Reykjavík Grapevine - 10.10.2008, Page 42

B14 | The Reykjavík Grapevine | Issue 16 2008
INTERVIEW By Ben h. Murray
Biffy Clyro have had one hell of
a year. After coming somewhere
near the top of many album of the
year polls in late 2007, the three-
piece (consisting of Simon Neil;
vocals and guitar, James John-
ston; bass and vocals and Ben
Johnston; drums and vocals) em-
barked on a series of festival and
concert appearances that would
have seemed unlikely after spend-
ing several years knocking around
the Scottish gig circuit in relative
anonymity.
Their breakthrough record, the bitter-sweet Puzzles,
proved to be a revelation to the rest of the world.
Combining a melodramatic sound that hovers be-
tween a satisfying sub-metal blast and touching
acoustic numbers, the band instantly appealed to
a broad demographic and hit the number two slot
on the UK album list. Comparisons to Nirvana and
Weezer followed and Puzzles didn’t even need the
artistic talents of Storm Thorgerson (he designed a
certain Pink Floyd record cover featuring a prism
and a rainbow…) to attract adulation around the
world, although his surreal style is instantly recogn-
isable on the album artwork.
Now winding down after a packed summer tour-
ing schedule before opening Iceland Airwaves
and touring the UK, lead guitarist Simon Neil took
time away from a well-earned holiday to tell the
Grapevine about how they’re looking forward to
sampling the local cuisine and reclaiming some
long-lost Celtic X chromosomes in-between play-
ing NASA at the opening night of Iceland Airwaves
10th anniversary.

So are you looking forward to it…have you
been to Iceland before?
We’ve not been before, we only know a couple of
people who’ve been to Iceland at all and all I hear
is great things so we’re really, really looking for-
ward to it.
You’ve been told a bit about the place, what
are you expecting?
People partying all the way through the night, I
guess. Some places effect people less than some of
the other places you go to and it’s so shut off that I
think it’ll just go off and be a lot of fun.
I know a lot of people are looking forward to
seeing you play; do you have any special plans
or surprises in store?
We’re just going to turn up and play hard, we’re re-
ally not a band with gimmicks, if you like. We just
try to let the music do the talking. We’ll definitely
turn up with a lot of energy – it should be great.
Did you know that 80% of the female gene
pool in Iceland is Celtic?
Wow, that gives us a good head start.
The Vikings are meant to have come over to
Scotland and stolen all the good looking wom-
en to take home to Iceland…
Right, wow. I like that.
You should reclaim some of the good ones…
I think we should. We could have some Celtic lov-
ing going on…
Any tactics for getting them on the plane?
Some shots are usually a good way.
Maybe one of the ballads from Puzzles would
be a good start?
Oh yeah, get all the girls crying.
Great Scot! Biffy Clyro Invade Iceland
One top Scottish export that won’t be hit by the credit crunch talk dodgy food,
playing hard and instigating a reverse Viking invasion.
The biffy clyro clan from kilmarnock
Absolutely. You could slip them on the plane
and they’d never know… Anyway, your new
single is called Mountains - why?
It’s about going through challenges in life and some
of the things you can face. That’s roughly where it
comes from, how people in your life can help you
get through things and you do it together. It’s really
a symbol for a struggle, but also the challenge.I
think with challenges, when you conquer them,
the results are that much better because things
have been difficult. That’s what it’s about, how you
get stronger through the difficult times.
Does that idea reflect Biffy Clyro’s last year or
two?
I think Simon always writes lyrics from a fairly
personal point of view, it’s more than likely that
it’s about that. It also applies to life in general even
though it’s quite specific about what we’ve been
through.
Scotland also has quite a ‘diverse’ (i.e. odd)
cuisine, as does Iceland. Will you be trying
raw whale, puffin or anything similar?
Well we’ve had a few weird things. We were out in
Japan and they had some really crazy food but I’ve
never had whale before.
There’s a lot of pissed-on shark about. That’s
a delicacy too.
Definitely. We’re not shy, we’ll eat anything.
Surely haggis (traditional offal-based Scottish
dish) contains most of those ingredients any-
way?
I think what goes in haggis is a closely-guarded se-
cret. It’s a bunch of really not good tasting stuff with
a load of spice so you can’t actually taste it.
I gather you’re playing a series of really big
gigs later this year around the UK?
Yeah, that’s right. Should be good.
So what’s your favourite type of gig to play in
terms of venue?
Actually, it kind of varies. Over the summer we
did a lot of big shows at festivals. That’s always
fun because you’re not playing to the same crowd
and you’re not sure how people are going to react.
You’re probably playing to ten or twenty thousand
people, maybe even more. We really like the big
stage and that aspect but when you play a small
club, there’s something about the intensity. You can
see the whites of people’s eyes. We wouldn’t like to
give up one gig and totally do the other; I think it’s
really important to have a good mix. That’s what
keeps it really exciting for us.
Iceland is quite far away but have you had any
fan mail from other far-flung places?
We had quite a lot of people from Brazil writing to
us on message boards but I don’t know if they sent
us any fan mail. Around Japan we got some really
crazy stuff given to us. People drew pictures of us,
gave us silk scarves and told us all these strange
stories. I think in Japan they are particularly crazy
but really nice. Quite fanatical, I guess.

Biffy Clyro play NASA on Wednesday 15th at the
Kerrang / Iceland Airwaves night. Their new sin-
gle ‘Mountains’ is out now. www.myspace.com/
biffyclyro
We could have soMe celtic lov-
ing going on…