I find it really tough to kind of, to try and encapsulate every kind of music, everything
that's educated me musically down to five songs and five bands was very very tough.
I could've easily chosen another five songs but today these felt like the five most important
songs that uhm, that make up our musical DNA.
The first one I'm gonna choose is a song by Guns'n'Roses and it's a song called
'Coma', and, and this is the last song on Use Your Illusion I, which was Guns'n'Roses
foray into like double albums and as with Guns'n'Roses doing everything to the max,
they released two double albums at the same time.
So the reason this song 'Coma' has been so important to me over the years was, the
writing of that song is so complex, you know.
Guns'n'Roses were the kings of simplicity, when they had a song like Sweet Child Of Mine
or Sweet Paradise City, they were so basic and kind of, yeah just basic anthems, you
know, that were very simple that anyone could kind of play.
In a song like 'Coma', that's ten minutes long, and for a nine year old me, or a ten
year old me, to hear a song that was, I didn't even know you could write songs that were
ten minutes long.
And I completely fell in love with that song.
And I would listen to it over and over and over.
And it was the first, kind of complex music, that I've ever listened to.
Up until that point, you know, it was popmusic, things I would hear on the radio, and Guns'n'Roses
were the first band that I bought the album myself with my pocketmoney and that was the
first song where I thought, I've discovered a world that I had idea existed
Guns'n'Roses are a massive influence, to be honest when I started playing guitar
I couldn't play guitar like Slash.
I wanted to play guitar like Slash but I couldn't, you know, I wasn't very good but what Guns'n'Roses
taught me through the years was ambition, they gave you, they gave me a sense of scale
about music.
And the fact that no idea is too stupid, no idea is too big, you know.
Guns'n'Roses made video's that cost like 3 million dollars back then and, and
when we're working on our album Opposites, which was a double album and that's from
2013, I was listening to Use Your Illusion I & II non-stop and it was a huge influence
in that album, so, not only did it impact and introduce rockmusic to me as a kid, it
actually it's a pair of albums that's come back to me a lot over the years.
And when I was going through my punkrock period, I hated Guns'n'Roses.
I wanted things to be short, pure, you know, just no, no added, no embellishments, no kind
of like fanciness to it.
So I went through like a five to ten year period were I hated Guns'n'Roses.
And then when I came back to it in my late twenties I was like, "WOOOW I WAS RIGHT!
I love it!".
And so yea, so Opposites, our album Opposites is definitely inspired by Use Your Illusion I & II.
So much so that I have a Use Your Illusion-tattoo on my arm, so, Guns'n'Roses, thank you!
Thank you Guns'n'Roses
The second song I'm going to choose is Beach Boys - 'God Only Knows'.
It's a lyric I have tattoo'ed on my chest.
It's a song I just remember hearing for as long as I've been alive.
I just remember hearing the Beach Boys, I think we all do, before you even become conscious
as a human I think you know a Beach Boys song and you can sing along to them, so.
The important song to me was 'God Only Knows' and, I love how odd those popsongs are, you
know Beach Boys, they sound, they're very, they kind of, they make you think that they're
these really simplistic songs with just a couple of chords, but really they're impossible
to play and very, very complexly written.
You know, they're composed, they're not just written.
These songs are composed.
it was our, me and my wife's first dance at our wedding.
We danced to 'God Only Knows', I have it tattoo'ed and I have fun memories with
my mom and my dad growing up and listening to Beach Boys and, and it's a song whenever
I hear now it makes me sad as well as happy.
You know, it brings a lot of memories back.
And I miss a lot of people when I think about it.
But that's the beauty of music and the beauty of a song like that which, just, you know
it's kind of an anti-romance song, I like the fact that it's a romantic song without
being obvious.
It's kinda that way, like all true love is, that it's not as simple as 'I love
you, I need you', there's more to it than that.
And I love the fact that Brian Wilson just found the perfect way to melodically and lyrically
put that all together.
And I think the Beach Boys have an influence on the songs I write, it's, the harmonies
and everything like, we're a three piece rockband but we've always wanted to have
the harmonies of the Beach Boys.
And, wanted the power of rockbands but with the vocals of, yeah, of the Beach Boys.
That was my original mission for our band was to do the Pantera-meets-Beachs Boys.
And don't get me wrong, we're nowhere near that, but that's what I wanted.
I wanted the sweetness of the Beach Boys with the aggression and vulgarity of heavy music
and abrasive music, so.
So the Beach Boys are still a huge influence and that song is still something that I find
inspiration from, even though I've known the song for my entire life.
The third one, so, another song that I guess is an essential track for Biffy Clyro is 'Black
Hole Sun' by Soundgarden.
I guess in the last few weeks I've been thinking about Soundgarden a lot because Chris
Cornell passed, it's really sad and it's, it's affected actually all of us a bit more
than we anticipated.
Even, I felt so sad when Bowie and Prince left, but they, they felt like aliens, they
felt like people that had always been here.
Like, bigger than just humans, and.
But when Chris Cornell passed I think we felt quite close because we'd just been playing
some shows with Soundgarden and it was strange but, the song Black Hole Sun, when we're
at school, myself and Ben, for our first ever music exam I learned how to play Black Hole Sun.
I ended up getting a B, I should've got an A, we played Black Hole Sun, for fucks
sake!
But, I ended up getting a great B for singing and playing guitar to Black Hole Sun and again,
it was, it was a real introduction to me that songs don't need to be written a certain
way, you know.
Black Hole Sun, again, is a song that feels like a popsong, but really if you try and
play it as a guitarist or sing along, it's so odd and really really unique and to think
that's, when I look back in the DNA of the thing, of the music that inspired me growing
up it's always been things that have seemed to be one thing and actually have a little
of something else in it.
So Soundgarden and 'Black Hole Sun', you know their biggest song, but I learned that
in the guitar it taught me about changing the tunings of a guitar, they were the first
band that I ever tried to play a song and I had to de-tune strings and it was like 'what
the hell, I thought it was just, there was only one way you could play guitar' and
it taught me about, how the fact that drums, bass and guitar are three different instruments.
You know, they're, it's not, you don't have to play the same thing.
You know, as a songwriter it's important to recognise that a song isn't just one
idea, a song is actually a collection of a few ideas made to sound like one thing.
And 'Black Hole Sun' taught me that more than anything.
But I'm still pissed off that I got a B, should've got an A, I'll never live it down!
Another essential song for our band Biffy Clyro would be Arcade Fire and, I could choose
any song, I'm gonna choose 'Wake Up'.
Which is probably an obvious song to choose but, we went to see Arcade Fire, or we were
lucky enough to see Arcade Fire in 2003, at a festival and we managed to get on side
stage and as soon as they started playing the song 'Wake Up' and they all started
singing, they all started playing, and it was one of the most spiritual moments I've
ever experienced watching any band or listening to any music.
I had no idea what to expect and these, just these eight guys, I think there was maybe
nine of them at that point.
And just singing at the top of their lungs, it was, it was honestly a religious experience
and it taught me at that point I very much believed that live music was, was uh, an internal
experience, you know I feel like if I was trying to make the show fun for some, for
the crowd that I was selling out, and I thought, 'people are lucky to come and watch us play,
it's not about them, it's about the music man', you know.
And when I saw Arcade Fire it made me change, on a dime, what a liveshow was.
Because they just made it about everyone.
They made it about the community and everyone that was there, in that field, in that moment.
It was bigger, it was just bigger than the people on stage and, and I think their songs
have lend themselves to that over the years.
I think their music, more than any other band in the last ten/fifteen years is about the
community, and it's about singing things together.
And as soon as they started singing the words in 'Wake Up' it made me change how I thought
of writing songs and the kind of band I wanted us to be.
You know until that point I wanted us to be a progressive weird band that people couldn't
figure out, that people were like, what do they like, what are they into, what are they
trying to do here?
And then when I saw Arcade Fire it just made me think "no, I think, music can be, it
can be something you can share but have integrity to it, it doesn't need to be thrown away
if lots of people like it", and that's what Arcade Fire taught me.
Also, the intensity of their performances you know, they didn't have any distortion
pedals, they weren't, they didn't, they weren't throwing metal horns, they weren't head banging,
but it was one of the most intense gigs I've ever seen and again it taught
me a lot about intensity, that, intensity can sometimes be a whisper.
You know, intensity doesn't need to be someone in your face getting in your grill or shouting at you.
Intensity can be someone whispering in your ear.
And all of us after watching that show, changed, it honestly changed our lives.
There's very few bands that can do that.
One of… We saw At The Drive-In back in the day, which is an unbelievable punk/rock experience,
but, but Arcade Fire it was honestly, it was a religious experience and everyone felt it.
That's what was so pure great and amazing about it, because it wasn't, there wasn't
people that had seen them before.
No one was standing 'yeah, I've seen them and they were better last month', it felt
like the first time we were getting to see this weird band from Montreal.
So everyone was just like 'Ahhh', just like that, and it was glorious and we all
shared in that, and it's a moment that we still talk about, as, you know, as friends
it's an iconic moment for us as a band and as friends.
So I guess the last song I'm gonna choose is gonna be On Sight by Kanye West from the
album Yeezus.
I didn't want to just chose rock bands from, from when we were growing up, you know, it's.
There's been a lot of music in the last ten years that's really inspired me and
kind of become, it changed my view of music and I guess surprisingly Kanye West's album
Yeezus was one the most, one of the only albums that's blown me away in last five/ten years.
And, I think it's a more punk/rock record than any record with guitars in the last decade,
the song I love on it so much is the opening song, 'On Sight'.
It doesn't really seem to have any drums.
There's no instruments, it's just a sound, it's just like a frequency pulsing, and,
I think it's so abrasive.
It's so out there for a pop star to come out with a record that really has not a lot
of melody, the ideas are kinda all over the place.
I feel like, my theory is, and it's probably not time for theories, but I feel like hip
hop has reached this kinda progressive rock phase.
You know, after it started in the eighties and all that, I feel like they're heading…
you know, rock'n'roll started in the forties or fifties, and I feel like hip hop is reaching
it's progressive phase where all rules are out the window and I feel like Kanye is one
of the first people to really pursue that and to have songs with, you know, hip hop
songs with no beats?!
That's, like, to me that's what hip hop was and he's just thrown the rules out of
the window and as I say, that album I think is a real...
I think it will be a masterpiece.
I think in twenty years, people are going to pinpoint that as a record that really changed
a lot of things, changed pop music.
I don't think Beyoncé would have released an album like Lemonade without Yeezus, I know
that our last album Ellipsis wouldn't have been the album it was without Yeezus.
Rather than pursuing distortion through just guitars or wanting to make songs with just
guitars, it made me think you can make a keyboard or a synthesizer sound as abrasive and as
ugly as a guitar can, and, and again it taught me a lot about heaviness about intensity that
it doesn't need to be someone tuning a guitar down lower or like, just big walls of amplifiers
to be an intense sound.
And, and uh, so yea, it influenced, I guess you can hear it in songs like 'Friends and Enemies'
on our record and even 'Rearranged', you know we took the idea of some trapbeat
ideas
I think it's something that we'll embrace a lot more from now on, I, I don't want
to keep making rock records that hark back to Zeppeling and Sabbath, you know.
I feel like we've done that, we've done our albums where we are traditional and embrace
the, you know orchestra and organs and really organic instruments, starting with Ellipsis
I want our next two records to be, to embrace that electronic kind of anarchy and that abrasiveness
that you get from digital distortions and things and, and Kanye West and that album
Yeezus really has changed how I think about music alot.
You know...
No, I've never met Kanye West.
I think, uhm, I have a feeling with Kanye that meeting him would perhaps ruin the mystery.
I'm happy to just keep a distance and just love his music and love what he does and ignore
his private life and all his political points of view, he can keep them to himself but with
that album Yeezus, you've done enough to justify your place in popular culture Kanye,
so well fucking done, you bastard, haha!
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