Bombay Bicycle Club arrived on the music ladder at the ripe old age of 16 where they won a competition and got the opening slot on the 2006 V Festival. Since then they’ve returned to school, traveled the world and released 4 belter albums.
Bassist Ed Nash and Drummer Suren de Suram sat down with me ahead of
their gig at the O2 Academy Liverpool and we got a few words about
festivals, traveling the world, vinyl and getting thrown out of Reading
festival..
How’s the tour going? Have you been here to Liverpool before?
Ed Nash: Well I think its show number 9, I think. It’s day number 11.
We certainly have played Liverpool before; I think this is our fifth
time.
Your latest album, So Long See You Tomorrow, reached the top of
the charts when it was released earlier this year. How did it feel
getting your first number one?
Ed: I don’t know really, on a day to day basis nothing has actually
changed, except we can say we have a number one album but we think it
doesn’t really mean much; it’s just a status thing I guess.
This latest album also influenced by aspects of world music, what prompted this influence?
Suren de Saram: During the last of our tour dates they came more
sporadic, so Jack, who is our principal songwriter, he would often stay
out afterwards. He spent a bit of time in Turkey, Mumbai where he did a
lot of writing, Tokyo and the Netherlands as well.
He didn’t go to
any of these places to write a new “worldly” album, he literally just
found it more inspiring writing abroad and being away from London
Ed: The initial spark of creativity from these songs came from
sampling as opposed to writing a riff on a guitar. When he was away all
of these tracks were originally strange, instrumental hip hop tracks and
you immediately have the sounds and songs that they were taken from. So
he was in India listening to a lot of Bollywood and Indian classical
music and taking samples from them, so it’s going to sound like that
immediately.
From your first album, I Had The Blues & Shook Them Loose, the
track Always like this was a feature track, it has quite a unique bass
line to it. How did you come up with it?
Ed: Unfortunately I didn’t write it, Jack is a bass player too and I just get to play it. It’s a very peculiar bass line, it’s not your average bass line. I think he was just sitting there and came up with it, I doubt he even remembers.
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| The band fresh faced aged 16 during Road To V |
Ed: It’s a bit of both really. Obviously it’s easier to get your
music across to far more people. I remember when we started the band we
had a Myspace page and it was one of the first times you could just put
your music there and there was an interface where people could go find
it. The other side is there are obviously more bands doing that so you have to filter through a lot of shit to find something that is good.
You hit the public eye after winning the competition “Road To V”
meaning you got to open V festival in 2006. What do you think would have
happened if you didn’t enter that competition?
Suren: It happened at quite a strange time in our lives, we were only 16
and we were only a band for a year and we hadn’t played that many gigs.
No one really heard of us and it was all up on radio and TV and
whatever and then we went and hid again and decided we wanted to finish
our secondary education. At that time we weren’t sure what will happen
to the band long term so we went and finished the two years of school
and then recorded our first album. It wasn’t like Road To V thrusted us
into the limelight that was just a start.
Ed: It also came as a blessing actually. If we took some of
the opportunities that came up directly after “Road To V” I don’t think
the band would be around as it is now. We would have released and album
and half the songs on our first album were written at least a year after
“Road To V” and we wouldn’t have developed as a band and we would have
just been known as the band from “Road To V” and we shook that off a bit
after going back to school.
Suren: Taking things slowly definitely worked out for the best.
Our school was quite musical and there were quite a few bands popping
up in our year there was a band we were mates with and they took the
opposite approach and went for it whilst still in school.
Ed: They recorded and released in school so as a result they couldn’t
do any promo. It was one example of a terrible idea. They failed.
What are your festival plans for this year?
Ed: In the UK, which I think I can announce, we’re doing Reading and Leeds, T In The Park, Latitude and many in Europe. A busy summer!
What’s your favourite festival to perform at?
Ed: I would say Reading festival, it wouldn’t be my favourite to go
to, but it always has the best crowds. There’s not a lot else to do at
Reading other than see bands. Whereas Glastonbury & Latitude there
are hundreds of things you could do as well. Everyone at Reading goes to
see the music so as a result you get the best crowds. I’m kind of terrified of it now, seems far too chaotic.
Suren: It is basically full of drunken teenage kids; they are the best people to play to.
As a spectator, what is your favourite festival?
Ed: I’ve got to say Glastonbury obviously. It’s incredibly
obvious but I do think it’s the best festival in the world. In terms of
the line-up they get and the vibe and other stuff you can do, its unparrelled there’s nothing else like it! It’s like a city where you can do whatever you want.
Suren: I agree- it’s on the verge of being a bit too big.
Any funny festival experiences over the years?
Ed: Tonnes! The first time we played Reading festival Suren threw up on a security guard and as a result we got thrown out of the festival.
When we were younger we would always go the festival from the Thursday
and play on the Saturday and as a result our show would be absolutely
terrible.
Suren: It took a while for us to actually start taking things seriously. We viewed them as free festival tickets.
Ed: When we first played Glastonbury Jamie played his guitar an
entire semi-tone out of tune which is the worst sound imaginable. He
would tune it and then tune it back to the same thing; there is a video
of it on the internet somewhere.
If you had to create a three day festival who would headline?
Ed: Prince that would be fantastic. Fleetwood Mac who are still
playing as well, well only just about. I don’t know about the third one,
it would have to be a contemporary band. Kanye West, definitely!
Suren: I would have Nile Rodgers and Chic.
Your current album was released on vinyl and with vinyl sales on
the rise; do you feel the physical aspect of music is on the rise?
Ed: I don’t think it is. I certainly wish it was, I enjoy it. I don’t
like listening to random songs, I would much prefer to listen to an
album as a whole, as a concise piece of work.
Suren: I feel for some people it is. I mean I just recently bought a record player because I realised I was only listening to music on my laptop which is a pretty shit way to listen to music.
Went out, bought a record player and started building my own vinyl
collection. There is something great about having this physical thing
with beautiful artwork and all the writing on the sleeve. Definitely
worth sitting down for.
You’ve been together nearly a decade now, what has been the best bit?
Ed: It’s kind of crazy when you put it like that; it’s nearly half of our lives.
I’ve got to say, and there have been many highlights, but personally I
think the album we have just brought out is the best album we’ve got.
Everyone is getting on better than ever before, it’s like a big family
on tour and I think we’ve been doing the best shows we’ve ever done.
So what’s next for Bombay Bicycle Club?
Suren: Well we intend to tour this album well into next year; our
tour band is beyond than just festival season. We want to travel the
world a bit, South Africa, South America, South East Asia, India and
Australia.
Ed: Tour this album to death
Suren: Hopefully people will still want to come to shows. Then after that it’s unsure, we might take a break, how long that’ll be I don’t know.
Ed: Then we will come back and make another album and tour that one to death! By which point we’ll be in our mid-twenties!
Bombay Bicycle Club are playing a variety of festival shows
throughout the UK and Europe and their latest album is still available
at all good stockists.