So Long, See You Tomorrow

Album: So Long, See You Tomorrow (2014)
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Songfacts®:

  • According to its press release, Bombay Bicycle Club's So Long, See You Tomorrow album was written by frontman Jack Steadman, "while traveling through India, Turkey, Europe and Tokyo, leaving it audibly awash with references from each of these cultures." Steadman started writing the title track during a stay in Turkey. He recalled to NME: "I was in Sapanca, about a two-hour drive east of Istanbul. Each morning I would get up and have breakfast in the cafe that was built into the mountain with a view over the valley with mosques dotted along the hill. It was beautiful, so the song starts like that – very peaceful."
  • The album illustration was designed by the La Boca graphic design studio. It depicts a man journeying under the guidance of the sun and the moon in their cycles and in an opposing direction to a silhouetted woman. The artwork was inspired by the work of groundbreaking 19th century photographer Eadweard Muybridge. A pioneer in the field of stop-motion photography, Muybridge was famed for his zoopraxiscope, a device for projecting motion pictures that pre-dated the film strips used in cinematography as well as work with phenakistoscopes (a form of early animation).

    Guitarist Jamie MacColl told NME: "The work of 1800s photographer Muybridge has heavily influenced the artwork and videos for the album. He's best known for being a pioneer of stop-motion photography. This new album in some ways is one giant loop, the first song relates to the last and lyrically the overriding theme is of life changing, and at the same time staying the same - a feeling I think that everyone can relate to."
  • The title track was one of three songs on So Long, See You Tomorrow to feature vocals by Rae Morris. The Blackpool-born singer-songwriter hooked up with the Bombay guys through their frequent collaborator Liz Rose. (Morris' elder brother, a tour manager, is married to Rose).

    Morris recalled to Digital Spy. "I met Lucy at Kendal Calling festival back in... I think it was 2011? Maybe it was 2012. We both played on the same stage and we kept in touch and she asked me to support her, so I supported her at the Barfly in Camden. Which was a massive opportunity for me at the time - I couldn't believe it. And then yeah, I went to see Bombay at Manchester Apollo. I had tickets and I went with my family, and I text Lucy, 'Have a great show' and she said, 'Oh, come backstage afterwards, Jack [Steadman] and the guys want to meet you.' So me and my cousin went backstage and met the guys and it was the most starstruck I've even been, probably!"

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