Messed!Up
The music world was gifted with a wonderful surprise in November when Bye Bye Bicycle returned to the scene after an eight year long hiatus. The band’s undeniable energy has endeared them to crowds all across Europe during their frequent tours after their debut album “Compass” in 2009. But after the second album “Nature” a few years later it all came to a halt.
However, while many bands stop making music because the members cannot stand to attend the same conventions together because of the usual feuds and disputes that turn up after a few records, Bye Bye Bicycle lost their direction after signing for a second album release on Sony Music in 2012. The new and organized reality of having a band on a major label just wasn’t as fun as doing it all DIY and they delved deep into the non-musical aspects of life in order to create meaningful work; jobs and families took over.
Eight years later, years of songwriting and rehearsing, the EP “Specular” was released at the beginning of November. And their indie pop trademark is still with them.
Messed!Up met up with André, Nils and Viktor in Gothenburg and chat about memories of the past, eight years of writing new music and getting back to a scene that is quite different from how it was in 2012 – but they’ve found a way to getting high in ranks on Spotify.
Breaking the silence: “It’s not really a comeback”
After an eight year long hiatus you surprisingly released a new EP in November. Not many expected you to return. What made you come back after such a long time?
Nils: It’s not really a comeback, we never split-up or stopped playing, we just didn’t release anything in eight years (laugh). When we were younger much came out of spontaneity, today we release music when we think it’s good enough to be released.
Viktor: It just slowed down after our second album which didn’t pan out well for us. People had high expectations, and we didn’t really fulfill what people wanted from us, and all that felt kind of bad. But we continued although not at the same speed as before because of studies, jobs and family life.
André: You have to remember that the band had existed for a very long time before the break, not just since we released our first album. We’ve played for many years together before that and were used to do things our way, and when it didn’t work out anymore we just slowed things down. But since we’ve played together for such a long time and been friends even a few more years, I knew it was all going to come back to this. The passion for music was still there, but we couldn’t find time to restart.
It was close a few years ago when we played Pustervik [venue in Gothenburg] and just felt “This was so awesome, let’s do this again” and we started to record new music, but then people started families and we lost the momentum (laugh). Jakob just recently got another child but it’s his third and he should be experienced by now, it shouldn’t affect the band (laugh).
It is a great feeling to have released music again and to be back, it’s like having a basic need in life that haven’t been fulfilled for years.
Nils: You realize how important music is when you have been away from the scene for a while. We’ve had periods when we struggled to just find time to meet up for a beer because we have been so stuck in everyday life. Releasing this EP was important to me just to show people what we’ve done while being away.
Viktor: And I’ve had this massive need to play live again and with an EP out, there’s at least a chance to do it. It tells people that we’re back.
André: It’s just stupid to have all these songs and ideas and not do anything about it. We’ve put so much time into recording new music, why not release it on record and show the world that we’re still here.
What changed when you signed with Sony? Did it become too organized and less spontaneous?
Nils: Something like that. We already had a network of venues and bookers in Europe, people we learned to know when we toured our first record, and we were used to dealing with it on our own.
When the second album was released Sony wanted us to focus on Sweden and I can understand all that because they wanted us to sell records. But what made it fun for us was going on a ten-day tour in Portugal even if it didn’t pay off in terms of money. It wasn’t that fun to play a Thursday night in Linköping [Sweden] (laugh).
André: The first record was released by us. It was all DIY and we were in control of everything and toured a lot in Europe. Then Sony signed us for a second record and of course they had other ways to work with releases than we were used to. When you release something on your own you can make all the decisions yourself and do a tour where you lose money just because it’s fun to tour, but when a major label invests money in your band they will have expectations on you to get something back of their investment. That whole situation was quite new to us and we didn’t really know how to handle it.
It would have been expensive for Sony to launch our album abroad as well, they had already done quite a campaign for us in Sweden. But we were used to release our music in Benelux, Germany, Spain, UK, Portugal and many other countries, and for us it wasn’t a problem because we had contacts we could use. It doesn’t have to be a big deal. But with a major label it is and it has to be done in a more organized way than we did it, they would take a huge risk otherwise. Nobody wants to do that with a small band, I can understand that today.
Nils: Yeah, but back then we were quite pissed off, maybe because we were a bit immature and naive (laugh), like young people often are.
Today we work with Sebastian [Fors] at Lazy Octopus Records and it feels like we’re back to how it used to be on our first record, doing much of the work ourselves. We share the same vision and have similar ambitions, and there’s really no pressure involved.
André: He’s great in finding the essence in the bands he works with and works with them on a long-term basis, and that’s good for us.
You don’t know what to expect when you haven’t released anything in eight years. Is anyone interested in our music? Do people remember us? Of course you want people to listen to your music, but we’re a bit lost on how to release music today. The last years have been about writing music and make it sound good, but all the other things like releasing, promoting and distributing music have to be relearned again.
But does it feel like a restart of the band and that you have to find an audience again or do you rely on people who used to listen to you?
Nils: We definitely have an audience, you realize that when people say “Hey, you’re back again? I haven’t heard anything in years. I remember this and that show. Love it”. And it’s increasing; for some reason we have fans in South America, especially some fanatics in Mexico (laugh).
André: We don’t know how that happened at all. There was a discussion on doing some shows in South America and Eastern Europe after the second record because we had fans there, but we ended up in this downward spiral and didn’t really have the energy to explore those parts of the world. But it means we can pick up on it now.
As life has changed it may be different for you to put as much energy into the band and touring today? It’s easier when you’re young and don’t have families.
Nils: It will take some planning in advance (laugh). As it is today it’s even hard to meet up twice a week for rehearsals and I guess we’ll need at least half a year to plan for touring (laugh).
André: But we just have to play live, all of us want it. How we’ll solve it with families and work in this 2.0 version of the band we don’t know yet, but not playing live after all the work we’ve done would be a disaster. We did these two gigs at Pustervik, one in 2018 and another the year after, and it was an amazing feeling to be back on stage again.
Nils: And we’ve stuck together for such a long time now. Next year we celebrate our 20th birthday, that’s amazing for any band to stay together that long.
André: And we never changed any band members during these years.
Nils: Just once we had to use a temporary drummer when Victor was in an accident in Australia.
Viktor: I had surgery and went straight from the hospital to the venue to see if I could play but it didn’t really work out well when I was high on medication (laugh).
André: We’ve done things together even during the break, like writing new music and rehearsed when there has been time for it, but we never reached the point when we felt that we had four songs that worked well together on an EP, it took a while to get there.
We never ever had a discussion on changing band members. If it would ever happen we would have to start a new band and play something else. We’re also friends since our teens and have a history together. But we’re not afraid that someone would leave the band, it’s not really demanding at all (laugh).
But I guess you know better what works out and not today, and know the pitfalls of the music industry?
Nils: Maybe, but we have kept a bit of the naivety to not feel too old (laugh). I can get the same feeling today that I had 15 years ago when we start meeting up for rehearsals a few times a month and record new songs. Then this feeling of hubris return again. And it’s a good feeling because it pushes you to write music that people want to listen to, and when someone listens to it you feel like you’ve done something good. Doesn’t everyone want to get that kind of affirmation (laugh)?
André: That’s the reason you want to write good music. If people listen to what we do we’ll get booked for live shows and can release more music. But most important for us is to write good songs.
An album or an EP in 2021
Things used to be so simple. You would release some singles to get some hype. Maybe an EP for something a bit more substantial. Then work your way up to an album to make that lasting impact. Singles were there to promote the album, for the most part. But something happened with the arrival of Spotify and similar streaming services. People started to listen to single songs, not full albums, and we’ve reached a point where some people claim that the album is dead.
As downloading and streaming has become more prominent, listening habits have shifted towards playlists and other combinations of single tracks. People could now skip the tracks they don’t like on an album and just choose to repeatedly listen to a select few. As such, things are way more complicated.
Also, with the maturing of music streaming platforms, the playing field has vastly changed, music is now consumed in a much less linear, predictable and controllable fashion. The power used to be in the hands of the record labels and the radio stations, now it’s shifted to the hands of the streaming platforms, their algorithms and their editorial teams. To get attention in the buzz of bands out there you need to have a strategy – and Bye Bye Bicycle found an innovative way of dealing with the algorithms.
The ”Specular” EP arrived in November and has been well-received by the press. Is it a release of older songs you were supposed to have released after the second record or brand new?
Nils: A bit of both. Some songs are older and have been reworked quite much, and some we wrote during the hiatus and then worked on them until they were ready to be released. We have the originals on our phones and they sound quite different than on record, but I guess a lot changes in eight years (laugh).
André: What’s interesting is that we’ve done lots of new music this year. I can’t understand how it happened because we haven’t had time to rehearse that many times, but I guess we’re in one of these very creative periods where ideas come pouring out of us.
Releasing the EP was amazing for us because it opens the door to something bigger. The question is if we have the energy to record a new album or if it’s better to release another EP. “Specular” was perfect for us, it’s a great format with only four songs. When you do an album there’s always a risk that some songs won’t end up super good.
Nils: And we have a lot of songs at the moment, almost for two records.
Some say that the album is dead and the EP is a better format because Spotify has changed how we listen to music.
Nils: That’s the point, it’s not that fun to release an album anymore when no one listens to all the songs on it.
André: At least we’re old enough to release music on physical media and we happen to love vinyl, and ”Specular” just had to be released on vinyl (laugh).
I can’t see the point in just releasing digital music, I like to have a record in my hands and watch the artwork and feel all that other stuff. We still want our releases to tell a story and you can’t tell stories in one song and will never start releasing singles only. Maybe it would be better for the band because we will become more visible, but it’s not really our thing to have new content on Spotify every month.
Nils: It doesn’t really matter what we release, what matters is to release something. If it turns out to be a full album it would be awesome because it means that we have been super creative.
In the context of promotion and distribution you’ve also found a very innovative way to manipulate the Spotify algorithm when you renamed all your old songs and pushed them higher up in ranks on Spotify.
Nils: There are quite many bands releasing remastered records or something similar to push their old songs and give them a bit more attention, but I don’t think anyone has done it like us (laugh).
André: We’ve never really put much effort on promotion, but understand that it’s important to reach out to an audience, especially when we have a new EP out. Let’s say it’s a sort of narcissism that we don’t talk about, but we want people to discover us (laugh).
When we released ”Specular” eight years after our second record we asked ourselves “How do we do it?”. We didn’t have the same channels for promotion and distribution as we had at Sony and had to rethink everything.
What I really like at the moment is the feeling that we have a lot of energy to do this. There’s a plan to record more music soon and we’re writing new music all the time.
The next few months are about recording new songs and hopefully release something at the beginning of next year then?
André: Yeah, for a release sometime during next year. We talked about recording new music before the end of this year but I’m not sure we’ll make it. We need to be sure that we can play live the next time we release something, it doesn’t work out to release another EP and not having any live shows.
To keep up the attention for a release you have to play live. It’s quite obvious when you release something and tour for a week or two. Instead of reaching out to people for a few weeks, you will get attention for months. But we can at least record new music and wait for the right moment to release it.
And touring when it’s possible again? I remember you played quite much in Germany and Hamburg and did a few shows at Molotow. Is it something you would consider to do again even if you pointed out in an interview that “it’s not as fun to play Hamburg anymore, sleeping on someone’s sofa and find out that you have 30€ left to live off and half a month left”?
André: Yeah, it would be amazing to do it again. After how this year turned out I think that most people understand how important culture is for our well-being, and we realized it when we released the EP but couldn’t have a release party and play any shows at all. It really doesn’t feel right when you’re in a band.
Nils: We still have our contacts in Europe and if we want to go out on tour again I’m sure it would be possible to arrange for it.
André: But when we were young we swallowed whatever was served. Today we can afford to be a bit picky and ask ourselves “Is this something that’s good for us?”. We would never ever think about turning down an opportunity when we were young (laugh).
Nils: Never! We did whatever it was, like playing ten straight days in Germany and sleep at some weird university in Bayreuth (laugh).
André: Yeah, that was on our way to Munich, wasn’t it (laugh)? We slept at a student place and the day after we were booked at a four-star hotel. You never really knew anything about the sleeping conditions until you arrived at the venue (laugh).
Viktor: Some days you were at the top of the world and others you would sleep at the booker’s office on the floor with no pillows.
André: My God! I just want to get out and play Europe again when we talk about these things. It was such an inspirational time in my life, to meet all the people and travel between countries. All that inspiration actually transpired into a lot of ideas for the second record.
We just have to find a way to get out in Europe again.
Photographer: Jens Eliasson
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