- 3 months ago
Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro recently sat down with Megan Holiday inside the KROQ studios to talk about the band's upcoming 10th studio album, and the energy they're bringing to their latest project.
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00:00It is the world-famous K-Rock. I'm Megan Holliday, and I'm here with Simon Neal of Biffy Clyro.
00:05Hello, how are you doing?
00:06Hi, buddy. I'm good. How are you?
00:08I'm buzzing to be an Ailey. I'm buzzing to be here with you today, Megan.
00:11Absolutely. Well, we were just talking about how the last time you were with here at K-Rock,
00:16we were in our other building, and you guys played out in the parking lot.
00:21We did.
00:21Yeah, and my friend Cody, who does all our video, he was showing me the video from it,
00:26and it's just kind of funny also to see how far we've come with technology.
00:30Yes, I know. It's interesting that the size of the cameras and the microphones, it's like a...
00:35Yeah, that was a great experience. We had a lovely day that day, and we've missed you guys a lot,
00:39but I cannot believe it's 14 years.
00:41I know.
00:41Time has just changed shape.
00:43It's so weird.
00:45No, we're still enjoying ourselves as much as we always were.
00:47We love coming back to the West Coast.
00:50Ben and James are very, very jealous of me right now because they're back home doing some pressing things at home
00:55than I'm getting to come to the sunshine.
00:57Hell yeah, I know, and you're really lucky on the weather right now. It's just gorgeous outside.
01:01I've heard it's not been the nicest summer you've had.
01:03Yeah, it's been just kind of gloomy days sometimes, but I would say the last week has been just perfect.
01:08You know what? Do you think you would survive in Scotland?
01:10I doubt it. You know, I doubt it.
01:13I like to think that I could, but I did live in San Francisco for a long time.
01:17Oh, right.
01:17So, I mean, I don't know. Rainy?
01:20If you're comparing San Francisco to Scotland, there's quite a big distance. I would go San Francisco every day.
01:26So, I have to ask you, would I make it?
01:28I think you would.
01:29Yeah?
01:29I think you've got the fortitude inside you, but don't because you live here.
01:34I will. I will just come and visit. I'll come to a Biffy Clyro gig and I'll come to it.
01:40When's the best time of the year to go to Scotland?
01:42To be honest, we're lucky in the summer if we get a week or two of sunshine, but there's this big national festival called Transmit that happens every year and it's like no one knows what the weather's going to be.
01:55And honestly, when it starts raining in Scotland, it's really oppressive. It really ruins the vibe.
02:00And this summer, we just played it a few weeks ago and this summer it was 35 degrees and see Scottish people when the sun are out.
02:06You will never find a happier group of people.
02:09We drink a lot, we hug a lot and we have a great time.
02:11You know, we're kind of like the Irish that way, you know, we need very little reason to celebrate, but sunshine is one of them.
02:17Oh, I love it. So that's an annual festival, but if it's raining, you're just screwed.
02:22Yeah, but you just got to go with it.
02:23You just have to go out in there.
02:24In our band, for all our smart ideas, we play with our shirts off.
02:28Yeah.
02:29Which we started a long time ago. It was mainly because watching bands like Fagazzi and things, we love that intensity.
02:35Oh, for sure.
02:35And now here we are, we've played in the Arctic Circle where it was minus 14 degrees.
02:40And that was, that was the only time we were like, we really need to consider what we're doing with our lives here.
02:46Your nips fell off.
02:47Yeah, exactly. But we did, yeah, we were cutting glass.
02:50But we did it and we've been, we've been in all sorts of weather.
02:53So now it's, it's just part of what we do.
02:55It feels like it's the best way to express ourselves.
02:59Because there's something inherently ridiculous about walking on stage, unless you're the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
03:03Yeah, true.
03:05But yeah, there's something about it. It's kind of our uniform, even though it's the anti-uniform.
03:09But yeah, we can brave all weather. So whenever we're here doing festivals or anything, it's just, it's heaven.
03:14Yeah, it's perfect. And I'm sure next year we will get to start seeing you out at some festivals.
03:20Absolutely.
03:20I want to congratulate you because your brand new album, Futeak, is coming out on September 19th.
03:27Yes.
03:27And can you believe this is your 10th studio album?
03:30I don't know how we've ended up here. I still feel that we're a brand new band, you know.
03:34And I think that's, I guess, part of our job is to keep that excitement and keep that enthusiasm and never get too habitual with our music making.
03:43And, you know, we were talking about the Deftones earlier and, you know, we look at a band like the Deftones and just the way they evolve and the music they're making now is as good as any of the music they've made.
03:53And it kind of bucks the trend. So we take that challenge very seriously to still be completely inspired in each album.
04:00And not just, it's not just time for new Biffy music, it's time for brilliant Biffy music.
04:05Yeah.
04:05You know, that's the aim, you know. And I spent a couple of years away making some extreme metal.
04:11I don't know how you're positioned with your extreme metal. Do you like some heavy?
04:15Oh, absolutely. Of course. Yeah.
04:17My other band, we played with Dave Lombardo from Slayer, played drums in and we toured for a couple of years.
04:23And were you like screaming? I think because I read about this band.
04:26Yeah. Full on screaming, no melody.
04:29Yeah, I love it.
04:29And actually, I needed to do that. It inspired me to write the songs on this record.
04:34You know, for the first time, I kind of reflected on our journey as a band and the fact that we've been friends from when we were seven years old.
04:41But we've been playing music together for like 25 years, you know, since we were teenagers.
04:46So it was really nice to go and do something else and realise how much I miss the boys and I miss writing that music.
04:52And bizarrely, going from such intense and kind of atonal music, all these big choruses just kind of fell out of me.
05:00You know, I felt like Elton John when I got home.
05:01I was sitting on my piano going, yeah, you know, hold me closer.
05:04But it was really nice to go from something that had very little melodic form to then kind of bring in something that came from the heart and was sincere and loving, I hope.
05:15I hope this album feels like a big warm hug.
05:18Some of our albums have been more like kind of fight music.
05:20Like this one's just in this era we're in, we're in such a kind of unusual time for humanities.
05:27Things are changing so much.
05:29And for the first time, as I say, I wanted to reflect on my life and my, you know, I lost my mum 20 years ago and just thinking how my life's changed since then.
05:38And so it felt like time to take stock and try and cherish the things that we can at the moment because things are changing and evolving so fast.
05:46We're never, we're not sure what's going to be the same in five years.
05:49And I just really don't want to, I want to be as present as possible.
05:53So the album's about being present with your loved ones and with, with music and just, just trying to experience life.
05:59I love that so much.
06:00And, you know, I think it's a, it's a constant daily reprieve of just trying to stay present, trying to stay present.
06:06And so I, I did read that Futique is, it's a, a combo of future and antique.
06:13Do you want to talk about that concept a little bit?
06:15Yeah, of course.
06:15So yeah, the title Futique, as you say, is, is future antique.
06:18And I just really liked the concept of it, of just not knowing what we're going to miss.
06:24Like, you know, I started to think about things that we've done in our lives for the last time, you know, and how you don't necessarily know.
06:31One of my friends said that, you know, the last time he read his daughter a bedtime story, he didn't realize.
06:35And that's, I guess, his kind of Futique for, you know, for me, it was, I saw my brother's kids the other week were watching one of our shows live in the telly.
06:44And they, the first thing they do is take their shirts off and start whipping them around their head.
06:47And I just love that.
06:48And I know I'm going to miss that when they're older and I'm no longer cool Uncle Simon, you know, I'll just be that old tattooed boy in the corner regaling them with times of rock and roll.
06:56But, um, so yeah, that, that's the kind of concept and just, and embracing the positives and the negatives in life that make us who we are.
07:05You know, I think the older I've gotten, the older I've realized that the bad stuff is, makes you who you are just as much as the good stuff and vice versa.
07:12And, and life is a series of challenges, you know, um, but that's what makes it special.
07:19That's what makes it special.
07:20And that's, but I really just wanted to cherish the people I care about.
07:23And because I feel like over the years, especially being in a band, you can, you go on the road for 10 months and you come back and you can just have missed lots of important life, life milestones.
07:33Um, so I'm just trying to kind of find the balance and, uh, but the music on the record, it's, it all comes from here.
07:40You know, it needs to be sincere.
07:42It needs to be honest.
07:43And, and, um, and I needed to spend that time finding my purpose for this record.
07:49Yeah.
07:49It's, you can tell it's a very personal album and we do need to talk about hunting season.
07:55Of course.
07:56Because, uh, I was, so I told my best friend, I was like, oh yeah, I'm interviewing Biffy Clyro.
08:00And, um, she's like, so she went and she listened to the song and she's like, you have to tell him to spill the tea on this song because it's like talking about how like this person's like insufferable and dah, dah, dah.
08:14And it's, you know, and it's just a total, like, I don't want to say a diss track, but it's kind of is.
08:19It kind of started that way.
08:21I'm not, I'm not going to name who was on my mind at that point, but yeah, it's, it's, I'm really guilty of this too, but I passed judgment and things so quickly.
08:30You know, that way I don't, I don't take in all the fact, you know, just, I'll read a headline or, or I'll hear about something someone's done or music, a new band or a new song.
08:39I can be like, oh, and, and be dismissive very quickly.
08:42And, and obviously being in this industry and making music, you're putting yourself out there to be judged.
08:47And I still haven't quite, my brain still doesn't quite like that aspect of it, but you know, one of the lyrics in it is I'll play along because I'm very aware that, so it's basically just saying we're all, you know, to do something in life, you have to put your head above the parapet.
09:03And you have to put yourself in instances where people will perhaps judge you rightly or wrongly.
09:10And that, I still struggle with that, but the music and what, you know, my raison d'etre, you know, music is my, is my lifeblood.
09:18And so it's the nervous, it's also when you create songs by yourself for so long, and then it becomes this public property.
09:26And that's sometimes I struggle to, to make that step, but, but yeah, the songs about that, the songs about that, how we're very quick to judge, you know, people that you barely know find you so insufferable.
09:37And it's like, we've all felt that about other people.
09:39And also we've all felt that about ourselves, that people are passing comment and, you know, you know, you know yourself when you're a public figure, sometimes you're like, can people just shut up?
09:47You know, focus on your own stuff, you know?
09:50It can be brutal.
09:51And if only we were all as skilled and experts and stuff as much as we feel we are, you know, every day should still be a school day.
10:00I love that.
10:02That's a really cool, you know, concept around a song.
10:05And it's, this is a totally, you know, transcended, fresh sound for you guys.
10:12And, you know, like Hunting Season sounded very kind of pop punk, emo, but still rocking, like kind of remind me of like the hives for a second.
10:22Yeah, that's funny.
10:23You know, so how was it just putting this album together?
10:27I think you worked with a younger producer and just wanted to freshen things up.
10:32Yeah, exactly.
10:33You know, we've been lucky to work with some really iconic producers over the years and we learned so much.
10:37But we felt it was time to get in the studio with someone who's just come of age in the last five, ten years.
10:43And we worked with a gentleman called Jonathan Gilmore, who is mostly known for his stuff with 1975.
10:49Oh, cool.
10:50And he's worked with other bands, like some UK bands called Nothing But Thieves and things.
10:53Oh, I love Nothing But Thieves.
10:54Yeah, they're great.
10:55Oh, Connor's voice.
10:56I love them so much.
10:57We just played a show with them in Switzerland.
10:59Oh, they're one of my favorite bands.
11:00They're so good.
11:01So he also, for the first time, he's known about our band since he was like 12 years old.
11:08And that was really weird, you know.
11:10Normally we're the youngsters in the studio, but he kind of liberated us.
11:14He kind of gave us permission to be, to embrace all our quirks and our eccentricities and not be afraid to do those weird things.
11:23Because the mantra of the record was let Biffy be Biffy.
11:26So, you know, if an idea was ridiculous, we approached, you know, we took it to the logical or the illogical conclusion.
11:33And I just really liked the way he worked.
11:35You know, this isn't a documentation of a band live in a room.
11:39This is like a 2025 rock record using all the tools and ammo we had at our disposal.
11:45And we recorded in Hansa Studios in Berlin, which is where Bowie did Heroes or Bowie.
11:52So I'm never sure.
11:53I always say Bowie.
11:54I should have said Bowie.
11:56I did Heroes.
11:57You two did Akedung Baby.
12:00Depeche Mode did all their early stuff there.
12:02So there's inspiration in the walls of that studio.
12:05And actually it's so close to where the Berlin Wall used to be.
12:08And they literally have boxes and boxes of Berlin Wall.
12:12So we managed to take some Berlin Wall home.
12:15Oh my God, that's crazy.
12:16They were giving it away like it was candy.
12:17They're like, please take it.
12:18It's been here for too long.
12:19Yeah, we've had this 50 years.
12:21Well, not 50, however many years.
12:24But it's really, I find it really important when we're recording to be in a studio where you're inspired to make something truly great.
12:32You know, I don't think great art happens by accident.
12:35I think you need to be, you need to aspire.
12:37You need to aim for the stars.
12:39And then, so I write all my kind of songs at home and then me and the boys work on them.
12:43And then it's, right, where do we want these songs to live?
12:47And you just, you let your freak flag fly and you just dream, you know.
12:51And so we used some really, some synthesizers that were like twice my age.
12:56You know, it was like the stuff, it was beautiful stuff.
12:59But yeah, Berlin.
13:00So it's a bit of a Berlin record, although less cocaine and milk than Bowie had.
13:05We were bratwurst and beer.
13:06Well, it's such a good album.
13:10I got to listen to it.
13:11I got the little sneaky link.
13:13And, you know, and I'm just so excited for you guys.
13:16If you, just to kind of sum it up, is there a standout moment from making this album or something that you just want people to take away from it?
13:27There's lots of standout moments when you're working on the music.
13:30So I love the creative and start.
13:32And see, when you're in the studio, it's a bit, turns a little scientific.
13:35You know, so at that point, I have to kind of put a pin in my emotions and remember that we're trying to create something that sounds so good.
13:43So my favorite parts are always when the three of us are standing in the room, you know, and we always track together, even though we overdub afterwards.
13:51And it's not like a live in the room record.
13:52We need to have eye contact when we're playing.
13:55And the fact that there was a few times during this album, and maybe it's because I've been thinking of my past, we were looking at each other.
14:03And I just felt, I felt like proud of us that we're just buddies that have kept making music.
14:08And we're still doing it however many years later.
14:10And to be in that studio making new songs that we still care as much about these songs as we did back in the day.
14:18You know, that's, so it's those little innocent moments that really kind of spur me on and kind of make me glad of what we're doing.
14:26And then it's like, oh God, how do we fix this?
14:28You know, can I sing this note?
14:30You know, I always worry about my vocals in the studio.
14:33So whenever I kind of do a good vocal take, that's probably my, that's probably the moments where I'm like, oh yes, thank goodness.
14:39But making music is a beautiful thing.
14:40It should still be magical and unknowable.
14:43And that's what we try and retain a bit of that.
14:45So yeah, but yeah, lots of great times.
14:48Yeah.
14:48Well, it sounds like you made a lot of those futique moments while you were recording that.
14:53I think, well, I'm trying to be as present as possible.
14:55As you were saying earlier.
14:56So yeah, I'm trying to remember these moments that normally just flash through your brain.
15:00You don't think twice.
15:01And actually, I'm just trying to, as I say, be as present as possible.
15:05I think we all should be because there's a lot of stuff happening out there that we wish we could change.
15:09And it's so hard and the world can be a tough place, but you know what?
15:13We've got to cherish what we can hold dear.
15:16And that's what I really want to do.
15:17And these cool moments, you know?
15:19Exactly, I know.
15:20This has been really nice to get to talk to you today.
15:22Absolutely.
15:23It's great to have a proper chat together.
15:24You're going on tour in the UK next year, and then hopefully we'll find out about something in North America.
15:30Yeah, so we're coming back here in November, December.
15:32We're just sorting some shows, a few headline shows and some radio shows.
15:36And then next spring, we'll be coming out for a massive tour where we're going to hit everywhere.
15:41And, you know, we play all around the world.
15:45And America's always been so important to me.
15:47You know, we're still battling away here.
15:49You know, we still love playing here.
15:51There's different parts of the world we have to hit first.
15:53But America's my first love, you know?
15:56And so whenever I'm here, I just love it so much.
15:59We can't wait to come back and see you guys and introduce the new music.
16:02Yes, absolutely.
16:04And see Biffy effing Clyro.
16:05Yeah, let's go.
16:06New album, Futee, comes out on September 19th.
16:09Simon, thank you so much.
16:10Thank you, Megan.
16:11You're such a sweetheart.
16:12Biffy Clyro.
16:12This was so much fun.
16:13All right.
16:13Thanks for watching.
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