Born as a reaction to conflicts both political and personal, Biffy Clyro’s ‘A
Celebration
of
may sound like an album defined
Endings’
by the gloom of the present day; in fact, it’s more a guiding light towards the future. Words:
Sarah
Jamieson.
Photos: Eva Pentel. Collage:
“W
e are at the end of something in society, and humanity, at the moment,” offers up Biffy Clyro frontman Simon Neil, in the midst of explaining the title of the band’s new album. Considering the current global crisis, his statement and the record’s chosen moniker itself - ‘A Celebration of Endings’ - obviously come loaded with a real sense of weight; it’d be easy to mistake his sentiment as a description of the fraught times the world is facing right now. But his words aren’t as cut and dried as they might seem. “It’s not even in a political way, I just feel like we’re at the end of some kind of consciousness level,” he goes on. “This sounds hippy dippy as fuck, but I think the Mayans were right when they said that in 2012 the world would end; not in a physical realm, but I think our consciousness has shifted.” As the band approach the release of their eighth album originally scheduled for release in May, but since pushed back to later in the summer - it’s safe to say we’ve entered trepidatious times. Over the past few years, the rise of the far-right has been all too strongly felt, while the climate crisis has dominated headlines across the world. Political and social shifts have become the norm, and it’s been an overwhelming time for many - without even taking the current pandemic into account. However hope, the Scottish trio want you to know, is not yet gone.
B
iffy Clyro have always pushed to subvert the norm, consistently going against the expected grain. From their earliest days, when they first began building a reputation for post-hardcore weirdness thanks to jarring instrumentation and titles like ‘Kill the Old, Torture Their Young’, through to the present day, they’ve rallied against boundaries and tried to be - as bassist James Johnston puts it - “awkward and obstinate and stubborn”. Almost 20 years on from their debut’s release, the trio are steadfast in reconfiguring with every turn, hoping to turn heads with each new project. Even when approaching this album, they didn’t follow the regular path. After the release and subsequent touring schedule of 2016’s ‘Ellipsis’, instead of having a well-earned rest, recharging the batteries and then heading back into the studio, the band
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DIYMAG.COM
Louise
Mason
instead decided to make two additional records - a live album and a soundtrack - just to see what they’d come up with. The ultimate palate cleanser, the trio - completed by James’ drumming brother Ben Johnston - then set about picking up where their previous studio album left off. Having returned to Los Angeles to once again work with producer Rich Costey, they wanted to experiment even more than they had with ‘Ellipsis’. “With Rich, the modus operandi was gorgeousness with real trash,” Simon told DIY around that last record, and on ‘A Celebration of Endings’, it’s clear they’re still chasing that feeling. “For us on this record, we did feel like there is a bit of chaos,” Simon confirms, “but there’s a couple of songs where we wanted to put the sophistication of strings onto that chaotic side. I think that’s partly defined what we do for a long time; we really are a band of contrasting sounds, ugly and beautiful.” As an album, their eighth is packed to the brim with Biffy-ness; spiraling guitars let loose over luscious string sections, chorus refrains bold and big enough to dominate any festival headline set, and squalling, screaming, unhinged vocals. It’s a record that seems to represent their intensely contrasting worlds - a myriad of the playful pyromania of their first three records and the chart-friendly, soaring pop of 2009’s ‘Only Revolutions’ hung together with a sense of rebellion. “For me, it’s always about combining things together, and the layers of how we listen to records as well,” Simon confirms, sat with his band mates in a North London flat-turned-photo studio. “That’s also what makes it interesting for a listener. I don’t want people to ever know what to expect. See, if I’ve pressed play on a record, and it’s what I’ve wanted it to be, I never come back to that album; it’s always things where I thought, ‘That’s not what I thought they’d do next’ that bring me back.”
I
f the band’s latest is typical Biffy by merit of its atypical approach, then ‘A Celebration of Endings’ is also a record that feels particularly rooted in the current moment, one that looks around and emerges determined to face towards the future. From the synth-drenched choruses of lead single ‘Instant History’ to the frankly bonkers conclusion of album closer ‘Cop Syrup’, the concept of tradition gets a bit of a kicking.
