Bombay Bicycle Club Speak to Stereoboard About New Album ‘A Different Kind of Fix’ (Interview)
Wednesday, 03 August 2011
Written by Rob Sleigh
Later this month, London-based folk-rockers Bombay Bicycle Club will be unveiling their new album ‘A Different Kind of Fix’ just over a year since last year’s Top 10 release ‘Flaws’, making this the band’s third album in three years. In September, the quartet will be kicking off an extensive UK tour, but first they’ll be hitting the summer festival circuit with appearances at Underage Festival in London, Cornwall’s Relentless Boardmasters and, of course, Reading and Leeds. Stereoboard recently caught up with the band’s drummer Suren de Saram to find out more about the new album…
It’s been almost exactly a year since the release of ‘Flaws’. What have the band been up to in the past 12 months?
We started recording the next album [A Different Kind of Fix] quite soon after ‘Flaws’ was released. We only did one UK tour for ‘Flaws’, so didn’t exactly tour it extensively. We recorded ‘A Different Kind of Fix’ in four chunks spread over the past 10 months, with a couple of sessions in London, one in Hamburg and one in Atlanta. In between recording, we have gone to various places to play. Like, we went to Brazil at the end of last year, which was amazing, and we did our first shows in the US earlier this year.
Has much changed for Bombay Bicycle Club since the release of ‘Flaws’?
Well, we have since gone back to playing electrically after our little acoustic detour, so I guess that is the big thing that has changed.
How did the band feel about the response to that album?
It got to Number Eight the week it was released, which was a nice surprise, considering it cost very little money to make as a lot of it was recorded in Jack’s bedroom. Obviously, I’m sure we confused a few of our existing fans by making a completely different kind of album to the first, but overall the response was very positive.
Why did you decide to make an entirely acoustic album with ‘Flaws’?
We’d only ever used acoustic songs as B-sides for singles on the first album, but Jack [Steadman, vocals/guitar] was writing more and more of them and we thought that they couldn’t go to waste. So that was how ‘Flaws’ came about.
What can we expect from ‘A Different Kind of Fix’?
It is more like the first album in that it is back to electric guitars. Having said that, there are a couple of songs which aren’t too far away from ‘Flaws’ in sound. I guess there are elements of both the previous two albums. Jack has been making a lot of electronic music on his own as well recently, so that has crept into some of the new songs as well.
How long did it take to record your new album and how did the experience compare with your previous releases?
We did it in four chunks, with the recording time probably adding up to about five weeks. We recorded abroad for the first time in Hamburg and Atlanta. The Hamburg session was with Jim Abbiss, who we worked with on the first album, so the method of working was quite familiar, just obviously with different surroundings. The Atlanta session was with Ben Allen and I think we all enjoyed that a lot. There were a number of strip clubs next to the studio. The songs we recorded out there were done in a different way from normal. Jack had gone out there a few months before to work with Ben on his own and came back with a demo for each song, which we then used as the basis for the recording of the songs when we all went out there.
Looking back to the band’s formation, how and when did you all meet and what made you decide to form the band?
Jack, Jamie [MacColl, guitars] and I were in the same class at school and originally got together to play in a school assembly when we were 15. Ed [Nash, bass], who was a mutual friend, joined the band a few months later. A couple of our friends started putting on underage nights and asked us to play at them and things kind of went from there.
Who were your main influences earlier on and what did you hope to achieve from the band at the beginning?
We had no real ambitions initially. We didn’t even think we would become a permanent band at first. We like to just go with the flow. We were disillusioned by British indie music at the time we started. Our influences leaned towards America - bands like Pavement, the Smashing Pumpkins, Broken Social Scene and the Pixies were big influences.
Have any of your influences or ambitions changed since then? I guess our influences for the latest album lean towards the ‘80s, especially sonically. We were definitely listening to a lot of Talking Heads. It’s hard to pinpoint which bands exactly - it’s more the sound than the bands themselves.
Have there been any specific highlights or low points during the last few years?
There have been a lot of high points - playing at Glastonbury last year was one of the most amazing gigs, as was this gig we did in Rio last year. It was the first time we’d been to Brazil and didn’t really know what to expect. We played in this pretty small club, but it sold out and the crowd was one of the best we’ve ever played to. We had a samba band play with us for the last song as well, which was insane. The first time we played Reading also sticks in the mind. We were the first band on and weren’t expecting much of a crowd, but the tent was completely rammed and they were going mad. I think for most of the set we were just looking at each other and grinning.
You’re playing a few festivals this month. What can we expect from your set? Will you be previewing a lot of the new songs mostly?
Yes, we’ll be playing some new songs. We find it difficult to mix the electric stuff with the acoustic stuff live, so we’ll be playing some songs from the first album and some new songs.
Now that the new album is soon to be released, will you be getting ready for the next one or will you be having a break this time around?
After all the touring for the new album is done, the plan at the moment is to have a bit of a break. We don’t want people to get sick of us.
‘A Different Kind of Fix’ is due for release on 29th August.
Bombay Bicycle Club UK & Ireland Tour Dates are as follows:
Fri August 5th 2011 - Victoria Park,, London
Fri September 30th 2011 - Brighton Dome, Brighton
Sat October 1st 2011 - O2 Academy Newcastle, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Sun October 2nd 2011 - Barrowland, Glasgow
Mon October 3rd 2011 - O2 Academy Leeds, Leeds
Wed October 5th 2011 - O2 Academy Sheffield, Sheffield
Thu October 6th 2011 - Hull University, Hull
Fri October 7th 2011 - O2 Apollo Manchester, Manchester
Sun October 9th 2011 - Engine Shed, Lincoln
Mon October 10th 2011 - Norwich Uea, Norwich
Tue October 11th 2011 - O2 Academy Oxford, Oxford
Wed October 12th 2011 - O2 Academy Bristol, Bristol
Thu October 13th 2011 - O2 Academy Birmingham, Birmingham
Fri October 14th 2011 - Cardiff University Students Union, Cardiff
Sun October 16th 2011 - Southampton Guildhall, Southampton
Mon October 17th 2011 - Rock City, Nottingham
Wed October 19th 2011 - O2 Academy Brixton, London
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I guess our influences for the latest album lean towards the ‘80s, especially sonically. We were definitely listening to a lot of Talking Heads. It’s hard to pinpoint which bands exactly - it’s more the sound than the bands themselves. 
