British band Bastille on the hits made in a glandular fever haze and meeting David Lynch

Bastille raced up the charts worldwide with Pompeii and the hits keep coming with their latest Of The Night as they tour the world.

Bastille head back to Australia in June 2014. Picture: Supplied

What is a band to do when they find themselves sandwiched between Gary Barlow and Lily Allen? If you are the British alternative pop band Bastille, then you celebrate.

The breakthrough band who stormed the global charts with breakthrough single Pompeii, were in the middle of a European tour when informed a mix-tape mashup frontman Dan Smith had made two years ago was making a run for No. 1 in the UK.

Bastille head back to Australia in June 2014. Picture: Supplied

Smith fused '90s dance pop hits Rhythm Of The Night (Corona) and Rhythm Is A Dancer (Snap!) to create Of The Night. Although Knife Party's Rob Swire got nasty about the mashup on Twitter, the punters loved it.

Smith created the mashup while in a glandular fever haze before completing Bastille's debut album Bad Blood.

"I hated being sick and hated having to go to bed, it knocked me sideways and I moved back with my parents for a few weeks," Smith says.

"To kickstart the album process again, we made the first of our mix-tapes as a bit of fun and to mess around with production," Smith says. "I was semiconscious on the floor of the studio telling our producer to do this and do that when finally he told me to go home to bed.

"Now we are in a chart battle with Gary Barlow and Lily Allen with a mashup I made while I was out of my head with glandular fever. That's weird."

Bastille started as Smith's solo project before he brought Chris Wood, William Farquarson and Kyle Simmons on board and released three singles before hitting chart pay dirt with Pompeii which was one of the most streamed tracks in Australia this year.

The band's first visit here in August for shows in Sydney and Melbourne sold out, with their big percussive and electro performances wreaking havoc on eardrums and dancing feet.

The success of their singles has escalated demand for them on stages around the world and Smith says the jam-packed touring schedule for the next year is a good problem to have.

They will return to Australia to play small arenas in June.

"As a band, we were never really that ambitious, just hoping with the first album that it might do well enough so we would be able to make a second one," Smith says.

"You never really imagine leaving England or Europe, let alone getting to go to America and Australia and Japan. I feel quite lucky we get to enjoy these slightly mental situations."

The mental experience register got another entry when the band filmed the video for new single Oblivion at the famed Capitol Studios in Los Angeles with Smith singing into Frank Sinatra's microphone and playing Nat King Cole's piano, accompanied by a 30-piece string section.

He said you could feel the ghosts of greats inhabiting the historic recording space.

"That was only the second or third proper studio we had even been in so to arrive at Capitol and have 30 string players rehearsing their parts on one of our songs was surreal," Smith says.

"Kyle says every few days when we find ourselves in these kind of situations that we feel like competition winners."

Then things got even more surreal. Avant garde Hollywood director David Lynch, who has also revealed himself as a recording artist in recent years, invited the band to his studio.

The band are mad fans of Lynch having named their debut EP Laura Palmer, the central character in the director's cult series Twin Peaks. Smith also remixed Are You Sure? off Lynch's most recent record The Big Dream

"David Lynch is a rock star. I'm a big fan and you never expect to meet a famous film director. For the remix, I did a lot of backing vocals so I forced myself into a duet with David Lynch," he says.

"I was really nervous after sending it to him, feeling like I was handing in my homework to be graded.

"So when we were in Los Angeles, he was up for meeting us and I spent the whole time trying not to seem like some kind of fan boy and suppressing this massive grin."

SEE Bastille, Festival Hall,
June 15, Melbourne, ticketmaster.com.au

BRIS SEE: Bastille, Brisbane Convention Centre, June 13, ticketek.com

SYD SEE: Bastille, Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, June 14, ticketek.com