Once upon a time they were everybody's favourite pre-pubescent indie brats, but with their critically acclaimed third album, A Different Kind of Fix, hitting stores this month it seems Bombay Bicycle Club have grown up.

Capturing the sound of a band simultaneously progressing and innovating, BBC's third record mixes a new taste of chillwave with the band's signature looped vocal harmonies, rich rhythmic hooks and dewy-fresh Balearic guitars. It is a mark of a band that has achieved a startling amount in a scarily short space of time.

In a little over three years, the north London three-piece have released three LPs - good going in this day and age. From the teenage indie kicks of their debut; to the sparse, timeless folk of last summer's, Flaws (nominated for an Ivor Novello Award); and now their third, most mature effort to date, BBC are fast cementing themselves as one of 2011's leading indie lights.

We caught up with guitarist Jamie MacColl (JM) and drummer Suren de Saram (SS) after a whirlwind summer of festivals for the band that included Glastonbury, Latitude, Reading and Leeds.


Hey! How's it going? What have you been up to lately?
JM: Hello, very well thank you. We just got back from the States so now having a few days of rest before we start our UK tour.
SS: We got back from the States a few days ago where we were touring with Two Door Cinema Club, which was a lot of fun. It was the first proper tour we've done out there. Since we got back we've been planning and rehearsing for the upcoming UK tour which is our biggest one yet so we're all looking forward to it a lot.

Where are you now? What can you see?
JM: Right now I'm sitting in my living room, I can see out the back door, it's quite dark...

How was your summer? You played quite a few festivals... Do any stand out?
JM: Our summer was great. The highlights of the summer for me were Latitude, Benicassim and Reading. The common theme with all of them was that the crowd was amazing.
SS: It basically just consisted of playing festivals. I'd say Reading, Latitude and Benicassim were definitely the three best - the crowds at all three of those were totally insane, which usually equals a successful gig for us. We also played Ibiza Rocks and a festival in Lisbon and we had a few days off around both of those so managed to turn those trips into mini holidays which was nice!

The new album's just out... Can you describe the sound of the record?
JM: If you've heard us before you know that it's really a coming together of the sounds from the first two albums with something a bit new thrown into the mix. But as such the album doesn't really have one sound. It's quite a hazy, late summer kind of album -- there's a lot of reverb.
SS: Songs like 'Bad Timing' could have fitted in well on the first album, while songs like 'Fracture' are much more like the acoustic sound of the second album. I guess the biggest new thing is that Jack (Steadman) has got more into electronic music and sampling, and so that influence has found it's way onto some songs on this album such as 'Shuffle' and 'Favourite Day'.

What did you set out to achieve when you went into the studio?
JM: We didn't really know what we wanted to achieve apart from make an electric album after Flaws. Whenever you make an album the primary goal has to got to be to create something that you're proud of. Anything after that is just a bonus.

How would you compare it to the first two records?
JM: I think it's our best album, but then it's quite hard to directly compare the three albums as they all have quite different sounds. I think every time a band brings a new album out they say it's their best album though...

Do you think it's your most mature album?
JM: In some ways, I think it's definitely the sound of a band starting to come to terms with the kind of music they want to make. I hope you can hear that we've become more comfortable in the studio and to experiment.
SS: I think you can hear that we're becoming more open to experimenting and trying new things on this album. We purposefully chose 'Shuffle' as the first single off the album because it was a new, fresh sound for us and the kind of thing that no one had heard from us before. Whether it's our most mature album, I'm not sure. I'd say it's definitely less 'teenage-angsty' than the first album, but I think Flaws is a pretty mature sounding album for people of our age. I think some people were maybe expecting us to release an album like that a lot further down the road, not as our second album.

When and where did you record the album? How long did it take? Was it a smooth process?
JM: It wasn't a particularly smooth process. It was done over about eight months in a variety of places. The first session took place in September 2010 in London with Jim Abbiss when we did two songs. The second session was also with Jim but in Hamburg. We then went to Atlanta to do some songs with Ben Allen. We then came back to do a couple of tracks ourselves. From reading that you can tell it was a bit all over the place! We had one person mix it though (Craig Silvey), and he managed to tie the whole record together I think.

How was the recording process compared to the first album when you were such a young band?
JM: I hope you can hear that we're more comfortable in the studio now. When we did the first album we probably struggled to express what we wanted and we were also learning about how you do things in the studio. Jack also drove the production side of things a lot more on this album; a lot of stuff from the demos ended up on the final mixes.
SS: We're now becoming more and more comfortable in the studio, and not afraid to speak up if we don't agree with something.

What are the main lyrical themes of the record?
JM: Same as ever really, girls and relationships!


Bombay Bicycle Club live dates:
19 October @ Brixton Academy, London