Off Kilter Confusion & Golf: A Biffy Clyro Interview

BEN JOHNSTONE of BIFFY CLYRO: Off Kilter Confusion & Golf

An interview by Lauren Sanderson.

After crisscrossing the Northern Hemisphere for over a year in support of their brilliant seventh studio album Ellipsis, Scottish rockers Biffy Clyro will touch down on New Zealand soil to bring Spark Arena to life later this month.

But before they do I caught up with drummer Ben Johnstone to talk about the new album, their year out and the story behind the name Biffy Clyro…

Your most recent album Ellipsis sounds new and fresh but still sounds like classic Biffy, What’s the inspiration behind it?

We attacked it in a different way this time, we didn’t really play the songs as a band in the studio that much. With the other albums we rehearsed the songs every day and knew our parts really well. We didn’t really think about using the studio to its full potential, but this time we really wanted to dissect the songs and let the studio and equipment inspire us to make some fresh new sounds. Working this way was definitely frustrating at times because it was not as organised and everything was bitty and slow going at times. Rich loves playing with new gear, so it was a lot of experimenting and recording different parts multiple times. We tried things we would never have dreamt of trying. We didn’t want to make just a straight forward rock album – I think the result speaks for itself.

The album cover for Ellipsis is of you all naked in the foetal position and its really interesting, who came up with the design?

It was originally meant to be of us in the shape of a ball, shot from a really long distance, but we couldn’t really make it work, so we did the best we could, and we got the shot from standing on a set of ladders and the idea was for us to be the human ellipsis. The idea of being naked on the album cover was a bit daunting, but then James went first and simon and I got to look at the image on its own and it was so arresting. It definitely isn’t sexy, but I think it’s stunning. We felt like teenagers again making this record because we felt like it was a clean slate, so the foetal position seemed suitable.

The band took a year off in 2015, why was this and what did you get up during this time?

It was more of a year of not touring rather than a year off of music – that never really stops. I think in the lead up to that year we hit it so hard that it almost broke the band if I’m honest. We didn’t get enough time at home and it was difficult, we had to have an extended period of time where we got to wake up in our own bed for a few months. It was great, but I think we took a little bit too much time off of the road and we ended up really missing it. We lost a bit of purpose and I think we all felt a little depressed. We missed the buzz we got from performing live and we promise we will never take that much time off again.

Please don’t! You’ve played huge arenas, but you’ve also played the smaller intimate gigs too, what do you prefer to play?

Anyone that says they don’t like playing in front of lots of people is a liar, having that many people under your spell, especially being a drummer – that many people moving to you rhythm is just incredible. It feels amazing and is a massive ego boost, but then you miss that connection that you get when you play a little intimate gig where you can see the expression in people’s eyes. They are both totally different experiences. I like the intimate gigs because I’ll eye up people in the crowd and get a connection with them, you can’t do that in the big gigs, there are just too many people.

How does it feel to have received the Best British Band award three times?

Did we? Wow, that’s amazing. It feels incredible, we just want to be the best band we can be. It’s mind blowing for us because when we first started at the age of 15 we just wanted to record one album and make some noise and have some fun. When you see things like that I still take it with a huge pinch of salt as it feels so surreal.

What’s the story behind the name Biffy Clyro?

It was actually Screw Fish for a short period of time, I think we just thought why not put two random words together. We finally changed it to Biffy Clyro because we wanted a name that didn’t give away any ideas of the kind of music that we played. You would think we were a Welsh folk singer if you heard our name and didn’t know who we were. We like to confuse people and be a little bit off kilter…

I’ve seen you play at a couple of festivals back in the UK – What’s been your favourite festival you’ve played?

The most recent years of us headlining Reading and Leeds festival was epic. The first time round we were nervous and wanted to do our best, so we didn’t really own it, but the second time we owned the stage and it was magical.

When you go on tour do you get to do anything other than performing?

We actually get to see a lot of the country. We like to eat well and try and see the sights if we can. In South Africa we got to go on Safari, which was amazing, and we like to have a game of golf wherever we go. We like to keep active, but sometimes you just want to do nothing and watch trashy television to recharge the batteries. If there is something exciting to be done then we will do it as a band and we try to get the crew involved too.

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Where is your favourite place that you’ve been so far?

It’s a tough one, I love going to Japan because it’s so Alien. I love the respect that people show to each other and I love the culture. It’s a beautiful country to be in, although I may come to New Zealand this time and the sun will be shining and I could absolutely love it.

Who are you listening to at the moment?

There is an artist in Glasgow called Austin Miller – he is a friend of my sons and he is great. I also love Manchester Orchestra and J Cole.

When you’re not playing music what do you like to do? Any crazy interesting hobbies?

I will tell you and then you can tell me if you think they’re crazy…. I like to play golf, I like to watch movies and tv. I used to do crazy things, but I had to stop them for the band. I used to go skateboarding, snowboarding and do martial arts. I’m going get back into it I want to jump out of a plane and I’d like to get into cage fighting too. I’m running out of time because I’m 38, so I need to get a celebrity cage match out of my system.

You’re heading to New Zealand this month, are you looking forward to it?

Yes we’re really looking forward to it, we’ve only been once before and it rained the whole time. I don’t think we got to see much, but this time, I want to see New Zealand in the sunshine. I can’t wait to come back and hopefully make some new friends!

Biffy Clyro will be hitting New Zealand for a special one off show at Auckland’s Spark Arena on Tuesday 24th April. There are still tickets available from Live Nation, but get in quick as they’re selling fast!