Biffy Clyro’s new material is sounding “much less Biffy”.
Simon Neil and co only released their 10th studio album Futique in September, but the frontman has been busy penning new material and revealed he’s been experimenting with different sounds, including garage rock and country rock.
He told NME of the new tunes: “They’re less focussed, as always. I like the beauty of the fact that these other songs have been worked on less so there’s more freedom. They’re flapping the breeze and we can focus on our eccentricities. There’s a liberation in knowing that people who are really into our band will listen to them at this stage. It fills the story and completes our picture.
“There are some garage rock songs on there, one of the best country rock songs I’ve ever written.”
His bandmate James Johnston asked: “Have you written many?”
Simon replied: “I have actually, thank you very much! These aren’t as rock band-y. We deliberately wanted to define our band on ‘Futique’. Everything had a relative familiarity. These songs are much less Biffy.”
Fans will have to wait and see if the new tracks make it onto their next album.
Asked if they are planning a new album or EP, Simon said: “I would like it to be an album. I’m still old-school. You show that you’re making a serious statement with an album. I like how they fill in the gaps and tell the story. Realistically, we’ll struggle to do it before next summer. We’ll hopefully get in with [Jonathan] Gilmore and finish them off.”
The prolific songwriter says Biffy plan to stick around for years to come and making Futique made him realise it’s far from “the end of the road” for Scottish trio.
He said: “I keep thinking, ‘Do we need new Biffy music?’ This keeps us creating and moving forward without having an existential crisis. I was just in Barcelona and wrote another f****** seven songs and I don’t know what to do! I want to complete the Futique statement first and we don’t want to say anything new yet but I can’t help but do new stuff. That’s a good sign. We’ll take it as a positive that there’s life in old f****** dog yet.”
Simon added: “I know that’s ludicrous to say on your 10th album, but we’re still on this f****** journey. We’re still finding new ways to do s***. I’ve read a bunch of reviews of Futique. Some people think it’s the same old s*** but the right people know it’s a celebration of us along with something new. The great thing is that releasing this album made me feel encouraged. It’s not the end of the road. Not to sound cynical, but at some point it will be the end of the road – and it ain’t f****** now.”