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February 21, 2007
Puzzle Tracklisting and Release Date
Kerrang! magazine are reporting today the details of 'Puzzle'.
The album will be released on 21st May and the tracklisting is as follows.
Living Is A Problem
Saturday Superhouse
Who's Got A Match
As Dust Dances
(2/15ths)
A Whole Child Ago
The Conversation Is...
Now I'm Everyone
Semi-Mental
(4/15ths)
Love Has A Diameter
Get Fucked Stud
Folding Stars
9/15ths
Machines
Also in this weeks issue, Simon talks briefly about each song. Make sure to check it out.
Posted by Johnny at 06:03 PM | Comments (1)
February 19, 2007
Web-zine interview..
Some friendly types over at God Is In The TV interviewed the brothers Johnston at the Southampton date of the Kerrang! tour. Quite a nice read, enjoy.
Headlining a sold-out Kerrang! tour, receiving regular airplay from admiring DJs, and recording in the States, GIITTV caught up with the Johnston brothers to discuss how Biffy Clyro are still the same band we've always adored.
Last time you played Southampton was 2 years ago at the Uni, a venue somewhat smaller than tonight's (Southampton Guildhall has a capacity of around 1750). Do you find it heard creating the kind of intimacy that is often so prominent at Biffy gigs, in larger venues?
Ben: There’s no point trying to create intimacy in a place that has none. A place like this it’s just not possible because the kids are just to far away, it’s more of a show than a joint experience. But it’s better for different reasons than a smaller gig...
James: Aye, it’s a good challenge trying to reach the people at the back of the room as well as getting the energy from those at the front. We still really enjoy playing small venues, but we enjoy the challenge places like this bring.
Given the success that ‘Puzzle’ is expected to bring, are venues such as the Guildhall going to be more suitable for future tours?
Ben: I’d hope so yes, obviously depending on how well the album does! We’ve sold out similar sized venues in the past so anything smaller would seem like a step back, although we’ve been out of the limelight for a while...
James: Where we ever in the limelight?!
Ben: (laughs) it’s been 2 years now so there’s a chance the numbers could drop, but we’ll wait and see.
So, we know you’re playing as part of the Kerrang! tour tonight, and obviously with the new label and album it’s a very exciting time for the band, and it’s obviously helpful Kerrang! have taken you under their wing. However, the front cover of this week’s issue read something like;
‘this week, Evanescence, Good Charlotte, My Chemical Romance and Biffy Clyro’. Does this kind of juxtaposition ring any alarm bells for you? Is there any danger of Biffy becoming an‘in’ band?
Ben: I don’t think so no, none of those bands are particularly our favourites. I don’t think becoming an ‘in’ band would be particularly detrimental to us because of the work we’ve put in in the past, I think it only kills a band if they have nothing to start with and it gives them a short shelf life. I think because we have such a loyal fan base and have done a lot of work, being a kind of ‘hit’ band at this point would actually be good, I don’t think it’d hurt us at all.
James: We’ve always been ambitious as a band and we’ve always wanted to take our music to as many people as possible, so like Ben said it’s important to have the progression we’ve had up until now. I think now we’ve built up such a loyal fan base we’re now ready to take a step and to reach the people that haven’t yet heard about that band. It is an exciting time for us and we what to play to lots of people, if that means being mentioned in the same paragraph as Good Charlotte and Evanescence then so be it. There are always bands who come and go, and many have done in our careers so far, but we’ve just got to try and stick to our guns and do what we do. We haven’t changed anything, it’s not like we’ve changed something and now we’re getting coverage, we’re still doing what we do.
So ‘Puzzle’ is your 4th album, but it may have been the 5th. There’s been talk of a lot of demos kicking around which is unsurprising given the gap between releases, what’s become of those?
Ben: Most of the songs that didn’t make this album will end up being B-sides for the up-coming singles.
James: What we’ve always liked to do is keep our singles more like EPs, and the demos may not be as suited to the album we’ve made which is why they didn’t make the cut. I don’t think there are many guys who kind of rush out and buy singles anymore, so if we can make ours as mini-albums or EPs it will kind of give more exposure to the B-sides and give a broader picture of the music we’re making.
‘Puzzle’ is the first album you’ve recorded without Chris Sheldon, who’s obviously played a huge role in the making of the last 3 CDs. How did you adapt to new surroundings/people and how did this effect the recording process as a whole?
Ben: Chris was always in the same mindset as us;”let’s work hard and get it done’. Not to cheapen what we’ve done or anything but there was always a lack of funding and time constraints, but with this one there was none at all, we could basically taken as long as we wanted, so it was strange to adapt to that at first.
James: We were working half-days here and there and then relaxing, but we were always itching to get it done because it had been a year and a half in the making, so it was really strange to have to slow down for 2 months.
Ben: We do kind of prefer just getting stuck into it, but in retrospect at the time doing it it was tough doing it slowly but the results are there and they speak for themselves. We’ll look back at it with fond memories though.
The first real taste we’ve had of ‘Puzzle’ is ‘Semi-Mental’, which you released on Jesus’ 2006th birthday! How did that date come about?
James: We’d been away for such a long time so we really wanted to get something out as quickly as possible, and we just though it’d be nice to try and compete with Santa. It was really more of a re-introduction to our existing fans just to remind them that we’re still there, but it got picked up in a way we didn’t realise, a lot of radio stations are playing it and it’s sparked a lot of interest in new fans so it has taken a different way entirely but it’s fun.
Ben: When it was suggested that we’d put it out on Christmas day we were like....’Really?!’, but then we started really getting into the idea and thought it was quite cool.
It was a nice extra present getting onto itunes and downloading some new Biffy material...
Ben: Unfortunately the song was listed under the band ‘Semi Mental’ so the download counts were illegible because of that.
That’s a shame because obviously ‘Jaggy’ did so well as a download single in the past...
Ben: Aye, not to cheapen that at all but I don’t know how! We’ve never been a band for chart positions though, success for us is just if people like it.
A lot of fans, myself included, find it hard to pick a favourite Biffy album, as they’re all very unique in their own way. Despite this, you rated ‘Puzzle’ as 10/10 in a recent interview, so what makes this album stand out for you?
James: Without comparing it to the other albums I think it’s just a really strong album with great songs. With the year and a half we’ve had in between albums we’ve had a long time just to work hard on the songs and make sure that they were as strong as they could be. We’ve always tried to make sure the stuff works on acoustic guitar because we feel a good song should always be able to do that and I think that’s apparent on the album. I think it’s definitely our best work to date, it’s got the strongest songs, it sounds the best, it flows really well, and I think it has all the characteristics of a good Biffy album.
It’s already been tipped as being one of the albums of the year, and in a local magazine Gordon from Bloc Party said yours was the album he was most looking forward to. Are there any releases you’re anticipating in 2007?
James: Well we’ll return the compliment and say the Bloc Party album, the track we’ve heard, the single’s brilliant...
Ben: ...it’s pretty awesome, aye
James: ..and we’re big fans of that band so the new album should be exciting. There’s a new Aerogramme album coming out in the next couple of weeks, which again we’ve heard and it’s fantastic. There’s a lot of cool bands releasing stuff at the moment, Reuben, The Coopers have got something coming out as well...
Ben: I think ours will be the best though! (both laugh)
James:....naturally!
Biffy rarely cover songs, although the ones you have taken on (‘Take Me Out‘, ‘Buddy Holly’, ‘You’re The One That I Want‘) have been real gems. If you could choose a band to cover a Biffy song; which band and which song?
Ben: It’d be quite funny if Pharrell Williams had a go at Jaggy Snake, or maybe the Sugarbabes!
James: I’d quite like it if Bonny Prince Billy did one of our songs actually, there’s a song on the album called ‘Loving..’, which is the first track which is a great song with lost of bits that’d be interesting to see how he took them on with an acoustic guitar, and although I’m contradicting myself here, there are parts in that song which would be quite interesting on an acoustic guitar (both smile knowingly)
Obviously it’s early days but any plans for festival appearances over the summer? I’d imagine T would be quite high on the list again?
Ben: This year especially we’re looking at trying to nail them all, it’s a bit early in the year to be getting confirmation at this stage but we’re looking at the Carling Festival, T in the Park, maybe do our first Glastonbury as well and also head over to do some European stuff, maybe even Japan and Australia, so just really everything!
Well you’ve got to really push it (Puzzle) because it’s out around then, isn’t it? Mayish?
James: Aye, it might be pushed back until June though...
Ben: It’s getting later and later every day!
Yeah, it’s odd because initially it was scheduled for February!
Ben: That’s right, but it’s been put back for the right reasons. The singles that we thought we’re just going to be little introductions have ended up being quite a big deal and a lot of DJs have picked up on it so it’s more about giving these singles time to breathe before the album.
I’ve always grown up with Biffy as a cult-band, and I’m sure you feel the same, so how do you feel given the position you’re in?
Ben: As James said before we’ve always been really ambitious and even from the first album we wanted to be at a high level and up there with the best, so it’s not scary at all, it’s just always what we’ve been working to do. I understand that a lot of kids, like the way I have with certain bands when they get to a certain level, you get a bit upset because it’s not ‘your band’ anymore because everyone can hear it. It was really good fun going ‘have you heard this band?’ and meeting someone else who knew, you’d get a wee shiver, but if it’s all over the radio you can’t have that chat anymore because everyone knows who you are. Inevitably that’s going to happen with any band if you want to try and break into a bigger market.
James: You’re always aware of the danger that kids are gonna go online and start saying ‘ah, they’ve sold out’ even though the music hasn’t changed at all, you know it’s gonna happen but you just have to roll with it.
Ben: We’ve always just done what we’ve believed in so if people want to question that then they’re welcome to, but we know we’ve always been true to ourselves and done what we want to do, so if there are some people who have a problem with it then it’s their problem really, without trying to sound to harsh about it.
Just to finish then, can we expect any surprises in your set tonight?
Ben: We’ve got four new tunes tonight, ‘Get Fucked Stud’ which you can hear on our website, obviously ‘Semi-Mental’ and ‘Saturday Superhouse’, and I think the other one is ‘Now I’m Everyone’, which debuted at Tut’s I think.
James: It’s kinda hard, we wanna play them all, but obviously with the album not being out we have to hold some back for the album tour, but it will definitely be a fun show. We’ve got a good mix from across the albums.
Well I was going to mention that, obviously you have quite a back catalogue now, so how do you find getting the right blend at shows?
Ben: Well, writing the set list is one of the hardest parts of our job! Even if we do a set of just the singles we’ve released then that’s the set filled up really...
James: Fuck!
Ben: If there’s no favourite album track, we’ll always get someone coming up at the end saying ‘you didn’t play this’, but we can’t please everyone you know? But it’s a good set and we really enjoy playing it.
Posted by Johnny at 03:58 PM | Comments (0)
MTV2 Bristol Gig
MTV2's Spanking New Music annual series of gigs stops off at the Bristol Anson Rooms on March 23rd. Headlining this night will be none other than Biffy Clyro.
Tickets go on sale Wednesday (21st February) with a pre-sale tomorrow (20th February) on biffyclyro.com.
No clue of an air date on this as yet but we'll be sure to keep you posted as soon as we find out.
Previous years of this on the box included interviews and a good few live songs broadcasted from each band so expect some decent coverage.
Posted by Johnny at 03:53 PM | Comments (0)
February 15, 2007
B-listers..
Just a brief note to say Biffy's Saturday Superhouse has been moved up to B-list status on Radio 1's weekly playlist, fighting for space alongside the likes of Lily Allen, Razorlight, Pink and Take That.
The hype continues.
The song will get 10 to 15 plays a week on primetime Radio 1.
Posted by Johnny at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)
February 13, 2007
Radio 1 Zane Lowe Session 13-02-2007
The boys popped into the famous Maida Vale studios for a chat and a delicious rock out, the day before Valentine's day, to fill our hearts with glee and anticipation for Puzzle.. which Zane claims is being released on May 21st.
Available on BTT today is one of the tracks sessionised, recent single Semi-mental, and the three interview snippets broadcasted. The other two tracks 'Now I'm Everyone' and 'Saturday Superhouse' may be available at a later date, but not before the album.
As ever, right click, save as and enjoy..
01 - Interview (Part 1)
02 - Interview (Part 2)
03 - Interview (Part 3)
04 - Semi-mental (Maida Vale)
A huge thank you to Aditya Kasliwal for taking the time to rip and submit these to BTT.
Posted by Johnny at 10:00 PM | Comments (5)
New live dates
Biffy will be supporting the fantastic Bloc Party on their upcoming mammoth European tour. Tickets are available in a pre-sale through Bloc Party's website at 9am on Thursday 15th February (click here, costs £2 to register for the fan club supplying pre-sale) with general sale occurring on Friday 16th through ticketmaster. Five English dates are included in the itinerary. The band won't be playing with Bloc Party in Glasgow but are playing the 'Give It A Name 2007' festival at the SECC on 29th April, tickets on sale now. The full dates are as follows;
Sunday 15th April - Wolverhampton Civic, UK
Monday 16th April- Plymouth Pavillions, UK
Wednesday 18th April- Blackpool Empress Ballroom, UK
Thursday 19th April- Brixton Academy, UK
Friday 20th April- Brixton Academy
Monday 23rd April- Nantes Le Carriere, France
Tuesday 24th April- Lille Aeronef, France
Wednesday 25th April- Belgium Brussels AB, France
Friday 27th April- Paris Olympic, France
Saturday 28th April- Utrecht Music Centre, Holland
Sunday 29th April - SECC, Glasgow
Monday 30th April- Copenhagen Vega, Denmark
Tuesday 1st May - Stockholm Cirkus, Sweden
Wednesday 2nd May- Oslo Sentrum Scene, Norway
Friday 4th May- Berlin Columbiahalle, Germany
Saturday 5th May- Vienna Gamo, Austria
Sunday 6th May- Dresden Schlachthof, Germany
Tuesday 8th May- Cologne E-Werk, Germany
Wednesday 9th May - Munich Tonhalle, Germany
Thursday 10th May- Lausanne Metropole, Switzerland
Saturday 12th May- Bologna Estragon, Italy
Sunday 13th May- Milan Alcatraz, Italy
Monday 14th May- Lyon Transbordeur, France
Tuesday 15th May- Barcelona Razzmatazz, Spain
Thursday 17th May- Madrid Riviera, Spain
Friday 18th May- Lisbon Coloseum, Portugal
Posted by Johnny at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)
February 08, 2007
'Mon the Biff' programme on MTV2
There's an entire programme on MTV2 tomorrow (Friday 9th) dedicated to the Biffy.
Pity they couldn't get the phrase right. I've never heard ANYONE shout Mon the Biff.
Even the guy from TheAudition could get it right!
Posted by Chris at 09:28 PM | Comments (3)
Milton Keynes Interview
Voices in the wilderness
IT'S been a while since we caught up with the Biffy Clyro boys, and since our last meeting the Scots trio have stepped over the line and are now firm favourites on the British rock scene.
Their sound is unique, their musical principles? Still intact. Biffy are now on their fourth album, and as fresh and exciting as they've ever been.
But plenty has changed in the camp – not least the inking of a new record deal with 14th Floor. Beggars Banquet are now an act down, so why the switch from the label that had resolutely stood by you?
"I think we knew that if we stayed there, we knew that we could always do another album and it would have a similar release, but it wouldn't really take us any further," drummer Ben explains. "But we've got a lot of respect for the label.
"It's been hard too with the legalities. Before, we would put out an album every year, and so it's been pretty horrible for us, and this new one has been a while coming – some of the songs on the album are new, but some feel pretty old now...we've got different ambitions, y'know? We always though that we could be the biggest band in the world," he says directly. "We write songs and we want them to be heard."
So to this new, fourth elpee release, and you can expect to hear Puzzle in the summer.
Their first two albums were put to reel here in Milton Keynes, at the famed Linford Manor Studios, but not so this time around...what's wrong with us?
"You've got too many roundabouts!" is the quip.
Biffy actually employed the knob-twiddling talents of Garth Richardson (aka Gggarth) – who has previously given the magic touch to artists including Rage Against The Machine, Melvins and Red Hot Chili Peppers – and de-camped to Canada to work with the chap.
"It was strange and wonderful," Ben says with hindsight. "Although we did butt heads a few times along the way. It took us two and a half months and we recorded in Vancouver City and in the wilderness at Garth's farm in the middle of the woods.
"It was a different process for us – before we were used to banging the stuff out fast, with this punk ethic.
"We spent a long time on this one, getting it right, playing it really well and song-wise things are more direct. A lot less messing around and a lot more direct.
"We have definitely been guilty of playing around and going off on tangents...."
It sounds as though this album will be simpler – more cut and dried in the song department...
"Yeah, it'll be easier to get into, and I think that the new extra quality outweighs anything else...it's about the song structures and the quality of writing."
Ben admits that his band's third album – Infinity Land – sold well, but how well, he won't divulge...
"I don't know..." Come on, you must. "That's for the money people...I don't know really, I just hit things!" he giggles.
And he'll be hitting those skins again imminently, when the band embark on their largest British tour to date.
It'll be extensive in size and length: "It's going to be the biggest one we've ever done, yep, it's the next step up for us.
"In Britain it's just a joy, the hard work has paid off and we always come off stage buzzing.
"It's been a slow steady build getting there though...and we'll be starting all over again when we head to America," he says with relish.
Biffy Clyro issue a new single, Saturday Superhouse, on Monday March 5.
By Sammy Jones
08 February 2007
http://www.miltonkeynes.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=2250&ArticleID=2033219
Posted by Chris at 09:24 PM | Comments (0)
BIffy Session on Zane Lowe's show next week
Biffy will be in session, next week 13/2/07 (Tuesday) on Zane Lowe's show on BBC Radio 1. That's 7-9.
Shine on, you crazy antipodean diamond.
Posted by Chris at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)
February 07, 2007
Album available to pre-order on HMV...
Here Wonder if that's the cover?
Posted by Chris at 08:40 AM | Comments (3)
February 05, 2007
Saturday Superhouse Release Date
Apparently, it was the Single that's released on 5/3, and not the album...
Taken from Posted by Chris at 08:44 AM | Comments (0)
February 01, 2007
Big up the C-list massive..
Having dented the Radio 1 airwaves last week on the 1-Upfront List, Biffy have been bumped up a place to the C-list playlist, rubbing bums with the likes of Razorlight, The Fratelli's and Camile Jones vs. Fedde Le Grand.
The new playlist is compiled at a meeting chaired by the Head of Music each Wednesday and according to the BBC, tracks are selected on what they think the public want to hear, so it's making a good impression with someone. This is highlighted by the track getting a 93% approval rating on Edith Bowman's website.
Being on the C-list means the track will get 5 to 6 plays during daytime Radio 1 programming every week, across any show. Hopefully as release date nears we can see a climb into the B-list and maybe even the cream of the crop A-list section!
Posted by Johnny at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)