Bastille Recruits Simone Ahsley For 'Eve & Paradise Lost' Short Film

11-22-2024

(Republic Records) As part of the ongoing "&" (Ampersand) album project, Bastille's Dan Smith releases a short film to accompany "Eve & Paradise Lost," a song that explores the fundamental unfairness and imbalance in the love between Eve and Adam. Taking center stage, trailblazing British actress Simone Ashley (Bridgerton, Sex Education) gives a breathtaking performance as she embodies the first woman, Eve.

Capturing the sentiments in the song, she is consumed by love and loss, deep in her thoughts expressing feelings of sadness, betrayal, vulnerability, and then ultimately strength and power. Directed by BAFTA award-winning director, writer, and actor, Dominic Savage, Smith was excited to see the video come to life.

Dan says, "The song takes that famous biblical story and literalizes it through a real relationship and a modern lens. I had a pretty clear vision to represent it with something visually arresting, raw, and unflinching, powerful in its simplicity. I'm a huge fan of both Simone and Dominic's work, and it's been amazing to have this opportunity to work with them on bringing this to life. I loved our many conversations about how to best represent this song and the ideas within it, and I was totally blown away by Simone's performance on the day, which surpasses anything I could have imagined. Her incredible ability to take us through so many of the complicated nuances of Eve's story in a single close-up take totally blows my mind. And seeing Dominic work with her and the crew on the performance, and calmly trusting the spontaneity of the process was massively inspiring and a day I'll never forget."

Simone adds, "When I first heard this song, I immediately felt a connection to it. I loved working with Dan and Dominic and feel so proud of what we have created."

Dominic says, "I was so taken by the deeply felt emotions, empathy, and truth within this song that Dan Smith has beautifully created. Working with the amazing Simone Ashley to express these powerful feelings visually proved to be an inspiring and wonderful exploration."

"Eve & Paradise Lost" is amongst several tracks on the critically acclaimed "&" (Ampersand) album, inspired by the stories of people who have been wrongly framed and misunderstood in myth, culture, and society. Amongst others, the record features the songs, "Emily & Her Penthouse in The Sky" (about the revolutionary internal life of 19th-century poet Emily Dickinson) and "Marie & Polonium" (about the Nobel-winning scientist Marie Curie, a woman rejected by the country she was born in and her adopted France, who saved many millions of lives with the work that ultimately killed her).

We also meet fascinating individuals neglected by mainstream history like "Zheng Yi Sao & Questions for Her" (about the most successful Chinese pirate), "Essie & Paul" (about the open marriage of singer Paul Robeson and his anthropologist wife Essie), and "Mademoiselle & The Nunnery Blaze" (about a 18th-century French opera singer who became a wanted criminal).

A deeper dive into the characters' stories from the album are explored on the acclaimed podcast, "MUSES: An Ampersand Podcast"-a new podcast blending music, history, and storytelling hosted by Smith and academic/podcaster Emma Nagouse (BBC Radio 4's "You're Dead to Me" and BBC Sounds' "Homeschool History").The Guardian called the podcast "fascinating" as the two collaborate to uncover the lives of the poets, artists, anthropologists, and trailblazers featured on the record and break down Dan's journey of transforming their lives into songs for "&" (Ampersand). The episode on the story of Eve is the first in the series with Emma and Dan talking about exactly what the Bible (and the Qur'an) say about her, the different interpretations of Eve's story, and the impact this has had on popular culture, from Desperate Housewives to No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom-listen HERE.

Over recent weeks, fans have been captivated by the warmth and intimacy of the songs released from "&" (Ampersand). It's a record Smith first began writing in 2020, feeling the pull to do something gentler, where the writing process took him back to a time before Bastille's 2013 debut Bad Blood on which he wrote all the songs solo-these are stories from Smith's perspective. On "&" (Ampersand), Dan almost completely gives himself up to the stories of others as the record's opener, "Intros & Narrators" outlines, the video for which was filmed in the middle of Sargasso Sea in the Bermuda Triangle, and was the first film in the series for this record.

To celebrate the album's release, the "&" Live Tour has been taking place throughout November with several special one-off shows across seven global cities, including Paris, Belgium, Amsterdam, Berlin, and London, with shows in Los Angeles and New York remaining. All shows sold out instantly with a further show added in Los Angeles for November 22nd