Simon Neil was in a "terrible headspace" when he started work on Biffy Clyro’s new LP ‘Ellipsis’.
The 36-year-old rocker has spoke of the bad patch he went through whilst touring the band’s last album ‘Opposites’ in April 2013, and how despite the Scottish group’s success he felt "unfulfilled".
He admitted: "I was just in a terrible headspace.
It’s just the way I am. I’m always going have a bit of trouble convincing in here [taps his head] that everything’s going alright, when it is going alright. I needed to shed a skin in a serious way last year. We’d done more things than I could ever have dreamed of and I still felt slightly unfulfilled and unhappy."
Several deaths in his family and the band’s original tour manager, Storm Thorgerson, tragically passing away with leukemia all contributed to Simon’s meltdown.
He told NME magazine: "I had a bit of a ‘do’.
"This is going to turn into a right downer interview, but before that our very first tour manager died of leukemia; Storm Thorgerson [ designer of their artwork] died; my gran died; my best friend’s brother died on Christmas Day… It felt like when things couldn’t get any worse, they just kept getting worse."
It was only when the the ‘Many Of Horror’ hitmaker decided to move to Los Angeles from Scotland – with his wife Francesca Pieroni – that the new album started to slot into place.
He explained: "It happened when I least expected it.
"I was sat at the piano and wrote three songs, sending them to the boys, going, ‘I’m really excited by these,’ and they got back, saying, ‘They’re f***ing unbelievable’. I’ll always remember that, because that day was the turning point in getting my confidence back."
‘Ellipsis’ is released via Warner Bros. Records on July 8.
Simon Neil opens up about mental health struggles
