“It felt very good and it felt right,” he says of those weeks. “In music, I put a lot of pressure on myself to do what I thought was right, which is to be more extroverted and do social media stuff and work all the time on every opportunity that came in. I guess I kind of forgot that the thing that makes me feel the most like me is just sitting in my room writing music alone. I’m a bit of an introverted person, and it’s okay to be that, to embrace that, and not feel guilty about it.” 

Even as an introvert, Bayley has a knack for understanding both the minutiae of relationships and the epic background against which our small human lives play out. Though the universe can make us feel small, our human connections are just as vast and mysterious — whether that makes us insignificant or important just depends on our outlook. Each track on I Love You So F***ing Much, vignettes of varying love stories, contains these multitudes. 

When Glass Animals released their debut album, Zaba, in 2010, they didn’t know anyone in the music industry. After Dreamland, Bayley had a line up of pop superstars knocking at his door hoping to collaborate – in fact, he recently revealed that “Heat Waves” nearly landed in the hands of Rihanna. I Love You So F***ing Much marks the group’s first release since garnering international acclaim, and unlike Dreamland, they’ll get to release and tour it in the traditional sense. Fitting for an album about overcoming malaise through human connection. 

“I love music because there’s a community and a togetherness that it creates, and I felt like we really missed out on that last time,” he says. COVID protocols meant the Dreamland tour felt disconnected and precarious. “I think those days are over and it will allow us to embrace that sense of community and togetherness that music brings. It’s the whole reason for [touring] and I’m very excited about it.” 

I Love You So F***ing Much features 10 tales about love that brim with the nuance and vivacity of existence and all its contradicting complexity. Bayley, who writes and produces his work on his own, fought his way out of a depression by delving into the beauty of the collective. Each track contains the light and dark of life itself, serious stories wrapped up in exuberant electronic pop. Once released, those stories will be absorbed by audiences, transformed by their individual interpretations yet connecting them through something universal. All told, it’s an example of the way in which human interconnectivity can accumulate into a whir, into a different kind of storm.