BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB

When hype surrounds a band to hysterical levels, it can be disappointing when the end result doesn’t match the fanfare. Fortunately Bombay Bicycle Club didn’t disappoint when they released their debut album, I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose, last summer. As something of a reward to their fans, the band have produced Flaws – not quite a new album, but an acoustic EP of old and new tracks aimed as a bit of a bonus to last years debut. We Q+A Suren de Saram, drummer and backing vocalist from the band, to find out about the new record, summer plans and eating curry.

Describe your music in five words
Electronic and folk-tinged indie

What influences you when making a record?
Just life and our experiences really. We’re quite young and quite down-to-earth. A lot of the songs on the first album are about pretty typical teenage things. When we’re not doing band stuff now we just hang out with our old school friends. Obviously we’re not teenagers any more so I expect the second proper album will be a bit less angsty, but it will still be influenced by experiences from our normal everyday lives.

Who had the worst record collection when you were at school?
Probably me. I’m pretty sure I would have had the weirdest anyway. It would probably have been a mixture of jazz and classical CDs, some Now compilations, some Offspring albums and maybe some Britney Spears singles.

How did Flaws come about?
We’ve always had that side to us. We’re interested in and play lots of different kinds of music. Jack writes a lot of “acoustic” songs. Before Flaws we had only ever really used acoustic songs as B-sides to singles, but we decided that that wasn’t really doing them justice and there was enough material to make a nice little album, which is how Flaws came about. Flaws was recorded in a very low-key way. The majority of it was done in Jack’s [Steadman, vocals] bedroom.

You’ve been touring a lot recently – what have been the highlights?
There have been quite a few…going to Japan for the first time in December was really exciting. We were only there for three or four days but we tried to make the most of it. We had a headlining gig at KOKO soon after when we were back in London and I think that was one of the most memorable gigs we’ve ever done for all of us. We had the London School of Samba come on and play with us for the encore…it was a really great moment. The NME tour in February was also a good laugh. It was a lot of fun touring around with three other bands and everyone, bands and crew, was really friendly.

You’re doing a few festivals this year too – are you looking forward to any in particular?
Probably Glastonbury the most. We played there last year for the first time and it was pretty amazing. We all camped for the whole weekend. We have a good slot on the John Peel Stage on Friday this year. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay for the weekend this time as it was my sister’s wedding on the Saturday!

What music do you listen to on the tour bus?
Depends what mood we’re in really. I remember us listening to the Strokes album all the way through on a couple of tours. If we’re in more of a party mood we might put on some electro. On one of our recent tours in Europe we had a two day drive to get to Italy and so we bought a Garage Classics compilation at a service station to relieve the boredom. It had some pretty banging tunes on it but unfortunately we found out our tour manager has a deep hatred for garage.

Are there any bands you would want to collaborate with?
Probably someone from a completely different musical world to us…I don’t know. It would be cool to work with the London School of Samba again.

Have you ever eaten at Indian restaurant chain, Bombay Bicycle Club?
Yeah, they invited us for a free meal when they found out about us. The food’s delicious. The portions are a bit on the small side but it’s very tasty.

What is the band’s favourite type of food? Are there any food/drinks you would demand (diva style) to have backstage for gigs?
We like lots of different kinds of foods - Indian, Chinese, Japanese… We used to go for Indian or Chinese buffets right before gigs but we usually ended up feeling ill on stage so we don’t really do that any more. In fact we had to delay going on stage once because one of us was being sick after we’d gone to a Chinese buffet. We all like sushi too. There is a really good sushi place around the corner from where we rehearse so we go there a lot. We went through a period of asking for sushi on our rider…that’s the most extravagant thing I can think of.


[Originally published on wonderlandmagazine.com/blog, July 2010]