Bastille Singer On Whether He Meant To Write An Anti-Trump Anthem

“How can you think you’re serious? Do you even know what year it is?”

This summer, political drama has reached a fever pitch on both sides of the Atlantic. Britain unexpectedly voted to leave the European Union in June, in a move widely suspected to stem from anti-immigrant nationalism. Meanwhile, U.S. presidential contender Donald Trump traveled the country spewing similar sentiments and has yet to let up.

The British group Bastille, of “Good Grief” and “Pompeii” fame, knows how reading the headlines makes us feel. Their lead singer, Dan Smith, even wrote a song, “The Currents,” about contentious men like Trump and right-wing UK politician Nigel Farage on the band’s new album, “Wild World.” Smith said as much in a July interview with music blog NME, but he offered a broader perspective in a recent conversation with The Huffington Post.

“It’s about anybody who says anything with whatever podium or mouthpiece they have,” Smith explained, “Be that just down at the pub, someone you hear just shouting off at their mouth far too loudly about things you can’t quite believe anyone would say out loud, or someone using a much more public outlet.”

With lyrics like, “Think about the power of your words / We’re living in the currents you create” and “How can you think you’re serious? Do you even know what year it is?” it’s hard not to think about Trump, whose often outrageous remarks inspire days of media coverage, or Nigel Farage, who spoke at a Trump rally in late August about some citizens’ desire to “take back control of their country.”

“The Currents,” Smith continued, is about his feeling of “complete disbelief and shock” at hearing “quite extreme views and opinions in a lot of people.”

The band’s new album, “Wild World,” is available Friday on iTunes.

The Huffington Post receives a percentage from the purchase of tickets bought via a link on this page.

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