one. A music video for the song was released on 7 June 2016.
The band also created a website based on the character from “Life Itself”.
On 25 July, a second single from the album, “Youth”, was released along with its music video. This song was also used as a soundtrack in the popular football video game by EA Sports, FIFA 17. Four days before the release of the album, on 22 August, the band released the 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”.
History:
At the age of 13, Bayley’s family moved to Oxford, UK, where he met his friend, Joe Seaward, the drummer for Glass Animals in secondary school (also known as high school.) During secondary school, Dave also ended up meeting the rest of the future Glass Animals members, Drew MacFarlane and Edmund Irwin-Singer. When the band actually formed, in 2012, Bayley was in med school studying neuroscience.
In addition to being in med school, he was a DJ for a while. He says this is one of the reasons why he began to write music. Because of med school, he would continuously stay up late and ran on energy drinks. He would be awake at times like 4 am, and have nothing else to do but create beats on his laptop.
Eventually, he dropped out to commit to the band full-time. At that point, he started to produce songs and play the guitar along with Drew MacFarlane. According to a recent interview, Bayley says he used to write songs on a Spanish guitar he bought for £5 ($6.68) at a flea market when he was 17. He still uses it to this day.
Band Members:
Dave Bayley– lead vocals, guitar, keyboards, drums, tambourine
Bayley spent his childhood in Massachusetts and Texas before relocating to Oxford, where he met the other band members.
He studied medicine for three years before switching to a neuroscience degree.
Drew MacFarlane– guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Edmund Irwin-Singer– bass guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Joe Seaward – drums, percussion.
Awards: 2022 Grammy Award Best New Artist Glass Animals
Studio Albums:
Zaba
How to Be a Human Being
Dreamland