Biffy Clyro, the hardest working band in showbusiness, are back with a new album and a massive European tour. They will first support Muse in an Arena tour before headlining their own shows through December. Full tour and ticket details are below along with the video for the new single ‘Captains’ . Mon the Biffy.
Vic Galloway has been a huge supporter of Biffy since the early days and according to wikipedia, he was one of the first DJs (after the lovely Jim Gellatly) to give the band radio airplay in 2000. A few weeks later the band were signed and the rest, of course, is history. The new record, ‘Only Revolutions’, the Glasgow band’s fifth studio album, will be preceded by a single, ‘The Captain’, which is out on October 26. See video below. Follow this link to watch the new video.
…
Earlier this year, bass player James Johnston spoke to top Australian zine Bombshellzine about the new album and the current Scottish music scene.
What unusual places has the band found a fanbase?
I’d have to say Australia’s probably the strangest but just because it’s so far away and so isolated you know? I don’t think it’s a strange country, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not like we’re close by or any sort of link or reason that people should be interested in us. Other than trawling the internet you know, looking for a band, I’m not sure how. I guess we’ve had a few people write to us on MySpace from Brazil and South America, I’d like to get a chance to go there. I think when you travel around you find that people are fairly similar wherever you go. There are different character traits for people and different countries have their own little take on things but people are people and music translates wherever you are.…
The new album is being released through Roadrunner instead of Warner Bros. How did that come about?
Erm… We’re with a label called 14th floor in Britain which are part of Warner Bros who are in charge of things in UK but in the US it was through Roadrunner and we’ve just sort of made a change to Roadrunner this time and I couldn’t tell you exactly why. Maybe Warners don’t like us (laughs) or maybe we don’t like them (more laughs) I couldn’t tell you. Roadrunner’s not a label we ever sort of saw ourselves on but they were keen to branch out and try a few different acts and we’re only too happy to be involved.…
Any new music you’ve been getting into?
Yeah there’s a band in Scotland called Frightened Rabbit they’ve got an album called The Modern Leper. Actually the new Bronx album is really rocking. I’m not sure how famous they are in Australia but they’re always the most amazing live band. And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – I think we’re playing a few shows with those guys in the summer, a few festivals in Germany.
I don’t really go to shows anymore when I’m at home. I do go to see touring bands if they come through but I don’t really get a chance to see smaller bands, local bands.
The new Gallows record is set to be amazing, that’s coming out in a few months time. I think that’s really something that people should check out. I’ve heard a few tracks. I know that Simon in the band did vocals on one track and I’ve heard that track. It’s really brutal, it’s kind of a scathing album, they’re really dark, a really dark band.…
There’s another band called The Twilight Sad – broad Scottish brogue and kind of dark twisted lyrics. I think there’s just a bit of a line of that in Scotland, you get a lot of bands that sound quite pretty but when you listen to them you realise that they’re really sort of messed up. They’ve got an album called Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters. All their song titles are really bizarre – “Last Year’s Rain Didn’t Fall Quite So Hard” – it’s kinda like “Yeah… ok!” They’re a really cool band but I’ve never had the chance to see them live.
My Latest Novel are another band that do a similar sort of thing and of course Mogwai as well.…
Your filmclips are incredibly beautiful. Who’s behind their concepts and creation?
Which filmclips would those be?…
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5Ty-3KPzwE
…
Mountains was the one that one struck me the most.
It’s quite interesting, Mountains was shot in a Masonic Lodge in London. As soon as we walked in to see the room on the morning we were shooting it looked amazing with the black and white floors and the murals on the walls. We’ve been lucky to work with some really cool directors. We worked with Brad Beasley, he did a lot of stuff with the Flaming Lips, he’s got some really exciting ideas. The fellow that did Mountains… I can only remember his name as James… James Cokeland!, that’s right – he’s actually a bit of an up and coming director here in Britain. He’s done some pretty exciting stuff. It’s been awesome working with these guys, getting to see the ideas come together from paper to visions.…
Miss Crystal spoke to James Johnstone for Bombshellzine on March 22, 2009. Full interview here.
The new album ‘Only Revolutions’ is out on November 9th
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwE0H1YaWwY
Photo credit: Stuart Cameron