Ahead of their Soundwave shows next month, the AU Review caught up with the ‘promosexual’ and ever charming Ben Johnston, drummer for Biffy Clyro, to see what the band has been up to since their last trip to our shores in 2010.
Hi Ben, how are you?
I’m good thanks, how are you?
Yeah good thanks, how’s your day been so far?
My day has been fine. We had a little rehearsal earlier, then had dinner with my parents and now sitting comfy doing interviews so I am having a great day.
Did you have a good Christmas and New Year’s?
Yeah it was great thanks. We just chilled and caught up with family and friends, basically just a classic relaxed Christmas. Unfortunately no snow, just kind of rainy, sleety, pissy weather. We didn’t really get any cool snowfall this time unfortunately. I do like a white Christmas, but it wasn’t to be. It’s a bit hit and miss really, some years there’s too much snow and the whole country shuts down.
Where abouts are you at the minute?
I’m actually at home at the minute. We’ve actually all stayed pretty close to where we grew up. We never made the move to London or anything. It definitely keeps your feet firmly on the ground – you really can’t have an ego on the west coast of Scotland or you’ll get beat up.
Are you looking forward to coming back to Australia for the Soundwave tour? It’s been quite a while since you were here last…
We are so stoked. It should be amazing. We have been dying to get on a festival in Australia for years now and Soundwave seems to be an awesome festival from what we have heard about it. I’m blown away by the line up as well so we really can’t wait to play and blow some minds open.
Have you heard much about the Soundwave tour?
We haven’t heard much about the actual logistics of it really, all I’ve heard is that the line up is phenomenal. We did the Vans Warped tour in America and that was a pretty hectic tour, so I think if we can get through that we can get through anything.
Who are you most looking forward to checking out?
Oh so many. Like I said I was blown away. I can’t wait to check out Jimmy Eat World, Baroness, Glassjaw… I think that almost every band on the line up is someone I want to see. I think we are going to be like proper fanboys at this festival and ’cause we’re not that well known in Australia, we can hopefully just blend into the crowd and not get recognised and just get the true punter experience. It’s not the sort of thing we get to do in the UK anymore, so we are really looking forward to that.
I must say it has always surprised me that you guys aren’t bigger over here…
Yeah, I’ve always thought our music would go down well in Australia. I mean, we grew up listening to Silverchair and bands like that. I think the main reason is that it’s the other side of the world so we really don’t get to come over as often as we would like. Festivals like Soundwave give us a better opportunity to get around a bit more and go to more places when we are over.
After Soundwave you are heading back to the northern hemisphere with a couple of shows lined up for Russia, are you excited to play there?
That is going to be wild – it’s a place we have wanted to play for years. Well, we want to play everywhere really…that’s one of the cool things about being in a band – you get to travel the world, and Russia is a place we haven’t yet been to so finally we get to tick that both and experience some of the culture.
Hopefully we’ll win over some fans there too. It’s a strange country culturally and with everything that is going on I just think that a government is no reason to avoid the country. I mean, we are going there for the normal, everyday Russians, the kids who want to hear some good music and that’s what it’s all about. To be honest, music fans are music fans wherever you go in the world and you just need to remember that. The kids there just want to go to a gig and rock out same as everyone else really.
Is there anywhere else where you would like to play but haven’t managed yet?
Tonnes of places, really. We’d love to go to China and South America. We actually get to play South Africa after we play Soundwave, which should be amazing because we get some time off to go to the game reserves and do some sightseeing. We still haven’t been to New Zealand yet unfortunately so we’d like to get there too. Yeah, there’s no where we won’t play, put it that way.
Speaking of travel, a lot of Aussies head over to the UK as a rite of passage, can you recommend some good venues in your Scottish homeland to check out some local talent?
Well, definitely go to Glasgow [author: yeah take that Edinburgh]. I think Glasgow is a really awesome place for culture and music. Definitely check out King Tuts Wah Wah Hut. It’s always won awards over the years. It holds like, 300-400 people and they is always awesome local talent on like, every night of the week. There’s also Nice N’ Sleazy as well but if you check out King Tuts you’ll definitely have a great night.
Your album Opposites has been out for a year now, are you enjoying playing that one live and still finding that people are enjoying it?
Ah, big time yeah! It’s a real joy to play live. I think when you release any new stuff, the fear is that you go to play them and everyone wants to hear the old stuff. Thankfully, that hasn’t been the case at all. With Opposites, everyone has been screaming for new songs and it just warms your heart when that happens. It seems like you’re really moving forward when people want to hear the new stuff too. It would be awful if everyone was just shouting for songs off our first album all the time. We’re stoked that it got received so well, ’cause we took a risk with releasing it as a double album, in this kind of climate where people consume music in bite sized amounts.
We’re really happy, because a lot of people said it was career suicide, releasing a double album. I mean, it could have been terrible if it was an indulgent double album with loads of fillers, but I think every song matters on the album and every song has its place, so hopefully that’s why it did well.
Well, thanks Ben for taking time to talk to me today. I hope you have a fantastic time over here for Soundwave!
…and dear readers, I am completely unashamed to admit it was at this point I turned completely fan girl and could not stop telling Ben how lovely he was. You really don’t need to read that.
Biffy Clyro’s latest album, Opposites is out now with the band appearing on all Soundwave dates this February and March.
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Don’t miss Biffy Clyro when they tour Australia as part of Soundwave 2014!
SOUNDWAVE FESTIVAL DATES & VENUES – FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014
SATURDAY 22 FEBRUARY – BRISBANE, RNA SHOWGROUNDS
SUNDAY 23 FEBRUARY – SYDNEY, OLYMPIC PARK
FRIDAY 28 FEBRUARY – MELBOURNE, FLEMINGTON RACECOURSE
SATURDAY 1 MARCH – ADELAIDE, BONYTHON PARK
MONDAY 3 MARCH – PERTH, CLAREMONT SHOWGROUNDS
TICKETS ON SALE NOW: http://soundwavefestival.com/
BIFFY CLYRO SOUNDWAVE SIDESHOWS
Monday 24th February – Factory Theatre, Sydney
Wednesday 26th February – Corner Hotel, Melbourne
http://cornerhotel.com
