Praks in Wonderland

Let’s start with a quick introduction to Glass Animals the band. Spearheaded by Dave Bayley (also known as wavey davey), the band comprises of a group of four friends – Dave who does the songwriting and singing and also plays multiple instruments when the mood strikes, Drew primarily on guitar and keyboard, Edmund on bass and keyboards, and Joe on drums. They’ve been a band since 2010 and have been officially releasing music since 2012 with their Leaflings EP.

They started out in a genre of what one might consider psychedelic pop rock with Leaflings and their first studio album, Zaba (2014). To me, Zaba transports the listener to a different planet. A world full of tropical fruits, colorful plants, vibrant animals, and what might at first seem like an oppressive humidity that surrounds every inch of your environment. The heat and wetness of the album veers away from oppressive though, and steers into the world of sensuality. Every instrument on the album is chosen to evoke feelings we are not used to embracing, the lyrics at certain points turning so nonsensical you have to wonder if you heard them right.

Dave figured out a new and unique way to melt together quite a few genres – hip hop, rock, pop, electronica – and through that created an album that I genuinely believe will stand the test of time. Listening to this album at a volume that blocks out the rest of the world allows you to be transported to an otherworldly realm of spice, heat, sensuality, lust, sweat. I’ve always described the feeling of this album to be a “sensual rainforest”. Leaning back with headphones turned on high, I can picture myself almost in the third person, dancing with absolutely no reservations through a forest with animals and plants that hold secrets I’ll never know. This album allows the listener a certain amount of freedom, of escape from their current reality.

The first Glass Animals song I ever heard was Gooey, from Zaba. The lyrics don’t really make a lot of sense, as with much of Zaba, but the music video takes you through a journey with the seven deadly sins, not in a shameful lens, but in a curious and exploratory manner instead. I found this song in 2015 or 2016 and for me, this song and this music video was an immediate gateway to a new world of music – through them I found alt-J, Tame Impala, many more groups, and a genre of music that quickly became a long time favorite. The nonsense lyrics and deeply melodic rhythms captured my attention and made me feel a freedom I rarely felt in my life. I wish I could remember the specific moment that I fell in love with this band, but I think it may have been a bit of a slow burn until later in 2016. I can tell you however, that Gooey was in my top 100 for 2016 on Spotify, and by 2017 all of How To Be A Human Being (HTBAHB, 2016) was at the top of my most listened.

I started college in 2016, a hugely transformative year in more ways than just schooling. I must have discovered How To Be A Human Being fairly soon after its release and quickly fallen in love with the story-telling of the album. In contrast to the strange lyrics of Zaba, HTBAHB is much more straightforward, a collection of stories, although still infused with just enough haziness to leave you wondering about certain verses – peanut butter vibes, pineapples in your head, sausage candles, etc. Each song is based off an individual person, many of which were inspired by people the band had met and talked to during their tour for Zaba, depictions of each one on the album cover (who matches with which song has long been a topic of debate amongst fans).

This album moved largely away from the psychedelic and into the corporeal. The songs don’t quite allow you to escape your reality, but invite you to dwell in the present, yours and of those around you. Certain songs make you sit and think about who you are and who you want to be – do you want to be the person who has “left over cereal for lunch”, the one with pineapples in your head? This album came to me at a time in which I really didn’t know who I was. Trying to reinvent myself for college, as many people do, and consequently losing myself in the process (although I don’t think I recognized that at the time). I wanted to figure out who I was, which I’ve now come to understand could potentially be a life-long project and I do not need to have that sorted out just yet, and in that I tried to be a lot of different versions of myself, not all of which were good.

My favorite Glass Animals song is off HTBAHB, and it comes in the form of the last track, Agnes. The only song that actually uses a name, and the only song on this album that was written about someone in Dave’s personal life. This song discusses Dave’s relationship with a friend of his who took his life. It is a deeply pain-filled and extremely impactful song. “You’re gone but you’re on my mind” is a feeling that anyone who has experienced loss is profoundly familiar with. During most of college I dealt with depression that sometimes left me unable to leave my dorm room for days on end. This album and this song specifically, were always by my side, sometimes the more animated songs were the only thing that could make me feel even a tiny bit better. I could write a paragraph on every track of this album (next blog post?) and how each one of them impacted me personally. By the end of freshman year, I’d talked about Glass Animals so much that people would tell me they heard a GA song and thought about me (still one of my favorite comments to receive by the way).

In October 2017, I went to my first Glass Animals concert at the Houston Revention Center (which has since been renamed to Bayou Music Center). The capacity was probably around 3,000 people so it was a very moderately sized gig but I didn’t care much about the people behind me. I had stood in line for hours, and much to my joy I managed to be on the barricade. At this point, I had only been listening to GA for about a year and a half but easily would have told you they were my favorite band. I had high hopes for their show, and every single one of them was blown out of the water. Dave’s stage presence was so special, jumping around the stage and even on the props and drums. I cried several times that night. I felt the love that the entire band puts into their music, the joy that everyone in the crowd felt being there. That tour was the last time the band performed Agnes live. I have a video of that, taken on the mid-range smart phone I owned at the time, shockingly clear audio, crispy visuals for when the disco ball lit up at the drop of the song. That video and my memory of that night will always be one of my most prized possessions.

In the summer of 2018, Joe (the band’s drummer) was involved in a horrific accident when he was on his bike and was hit by a truck. He suffered life-threatening injuries and the band immediately pulled out of any touring dates for the foreseeable future. Miraculously, Joe made a full recovery. Despite suffering severe head trauma, and having lost function in his limbs for a while, Joe decided he was going to recover, and started drumming again as a way to teach his brain and body to work together again. While Joe was working on recovering, Dave also turned to music and eventually began to work on their third album, Dreamland (2020). The first song that dropped from that album was Tokyo Drifting in November of 2019.

I remember seeing that it dropped and immediately ran back to my dorm room to put headphones on and listen to it. It had been over three years since they had released music, and over the course of those three years my life and I had changed so much, but their music had been a never wavering constant for me. I remember listening to Tokyo Drifting, with Dave singing “wavey davey’s on fire,” and an incredible verse by Denzel Curry and just thinking about how grateful for and and inspired by I was with musicians (and artists in general) who could push through horrible life events, catastrophic self-doubts, negativity from the outside world, and still create things. Tokyo Drifting is a statement from Dave to himself saying “I can still do this,” a firm reminder to us all to remember who we are at our core and that we can take what life decides to throw at us.

The eventual release of Dreamland was delayed from July 2020 until August of that year as the band cited their need to support the Black Lives Matter movement that had reached a head in the US after the murder of George Floyd in May earlier that year. It was a chaotic time, amongst the pandemic and everything else that was happening across the world. I had graduated college in early May, with a ceremony that was held on my computer screen and cast on to the TV at my parents’ house. There was a strange sense of calm when the world was forced to slowed down around us. The underlaying notes of panic and concern any time someone told you their throat was a little sore, or when you heard someone cough behind their mask at the grocery store, were also colored by peace during long solitary walks in the Texas summer heat, connection to the rest of the world through palm-sized devices, and a reminder to tell the people around you that you love them.

Venturing into a world of dreamy synths, nostalgic samples that remind you of a childhood spent watching cartoons and playing on a Nintedo, and brief interludes with audios from childhood home movies, this album is an entirely different sound to anything Dave had previously produced. Dreamland is an album that explores human connection a little closer to Dave’s heart, digging through some of his own relationships and those of the people around him throughout his life. At the time, Dave said that it was the most personal album he had worked on yet and I think that it could not have come at a more perfect time. Dave takes us on a journey through his life, even saying in one interview that the album goes from his earliest memory to the present. He stated that it is an album about “good things, bad things, horrific things, funny things, confusing things, bits where I hated myself, bits where I hated other people, first loves, discovering sexuality, sadness, abandonment, mental health”. During a time of world-wide solitude, many of us had way too much time to think about all of these topics for ourselves and for me, being able to hear my favorite artist talk about all the things that I was thinking about was extremely reassuring when not much else felt safe. This is album is another one that I could write at least a paragraph on every track, so maybe I really will do this in another post.

In 2021, when the pandemic panic had started to fade, GA announced another tour and I got to see them again at White Oak Music Hall in Houston on the eve of my birthday. They had also just released I Don’t Wanna Talk (I Just Wanna Dance) as a single and it was so much fun to be around live music again and dance and sing to my heart’s content. Being surrounded by a crowd of 3,000 people, though at least in an outdoor venue, there were still some COVID-related fears, but we all pushed through it in favor of seeing this beloved band. By the end of the night all I could think about was how happy I was that this incredible band was still making music, performing, and allowing their fans to be a part of their journey through life, and also maybe plotting when I would be able to see them again.

The answer to that question came in the form of their fourth studio album I Love You So F***ing Much (ILYSFM, 2024). Leading up to the release of this album, the band announced album pre-release listening parties at record shops across the globe. The nearest one to me was in a small college town in Indiana, so I’d made up my mind that I would drive an hour from home and be there. The day before these scheduled listening parties, however, the band announced that they would in fact be in Chicago at one of the record stores, doing a meet and greet with fans and a thought began to percolate in my mind… Chicago was only a three hour drive away, I could be there and back in a day and not have to take any time off work… My dad was in town (for work, not just to visit me!!) so I felt a little bad leaving him to fend for himself but when I mentioned the thought to him, he gave me the all clear. So I started to figure out how this would work – what time I had to leave home, hope to get to Chicago, how long would I have to wait in line, all the thoughts of a chronically anxious person trying to plan a last minute day trip to meet their favorite band.

I made it to the record store around 1pm for an event that didn’t start until 6pm and, to my shock, there was almost no one else there yet. Except for my now dear friend Hannah. We’d chatted a little bit on Reddit the night before, planning how early we’d get in line (which ended up being unnecessary), and once we met we very quickly became friends. In the next few hours of waiting, we met other fans and made a small group of friends, got to know the record store owner, and overall had a great time doing almost nothing but waiting. Finally, 6pm rolls around and we all get in a sort of line, the band walks in, they say a few words of thanks, and the new album starts playing over the speakers. With the album playing, everyone took turns getting a photo with the band. I actually really hate mine because I was so nervous I didn’t know what to do with myself and suddenly forgot how to pose. But I’ve included it below anyways.

After the album was done playing, and all the selfies were taken, it was time for the raffle. I’d lost my ticket but knew myself well enough to have taken a picture of it when it was handed to me over an hour prior. First, they raffled off a few decorative pins and smaller items but we quickly got to the poster. There were two 3’x3′ posters that the band had signed – one which the store would keep, and one that they were going to raffle. As they called out the numbers, my eyes bugged out of my head and I think all I said was “oh my god.” I don’t win raffles, I couldn’t believe it. I went up to claim it and tried to explain that I had lost the physical ticket, but having spent basically the entire day with the shop owner, all he said was “I’m glad it was someone out of your group since you guys have been here all day.” I was shaking as I spoke about being from Houston with Dave, and told all the guys how much I appreciate them. It was incredible and I’ll not only cherish that poster forever, but the memory of that day. We left with full hearts and new friendships.

5 days later, ILYSFM dropped on streaming. In this album, Dave goes even deeper, stripping back a lot of the electronic sounds, samples, distortion, and “glitter” that had coated their previous albums – leaving behind raw acoustics and the most intimate album he has released. Dave grappled with where to go, musically, after the success of Heat Waves. He wasn’t quite sure what to do with himself, didn’t know how to move forwards, but through that internal struggle ILYSFM was born. As with all of their previous albums, the tracks on this one hit home, they landed exactly where they needed to and found a place in my heart. 2024 for me was, so far, the best year of my life. But there were also a lot of aspects of it that felt performative, especially through social media which only ever shows the highlights. This album was a gentle reminder of the importance of being grounded in who you are, and not letting the expectations or influences of the people around you change you fundamentally.

Shortly after the release of ILYSFM, the band went on tour again. Coordinating when we would get in line, where to park our cars, and even outfits, my good friend Hannah (who I met at the Chicago meet-up) and I planned the whole night for the show in Indianapolis. We ended up on barricade with our group (mostly Hannah’s group and I just tagged along) and sang our hearts out the whole night. During Creatures in Heaven, Dave recognized Hannah (he had also recognized her at the Chicago meet up as they had met previously in Kansas City for the release of Creatures in Heaven) and pointed at her and our group and said, very loudly on the mic, “you were one of the very first people to hear this song. Very nice to see you again. That’s special.” and we all cried. During Pork Soda, Erja (another person in our group) got the pineapple that Dave tosses into the crowd every show, and we all cried. I got some of my very favorite pictures of the band (and maybe that I’ve ever taken) from this concert. I screamed at the top of my lungs, I laughed and cried with the people around me and overall just had one of the best nights ever.

A bit later, I decided that I wanted to see them again and as I looked through concert dates and tried to figure out what was feasible I noticed they were performing at the Gorge in Washington state on a Saturday. The Gorge was already a bucket list music venue for me, show tickets weren’t that expensive, flights were relatively reasonable, and suddenly I found myself planning a trip. I packed a couple pairs of clothes, my tent and camping supplies, flew into Seattle on Friday night, picked up my rental car, stayed in a hostel downtown, and woke up bright and early to begin the drive to central Washington. The wildfires in Canada were raging wildly during the late summer of 2024 and everything was coated in a layer of orange, the sun looked weird and you couldn’t see very far into the horizon.

After a few hours of driving, and watching the landscape change from ocean to forest to mountains all the way to desert, I reached the Gorge. This was not only my first time in central Washington but my first time attending a concert you have to camp at (the Gorge is quite literally in the middle of nowhere) so I was entirely clueless but I set up my tent in the 100 degree desert heat and attempted to relax. Unfortunately, it was so hot there was no such relaxation. I made friends with the girls next to me who had a canopy set up, mostly just for shade. Eventually it was time to begin the trek to the actual amphitheater part of the venue and so I set off. Everyone will tell you that the feeling you get when you reach the top of the hill and see the literal gorge in front of you is absolutely unreal, and they’re right. Sometimes I expect things to be overhyped by social media but this view was absolutely so unique. It was one of the most naturally gorgeous places I’ve seen recently and on top of that it was an insanely beautiful music venue. Two of my favorite things at once? Oh, I was in heaven. Watching the sunset through the brown wildfire smoke, listening to the opening acts, realizing how lucky I am to get to experience things like that, was all an incredible lead up to another fantastic show by the boys.

I spent the next day driving around Washington, visiting Mt. Rainier National Park, and getting dinner in downtown Seattle before heading back to the airport to go back to Indianapolis. After having seen the band 4 times now, I can tell you every single show they put on is absolutely incredible. The energy of each individual band member adds to the beautiful confluence of the performance that they put on together.

This band, their music, their energy has been a huge part of my life for nearly 10 years now. They have held my hand as I walked through scary new steps of life, wrapped me in hugs when I wasn’t sure who I could confide in, shared in my joys when I reached new milestones. There are not enough words in the dictionary to describe the gratitude that I feel for Dave, Edmund, Drew and Joe and the beautiful energy that they put into the world through their music, their performances, and their interactions with their fans, but we can start with thank you.

love, Praks