Ahead of their first Australian show supporting Muse at the Acer Arena in Sydney, I sat down with brothers Ben and James Johnsons, Drummer and Bassist of Scotland’s Biffy Clyro, respectively, in their Sydney hotel. The finely dressed Scotsman looked back at 2010, get a hint as what to expect on their Australian tour (which includes a couple of solo outings), chat about the Cricket, and look forward to 2011.
When I spoke to Ben back in May, he remarked on how little time the band gets to spend exploring a city while they’re touring. However, with the Muse Australian tour, as James discussed, they’ve had a bit more time than they usually are granted: “We’ve had a couple of days off in Sydney, just trying to fight the jetlag and relax. It’s been fun, and of course we’re looking forward to the shows”. And Melbourne is always a special place for the band as well, “there are so many Aussies in Scotland and so many Scots in Melbourne! So we’ll be catching up with some mates down there, doing the touristy things”
Ben continued, “(The Muse shows) will be a good way to get in front of a huge group of people. We’ve been priviledged to be asked to come down and do these shows. Hopefully we’ll get to steal a bunch of Muse fans off em!”
They have toured with the band before, supporting Muse at the legendary Wembley Stadium, Ben continuing, “That was a really special gig, it’s the biggest stadium in Europe I think? But like 60,000 people, something like that … we’ve done that gig with them twice actually … absolutely incredible”. James continuing, “They’re good guys to watch, too, and all around great guys, so it’s going to be a fun tour (here in Australia).”
Looking back to the UK, they headlined their own show at Wembley’s Arena last week, which ended their European 2010 tour. As James explained, “it was a good way to end the tour, it’s such an iconic venue in our country, and a bit of a dream to get to headline in there for any band… we’ve never been to a big show in Australia (let alone played one!)”.
If you head to http://www.biffyclyro.com, you’ll be able to have a gander at the sort of stage show they had going on ot Wembley Area. Some pretty impressive stuff, I asked if this was the setup they brought with them along with the whole tour: “There were maybe two shows where we had to downscale the production a little bit,” Ben reflected, “but the rest of them we took along all the lights and the drapes and just tried to make a real show of it. There comes to a point where you’ve got to do more than just play your music, you’ve got to make a show of it – and these guys (the rest of the band) really get to run around the stage and make the most of it. A lot of work.”
Looking towards the Australian tour, Ben continued, “we couldn’t bring (the stage show) down with us, it was nearly impossible, but we’ll still be playing a similar set to what we’ve been doing in Europe. They mightn’t be as long a shows, but we’ll try and fit in as many songs, from as many albums as we can, with the same intencity that we’re used to!”
Of course, their crowds can get pretty intense as well, and as James realised, there’d probably be quite a few fans from back in the UK wreaking havoc up the front… “because of the cricket (The Ashes) there’s supposed to be quite a lot of Poms over here.” Have you guys been able to follow the games while on tour, I asked? Ben replied, “Yeah loosely, I’m going to be supporting Australia if we’re going to support anyone. Being a Scot, you have to support whoever is playing England, so I’m totally not digging it that the English are creaming Australia. But they still have time to come back.”
Looking back at their 2010 tour schedule, the boys of Biffy have barely had a day off all year – touring Europe, then Australia, then the US, then Europe again, now back down to Australia… Ben took this even further, remarking “It hasn’t stopped in four year we’ve figured out, so we’re going to be taking January off.” Not that it will much of a holiday though, as the boys will be spending their time off working on new material, “we only ever write at home, so we’ll get back, take a bit of time off and then slowly get back into it. We’ve already got a bunch of songs there. If there was something we were working on on the last record that didn’t quite fit, we’re not going to throw it away. But we want to have a whole pool of songs there before we make the album, and I’m sure once we get home the songs will flow.”
When it comes down to recording the album, it looks like March may be the case, as they take another short break following another US tour. Their last two records were recorded with Garth Richardson in Vancouver and Los Angeles, respectively. I asked if he’d be back on board for the new record, to which James admitted, “I think there’s a good chance of that. We like to do things in threes, it seems to work well for us. We made our first three records with a guy called Chris Sheldon, and we’ve now made two with Garth, so it may be poetic to finish that off. But we’ll have a bit more thoughts on that one as we get a bit closer to it.”
While they might write at home, James says they prefer to record away from home, “it’s nice to go away from home because then all you’re worrying about is the record – you’re not doing your laundry or doing the dishes or things like that, the distractions for everyday life.” But I don’t imagine they’ve been doing much of that this year, “no we haven’t, and you miss it!”
While they haven’t stopped touring in four year, 2010 did bring along some touring firsts. The band played their first ever shows in Estonia and the Chezch Republic, as well as parts of Finland and Scandinavia that they hadn’t been to before. James remarked on the latter: “They’re a law unto themself, (The Scandinavians), once you get up to the Northern reaches of Finland, over the Winter is dark for months. So there’s definitely a bit of an outlaw mentality with people there. It was all really exciting though. In Estonia for instance, we sort of excpected it to be a journey through time in some regard, going to the Medieval part of the city. But the other part of the city was very modern, it kind of took our breath away a little bit. It’s nice to stop by so many countries that you haven’t been to, and make new discoveries.”
And the places they’ve performed have been interesting, too: “We played a song on a balcony overlooking (the Reeperbahn in Hamburg) for balconytv.com … We played at the House of Parliment earlier this year as well, for a radio station anniversary party, and on a ship in Glasgow. It’s really cool, it breaks the cycle of the normal type of show every night.”
Their latest music video, “Booooom, Shake and Ruin” (below) showcases just how little time they’ve had off the road: it’s a live music video, but as James explained, as we brought our interview to an end, there wasn’t anything more fitting: “We wanted to show a little bit of the live experience, and what it’s like to watch the Biff… and the fans as well, they’ve supported us this year like we couldn’t have hoped for. It’s nice that a few of them might get to watch themselves rocking out in the video, it’s a cool way to involve them, because they’re the biggest part of it.”
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UPCOMING AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES:
Biffy Clyro will play an intimate solo gig in Sydney tonight, at the Factory Theatre (limited tickets will be available on the door), before continuing on wiht the Muse tour in Melbourne next week. They will also play solo at the HiFi in Melbourne on the 16th. Their most recent LP, Only Revolutions is in stores now!
