“It’s a weird balance,” says Bombay Bicycle Club bassist, Ed Nash. “If you don’t tour at all you’re like ‘I really need to go tour’. Then when you’re on tour for months on end you’re like, ‘actually I’d like to lie down for a week or so’. It’s a good life, I’m not knocking it.”
Well that’s a relief. Bombay Bicycle Club’s fourth LP So Long, See You Tomorrow came out in early February and Nash and his band mates have been on tour ever since. It’s a cycle that basically hasn’t let up since the London quartet’s first record I Had the Blues but I Shook them Loose came outin 2009. Nash makes sure to seize the fantastic perks of his profession.
“You see people who just sit around and they get bored and they don’t like touring. I always try to go out and do one thing in the city that I’m in and, more importantly, meet people after the show to have a chat and get some recommendations for things to do. I’ve done more than a lifetime’s worth of things now, which I’m incredibly grateful for.”
Of course, the crux of all this travelling around is the live show. For So Long, See You Tomorrow, Bombay Bicycle Club boldly ventured into the world of electronic production. The four-piece had hitherto employed a conventional rock band setup, so adapting the record to the stage inevitably posed some challenges.
“We went into the rehearsal studio after finishing the album and we found ourselves trying to replicate the record note for note,” Nash says. “We realised that it was incredibly boring to do, because it was just us hitting buttons and playing keyboards and things. So we’ve kind of done a re-interpretation of the album, with guitars, bass and drums playing all the main melodies and electronics being played live by an extra member and all the percussion being played live by an extra member. It sits somewhere between what we were doing before and what the album sounds like.”
The electronic embrace isn’t the only thing that distinguishes So Long, See You Tomorrow from 2011’s A Different Kind of Fix. The record also encompasses Eastern instrumentation, skyscraping vocal peaks and arena-ready production. Given the previous record’s considerable success, this seems a risky move. But making such a stylistic revision is nothing new for Bombay Bicycle Club.
“I think it comes out of being restless and wanting to prove ourselves and just being excited about the music we’re making,” says Nash. “We’re not going to get stuck on something and try to re-create it several times over like a lot of other bands do. That gets quite boring for the band and for the fans. Without setting a goal, we just make the music that comes along. It could progress anywhere from here, it could go more electronic, less electronic – no one really knows.”
The band’s amorphous character has been on display ever since they followed the sunny indie-pop of I Had the Blues but I Shook them Loose with a record of acoustic folk rock, Flaws. While a money-hungry record executive would likely advise against such constant permutation, the band’s commercial profile has grown with each successive release.
“We haven’t become famous overnight and we haven’t had a big hit single or anything like that. We’ve released four albums over the space of five years and each one has charted slightly higher than the last. We’ve played bigger and bigger shows consistently, without ever making that giant leap. It also means hopefully we have some hardcore fans and they won’t leave us overnight, unlike some bands that get incredibly famous very quickly and then don’t really have anything else to build upon.”
The band’s audience continues to grow, but has the quality of their output progressed in a similar fashion? Perhaps Nash isn’t the right person to ask, but that doesn’t mean he’s without an opinion on the matter.
“Obviously at the time when you make a record, you think it’s the best thing that you’ve ever created. And that’s not always the case,” he says. “I look back at A Different Kind of Fix and I now realise, at least in my opinion, that’s our weakest record. I do think So Long, See You Tomorrow is our strongest record, but I may look back in a year or two and disagree with that.”
Bombay Bicycle Club’s growing fanbase means they’ll embark upon their biggest Australian tour yet next month. Ever the eager traveller, Nash looks ahead with especial enthusiasm.
“This is going to sound like I’m lying, but my favourite place to tour is Australia. I really, really enjoy touring Australia – the lifestyle, the people are always friendly. I’ve been to Sydney quite a few times outside of touring. I could easily live in Sydney for a long time and be very happy.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
