Saxon Frontman Biff Byford Talks To Stereoboard About A Busy Year For The Band (Interview)
Tuesday, 06 December 2011
Written by Heather McDaid
Few bands see themselves make it to the 35 year mark without break ups, reformations and the loss of integral members, yet Saxon have done exactly that. 2011 has seen the band not only tour heavily, but release their nineteenth studio album ‘Call To Arms’, one many have dubbed one of the best of their careers. Prior to a recent show in Sweden, Biff Byford took some time out to talk about the very hectic year the band have worked through.
The band have been on the road for the majority of this year. While their record is still relatively new, this is already the second tour run on this album cycle. “It’s very good. We really like this album and it deserves to have a good tour,” explains Biff. “All the places on this run, apart from London, all the places on this tour are places we haven’t been before on the last part of the tour. In fact, I’m sure London’s the only place that we’re playing twice on this tour. We always like coming to Sweden in particular. The UK’s always great. We’re obviously doing another show in Scotland on this tour which is great. As you know, we like to try do both Glasgow and Edinburgh as there’s great contrast in Glasgow and Edinburgh. I mean, anywhere has its own special little thing going for it but wherever the band’s popular and the album’s popular we go. That’s just what we do; we take the music to the people.”
With the tour set to hit the UK imminently – what should we be expecting? “Well, I don’t know really! When we do our shows in the UK, that’ll be 16 shows we’ve done in the UK this year, so it’s quite a lot of shows. I mean, we are changing the setlist slightly so if people come to see us twice they can hear a few different songs. It’s the full European production we’re taking on the road with us, so it should be great.”
As previously mentioned, the band released their nineteenth studio record ‘Call To Arms’ earlier this year. Dubbed one of the best albums the band has created, how have they personally found the record’s success? “It’s been doing really well. It’s still selling well and yeah, we’re really happy,” he notes. “We’ve had some fantastic reviews around the world and I think people really like it. So, we’re very happy with how the album has done. It’s very good to hear that on our 19th album. It’s very hard to compete with the eighties, you know. People love those eighties albums so much but it’s definitely nice to have one album that people think is as good as they are, definitely. I think we’d reached a plateau with the last three albums and we didn’t want to go any further with the production albums, we wanted to go back to a more raw power with the live sound of the band. So, that’s what we did really. We wanted to go back to a more basic way of writing and recording. Obviously we still used all the modern techniques but I think it really worked and people really like it.”
“I think it is important every now and again to go back to your roots and reassess where you are and where you’ve got to,” continues Biff, referring to the fact the band returned to their roots for this release. “When you release albums every year and a half you can easily move away from where you’re supposed to be, so I definitely think it’s good to reassess where you are at some point and go back. We did that once before on our album called ‘Solid Ball of Rock’ and sometimes it’s just good to go back to your roots just to see where you are and see if you can make things a bit clearer.”
While this is the second tour on this album cycle, it is the first full run since the album’s release. “We’ve put a few more new songs in the set now so we’ll be playing a few more songs off the new album for the next UK leg,” he adds. “But yeah, it’s always difficult to play new songs when nobody’s heard them. I think it worked really well actually, I think it gave people a good taste of what was to come on the album.”
“Not yet, no,” he responds, regarding whether or not the band have considered plans for album number 20. “I mean we’re going to start writing a few songs in February and see how it goes. We’re incredibly busy at the moment; we’ve got this new film thing coming out and we’ve got a few other films we’re set to do music for, so we are actually quite busy at moment.”
Aside from Saxon’s next record, Biff himself has been offered a solo deal but remains unsure as to when he’ll act on it. “I have been offered a deal. I mean, maybe I’ll do it,” he says. “I don’t think the next album will be a solo album but maybe I’ll do it after that. [It] might be good fun. I think it would be pretty similar [to Saxon], maybe not so much heavy metal but maybe a bit more melodic. I don’t know, really. We’ll just have to see. Maybe it might be more heavy metal – I have no idea!”
Having reached the 35 year milestone with his band, he has naturally witnessed the industry change over the years. With the industry set to push for the move to digital as soon as next year, does he hold any views on this particular change? “I think one of the problems is people are always striving for something new,” he notes. “Engineers and programmers are always trying to find the next big thing to make millions with a new mp3 player, or Skype, or Facebook; everybody’s trying to bring a new thing to the front. I think with our genre people really like the package, they really like the album cover, the packaging, the lyrics... It’s very difficult to get the same on download packaging. I think our music is doing okay at the moment but I think they are trying to make everything completely downloadable. I hope not because a lot of people will lose their jobs.”
“Going into a shop these days seems to be quite rare – the likes of going into HMV and buying an album,” he continues. “I still like to do that but with things like Amazon and Play.com you can order it online and it comes to you the next day in a box. I suppose that’s changed a lot. I quite like the physical album. Vinyls are also doing really well again. We just sold about 10,000 vinyls, so people like vinyls – for some reason, I don’t know why – but people seem to still love the twelve inches. I know a lot of people who just buy vinyl; they bought themselves a nice deck and can sit for hours just listening to tracks on vinyl and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that."
"I think this has been a fantastic year; it’s been one of our best years ever, I think," replies Biff, looking at this year as a whole for Saxon. "We’ve put out a great album, we’ve had a great tour and we’ve done some great shows around the world. In particular I think the Judas Priest, Motorhead, Saxon package was really something special. I think we’ve definitely had a good year. It’s not over yet, we’re still touring right up until Christmas. It’s just been our year, really. I can’t fault it! I can’t give you any down points. We made the album and mixed the album in January/February and started touring in March. We haven’t really stopped; it’s been fantastic."
"Like I said, we’re going to start writing a few new songs [in 2012] and see if any inspiration’s there," he continues. "We’re going to be working on a number of films and I’ve been offered a couple more acting jobs, so I’ll probably be doing that. We’re just seeing how it goes!"
Anything he’d like to add? "The slogan we’re using on this tour is ‘never surrender’, so that’s all I can say really!"
Dec 13th - O2 Academy Oxford
Dec 14th - O2 Academy Leicester
Dec 16th - HMV Picture House Edinburgh
Dec 17th – Mandela Hall, Belfast
Dec 18th - O2 Academy Sheffield
Dec 20th - Koko London
Saxon Tickets are onsale now, priced at £18.50 for all shows except London where they are £20.00 + fees. Doors open for all shows at 7.00pm except Edinburgh 6.30pm.
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“Not yet, no,” he responds, regarding whether or not the band have considered plans for album number 20. “I mean we’re going to start writing a few songs in February and see how it goes. We’re incredibly busy at the moment; we’ve got this new film thing coming out and we’ve got a few other films we’re set to do music for, so we are actually quite busy at moment.” 
