Glass Animals’ Dave Bayley on working with Florence Welch: “She’s a real force of nature”

Glass Animals frontman Dave Bayley spoke to NME backstage at Reading Festival 2022 about the “unbelievable” experience of working on Florence + The Machine‘s fifth album, ‘Dance Fever’. Watch our full video interview above.

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In April the pair released an electronica-inspired remix of Welch’s recent single, ‘My Love’. Bayley co-wrote and co-produced the original track and worked on the ensuing ‘Dance Fever’ along with Jack Antonoff. For Bayley, collaborating with Welch was “a real honour”, as he explained: “I learned so much from [Florence]. We did a bunch of sessions for the new album, and I was blown away. I was like, ‘Woah, how do I compete with this real force of nature when it comes to songwriting?’

He continued: “I had to hold my own and I think we made a really wicked album. She’s a brilliant songwriter. Shout out to Florence: thank you for letting me work on your record, I feel really lucky.”

Bayley also praised some more of his previous collaborators, describing former NME cover star Bree Runway – who Glass Animals teamed up with for a reworking of their 2020 track ‘Space Ghost Coast To Coast’ – as a “genius”. Referencing Denzel Curry‘s ‘Tokyo Drifting’ collaboration with the band, the Florida rapper also got a nod: “I think Denzel Curry is one of the greats: he is so young and so talented,” Bayley said. “I feel lucky I got to work with him.”

Yesterday (August 26), Glass Animals made their first appearance at Reading Festival since 2017. Taking to the main stage, the Oxford four-piece leaned on their 2020 album ‘Dreamland’. The set wrapped up with that record’s smash hit ‘Heat Waves’, which set a US chart record last year for the longest climb to the Top 10 in the country’s chart history.

Reading & Leeds 2022 continues today with performances from Arctic Monkeys, Bring Me The Horizon and more.

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