Why Biffy Clyro Is Pissed Off About Brexit & England's "Lying" Politicians

When Ben Johnston, the 36-year-old drummer for epic Scottish rockers Biffy Clyro, landed in Lisbon to play the NOS Alive festival, it was the latest in a lifetime of European trips. They started when his family (including twin brother James, Biffy Clyro's bassist) took camping holidays in France and Portugal in his childhood, and continued across two decades of touring in a festival-friendly band. Johnston has no idea how many times he's arrived in Europe to play a show, but this trip was the first since Brexit.

"I always taught from an early age to appreciate other places, other cultures, so it makes me livid," says Johnston, from Lisbon. "If I'm quite honest, it makes me quite angry to even talk about. I feel like the people who voted to exit have been lied to. And all the politicians that circulated these lies are now buggering off, and not cleaning up the mess they've made. Hopefully you know that Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain, but, once again, Scotland's voice hasn't been heard. And now the UK is a laughing stock around the world, and it's a big source of embarrassment. I feel like Scotland's going to have to go off on its own. It's about time Scotland was about to make its own decisions. Everything in our country — from our school system to our economy — is controlled by this boy's club down in Westminster."

"Once again, Scotland's voice hasn't been heard. And now the UK is a laughing stock around the world, and it's a big source of embarrassment."

The latest trip to Europe for the Johnston twins is in support of the seventh Biffy Clyro LP, Ellipsis. Feeling like they'd "reached the pinnacle of the 'lush, cinematic rock record'" with 2013's epic double album, Opposites, the trio sought to "shake it up". So, they worked with producer Rich Costey (Kimbra, Chvrches, Death Cab For Cutie), someone who admittedly "doesn't have much interesting in recording rock bands".

"That very much appealed to us!" laughs Johnston. "We wanted to challenge ourselves, and put ourselves in a place of discomfort. And that rapidly happened. We'd recorded six albums essentially the same way: first we record the drums, then the bass, then the guitar, then do the vocals; in the chorus I'll hit the crash cymbal and open the hi-hats, we'll rock out. Rules, if you will. And, then, Rich takes them away. That's uncomfortable."

The resulting record is the shortest of Biffy Clyro's career — 39 minutes long — yet took them, by far, the longest to record. "It took six months, and it definitely wasn't meant to be six months," Johnston says. "We'd try every song in a bunch of different ways: in different styles, at different tempos, with different instrumentation. All to try and find the best way to present a song."

This makes Ellipsis an album that, the band hopes, can't be easily defined. "In some ways, it's quite aggressive, but in other ways it isn't. It's still really poppy but it uses electronic elements that we never have in the past. We're going to freak some old fans out. But, we've wanted to confuse people, to put people on the back foot, right from the start. You have to work to like our band, which definitely isn't a capitalist way to do things, a careerist way to do things. We're clearly not those kind of people. Our name's Biffy Clyro, for chrissakes. Two words that mean nothing."