25 March 2022 - 0 Comments

Ivy League Records are overjoyed to invite you to Love Boredom Bicycles, the party that is the exuberant debut album from the endearing and revered New-Zealand band, Bakers Eddy. A delightful melding of boisterous and unhindered youthful energy, Love Boredom Bicycles is an unabashed and idiosyncratic expression of prevalence in the ‘coming of age’ journey, as the band explore the tension between the terror of self-discovery and resounding hope in their trademark humorous tone. And this party is set to soon tour the nation! Catch the loveably shambolic Bakers Eddy as their embark upon their most extensive tour yet through Australia this June – July, playing 25-dates to fans across both capital cities & regionally. The tour coincides with the news of the band’s recent signing to renowned booking agency, Select Music (The Veronicas, The Teskey Brothers, DZ Deathrays).

“Honestly it feels like such a relief to be finally putting this record out. Not only because of COVID pushing the release back, but ever since we were little kids we talked about how cool it would be to one day have an entire album that was our own, that we made ourselves without compromise, and to actually see and touch it is an emotional thing, especially after the fuck around we’ve copped over the last two years”.

With its infectiously energetic pace, racing chords and youthful vigour, Love Boredom Bicycles is bursting with irresistible nostalgia! Alongside producer Oscar Dawson (Holy Holy), Bakers Eddy have masterfully captured the authentic spirit of the demos they’d made themselves during lockdown in their share house studio, constructing an album with good times coursing through its veins.

“The whole record is supposed to sound like the life of the party,” explains Ciarann. “’Concertina’ is the kick arse opener where you walk through the doors and everyone’s vibing and having a great time. And then it takes you through the journey of this party and then you’re left at like 5 o’clock in the morning, with like 2 or 3 people around, you’re gonna have a beer and go to bed. And you’re just reflecting, like, ‘That was a sick party, yeah.’”

Not to be confused with naivety, the jovial armour and playful antics projected by the band leave plenty of room for nuance. In fact, it is this very light-heartedness that allows them to write about the deeper and more painful aspects of what it is to be human, what it means to be grappling with growth, and the burden of optimism in a changing world.

“I love serious topics being hidden behind a bit of humour,” says Babbington. “And I also like really sad songs being masked by really happy music. ‘Drinking Mood’ is a really upbeat, high tempo, fun song with a big sing-a-long in the middle, but it’s actually one of the most depressing songs on the record. It’s about being so depressed that you turn to booze.”

This dichotomy is evident in ‘My Baby’s Like Cigarettes’ (which contains excellent lines like, “My baby’s like electrolytes, she’s good for me”) is a love song like no other. In another band’s hands, it might have ended up as a soppy ballad, but here its tenderness is cloaked in a healthy dose of humour.
 
Bursting with a bucket load of hooks and an irresistibly charming sense of humour, rarely does an album sound as though the people making it are having this much fun, and that’s largely because they were. Thick as thieves and having been a band since they were 12-year-old kids in Wellington, Ciarann and his bandmates: twin brothers, guitarist Alex and bassist Ian Spagnolo, and drummer Jamie Gordon are 12 years later living together in a share-house in Melbourne. These sentiments of comradery were echoed in the ethos the boys brought into the studio. “Even when we were recording guitar and bass,” says Alex, “we’d all be standing up and hopping along and shit like that, not just sitting there, trying to get everything perfect.” For the band it was about vibe over everything. “We made a point of making it sound more like the demos, cos when the demos were recorded at home we were often having a bit of a party,” says Ciarann. “It’s like, let’s be loud and have some fun.”

Photo Credit: Leila Maulen

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