Bombay Bicycle Club burst onto the music scene in 2006 after
winning Virgin Mobile’s “Road to V” competition and opening V festival that
year as the prize. In the years that have passed the band have gathered
critical acclaim, a legion of fans and a host of award nominations and the band
are still only in their early 20’s. When we chat to lead singer Jack Steadman
he is understandably tired after having just played at a host of festivals but
still he manages to talk enthusiastically about the best moments so far and the
latest album ‘A different kind of fix’.
How was opening V
festival all those years ago?
We didn’t really take it seriously at the time; we were just
16 years old. We entered the competition as a joke; we never thought we would
win. When we got there we were just excited to have backstage access, meeting
all these people and getting free drinks. It’s difficult to think about, you
kind of pretend it’s just any other gig.
Do you think that
maybe you were a bit too young for that kind of exposure?
Probably for us, it’s just weird because most people look
back to their teenage years they would probably be quite embarrassed. It’s
strange to have those years with lots of people interviewing you and filming
you. If I listen to the songs we were writing then it’s quite embarrassing.
Even after road to V we weren’t going to quit school and
pursue our dream, we were very sensible about it. We were in no rush to do
anything quicker than we wanted to. We very much took our time and it was a
slow and gradual process for us.
How is the new album
different from your first?
Its electric, I guess the biggest difference is we are a lot
more confident with the production side of things. Before all we were doing was
just writing songs on the guitar and someone else would record them because we
didn’t know how to. We have different styles involved and we are doing a lot
more on the production side as well.
It’s always good to have another set of ears. I would never
like to work without a producer because I think it’s an incredibly important
part of writing an album. Having that person there, for us we need someone, we
need an authoritative figure. We are unsure of ourselves and not very confident
at it so we need someone who can say which parts are good and which parts are
bad.
Are you a natural
lyricist?
I tend to put lyric writing off until the last minute but
they end up being very honest. With not much time to write them you have to
pick something that’s happened to you and write about it. I think that could be
quite a good thing sometimes. The difference is, as you get older you try and
be a bit subtler about it. With our first album it was very much heart on our
sleeve but I am trying to have more subtly about it.
Early on in your
career you admitted that the band didn’t really practice, do you practice now?
At the time we had been playing the same songs for years and
years it wasn’t that exciting to rehearse but now that we have got all this new
material it’s a lot more enjoyable for us to rehearse, we are getting better at
doing it.
What’s been your
highlight so far?
Reading and Leeds, I think that was a big turning point for
us. It was the same weekend as our album coming out and we just weren’t
expecting that many people to turn up. It was amazing, it was perfect, probably
one of the highlights of my life really.
Are you planning to
go to America soon?
We are going there in a week and touring with Two Door
Cinema Club for about 10 dates that will be our first tour of America. It’s to
get the ball rolling and we are going to try and find a record label out there,
hopefully that will be the start of the America campaign.
The band is known for
really energetic gigs but what do you do to unwind?
We don’t really have time to unwind. If you are not on tour,
its precious time that you have at home. Your seeing all your friends and
people that you haven’t seen in ages, you have to use all the time you have as
it’s rare that we get to come home and see all our friends. It’s not like we
are going to sleep for days because we want to go out and party with everyone.
Where would you like
the band to go in the future?
I would like to see more of the world. My favourite part of
being in a band is that you get to travel around and you get to go places which
if you weren’t in a band you probably wouldn’t be able to afford a plane ticket
to go to.
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