Biffier than thou

F caught up with UK rockers Biffy Clyro backstage at Download 2004

VF: What have you been up to the past few months?
BC: We’ve been finishing off our third album, just putting the finishing touches to it like getting it mastered and doing the artwork.

VF: What kind of feel has the new record got?
BC: We wanted to make it slightly more diverse just to keep it interesting for us and for the fans, but still keep it sounding like a Biffy record.

VF: Are you trying to incorporate any other sounds?
BC: Well, we’re always looking to do that. I couldn’t mention any bands off hand because there are too many to mention, but we’re always looking to expand our sound.

VF: How do you feel about the success of the last album?
BC: Yeah it did really well, it would have been nice for people further a field to listen to it, maybe in America and in Europe but in this country we were really happy with the way the fans received it and the way the press received it.

VF: The artwork for the new record is a bit racy isn’t it?
BC: That was just a bit of a fluke. We were sitting having dinner in Marseille, as you do, and we saw the print on the wall and we thought that’s the one, and the rest is history as they say. By the way we like clichés a lot!

VF: We heard there is a side project in the offing called When the World Explodes?
BC: No, it’s just me and my mate messing around, so it’s not really a side project. It wont be released or anything.

VF: How are you finding Download Festival?
BC: Yeah excellent, though we’ve experienced very little of the festival so far, but we’ve had a wash and went to the signing tent which was cool.

VF: Were there a lot of people there to see you?
BC: We thought there would be about 5 but in the end there were 10 so we were impressed! There were quite a lot of people wearing Cradle of filth t-shirts, which is a bit worrying, but you can like Cradle of Filth and Biffy – so that’s cool.

VF: Are there any bands you really want to see?
BC: Yeah. We're going to see Your Codename is: Milo and thisGirl.

VF: Actually they’re on now!
BC: Well we’d better wrap this up then, thanks. [runs off towards the Barfly Stage!]