Bombay Bicycle Club gear up for SA
It’s really hard to believe that UK band Bombay Bicycle Club are all under 24 when I get to chat with them in the UK. Jack Steadman (vocals, keyboards and guitar), Jamie MacColl (guitar), Suren de Saram (drums) and Ed Nash (bass) have been performing material from their fourth album, So Long, See You Tomorrow, but their understanding of music is far more mature than a lot of their peers.
This is why it’s not surprising to see the amount of success the band have managed to amass over the years that most people expect a far less youthful looking band when they hit the live stage. A few months ago, the band announced that they were heading down to South Africa to play at Synergy as well as Sounds Wild Festival presented by Parklife.
This will be the first time the band plays for their South African fans and Jack Steadman is quite excited to return to South Africa to see some old friends and catch up with some family.
"We haven’t played here before but I’ve been to South Africa a couple of times because I have family there, I’m trying to work out how many members are still left down there," he laughs.
His grandparents were the last ones to leave South Africa for the UK but the musician is still excited for a little bit of a homecoming, especially after discovering that they have such a huge fan base in South Africa.
"With social media we had an idea of how many fans were down there and we constantly interact on our Facebook with our fans and they wanted us to come down so we willingly gave in," he says.
"It was hard to schedule South Africa because its so far away and it’s not near anything else but if other bands go and come back and talk about their experience then other bands like us will go."
South Africa is merely a stopover for the band who has been performing songs from their latest album all over the world since the beginning of this year. They’ve performed at Glastonbury, Reading/Leeds, Latitude, Fuji Rocks and Lollapalooza, and will play their first ever UK arena date at London’s Earls Court in December. They have a healthy, ever-growing following in continental Europe and the US, too, with all of their dates having sold out.
But with an ever evolving UK music scene that is far more diverse and growing exponentially, Bombay Bicycle Club has managed to stand out with their music and also become respected for the ease and consistency they bring to the rock table. So Long, See You Tomorrow is yet another leap forward in sound where they have experimented with using the same melody on every song as a bed for a beautiful collection of songs that owe more to experimental electronica than to indie-rock.
"I think we sort of found ourselves. We started like many bands in our adolescent phase and we sort of arrived at the tail end of many things. I think where we found a niche was the fact that we wrote songs about being young and a lot of fans connected with that," says Steadman.
"Everyone talks about how our albums have been different, but from my point of view, this was there the whole time," he says.
In So Long, See You Tomorrow, the band says the album was heavily influenced by the cultures that Steadman experienced during a series of songwriting tours. "We approached this album with a very open mind. We don’t really start making albums with any kind of formal attributes and when you do that you let the music take you somewhere."
Steadman was travelling, often by himself, to India, Japan, Turkey, the Netherlands and around the UK. "I travelled quite a bit and wrote and drew, that was some of the inspiration," he says.
"It made me happy," he says. "And when you’re feeling good you’re going to start creating things. I need to be feeling energetic to write new music."
Bombay Bicycle Club’s local fanbase will get to see the band in full force showcasing their newest material at Sounds Wild Festival on Friday November 28 at Mark’s Park alongside top local acts Jeremy Loops, Shortstraw, Desmond & The Tutus, December Streets and Al Bairre.
Gates open at 1pm and first band is on at 2pm.
EARLY BIRD tickets are SOLD OUT so buy your ticket here before they completely sell out.
EVENT INFO:
Friday, November 28 2014
Venue: Marks Park, Emmarentia, Johannesburg
Line-up: Bombay Bicycle Club (UK), Jeremy Loops, Shortstraw, Desmond & The Tutus, December Streets , Al Bairre
Gates Open: 1pm
TICKET PRICES
Early Bird: R395 –SOLD OUT
General Admission: R440
Ticket Link: http://breakout.nutickets.co.za/soundswild
Facebook Event Link.
