upfront
B I F FY C L Y R O Lauren Phillimore speaks with Biffy Clyro drummer Ben Johnston about the band’s highlights of 2016 so far, their new number one album Ellipsis and their upcoming arena tour. How would you sum up your new album in one sound? Oh my god! You haven’t started with an easy one have you? Erm, I think it would probably be a sound of surprise, I’m trying to think what that is, um, probably ‘OH’, something like that. What has been the band’s highlight of 2016 so far? I would have to say it would be our performance at Reading that was definitely special, to pull it off for a second time and to have improved on our 2013 performance. So it was a real highlight and we all got a massive buzz off it and I’ve watched it back on iPlayer about 10 times, so yeah I’m very proud of what we did there. Which song on the new album means the most to you and why? That’s a tough one because it changes daily, and I genuinely love them all. I’m trying to think which one I love most today, I feel like it’s Rearrange. I just feel like that’s a real brave song for a rock band to release, it’s kind of on the verge of r'n'b or pop and it something about the song has always got me. When we played it out on the piano, we didn’t have the lyrics at that point, but we were using voice memo and I knew it was an absolute triumph BUZZ BUZZ20 20
of a song. From there it was just how to present it – it’s a way more r'n'b production. What is it about your Welsh fans that you appreciate the most? Welsh people are like Scottish people in lots of respects. We have always been really welcomed in Wales, playing in Clwb Ifor Bach and we’ve met so many Welsh friends over the years, such as People In Planes, who are an amazing band from Wales. We’ve always had lots of Welsh friends. Our very first tour manager was actually from Swansea. We’ve always loved playing Swansea and Cardiff, even the [Cardiff] Barfly which was a tough venue because the stage was so low, so it was hard to reach the whole room. It always kick off, in a good way, when we play Wales and Wales is such a hotbed for talent as well. There’s so much artistry happening, similar to Glasgow. And I’ll support you guys in any sports against England as well! On the topic of Wales and Cardiff, what are your highlights of gigging in Cardiff? Playing at Barfly before its closure, where we were opposite the castle, it was always nice to try and go in and walk about there. We got to play a gig in the grounds there once as well which was amazing. We recorded our
third album there, in one of the Valleys studios [Monnow Valley] so we spent a lot of time there. There’s so many highlights, I really do love the place. We just love your good people and we can’t wait to come back! What is the nicest thing a fan has done for you? Our fans have been very nice to us, they’ve all been gifts. There’s a group of fans from all around Europe actually who travel to so many of our shows. It’s a group of maybe eight people, they made these leather-bound books for us which had their memories of different gigs and loads of letters to us. It was really touching, definitely brought a tear to my eye, we all got one each. It was just so thoughtful. Things like that just make everything we do worthwhile. Even though we’re very selfish when it comes to how to how we make our music, it really means so much that they come to see us that many times. I can’t believe they come to see us that many times and they’re not bored, it blows my mind. They keep coming and they gave us this incredible gift and I will never forget that. Biffy Clyro, Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff. Tues 6 Dec. Tickets: from £38.50. Info: 029 2022 4488 / www.motorpointarenacardiff. co.uk