Bastille have clinched the Official Albums Chart Number 1 with debut album Bad Blood. The album had the highest digital share sales for a week one number one album of all time. The band’s new single, Pompeii stormed in to the UK top 40 singles chart last week charting at number 2 and drops to 3 this week.

Dan Smith and his band have taken a short break from their current UK tour to play a series of dates at SXSW. They return to the UK next week to continue the tour which includes two sold out shows at Shepherds Bush Empire. In May the band headline the Great Escape Festival and will feature at most of the summer festivals including another headline slot at Blissfields in July.

As the creative force behind Bastille, much of Dan’s childhood was spent dreaming of being a film editor, a writer or a journalist, any profession in which he could tell a story. Film was an early obsession of Smith’s; a precocious love of horror movies led to an appreciation of Dario Argento and esoteric European cinema. Later, he would be swept into Mulholland Drive and the work of David Lynch, all of which have influenced his music. His song Laura Palmer uses the story of Twin Peaks' mysterious murder victim, and for a while he even wore his hair in an Eraserhead cut.

In a weird way, thanks to Bastille, Smith is doing exactly what he always intended: not only is he now making films for his songs (and reluctantly appearing in them too; the video for Pompeii being his vision of "the novel ‘I am Legend’ if it were shot by the director of ‘Drive’”), most of all he’s telling stories.