Lots of them, I guess if I go back to when I first started listening to music it was my Mum and Dad’s record collection. A lot of the stories I tell in the lyrics I draw from from all those things that I heard. In terms of our music, I met a lot of interesting people when I was trying to be a psychiatrist and I had a lot of really crazy stories from people, so it definitely contributed to the lyrics. So yeah there are all sorts of studies being done on music in the medical world. There are people who find it really difficult to coordinate movements, but as soon as they start listening to music, they find that they can do anything – they can tie their shoes, they can put their clothes on. There are obviously people doing all sorts of studies, and this is from the psychiatric background that I came from where people were studying the effects of music on the brain, and it’s amazing how powerful music can be to some people. How much of a role does music play in the world of science and vice versa?
I think I probably would have done psychiatry, just because it’s the part of medicine that is still kind of a bit untouched, and you get to meet a lot of very interesting people. What sort of medicine were you wanting to pursue? I think there’s still certain specialties where it’s still really interesting, you get to speak to patients, but for the most part it turned into a lot of paperwork and I don’t really like that. I guess a few things, one is that I was totally and utterly addicted to making music, I just really like doing it and couldn’t stop myself and the other thing is that the further I got into medical school I realized that it’s not quite the career I thought it was.
What was the deciding factor to pursue music over medicine? We got to chat with lead vocalist and songwriter Dave Bayley, an Oxford native who draws his inspiration for songwriting largely from his studies and interest in the world of medicine of neuroscience. They have been on tour for the better part of 2014 and will be coming through Atlanta for the first time next week on Thursday, Dec.
Glass Animals released their debut full length album Zaba earlier this year to much critical acclaim.