No Bad Days

Album: Give Me The Future (2021)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Bastille frontman Dan Smith's aunt passed away in 2019 after battling cancer for two decades. He wrote this song after visiting her in an Australian hospital bed near the end of her life. It finds Smith taking solace that when his aunt dies, she'll have "no more bad days." He told Apple Music, "I sat at a keyboard singing through a vocoder and the melodies just fell out."
  • Session musician Jack Duxbury joins Bastille on the track. "I wanted to surprise people with the Bruce Hornsby-inspired piano solo that Jack Duxbury played," Smith said. "I feel like it says more emotionally than any words could."

    Duxbury also played on Bastille's "Survivin' (One Eyed Jack's Session)" and "Goosebumps (One Eyed Jack's Session)" from their Goosebumps EP.
  • Dan Smith wrote the song with:

    London-based singer-songwriter Plested (Little Mix's "Touch," Lewis Capaldi's "Before You Go").

    Bastille's go-to producers, Mark Crew and Dan Priddy.
  • Co-directed by Dan Smith with The Trash Factory, the music video nods to the classic science fiction movies Metropolis, Ex Machina, and The Matrix. The clip paints an intimate story of Smith using technology to try to resurrect a lost loved one. It is Smith's first effort as a director.
  • Bastille recorded the song for their science fiction concept album Give Me The Future. Dan Smith told Apple Music the record is "about our relationship with each other and with technology and different versions of the future and the past."

    "No Bad Days" is the "emotional core of it."
  • Smith's aunt lived in an Australian state that had just legalized assisted dying and she was one of the first people to go down that path. "To me, she's amazing for having taken that decision," he told The Guardian, "and was so amazingly generous at helping guide all the people around her that she loved through this incredibly difficult situation."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Jethro Tull

Jethro TullFact or Fiction

Stage urinals, flute devices, and the real Aqualung in this Fact or Fiction.

Jesus Christ Superstar: Ted Neeley Tells the Inside Story

Jesus Christ Superstar: Ted Neeley Tells the Inside StorySong Writing

The in-depth discussion about the making of Jesus Christ Superstar with Ted Neeley, who played Jesus in the 1973 film.

Ramones

RamonesFact or Fiction

A band so baffling, even their names were contrived. Check your score in the Ramones version of Fact or Fiction.

Divided Souls: Musical Alter Egos

Divided Souls: Musical Alter EgosSong Writing

Long before Eminem, Justin Bieber and Nicki Minaj created alternate personas, David Bowie, Bono, Joni Mitchell and even Hank Williams took on characters.

How "A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss" Became Rock's Top Proverb

How "A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss" Became Rock's Top ProverbSong Writing

How a country weeper and a blues number made "rolling stone" the most popular phrase in rock.

Jay, Peaches, Spinderella and other Darrining Victims

Jay, Peaches, Spinderella and other Darrining VictimsSong Writing

Just like Darrin was replaced on Bewitched, groups have swapped out original members, hoping we wouldn't notice.