Bastille frontman Dan Smith has admitted his struggles with body dysmorphia often make it challenging to be on stage.
“For someone who has body image issues, it’s complicated getting up on stage every night in front of lots of people, when your instinct is to hide away,” the singer told The Guardian. “Sometimes it’s not a problem, sometimes it is.”
Smith, 35, said he was overweight as a teen but lost more than 80 pounds the summer after his third year of university.
“When I lost loads of weight and suddenly just looked like a different person, it’s quite a … I think for anyone that’s gone through quite a big, radical physical transformation it can be a fair thing to get your head around,” he explained.
“For a long time I identified as a bigger guy and still do to this day.”
Smith said he never craved a life in the spotlight. “It’s a bizarre line of work in which you are constantly confronted by your own image,” he said. “It’s not fun – and it doesn’t feel particularly healthy.
“I think a lot of people suffer from different versions of body dysmorphia. We all have the version of ourselves that we see in our own heads and often that’s so different from the version of who we are through other people’s eyes.”