On their sixth album and second since their 2019 reunion, Londoners Bombay Bicycle Club are willing and able to shake things up. When you’ve been in a band with the same people for close to two decades—and remained in each other’s orbit even during a hiatus born out of a need to pump the brakes on something that hadn’t slowed down much at all since it began in 2005—you need to hold onto that sense of enthusiasm and take a risk or two every now and then. Speaking to the band’s Ed Nash from his studio over Zoom over the summer, you get the sense that the four-piece are as fired up as they’ve ever been.
It would be hard not to be after the campaign and ensuing tour for 2020’s comeback record Everything Else Has Gone Wrong was derailed by the pandemic. Nash’s bass has been a key part of the band’s sound since he joined in 2006, and while he’s had different projects on the go over the years, he knows the value of keeping things fresh when it comes to his main gig. For one thing, Nash and his bandmates Jamie MacColl, Suren de Saram and Jack Steadman both expanded and contracted the collective inner circle this time around: My Big Day was self-produced but features the largest cast of guest appearances on any Bombay record to date, including Holly Humberstone, Damon Albarn, Nilüfer Yanya, and Jay Som, as well as a secret collaborator recently revealed as Chaka Khan.
Importantly, the band have never done either of those things before, and it’s that willingness to try something new that fed into the experimental nature of the record (hell, just look at the artwork). With My Big Day out now via AWAL and Mmm… Records, read our conversation with Nash below.
Before we get into what the four of you did do on this album—what didn’t you do this time around?
The main thing we didn’t do was return to using a producer, or a conventional way of recording an album. On our last one, we recorded it with John Congleton, who’s an amazing producer. People like that provide a safe pair of hands; you feel like someone’s at the helm of the ship. With My Big Day, we decided not to do that—to self-produce it, with our singer and main songwriter Jack at the helm. I guess that was the big safety net being taken away.
Did you feel like you had anything to prove with My Big Day?
You’re not “proving it” to other people, you’re showing yourself you can do something new and you can push boundaries. Everything Else Has Gone Wrong, which I like a lot, was quite a conventional and safe record; we did it with a producer and the songs are kind of typical Bombay Bicycle Club—guitar and bass songs, pop songs at their heart. Whereas on My Big Day, some of the songs are very much not like that. There’s a five-minute song with an orchestra [“Heaven”]; a minute-and-a-half-long nu-garage song [“Rural Radio Predicts the Rapture”]… I don’t know if we were proving anything to anyone but ourselves. Six albums in, you’re quite tried and tested. You want to push the boundaries and do something that’s exciting to you.
On the last record, after the hiatus, I think if someone was like, “Should we do a five-minute song with an orchestra?” we would have been like, “That seems too extreme for this, let’s not do that.” This one feels like we had the time and space for that.
“Six albums in, you’re quite tried and tested. You want to push the boundaries and do something that’s exciting to you.”
You put “Diving” out as the second single, which features Holly Humberstone. I wanted to ask about some guest spots on the album, so we should probably start with Holly…
“Diving” was a song we had from 2020. Everyone loved it, but it didn’t seem finished. It kind of sat there and almost got forgotten about. We came up with songs we were more pleased with, as we didn’t know how to finish that one. Then Holly got in touch with Jack and asked him to do some writing for her EP and record, I think, and from there he played a song with her live at Shepherd’s Bush Empire when they were doing a show there.
I don’t know who suggested it, but we remembered “Diving” and went, “You know what would be the perfect way to finish that? If we got Holly Humberstone on it. Her voice would perfectly suit it.” So she went to Jack’s studio, did a day there, and all of a sudden this song that was half-finished and probably wouldn’t have gone on the album before it sprang to life and became a whole new beast. It was amazing working with her, she completely changed the song.
Bombay Bicycle Club photographed by Tom Oxley
How are you feeling about getting Damon Albarn on the record? It would have been a pipedream for you all 10 years ago.
It still feels unreal. I’m a huge fan of everything he does. If it felt like a pipedream 10 years ago, it would have felt like one up until the day he agreed to do it!
How did that happen?
He does a show called Africa Express, a collective touring show of African musicians with UK artists invited to join on a UK tour. Jack went on that about 10 years back, then Damon [co-]wrote an opera which was put on last year in France. He couldn’t make it due to his touring commitments with Gorillaz, so he asked Jack to oversee it because he’s got this really unique skill set where he’s in a guitar band but has an interest in all sorts [of music], including opera and West African.
From that… I don’t know, I think they went in the studio together to work on one of the songs. Damon wrote a big part of it and wanted to sing it himself. It all happened very naturally, all from this relationship built on Africa Express.
“We went, ‘You know what would be the perfect way to finish [“Diving”]? If we got Holly Humberstone on it.’ It was amazing working with her, she completely changed the song.”
You brought all these new people into Bombay’s world, but at the same time you linked back up with the likes of Ben Allen again.
We worked with Ben in 2010 and it’s 2023 now. It’s a huge chunk of time, but it was just immediately like it was back then. You immediately click into place and find your groove, except everyone’s 13 years older. I’m certainly better at playing my instrument and less difficult, stubborn, childish, and all those things I was at 19. It felt like old times with him.
We’d recorded the album, and “Turn the World On” was written very, very near the end of it. We were like, “We need to put this song on the album because we love it,” but everyone was tired out so we went, “We need an outside opinion, someone we trust who can come in and finish the song off.” So we called Ben—I think it was on a Friday, he flew into the UK on Monday, and we did two days with him in the studio to finish the song off. It was that tight a turnaround. Mere weeks from having the song written to it being done.
My Big Day was mixed by Dave Fridmann. How did you link up?
When we recorded with Ben all those years ago, we had a call with Dave about mixing the record—god knows why, but we passed up on the opportunity and did something else! For the next decade, everyone was like, “Oh, we really fucked that up!” He’s everyone’s favorite mixer, we should have done that. We could never get the timing right, so with this one we were like, “Whatever you want! Just set us a time and we’ll deliver the album in this window so you can mix it!” and that’s exactly what happened.
“On the last record, if someone was like, ‘Should we do a five-minute song with an orchestra?’ we would have been like, ‘That seems too extreme for this.’ This one feels like we had the time and space for that.”
We had a conversation when we knew we were gonna do the album [in summer 2022] and he said, “I’m free for this month, and if you can get me the album by then, I’ll mix it.” OK, cool, let’s do that! It was the main deadline we were working toward! It was one of those things where if it didn’t happen now, we hadn’t made it happen for a decade, and you don’t know how many other chances you’ll get.
He’s just the best, everything he mixes sounds amazing. Those Tame Impala records, all those Flaming Lips things, the [debut] MGMT record, which he mixed and produced—the right mix of poppy alternative music plus this weird psychedelic side. He just nails it every time.
What would you say your favorite song on the record is?
I think it’s probably “Onward” into “Ride On.” It’s the most concise and complete song on the record as an idea. To me, the way it builds then goes into that outro is perfect. I’m very proud of that one, it feels like a very neat way of ending the record and summing it up. FL
