Interview: Backstage with the Mercury-nominated Scottish rockers Biffy Clyro

Published on Thursday 2 September 2010 13:49

With a Mercury Prize nomination and their first headline tour of the USA, Biffy Clyro seem unstoppable. David Pollock meets the Ayrshire rockers backstage in Edinburgh

• Biffy Clyro are (from Left) Ben Johnston, James Johnston and Simon Neil

'WE thought it was a joke when we heard about it," says Biffy Clyro bassist James Johnston, describing the moment the band learned their album Only Revolutions had been nominated for this year's Mercury Prize. "We thought it was for hipster cool folk that don't play heavy music."

The heavy music part aside, Biffy Clyro seem very much like hipster cool folk themselves as they battle their way through a round of press interviews at the Scotsman Hotel on Edinburgh's North Bridge. It's the tail end of the Fringe, and the band are about to play a secret acoustic set on the Bulmers Sunshine Stage in Princes Street Gardens. None of the trio has ever experienced the Fringe before, "but we love playing gigs so we'll be fine," says drummer Ben Johnston, James's twin. "As long as I go home with a case of cider under my jumper I'm happy."

If the nomination came as a surprise to the band's ever-growing legion of fans, the down-to-earth Scots were at least equally as shocked. "Aside from Muse, I can't think of one band who play proper distorted guitars that have been nominated," says frontman Simon Neil. "So yeah, it's a complete honour, it's a great bunch of albums we're up against, and it's really nice to know that people who maybe don't listen to rock music can still appreciate our record. It's really encouraging to know we've made a record that..." He ponders for a moment then launches into his best radio voice, "...crosses boundaries, man! You don't need to be into metal to dig our record."

With Tuesday's Mercury prizegiving almost upon us, I wonder if the band have anything special worked out for their performance? Is Neil's new hairstyle (dyed bright blonde hair and beard, evenly trimmed) part of the outfit? "No," he laughs, "maybe I jumped the gun a wee bit. I should have waited."

"We were thinking of going in kilts, but I don't know," says Ben.

"Yeah, I don't know if you can rock out in kilts," says Neil. "It might get ugly for the front row, you know?"

"I guess we're just going to do our thing," says James. "I'm sure other acts will really ham it up. Nothing wrong with that but we're quite happy with what we do so we're going to just go and do it."

"Unless somewhere between now and next week we've lost our minds and we decide on a choir of sparrows," muses Neil.

"You'll be watching us after we've said this and we'll all be wearing feathers or something," laughs James. "But I imagine it's probably quite intense, because there are so many people in the room who are genuinely involved and a part of the music industry."

"That'll be quite nice actually," says Neil, "because everyone's going through the same thing. People in bands are all the same deep down- insecure and needy! It doesn't matter what music they play. It's very rare we meet a band and think, they're clueless and they're in it for all the wrong reasons. We get on with people in bands because we're all people who care about what we do. So I'm sure it'll be a good night. And a big piss-up of course, even more so because we've got two days off after it."

The Biffy, as their fans affectionately know them, haven't had too many days off of late. Although it was their fifth album Puzzle, released in 2007, which truly made them (it reached number two on the album chart and included five top 40 singles), Only Revolutions has taken that success to whole new levels. It only reached number eight in the chart, but it's the trio's biggest selling record, and four of the six singles it's so far spawned have reached the top 20, as well as bringing them snowballing success abroad. A B-sides collection from it, Lonely Revolutions, was released last week, while the band continue to write their sixth album on the road.

"We thought it couldn't get any busier after last year," says Neil. "But this year we've had four festivals every weekend. I've no idea how that works, I think Thursday becomes part of the weekend during festival season. So every Monday you come back and you get some sleep then it's time to go again."

Already this year, the band have been to Japan, Denmark, Belgium, Germany and Canada, among other places, with appearances high up on the main stage at Reading and Leeds due two days after we meet. "To be playing there just a couple of places below Guns N' Roses - that's like one of the biggest dreams come true ever," says Neil. "We're huge Guns N' Roses fans, I love them so much, so to share a stage with them is one of the biggest things in the world."

Shows in Poland and Finland are coming up this autumn, as well as the band's first ever headline dates in America, and an Australian support tour for Muse.

"It's pretty much a baptism of fire," Neil says of playing a debut headline tour. "Some countries you'll turn up and there'll be a hundred people there. Then others you'll get the fright of your life with thousands and thousands of folk there."

There's also the small matter of an upcoming headline date at Wembley Arena, two already sold-out shows at Glasgow's SECC and one date at the AECC. "Even right up until we announced these shows it didn't feel like they were going to happen," says Neil, "and then the first SECC show went in a couple of hours. They called us before lunchtime, before any of us had even actually gotten up! It's something we never thought would happen, even that 20,000 people in Scotland would want to come and see us.

"We still want to do a raw rock'n'roll show for them, but with elements of spectacle in there. You can't book an arena show and then play a lo-fi gig, you know? That way you do a disservice to yourself and to the people who are forking out for it."

So everything has changed for the three Ayrshire men, as they refer to themselves with pride, who played the small venues of the country for three albums and nearly a decade before even a whiff of success.

Or has it? "We operate with the same team we've had for the last few years and we still practise in the same place we've had for years and years," says Neil. "So it sounds like a really boring answer, but nothing's changed that much for us. Still moaning about things all the time. We're always moaning!"

"When we were 19 or 20, touring was amazing because we didn't really need as much, but now we're grown men, we're all in our thirties. We've got girlfriends who live with us, I've got my wife. We've got responsibilities, and I want to be able to invite my wife on tour and be civilised about it, so it's a lot more comfortable than it used to be.

"We still like to feel like the underdog, though. I think that's a very Scottish thing. We always play better if we think everything's against us. This is our lives now, but you've got to keep a bit of your teenage self in there, it can't ever become a job. There's nothing worse than when you see a band and they look bored, like they don't want to be there. As soon as the act of playing becomes a job, that's when the spirit of the shows goes."

• Biffy Clyro's autumn tour includes dates at the AECC, Aberdeen, 25 November, and the SECC, Glasgow, 26 and 27 November. www.biffyclyro.com

This article was first published in Scotland On Sunday on Sunday, 5 September, 2010