NH7 Weekender Interview: Ed Nash of Bombay Bicycle Club (London) chats on the back of a Tuk Tuk in Pune, India

While he was in India, Larry had the chance to catch Jack and Ed from Bombay Bicycle Club perform a special acoustic set at the NH7 Weekender. One thing led to another and they ended up on a Tuk Tuk heading to the festival’s afterparty. Here’s what Larry and Ed Nash chatted about while driving around the streets of Pune, India.

Given your bands name, I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise that people have checked you out here.

That’s the funny thing… I actually made jokes about it. But I was genuinely… woah. I guess I wasn’t worried, but I thought people might come and see us because of the name, and then be like ‘Wait a second, what the fuck is this?’ — and that didn’t happen at all. It was the total opposite of that.

People were yelling out for songs.

Yeah, it was completely the opposite of that!

Was it weird playing acoustically?

It wasn’t weird playing acoustic… Acoustic, we do quite a lot, and we always enjoy it. It was weird playing just the two of us. That’s something we haven’t done for a long, long time. It felt like another step down — live set to acoustic feels like a step down, and without the other two, it feels like another step again.

Given the reception you had today, with people coming up to you all the time, are you guys going to try and come back here as a full band?

Yeah. I really think so. I think they initially offered us the festival slot as a full band, but we’ve been on tour for about a year and a half now, straight, so… We’re kind of getting on with the new album, and this festival provided us with a good chance to do something, but we couldn’t do a whole set. I think, when the new album’s out, we can come back… so maybe in two years? I think I would anyway, I love it here. I love this!

It’s amazing! When it comes to the new album: I know you were talking about stuff happening in New Orleans, what’s going on?

It will be our fourth album, which is amazing for one, but we only started touring properly on our third album. You see a lot of bands, and on their first album, they go on tour for two-and-a-half years, and they just rinse it out as much as they can, until it feels dry at the end.

With our third album, we went to a lot of places that we’d never been to before. We’d never been to Australia before, we’d never toured America before, which is completely insane. So all of these places are very fresh for us. And I think when most bands are on their third album, they’re tired, whereas we’re super excited, so I think the idea is to release the album while we’re like this.

Have you started recording it?

No, not yet. It’s partly written, but I’d say there is about 30-40% of it there, if I’m being harsh. But again, Jack’s staying out in Mumbai for two weeks in a studio, so that sounds alright there. Hopefully I’ll help him out. The reason we’re not playing full shows is because we’re concentrating on making our new album.

Do you feel more pressure than you have in the past, in any way? Because the third album did do so well…

I personally don’t, but I’m not the main songwriter. I’m sure Jack will have a different answer. I guess the stakes are slightly higher, but the position you’re in at the time… The stakes always feel just as high, even when we were a smaller band. The stakes always felt just as serious as making this one, because it’s always the most important thing to do at the time. I don’t think that goes up or down. They’ve always felt consistent because we’ve always tried to be better.

Every time you do release another album, or you produce something else, you do go to that next level — even if not always by choice, but by circumstance. If every album gets a little bit more notoriety, and you come to Australia, and go to the US. I can only imagine what’ll happen next time around!

Hopefully we’ll come back to India! I think a look of people would look at us and think it’s happened very quickly, but we’ve been in this band for seven years. It’s felt like a very gradual, natural progression, because we haven’t pushed anything. We could’ve done what most bands do on their first album, but it didn’t feel like the right thing to do. In fact, this is quiet funny, I always think that’s a bit strange.

We asked our fans to send us requests for places to play around the UK, in obscure places, and we went there and had a five day tour. We played in a mine shaft, and a castle… all of these places that no-one could really get to. We did the exact opposite of what every other band would do in our situation!

It seems to have worked, because here we are! We’re travelling around India. You can’t really complain.

I don’t think you can push these things. They work out better when they happen naturally. It’s really cliché to say that, but I think it’s true.

And I guess there’s more longevity to it, too. If it’s happened naturally, it’s not like a one-hit thing, like it’ll come and go. So you guys are here to stay, and we look forward to seeing you in Australia in a few weeks!

Bombay Bicycle Club will be playing in full band mode at Falls Festival in Lorne and Tasmania over New Years. They will also be performing a string of side shows – see the dates here: http://www.bombaybicycleclubmusic.com/live.php

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