The Brag

Bombay Bicycle Club
Less Destruction, More Dancing
By Alasdair Duncan

Fresh-faced UK band Bombay Bicycle Club don’t like to stay in the one place for too long. The youngsters are three albums into their career, but each one is strikingly different, from scruffy guitar rock to acoustic melancholy to their latest, A Different Kind Of Fix, which has a distinctly indie dance feel, and spawned the infectious, piano-led ‘Shuffle’. As bass player Ed Nash tells it, they don’t consciously try and change their sound each time – but being young and foolish as they are, they’re happy to follow any whim that takes their fancy. “We don’t put any restrictions on ourselves,” he says, “and we’ve never tried to make an album based on what we think people might like. We just do whatever’s interesting to us.”

“We recorded our first album when we were all 18, and that was a collection of energetic indie rock songs that we’d written over the four years beforehand,” he says, explaining his band’s shifting styles. “Afterwards, we recorded a collection of what we thought would be acoustic bonus tracks, but we decided they were good songs in their own right so we put them together and released them as an album. We were worried that people wouldn’t like it because it was so different than our first, but they seemed to really enjoy it. The third is different again, much more electronic. People might be put off by that idea at first, but at the heart of it, they’re all Bombay Bicycle Club songs.”

As a bass player, Ed Nash enjoys the loose, danceable feel of the songs from A Different Kind Of Fix – not least of all because it allows him to channel his inner Peter Hook on stage. “I do love playing the new songs live,” he says. “I mean, I love the old songs, don’t get me wrong, but the bass parts in the new ones are just a lot more interesting for me, and I can get into them a lot more.” Audiences, too, have appreciated the change. “We used to have a lot of people who’d come to our shows and fight and get on stage and smash stuff up, which wasn’t ideal,” he says. “Since we’ve started playing the newer, less guitar-based songs, there’s been less destruction and more dancing, which is nice!”

Bombay Bicycle Club have been spending a lot of time on the road lately, bouncing around Asia and America before heading to Australia in March – and as Nash tells it, this has forced them to grow up. “I think you really do have to get into a routine, otherwise you lose your mind,” he says. “In the beginning we were touring a lot and partying every night – that’s fun for a few months, but you can’t keep doing that or you’ll go nuts. I’ve got into doing exercise, which I never really did before. I try to do half an hour of that – swimming in the hotel pool, running, whatever. I think the important thing is to try and look after yourself a bit, so you can feel like a human being.”

Australia has embraced Bombay Bicycle Club – ‘Shuffle’ placed at #88 in this year’s Hottest 100 – and the band, about to embark on their first ever trip here, are looking forward to embracing Australia. “We’re really super excited about it – I literally can’t wait!” Nash says. “We’ve been talking about the tour for the last month and we’re all excited. If any fans come up to us after the gig, we’re very happy to talk to them and say hi – and if anyone wants to take us around and show us the sights, we’re very keen for that, too!”

What: A Different Kind Of Fix is out now
Where: Oxford Art Factory / The Metro Theatre
When: Wednesday March 28 (sold out, all-ages) / Thursday March 29 (on sale now, all-ages)
More: Also supporting Elbow at the Hordern Pavilion on Monday March 26