Biffy Clyro find recording in Los Angeles inspiring.
The ‘Mountains’ rockers try not to write new songs away from their native Scotland so they still sound like "home", but find being in California gives them the motivation to get up and get work done.
Drummer Ben Johnson explained: "The first time we came to Hollywood was many, many moons ago and we were probably too young to deal with it, but we’ve been to LA. enough now that we have friends and we enjoy it and that’s good to have when recording.
"And you get a nice day that makes you want to get out of bed and do things. I mean what I’m looking at right now in Scotland, I just want to go back to bed and do nothing. That’s one of the main reasons we come to L.A. We don’t try to write in LA, because we want to make sure our music still sounds Scottish at least in terms of finding that home, but in terms of recording you want to go somewhere that makes you happy and you can feel healthy."
And the trio – which comprises Ben, Simon Neil and James Johnston – also find LA has a more diverse range of session musicians and better studio equipment than they would find back home.
Ben told Loudwire.com: "Most of the studios [in LA] have all the gear you can get and drum kits you can play and it’s endless. We can’t always do that here in Scotland.
"There are studios around, but maybe not the gear and then the players, if you want a good honky tonk piano player to help you out, it’s not easy, but you can find one in LA. There’s lots of reasons to record there, and Rich Costey lives in LA. and has a studio where he works, so that was a factor. But it didn’t take much for three Scots to move to L.A. to record."
The group only released their new album, ‘Ellipsis’, a month ago but Ben already has a favourite track to perform live.
He said: "I’m really enjoying playing a bonus track, ‘In the Name of the Wee Man’ which is on the deluxe album. I’m loving that cause it’s one of the heavier songs. It’s a bit more Biffy and it’s a long song. I just think it’s a really classic Biffy song with a modern twist. I’m really happy with it."
Fans will get to hear some of the tracks from the new album when Biffy Clyro headline the Reading and Leeds festivals this weekend.
Tickets for Reading, where the rockers headline on Sunday (28.08.16), are sold out, but they are still available for Leeds, which will see the ‘Howl’ hitmakers take to the stage in Bramham Park on Friday (26.08.16).
To buy tickets, visit http://www.leedsfestival.com/tickets
Biffy Clyro motivated by Los Angeles
