After a two-year wait, Glass Animals are finally on their long-awaited tour to promote their third album, Dreamland.
The “Heat Waves” hitmakers caught up with Billboard at their concert in Brooklyn and marveled over being able to finally hit the road again. Dave Bayley, the group’s lead vocalist, admits he didn’t think the wait was going to be this long. The band was in the U.S. and performing at smaller venues when the pandemic struck.
“I honestly thought it was going to be two weeks,” he said. “We put everything in a truck and asked the truck to wait until we got back. We didn’t come back.”
Although disappointing, the band is thankful for the pause. The group was able to bring their tour plans back to the drawing board and create a more ambitious show. In addition, they began to experiment with their music.
“No one’s left a guidebook behind on how to release an album in a pandemic,” said Dave. “No one at the label knew how to put out an album in a pandemic.” Label execs said that they didn’t “have any ideas right now,” and Dave said it gave the band “free rein” to do what they wanted. “It was sort of amazing,” he recalled.
Glass Animals performed for their fans on Instagram Live and the group had fun with different filters, facial recognition software and more to enhance the experience. During that time, their song “Heat Waves” blew up on the charts — and so did their fame.
“I certainly haven’t sat down for a second and thought about how that song has [changed] and will change our lives,” said Dave.
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