Bombay Bicycle Club / Groundbreaking interactive video for new single ‘Carry Me’

Earlier this week, Bombay Bicycle Club introduced their new single ‘Carry Me’ – the first track from their forthcoming new album, released 3rd February 2014 through Island Records – via a world first interactive music video that allows viewers to have total control over the band’s actions; essentially making them the director while the band perform in time to the music.

3 days later and 5.3 million stop motion frames have been viewed, with in excess of 100,000 plays of the interactive music video. Viewers have also spent a staggering average time of 7 minutes, 51 seconds interacting with the video.

The band collaborated with award-winning creative company Powster to deliver the innovative video, spending hours painstakingly filming and re-filming each single shot from a range of different angles.

‘Carry Me’ – currently #1 in the Alternative iTunes singles chart – is a monumental fists in the air dance anthem that is probably the band’s most daring, explosive and exciting departure yet from their previous work. You can also listen to the audio on the band’s YouTube & Soundcloud channels as well as currently streaming here.

Its accompanying album looks to break exciting new ground yet again for a band that are effortlessly diversifying and innovating at an astonishing rate.

‘I feel like we’ve found the balance between making it interesting and intelligent, but also not highbrow or elitist’ says Jack Steadman, noting the band specifically took longer to craft this album. He wrote the record while travelling through India, Turkey and Tokyo as well as the UK and the Netherlands; you can really hear the influence of all the different cultures and their native genres among the beautifully crafted songs on this hugely ambitious record.

The album was produced by Jack in the band’s studio in London, making it their most personal record to date. There was always purpose from the beginning to bring everything together for this album, to tell a story from the first track through to the finale with everything interconnecting as a complete body of work. ‘The whole creation process was a really honest one. Jack’s not afraid of us saying a part or lyric doesn’t work so we were able to all be very involved at every level’ says guitarist Jamie MacColl. They called in Mark Rankin (in top form having recently mixed QOTSA ‘…Like Clockwork’ and Aluna George ‘Body Music’) to help record and mix the album. The album also features familiar vocal contribution from Lucy Rose as well as impressive newcomer Rae Morris.

The straightforward guitar patterns have gone out the window and in their place a juxtaposition of tough, offbeat rhythms with shimmering keys, techno blips as well as Bollywood movie samples over exotic instruments like the marimba (played by drummer and percussionist Suren de Saram). It is a record that is almost impossible to categorize and without doubt a defining record for a band that are not even halfway through their twenties.

A snapshot of Bombay Bicycle Club’s history throws up even more unexpected revelations of a band who have quietly become one of the most successful young British bands of their generation. They released their first album ‘I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose’ in 2008 and shortly afterwards won the NME New Band Award beating The XX and Mumford & Sons. They followed this up midway through 2010 with Flaws’, which was nominated for an Ivor Novello. Their most recent album, ‘A Different Kind Of Fix’, was released in August 2011 and like its predecessors, went gold seeing the band’s fan base increase exponentially, culminating in various major main stage festival slots including the Reading and Leeds Festival and a sold out Alexandra Palace headline show.

“I think in terms of the album, there’s a romantic side of it,” says Jack. “There’s a relationship that always seems like it’s in the lurch and ending, but it prevails nonetheless.” A metaphor for the band? “I hope not!” says Jamie. “I do think it ties into our lack of cynicism, though. More than on any of our other albums, there is a feeling of hopefulness.”

‘Carry Me’ regular audio –

BBC News met up with Jack & Ed at Bombay Bicycle Club’s North London studio earlier this week to discuss the new record. Read the full exclusive interview online here.