Post-hiatus, it’s safe to say Bombay Bicycle Club have the ball well and truly rolling again.
Having begun work on new material around 18 months ago, guitarist Jamie MacColl explains how the English indie-rock band have made a steady journey towards the release of new album, 'Everything Else Has Gone Wrong'. “Coming back was very natural,” Jamie says.“We started rehearsing in my back-garden studio – a small, little room – and it felt similar to when we started the band, when we rehearsed in my mum’s basement. It felt so natural at the time.”
For a time, the members of Bombay Bicycle Club went their separate ways and pursued solo ventures that, for the most part, were far removed from what they’d achieved as a band.
But those new projects have, Jamie says, helped shape the group's new album. “On the last album [2014’s 'So Long, See You Tomorrow'] there were clearly other types of music Jack wanted to explore,” Jamie says of the band’s lead vocalist and primary songwriter, Jack Steadman.
“It was very sample heavy, electronic, very layered, and there were signs then; I think he felt like he was constrained by working within what maybe he thought were the confines of a guitar band – although, I’m not sure you could call us a guitar band on the previous album.
“I think him having an avenue for songs that aren’t necessarily Bombay Bicycle Club songs means this album is probably, slightly simpler and more direct. There’s less going on.
“The last album, it felt like we wanted to show every idea possible – as many hooks as possible, textures on textures. I left music completely. I did two degrees, but I’m not sure that’s informed this release.”
After their hiatus, Jamie says that as individuals Bombay Bicycle Club have grown up and are now more secure within themselves than when the band first paused in 2016. “It’s all we’ve known since the age of 18. Our entire adult lives were inextricably bound with being in the band. It has a big impact on the way you perceive yourself.
“One of the great benefits of us stopping was that we were able to establish our own identities outside of the band.”
And identity is a large aspect explored in 'Everything Else Has Gone Wrong'. Sonically the album is, for better or worse, very stripped-back, so it’s very easy to pick away at the sentiments and thematic interests within the album.
But with a title like the one Bombay Bicycle Club have given their new record, the question you may find yourself asking is what hasn’t gone wrong? Laughing knowingly, Jamie says: “The sentiment of the album is essentially that music is the [one] thing that doesn’t ever go wrong.
“The act of playing it or listening to it or the act of creating it. It’s something you can turn to in times of personal crisis or if you’re just feeling anxious about the world around you.
“Although at first glance that album title seems quite negative, it’s actually, I think, a positive sentiment about finding some hope and positivity in something.”
Hope and positivity. Those are the sentiments Bombay Bicycle Club have made their focus with this release. “I listen to it and I think it’s definitely the most positive album we’ve made,” Jamie says, “which, I don’t know, thinking about it it’s not a political album.
“There’s no commentary on politics, anyway. Some songs hint at general feelings of anxiety around climate change, but I do think the decision to make a positive or hopeful record in a period of history like this is kind of a sentiment in its own right. [Because] choosing to be optimistic about the future, I think, is like making a political statement, in a small way.”
