TLOBF Interview // Bombay Bicycle Club

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It’s been four whole years since the Crouch-End based Bombay Bicycle Club won the “Road-To-V” competition which shot them into the indie limelight from which they soon hid. After they were offered several record deals the band decided to take their time to produce an original collection of songs that would come naturally from their love of good music, rather than from any want of fame. After a steady trickle of EP’s, infectious indie anthems and the release of 2009’s full length debut I Had the Blues But I Shook Them Loose, Bombay Bicycle Club recently returned with the beautifully written and emotionally complex Flaws. I caught up with the drummer Suren to find out about the bands summer and their journey thus far.

How was has the festival season been treating you?

It’s been good so far, Glastonbury was probably the best of the lot. I think it was probably the biggest crowd we’ve ever played to. We had a samba band come on and play with us for the last song which was pretty amazing.

Who have you had a chance to see in between your own frantic schedule?

I’ve actually been pretty bad at checking out other bands at festivals this year…We did get to see The Strokes at Isle of Wight which was really good. I’ve also seen Biffy Clyro a couple of times at Oxegen and T in the Park and I enjoyed them too.

How was it being part of the iTunes festival this year? Not to mention sharing the stage with Stephen Fry?!

Stephen Fry actually came to our old school to give a talk once, so we go way back…. We got to meet him briefly before he went on stage and he was very nice. He even knew some of our names. The actual gig was a strange one. We were originally going to do it all-acoustic but only decided the day before that we would do half the set acoustic and half electric. That was probably a good decision and looking back on it we probably should have done it all electric. It’s quite difficult playing soft acoustic music in a big place like the Roundhouse.

How has the response been to your latest acoustic album Flaws?

Overall it seems to have been pretty positive. Obviously it wasn’t the reason behind making the album, but once the album was done and we were thinking about reviews we might get, we hoped that this album would show a different side to us and whoever had dismissed us as another landfill indie band based on our first album would think again. It seems to have done that for some people.

How was the show at The Union Chapel?

We were looking forward to it very much so, it’s a beautiful venue. We’ve played there a couple of times before and both times have been great. It’s a completely different vibe to regular gigs – the audience is always so quiet and are obviously paying a lot of attention to the music which is nice. Playing there was what gave us the idea to do a whole tour of churches around the country for this new album.

Can you talk me through what inspired the move away from your more obvious indie anthems?

Jack in particular has always been a fan of folk music and so we’ve always had that side to us. We’ve always been writing “acoustic” songs alongside the more indie electric stuff, it’s just that until Flaws came about we’d only been using acoustic songs as B-sides to singles. People like John Martyn, Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young have all been influences. It’s not going to be a permanent change for us though – the next album will be another electric one.

How did this record come about?

We started recording it pretty much as soon as our first album was mixed and mastered, which was in February last year. We recorded a few songs at The Church in Crouch End with Jamie’s dad. They were probably the most enjoyable recording sessions we’ve done – very relaxed. They only lasted a few days though and then after that I think it was difficult to find time to work with Jamie’s dad again, so the rest of the album was recorded slowly in Jack’s bedroom over the course of the next year or so, in between touring and stuff.

And what inspired the decision to produce it yourselves?

The songs on the album didn’t need lots of stuff done to them – they needed to stay as natural as possible and so we didn’t think it was necessary to ask some big producer to help us finish it.

You seem to have come a long way musically over the past few years, how has the journey been from school assembly to NME award winners?

It’s been quite a slow one. We purposefully tried to take our time with things, for example there was some record label interest while we were still in sixth form after we’d done ‘Road-To-V’ but we felt it was too early to sign a deal. I guess some bands suddenly become huge overnight and I can imagine that messes with your mind a bit, but everything has happened pretty gradually and naturally with us. We’ve gone through what I’m sure most bands have gone through – having to play depressing smelly venues with barely anyone coming to watch you. It can still be like that when you go to places abroad that you’ve never been to before, but overall it’s nice to see more and more people come to our shows as that obviously shows that we’re doing something right.

What inspired you to embark on such a musical adventure?

We don’t really plan things. Just like Flaws wasn’t planned out, we didn’t plan for this to be a permanent band. After we left school we decided to all carry on with the band for our gap year, and we are now on our second gap year. It looks like we’ll be doing this for another few years at least now. I guess the fact that my dad and Jamie’s dad are musicians might have something to do with us now being musicians. In terms of expecting a reaction…you never really know what to expect. You never really think “Man…people are going to love this” when you’re writing a song or putting an album together or whatever. But obviously it’s really nice to see that people like what we are doing.