he began writing lyrics with more personal themes. The positive reception to his more personal songwriting inspired Bayley to do the same in his own music for Glass Animals. The second Glass Animals record, How to Be a Human Being (2016), was a concept album featuring 11 songs with each song representing a person. The songs were inspired by people they met and stories they were told during their travels while promoting their debut album Zaba (2014). Bayley had mostly refused to write autobiographical songs before, using other real and fictional characters as his inspiration. However, the final track on How to Be a Human Being, "Agnes", was about a friend who committed suicide. Bayley told The Independent that writing "Agnes" "opened the door" to Dreamland. Dreamland was recorded in London in 2019, with Seaward participating. Most of the album was formulated by Bayley, but his bandmates were responsible for some of the more technical performances on the album and were involved in deciding which songs to put on the album. Dreamland was almost entirely produced by Bayley, although he had assistance from the band's longtime mentor Paul Epworth. American hip hop record producer Mike Dean was also present during some of the album's recording. The album was mixed by Bayley, David Wrench, Manny Marroquin and MixedByAli. Music and lyrics Dreamland was written and produced almost entirely by frontman Dave Bayley. The album's lyrics are highly autobiographical in nature, with many publications calling the album a "memoir". Dreamland is an exploration of Bayley's life from his first memories growing up in Texas up to his most recent. In a press release, Bayley said: The idea of Dreamland is to go from my first memory up until now, through all the big realizations that happen in life. It's about the things that happened and the people that surrounded me in that time, 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. It's just painting pictures of those moments and times that, looking back, make you who you are. The album is structured around "home movie" interlude skits featuring audio from home movies that were videotaped by Bayley's mother Orit Braha during his childhood. The short interludes feature his mother stating the current date as 7 May 1994, discussing Sesame Street and