"No one expects the bass player of a band to do that much." Ed Nash, aka Toothless, is breaking away from this idea by releasing what will surely be one of 2017's highlights. A walk through indie-pop soundscapes and melodies that infect with complete pleasure, ‘The Pace Of The Passing' is not only a strong debut, but it also marks Ed's full immersion since the hiatus of his previous band, Bombay Bicycle Club.
Ed is ready to make sure everyone knows this is where his future lies - and that bass players can have bloody good ideas. "I don't want to come out and have this as a Bombay side project," he ponders. "I want this to be my own thing. I also don't want to alienate people that enjoy Bombay's music and say, ‘Oh, that's nothing!' It's a huge part of my life. I've been trying to tread that line; I don't know if I've done that well or not, trying to stay away from Bombay but also not disassociate myself."
The success that Bombay Bicycle Club found gave its members invaluable knowledge that they can each bring to future projects. In Ed's case, it enabled him to develop a wise and expecting persona. "I don't feel vulnerable at all. I know the industry," he affirms. This wasn't always the case, as you can imagine, starting out in music as a teenager. He remembers with a sly fondness: "I had no idea what was going on then, we were fifteen and not particularly savvy to it. I know some young people can be savvy… it took a couple of years to work out what was going on."
[sc name="pull" text="This is what I want to do now, this is my full-time thing."]
Bombay will always be a massive part of his story, but this new record he's written has so much to say. "I only started properly writing the songs for it when Bombay was nearing an end. I recorded and wrote music, and I just kept that going in the background with the idea that I would do it myself. There's always the excuse of ‘the band' and the time spent doing other stuff," he explains. "In my head, I was like 'I can do this, I want to do it, but when the time is right.' Then the time came, and I couldn't bottle it, I had to follow through. Hence the band name of course, and that's when I started writing the songs for it."
