Saxon

SEIZING THE DAY WITH THE EPIC CARPE DIEM

Interview by Ken Morton - Photo by Jack Lue

Since their beginnings in 1977, Saxon has been seizing the day in nothing short of an epic way, delivering their own legendary brand of classic heavy metal. And now in 2022, the almighty Saxon has unleashed Carpe Diem, their 24th studio magnum opus via Silver Lining Music, and this recording is sure to enrapture music fans all over the world. Highwire Daze recently caught up with Saxon’s dynamic front man Biff Byford to find out more about thier standout new album Carpe Diem and discuss other topics from their vast and brilliant legacy.

Let’s dive right in and talk about the new album. Is there any overall story or concept behind the Carpe Diem album title? It’s a very inspiring title for such a crazy time.

I came up with the song a little bit later than some of them. Yeah – Carpe Diem – there’s a place in Northern England about an hour away from where I live where there’s an old wall that the Romans built 2000 years ago that stretches from coast to coast across England. And I was up there during the end of Covid looking around and looking at museums. And on one of the walls is carved Carpe Diem and it spiked my interest. It obviously means Seize The Day. I just thought that would be a cool title for the album and a cool title for the song. It’s very positive coming out of Covid a little bit now, so it’s a bit like “Seize The Day” “Take every day as it comes.” So yeah, there’s a positive vibe to it, I think.

When creating Carpe Diem, how much did the pandemic and social unrest in the world influence your writing, if at all?

I think it influenced my lyric writing definitely. I think as far as the music is concerned, I wanted it to be a high energy album – everything positive and looking forward – not too much backwards. I think it did have an effect on us because there were no real tight deadlines because they all kept passing by – and I was able to just think about it a bit more lyrically and put a bit more thought into the lyrics. So, I suppose in that way, it affected me, yeah.

Another major event that happened in your life prior to the recording was your heart attack. How did that affect the way you looked at your lyric writing and just life in general?

It definitely influenced the title of Seize The Day without a doubt! But yeah, it was a strange time, only because it wasn’t like a Hollywood type heart attack – it wasn’t like something on a hospital soap show. It was a very steady, slow thing that was happening to me. I had a lot of time in hospital sitting around doing nothing really waiting for the team to make up their minds what they were going to do with me. I was writing a few lyrics and things while I was in the hospital, so yeah, it was a strange thing. They couldn’t

give me what you call stints. It was a little bit like a car really – they just went in and changed some parts while they were in there – give me a little bit of a service.

One of the singles is called Remember The Fallen. Let’s talk a little about that song and the inspiration behind it.

I wrote that song quite late again. I was thinking “Should I do a song about Covid? And if I did a song about Covid, how shall I approach it?” So, I just thought about what I thought about Covid. It obviously came from China – why and where and what happened we don’t know. You could have two people in one house and one of them died and the other one didn’t have any symptoms whatsoever. It’s a very strange virus really. But I just thought to put it down in words really. And I thought about doing a song about the people that died – obviously, family, friends, doctors, nurses, all the front-line people, a lot of the older people in the care homes and nursing homes – those were the ones that died first. But yeah, I wanted to put something down about it really. And I remember in the Fall – and I think it’s sort of treating it a little bit like a war – which actually I think it was definitely a war in the first year of Covid. That’s what was behind my thinking really. And I think people have taken it quite well.

Select any other song from Carpe Diem and what inspired the lyrics for you.

Pilgrimage which is the new single – I was thinking about the word Pilgrimage and what it meant to people and what the actual word means. A lot of people would think it’s a religious thing – that you go to a site of some church where a miracle happened – somebody was healing, or somebody saw an apparition of the Virgin Mary or something that healed them. But actually, when you look at the word itself, it means a lot of different things – like people go to Paris to see Jim Morrison’s grave, to see Jimi Hendrix’s grave in Seattle. People go to France to see where their grandfathers and great grandfathers fought in the first and second world wars. And going to festivals – I suppose modern day festivals is a bit of a pilgrimage. It’s someplace where to go to find something special – to that special place.

will there be any other Heavy Water projects with him?

It was great working with Seb. He’s a great singer – he has a nice tone to his voice – he doesn’t should much like me, but the voices do match quite nicely. And we’re making another Heavy Water album right now actually as we speak. He’s off surfing today, but we’ve done the drums and we’re working on the guitars at the moment. So yeah, that will be out at some point in the future – I don’t know when.

And of course, you recently did a solo album. What was that experience like doing something away from Saxon?

It was good fun actually. Some of the songs were a bit personal to me and all that on School Of Hard Knocks – some of the more laid-back stuff. I got to write with some other people – with some friends in Sweden – but yeah, it was good fun actually. I think I needed to do it because people were asking me. And Nigel and Doug had a solo album out – and Paul has his little club band called The Cards – so yeah, I’ll do a solo album. Why not? See what happens…

Like for example, I hope to go to Wacken one day and make my pilgrimage there.

That’s right! You’re going to travel a long way and your expectations of getting there are going to be so great. It’s actually going to be a bit of a spiritual awakening when you get there! Music is in that certain cycle of pilgrimages. Especially a lot of younger people go to like Coachella things in the US. Wacken, Sweden Rocks, Glastonbury – I mean Glastonbury itself is a pilgrimage place. But I think the festival in itself is even more a pilgrimage place now.

What was it like working with your son on this album and I saw Saxon with Motorhead at the Shrine Auditorium and I was wondering – what was the final Motorhead tour like with Lemmy?

It was a long tour we did with Motorhead. We did Europe and America – and then we went back to Europe again, It was great, but it was sad at the same time. Obviously, Lemmy was ill. Some days he would be okay and other days he would be really ill. He was just trying to do the shows. And some of the shows were great and some of them he couldn’t do. It was sad, because Lemmy’s always wanted to break America because he lived there, and it was important to him. Saxon and Maiden went to America in the early 80’s, and

Motorhead didn’t go, and it sort of was a bit of a thing with him that they should be there. Their record company and management at the time didn’t think it was wise, so I don’t know. But on that tour, they actually had sold a lot of tickets – and they actually had broken America on that tour, I think. It’s just sad that he didn’t live long enough to get to see that success really. When we played, the tour ended before Christmas in Europe that year, and Lemmy was texting me over Christmas saying, “I thought the tour was great and I can’t wait to get back on the road” and do some shows with us. But he died and it was quite sad. He was very ill – when you were talking backstage with him, you could see that he was quite ill.

And then another tour that you did was with the legendary UFO. What was that like?

I love UFO! We toured with UFO in the 80’s actually – in 1984, I think. So yeah, we knew the UFO guys and we knew the early band – we knew Michael Schenker really well. So, it was great. I love UFO – they’re great! Great songs! They’re a big influence on Saxon definitely. It was great playing with them – they’re all really cool guys!

Are there any plans to tour in support of Carpe Diem here in the States?

Yeah, we were trying to put something together for April/ May, but it’s really difficult to plan anything across the States upfront at the moment. So, we’re going to have to wait. Some tours are going ahead, but they were planned a long time ago. So yeah, we’re just going to have to keep an eye on that – but we’re definitely going to tour with USA with the Carpe Diem/Seize The Day World Tour – definitely!

What has kept you so passionate about Saxon since 1977?

The thing with me – as I get older, I get more driven – I’m probably the opposite of a lot of people. I want to make great music. I want to make every album better and different – so that’s what drives me really. The focus and enthusiasm for writing music. I’m a songwriter and storyteller really – I put those words to British metal music – and that’s all there is to it really. It’s just what I’m driven to do.

And do you have any messages for Saxon fans out here in the States?

We have loads of Saxon fans in the States – and it’s growing! We have a growing fan base in America actually. There’s a lot of word of mouth happening with Saxon at the moment with the album. “This album’s great – you should check it out!” So yeah – the Saxon fans – there’s a lot of them and they’re scattered all over America. We have a wide fan base – young and old and in the middle! It’s just a matter of getting over there and consolidating the success – and putting it all together into a tour really. That would be great!

https://www.saxon747.com/

“ANGEL”

The Incredible New Single From

On All Digital Platforms Now!!! CD @ wwwmrrecords.com.au

AVAILABLE NOW THEIR STUNNING DEBUT ALBUM REPACKAGED AND INTERNATIONAL FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME

AMPAGE LIVE IN CONCERT