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Impossibly young North London five piece Bombay Bicycle Club are markedly different from most new bands. Speaking to Gigwise on a lovely spring day, it’s clear that their origins don’t begin with their undying thirst to create music and hence form a band. Somewhat beguiling, instead they tell us that they formed because "the heads of year at our school asked us to do an assembly" and "the stuff we were hearing on the radio and in the NME was kind of shit." Such humble beginnings makes it a tad surprising that four lads barely out the G.C.S.E examination room write such reflective, melodic lines about life and love, with such radiant brilliance.
Now, BBC are doing things their way. Having already released their first E.P. 'The Boy I Used To Be' on their own label 'Mmm... Records' purely because they felt that, as lead singer Jack Steadman puts it, "there's not much point doing anything else until we can commit to something like a record deal", on top of this they’ve been offered the help of prestigious producer Jim Abbiss (Arctic Monkeys, Editors, Kasabian fame) to get behind the desk and make it happen after he heard them live.
As all this was happening to BBC, after playing to "about 10 people the week before", they played to a several thousand strong audience and got the all sacred exposure bands can only dream of after beating off the likes of The Holloway's to win the Road to V festival. "The V festival was probably the funnest thing we've ever done" says Suren, BBC's resident drummer and chanter, "We thought it was a joke when we first heard we were through to the finals, and then suddenly we were through to the last four, so it was all a massive shock to us". Surely, you ask? These lads’ heads cannot be anywhere near the ground they walk on? What's their poison? The shadowy, bourgeois haunts of London? Hallucinogenics? Peaches Geldof? "We're not very rock and roll to be honest, our parents bring our gear to our gigs and stuff, we can’t even drive."
No, fraid not, instead BBC are going against the grain of publicity fuelled fights (though a "friendly rivalry" with indie starlings and classmates Cajun Dance Party is on the go) and model dating to remain level headed. They shun the very thought of quitting the classroom and living a life of heady excesses, because, as Jack says, "it would probably harm the growing of the band."
We're all the happier for it if it means they can produce more stuff like the rousing sound of 'The Boy I Used To Be', and in particular 'The Hill', a tale of youth and an impassioned cry from Jack that "I want to go back to old times". The life of the modern day youth seems the ingredient of the day in these tracks, and though Jack is quick to dismiss that the lyrics focus on social commentary a la Arctic monkeys, " I don’t think we sing about going down the shops and stuff," he does admit that "the only thing that we know what to write about is our lives you know, so our age does contribute to what we want to say. Someone who listened to the E.P. said it made them feel like a teenager again so I guess our music can have that affect."
Bombay Bicycle Club are a band on the up, but the old adage 'what must go up' and so forth is bandied about like nobodies business nowadays, do they feel any pressure? "I don't really feel any pressure "says Jack, "I suppose we try not to think about it. I think there’s pressure to be consistent which is scary. Starting so young means that you have to keep it up for even longer, we have to produce music for a year and a half before we can have a real stab at it, but I don’t think we're that worried.
So with already "enough songs to do another E.P." and Jim (Abbiss, mentioned earlier) back to produce it in the summer as "he gave us a kick up the arse last time, really helped us with our arrangements and stuff" says Suren, "we're really happy with how it (the first E.P.) turned out, so we’re hoping that Jim will have a really good effect on the second one as a producer and its going to turn out really well." The future is bright for BBC for the time being, but how about after that lads? "We'll probably have a gap year and concentrate on the band and if it doesn't work out then, I don't know, maybe university."
One listen to their music and it’s clear that the band will be treading nowhere near those campus gates any time soon.
