Bastille Share Powerful Video For ‘Hope For The Future’
The track features in the film From Devil’s Breath, produced by Leonardo DiCaprio
Bastille have shared a powerful video for their track “Hope For The Future,” which appears in the film From Devil’s Breath.
The new documentary was directed by Oscar winner Orlando von Einsiedel and produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and Emmy winner Chloe Leland. Bastille’s new video was also directed by von Einsiedel and his Grain Media team and was partially filmed in frontman Dan Smith’s London home.
Between shots of the musician playing guitar and singing to the camera, thought-provoking scenes of the impact of our current climate crisis interject, adding more poignancy to the emotional song.
“I was given the chance to watch From Devil’s Breath a while back and was really moved by the incredibly powerful story that Orlando von Einsiedel and the team have woven together,” Smith said in a press release. “It’s a heartbreaking story that’s beautifully told, so when they asked me to write a song for the end credits, it seemed important to make something that felt intimate but also struck a balance between the more poignant elements of these people’s stories and the hope that the film ultimately gestures towards.
“I also wanted it to feel and sound different, so this was the first song I ever wrote on a guitar. Sometimes songs seem to just fall out of your head, and this was very much one of those. I watched the film and then made the demo at home in a couple of hours. Over a few days, I worked to build up the production and sonics with the hugely talented Charlie Barnes and Jack Duxbury, and it quickly became one of my favorite things we’ve made. It was also a helpful reset from the sonic and thematic world of our album Give Me The Future and has laid the ground sonically for a lot of the music I’ve been making since.”
Of the video, Smith explained that the team had come to a decision to make something simple that “wouldn’t get in the way of the film and its story.” “I didn’t think we’d be lucky enough to make it with Orlando, Chloe Leland, and the team who made the film itself, which has been such a privilege,” he continued.
“Orlando and Chloe’s idea was to make the performance feel like it sat right within the world of the film, helping to re-tell the story in this shorter form. So, we shot the video in my house, sat around the kitchen in the room where I write, projecting footage onto the walls, and intercut this with moments from the film. It was so brilliant to be able to work with them all, and we’re really proud of the video we’ve been able to make with them.”
Von Einsiedel added: “Music is such an integral part of film-making. It helps shape our emotional responses, offers us space to reflect, and helps give our memories of a film longevity. Dan’s hauntingly beautiful song ‘Hope for the Future’ conveys the trauma of loss that scars communities forever and the difficult journey of remembrance and rebuilding that the people in our film navigate every day. With the music video, we wanted to create something that spoke authentically to the origin story of the song, something which was expressive of how and why it was written.
“The song was very much Dan’s way of communicating what he witnessed and felt in watching From Devil’s Breath, so in the video, we decided to incorporate Dan himself into a similar documentary interview construct to that used within the actual film. In the video, we see Dan sharing his truth with the audience in the same way as the film’s protagonists, along with having elements from the documentary in the form of video projections, bleeding over into his personal space and physically onto him.”
From Devil’s Breath explores the extraordinary, inspiring community of survivors of the deadly 2017 wildfires in Portugal, fighting to ensure what they’ve lived through can never happen again, and a revolutionary, world-changing scientific discovery that could help protect us all from the climate emergency. It will premiere as the second film in “The Turning Point” series on MSNBC Broadcast and Peacock on November 13 at 10pm ET.
“Hope For The Future” also appears on the extended edition of Bastille’s latest album, Give Me The Future. Meanwhile, the band will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of their beloved debut album Bad Blood next year. They will kick off a run of dates honoring the record in the UK next June, playing it in full alongside “other favorites.”
