Biffy Clyro on friendship, navigating the tough times, and new album 'Futique' • Interview • DIY Magazine

When Biffy Clyro took to the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury for an epic sunset slot just a few weeks ago, it looked as though it’d be impossible to wipe the smiles from their faces. For anyone gathered in front, the Scottish trio looked to be in the prime of their lives; over 25 years into an illustrious career, a picture-perfect example that hard work and tenacity really does pay dividends. And, on the whole, all of that is true. Had we seen them 18 months prior, however, it likely would have been a different scene.

As with any relationship, time spent together is often not enough. Throw in gruelling schedules and long stints of time away from home, and things can start to feel challenging. Add in the fact that Biffy have barely come up for air during their tenure as a band (their newest will be their tenth studio album in 13 years, following their back-to-back efforts in 2020’s ‘A Celebration of Endings’ and 2021’s ‘The Myth of the Happily Ever After’), it’s perhaps little surprise to learn they needed a break from one another.

“We never got to a point where we took it for granted,” bassist James Johnston assures, as the trio sit in a central London hotel to chat today, “but I think that time off helped us to feel lucky again, and remember how lucky we are to be doing this.” For anyone searching for inter-band beef or dramatic blow outs, you’ll not find it here. Today, they sit together laughing at in-jokes, retelling stories of their time in Berlin recording, and nodding in support of one another’s statements, in the way that only lifelong friends know how. Instead, their story stemmed from something altogether less explosive; the exhaustion of the tail-end of the pandemic and a need to breathe a different kind of air.

“The last couple of years have been a little bit tougher for us,” nods frontman Simon Neil. “I was away with [side-project] Empire State Bastard and it’s probably the longest time we’ve all lived separate lives. Sometimes we’ve been off the road with the band, but we’re all sharing the rhythm of life. Coming back we were just… Not on completely different wavelengths, because that implies that we didn’t see eye to eye, but we were just in a different rhythm.”

“I think, with the isolation [of the pandemic], we all just forgot how to interact,” he continues. “Not just us, but everyone. I think everyone had forgotten how to communicate and be kind. I know that was the phrase of the month a while ago, but I think we all had our elbows out. We were probably guilty of it a wee bit as well: I’m sure when I came back from Empire State Bastard, the boys were probably - rightly so - a bit like, ‘Okay, well…’ You know, you stand your ground. As much as we’re a team and we always will be, we’ve all got individual egos and ambitions that don’t always match.”

While Simon has previously dabbled in projects outside of the band, the emergence of Empire State Bastard - in which he performs with Biffy touring guitarist and former Oceanside frontman, Mike Vennart - marked a distinct line in the sand. Craving a move away from his identity as ‘Simon from Biffy’, the project’s debut ‘Rivers of Heresy’ packed in scorched screams and bludgeoning riffs to deafening effect. “‘The Myth…’ led into ESB, and ESB was very much fucking one of those things where if anyone wanted to watch it… thanks!” Simon laughs, nodding to its decided lack of mass appeal. “Not many people did, but I think I got a lot of that real horrid darkness out, that anger and spite.”

“The world is a fucking dumpster fire, but there’s little shafts of light that we can all find.”

— Simon Neil

That wasn’t the only musical focus that the trio had to distract themselves. In October last year, the band took to the stage for six special shows - aptly-titled ‘A Celebration of Beginnings’ - to commemorate their first three, beloved, albums. Taking place over three nights in London’s Shepherds Bush Empire and the infamous Barrowland in Glasgow, the opportunity to revisit their younger selves also doubled as a satisfying (and well-timed) reminder of how far they’ve come.

“It did - apart from the fact we had two and half weeks to do it!” Simon laughs, at their somewhat ill-planned scheduling, which gave them less than a month to rehearse the 75-plus songs that they’d cram into the setlist. “Sitting at home playing and re-learning those songs was the most fun I’ve ever had playing my bass - just sitting at home!” adds James. “I felt like a 14 year old learning his favourite band’s songs in a way. It made me think of us at that age - and I was really fucking impressed! It was a really great journey to go on and look back through. I was like, ‘fucking hell, that was really good’. “I had to skip back a few times and go ‘what the fuck did we do there?!’,” chimes in drummer Ben Johnston. “It was absolutely crazy.”

“You kind of inhabit your younger self, because it’s hard not to,” Simon adds. “As James says, you’re taken back to the memories of recording them, writing them, of us playing them in our old YMCA room while the junkies were at the door. I think that helped us with where we were at as a band 25 years in. If we hadn’t had that real connection to who we are and what we are, then, when we were having a bit of a fall out, it perhaps would’ve [done] more damage. I think that put things in perspective and reminded us that it’s not about how we’re feeling for this eight or twelve months, it’s about how do we feel about this as our lives?”

Despite some wondering whether Simon’s work with Empire State Bastard might go on to inspire a darker new chapter for Biffy’s next steps, that couldn’t have been more untrue. “Everyone at the time was asking, ‘oh is [the new music] sounding like ESB?’ No!!” Simon grins. “Melody just came flooding out. The melodies that came out were very optimistic.”

Instead, the frontman found himself swapping screaming (“I love screaming, it’s fucking great fun - you should try it,” he winks) for the more open, soaring offerings that pepper new album ‘Futique’. “This one was led by love,” Simon says plainly. “Last year was the first time since my mum passed 20 years ago when I’ve gone through all of my family photos, and it’s the first time where I felt like the memories - and my relationship to those memories - were positive, rather than this built-up thing I had in my mind that equates with sadness. [There was] all of that reflection, and thinking about the ups and downs we’ve had for the past 20 years - in and out of the band - and appreciating the strength that that gives us, and the fact we’ve survived.

“I think we’ve all been through a period of reflection over the last few years,” he goes on. “When you hit the age we are, when you’ve been doing something for 20 years and you’ve maybe said a lot of what you want to say… We never just want to do this because, ‘it’s time to do it’. I know I say that with every album, but it’s genuinely true. It shouldn’t be rote - ‘it’s time for another Biffy record!’. We’ve released a lot of albums - way more than any of our fucking favourite bands ever did - so let’s make sure we’re doing it because we want to, not just because ‘it’s time’ or it’s our work.”

“We’ve released a lot of albums, so let’s make sure we’re doing it because we want to, not just because ‘it’s time’.”

— Simon Neil

After the more barbed statements of their previous two records (“With ‘Celebration’ and ‘Myth’ I think I addressed things as well as I could about how I felt about society,” he confirms), ‘Futique’ is instead about “wanting to be loving and positive despite the way you feel”. Led by the gorgeous ‘A Little Love’, the floodgates were opened towards a more inclusive feel, not too dissimilar to that of their breakthrough 2009 record ‘Only Revolutions’. “The whole album is kind of like, ‘you could hide away in the shade and the bushes if you wanted, but isn’t it a lot better to be in amongst the things you love rather than get scared of them?’”

Simon even admits that this change of pace has had an impact on him physically, too. “I just wanted to feel the joy of those moments in a chorus where you all hit a chord and you’re like, ‘ahhh’,” he proffers. “See when you sing that way? I hadn’t realised until I’d been screaming, but it affects your physiology as well; it affects how you hold yourself and your thoughts and your brain. Your perspective and outlook on everything changes when you sing like that.

“When I was screaming in ESB, the words weren’t as articulate; they were important but it was more about how it was coming out. Coming back to the singing, I really wanted the words to matter and didn’t want to cloak it in the whole ‘life can be amazing because of love’. No, life can be tough because of love but it still makes it fucking worthwhile.”

A record that proudly wears its heart on its sleeve, ‘Futique’ may see the band turning more emotionally inward, but in the wake of the chaotic outside world, it may well be the healthiest approach. “If the last few years have taught us anything, [it’s that] you don’t know what’s even happening next year and we just want to be in the moment,” Simon says. “That’s why it’s called ‘Futique’; Future Antique. It’s about realising what we haven’t been in the moment of in our last 20 years. Those amazing moments are so fleeting and before you know it you’re passed that moment and you’ve not even savoured it. That’s what this is about, and not in a naive way; the world is a fucking dumpster fire, but there’s little shafts of light that we can all find.”

‘Futique’ is out now via Warner.

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