Biffy Clyro brought their impressive live show to Schaffhausen, headlining Stars in Town in August, one month before releasing their tenth record, «Futique». There, they performed «Hunting Season» live for the first time. Ben and James Johnston, two-thirds of Biffy Clyro, sat down to discuss the new album, the band’s live energy, and a legendary night at Wembley Stadium. Next February, the Scots will bring «Futique» to Switzerland for two nights, with shows in Zurich and Bern.
Biffy Clyro are:
Simon Neil (vocals, guitar)
James Johnston (bass)
Ben Johnston (drums)
Indiespect: It's album number ten already – you seem very productive. What's your favourite part of the process: writing, recording, or touring?
Ben Johnston: Often it's the one you're not doing at that moment. Each phase has challenges and joys. The studio can be hard work. You encounter a lot of problems, but then you solve them and come up with a great sound, which is exciting. Touring can be tiring because of the travel, but the reaction on stage is incomparable. We love all of it, really. Making this album was probably one of the best experiences we've had in the studio so far. It felt very creative. We worked really well with Jonathan Gilmore and loved being at Hansa Studios in Berlin. We were pushing ourselves, but it never felt like a slog.
We were pushing ourselves, but it never felt like a slog.
Indiespect: On the record you captured a lot of your live energy. How do you access «stage mode» in a studio?
James Johnston: You need patience in the studio; it's not like in the movies. Songs evolve, and you sometimes redo parts.
Ben Johnston: There are often technical problems that can hold you up, and you record nothing for three days because you're trying to find them – trying to track down a hum or a buzz. It interrupts your flow and makes it hard to give off that stage energy that you're referring to. That's more about clever recording techniques than an actual stage performance. You're not really jumping around in the studio. I'm hitting the drums very hard, but I'm not playing with as much showmanship as I would on stage.
Biffy Clyro (from left to right): James Johnston, Simon Neil, Ben Johnston
Indiespect: Your new record is called «Futique», a beautiful word creation that combines «future» and «antique». Was that also the approach to its sound, to have a futuristic feel and still draw from your past?
Ben Johnston: Well done – exactly that. The record is named Futique, and it's also alluding to that. We opened the Biffy cupboard, and we weren’t afraid to draw tiny fragments from earlier songs. In the past, we would always be very wary of doing anything that sounded similar to our earlier albums. Working with Jonathan Gilmore, the catchphrase became: Let Biffy be Biffy. Anytime we were coming to a crossroads and couldn't decide what to do, he would always just say: Well, do what Biffy would do. That's what we did. He made us unafraid to do that. The record definitely sounds like it's an amalgamation of all we've learned up to this point.
The record definitely sounds like it's an amalgamation of all we've learned up to this point.
Indiespect: You’ve always been open to new directions. In interviews you said that as twins you're almost like one. But do you sometimes have arguments about the direction you want to take?
James Johnston: Not really arguments – sometimes we simply don’t know ourselves. We had one song on this album called Shot One that went through five different styles; at one point it even had whistling. When you hear it, you would think: How can this song ever feature whistles? But that's not an argument within the band. It’s more about moving ideas around until the song finds its home. Generally, we tend to agree on most things like that.
«A Little Love» is the triumphant opener of «Futique».
Indiespect: Is there a song you’re most proud of right now?
Ben Johnston: I like the last song, Two People in Love.
James Johnston: No. I love them all. A song like Goodbye is so personal and so beautifully written, with such a wonderful sentiment and a gorgeous melody. But no, at the moment I love them all. I just can't wait for people to hear them.
The songs become a living animal. Even if you haven't changed too much, they are quite different
Indiespect: When the album’s done, how do you translate the studio versions to the stage versions?
Ben Johnston: We start by playing the songs as they are, then tweak tempos or dynamics if needed. We work out how to do that with the many members that we now have live. We've got two extra members all the time, and we have string players. There are ways to catch the little essences from the record.
James Johnston: The songs become a living animal. Even if you haven't changed too much, they are quite different. They carry more energy.
Two strings and additional live members. Biffy Clyro are able to pull off an amazing live sound.
Indiespect: You supported Muse for their second night at Wembley Stadium in 2007. That's where they recorded H.A.A.R.P., one of the best live albums of all time. What do you remember from that day?
Ben Johnston: It was incredible. We were one of the first bands ever to play there [note indiespect.ch: the new Wembley Stadium opened that month and Muse's gigs where the first sold out shows that took place there]. An incredible gig. Muse have been wonderful to us over the years. We've played with them in the UK, all over Europe, and in the States as well. A band that we love, and that obviously loves us back because they kept having us back. But yeah, that first time playing with Muse in Wembley was fucking incredible. It was a beautiful day, and everything went really well. It felt like we were playing to our crowd. The Muse fans seemed to take us into their hearts.
A band that we love, and that obviously loves us back.
James Johnston: I remember thinking we were somewhat on a par with them, until they just went flying up in the air.
Ben Johnston: Then we thought: okay, these guys are just gods. I was actually in a gym in London not too long ago, a fairly shit gym, and Dom Howard just popped by and was like: Hey, Ben! He also texted me a couple of days ago to say that he loves our new stuff. We're still in touch with him.
© Julius Hatt
Indiespect: I have a feeling that you put a lot of effort into your live performance, and not so much that you want to focus on huge theatrical stadium productions. Would you consider doing that anyway, or is your focus always on the music?
James Johnston: We'd love to do that, as long as it doesn't come in place of the music. As long as the music is still the most important thing, you can use visuals and lights, gimmicks and fireworks to make the music more impactful — as long as you're not doing it to cover up the fact that a song is shit, you know? Which some bands do.
As long as the music is still the most important thing, you can use visuals and lights,
gimmicks and fireworks to make the music more impactful
Ben Johnston: We do use those things. We played in Scotland where we headlined a festival called TRNSMT and played more songs. There we used things like flames, confetti, streamers and stars. We're not afraid to use these sorts of things. We wouldn't go down the route of having anything that was pre-shot in terms of being acted out. I don't think we would ever do any kind of on‑stage acting where there was a story or anything. We wouldn't go that far. But we enjoy a bit of theatre.
Goosebumps guaranteed: Biffy Clyro closing their headline set at TRNSMT Festival.
Indiespect: Since your early days you always had that wild, relentless energy. How do you sustain it?
James Johnston: It's tough, man. It's tough. It comes from in here. And adrenaline. Until our bodies stop us from doing this, we just keep going as hard as we're going.
If we ever thought we were playing even an 80% gig, then we would start cancelling shows.
Indiespect: But after the show, when the adrenaline is gone, your body aches?
James Johnston: Yeah, fuck yeah. But we're really dedicated to what we do. People spend a lot of money to come see us. They want to have a good time. We want to give them a good time. So it's only natural that you put as much effort into it as you can. That's how we feel. Yeah, you can do 50%, but...
Ben Johnston: If we ever thought we were playing even an 80% gig, then we would start cancelling shows.
James Johnston: We've never done that. It's not in our mindset at all. Maybe one day 100% will be more like 80%, but we're still gonna give everything for it.