Almost twenty years since their formation, indie treasures Bombay Bicycle Club are still kicking and going stronger than ever. Just months after the release of their sixth studio album, My Big Day, they’re back with a four-track pop EP, Fantasies. I got to sit down with Ed Nash and chat about their album, the upcoming EP, and how their hiatus impacted the band.
Your album My Big Day came out in October last year. Now that it’s been out for a couple of months, how are you guys feeling about it? How has the reception been and how has it impacted the morale in the band?
“Interesting question. How do I feel about it? I think it’s great. With a bit of distance now, I’m really, really happy with it. Which is good to say, because that’s not always the case with putting out music…It was unusual for us, and we took a chance with some of the songs we left off the record and some of the songs that we put on the record and I think it paid off. In terms of other people’s opinion, I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but with this album I didn’t read any reviews or any comments about it on purpose. And maybe that’s the reason I feel different about this one and feel so good about it. But I found that you put the record out and you read a review, and most of them are always good.And there’s always some bad ones, too. That’s just the way things go. But you start to agree with people, or you start to overthink it, or you start to see it through other people’s eyes instead of just seeing it through your own eyes. So to be honest, I don’t really know what people think of it. I think people probably like it…But on a granular level, I don’t really know. And I don’t know if that’s just burying my head in the sand or if that’s a very wise coping mechanism. But yeah, it’s the one that I’ve chosen for this record.”
I’m really interested to learn a little bit about the writing and recording process of this alum. I understand that this was your first self-produced album since 2014. How did the experience compare to your last self-produced record?
“Yeah, it’s our first self-produced one since 2014 and it felt much, much easier if I’m honest. Since 2014 we took a hiatus and everyone pursued different aspects of their life, and I started recording and producing music for other people and making and producing my own music. Some of the other guys, you know, played in different bands or went to university before coming back and doing Bombay Bicycle Club again. I think that gave everyone in the band a kind of new appreciation for it and a new appreciation for the other people in the band, which I think we kind of took for granted before. But also a new perspective and a new voice and probably better understanding of producing and playing and recording music outside of the band.”
That leads perfectly into my next question, do you think the hiatus had an impact on your sound at all?
“Yeah, I think it did impact the sound. I think it impacted every aspect of the band, yeah. And mostly for the better, other than us being old middle-aged men now! I went away and I made my record and started writing for other people, and I came back with a bigger voice in songwriting. I guess having more people involved in the writing process does change it. And Jack went away and made a record under Mr Jukes- I guess you could call it jazz neo soul maybe, although it’s hard to pigeonhole things. But the record he made was very, very collaborative. And every song had a guest feature on it… which introduced these kind of new flavours and ideas into the music which we didn’t have before.”
You’ve just recently announced your four-track EP, Fantasies. How did this come about? Were the tracks written for your album, or was this always going to be its own project?
“For the most part, they were written for this record and they didn’t fit on. We wanted to make something that was a lot weirder and unusual for us as a band for the record. And I think these are really good songs, which is why we’re putting them out. It’s not just for the sake of it, but they didn’t fit into that canon of music. So, we thought we’d do something else with them. They’re upbeat, very poppy, very accessible songs. People might say we’re stupid for not putting music like that on our record, but it didn’t feel right at the time. And then we’re looking at the songs that we didn’t have for the record, and these four were highlights, but also by chance they all have our friends singing on them. We’ve got Lucy Rose, Rae morris, Liz Lawrence- who we’ve worked with for a very long time, and then Matilda Mann, who is someone that’s come into the fold more recently. So we thought it was kind of a nice framing to put out these songs as having an EP with all of our friends on.”
You mentioned the collaborations on this EP, did they all come about organically or did you set out to add the features after you’d decided to put these songs together?
“It was pretty organic, to be honest. With Liz and Matilda, the versions we were working before had their vocals on them from the very beginning. And then the other two- we always wanted Lucy and Rae to sing them. So it was always in my mind and then we kind of just, you know, put two and two together.”
Where do you see yourselves taking the band’s sound from here?
“I think we’re always into doing new things. Our fans changed quite a lot since we started the band and I don’t think we could have predicted it at the time, you know. It’s just whatever we’re interested in at the time, so everyone’s open to it. If we get interested in heavy metal, we’ll make a heavy metal record. And if we get interested in, I don’t know, instrumental music, it could be that. But, I mean, the kind of music we’re interested in and the kind of music we listen to is the kind of music that we make it. So, you never know, basically. I don’t know what’s going to happen next.”
Fantasies was released today on all streaming platforms. You can also order the EP on vinyl and keep up to date with the band HERE.
