Talkin' Rock with Saxon's Biff Byford
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00:01Rock, metal, prog, and everything in between.
00:04If you're into rock, you've come to the right place.
00:07Welcome to this episode of Talkin' Rock with Meltdown.
00:11Don't forget to follow the audio-only Talkin' Rock podcast on all podcast platforms.
00:15And now, it's time for today's conversation.
00:18Here's Meltdown.
00:20Hey, Biff, good to see you. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, man.
00:23You got your lights on and everything up there, huh?
00:25Oh, yeah, we're very Christmassy in this house.
00:27What do you do for Christmas over there?
00:31Eat and drink, that's what we do.
00:34Ah, there you go. It's worldwide, I suppose, right?
00:37Yeah, eat and drink and get heavier.
00:39And then try and get lighter after Christmas.
00:43That's the key.
00:44Yeah, there you go.
00:45Well, congratulations.
00:47The new record, the 24th, is set for release coming up in January.
00:51Tell us about the new record here, Hellfire Damnation.
00:55I heard that's something your father used to say when you were growing up.
00:58Is that right?
00:59Yeah, he did.
01:01I mean, actually, the album's a monster already.
01:04It's not come out yet.
01:06So, yeah, my father used to say it as a sort of, you know, a bit of a curse thing for, you know,
01:13if I was getting into trouble, it's like, hellfire and damnation.
01:16So, it was actually, it was in my book of titles for, like, quite a long time, actually.
01:23So, I was looking for the right guitar riff to put it together with, you know what I mean?
01:29Yeah.
01:30You know, it's funny, like, with a band like Saxon and, like, a band like Judas Priest,
01:34there are certain, like, phrases and stuff that you guys can use.
01:38Like, I wouldn't expect a, you know, a record to have anything with, like, pink or light or anything like that.
01:42But you guys, I mean, hellfire damnation, that just sounds like a Saxon record.
01:49It just sounds like a, well, just, it's a monster title, isn't it?
01:54Yeah.
01:54It's a perfect title for a metal album, really.
01:56I don't know why we didn't use it before.
01:58But anyway, we've used it now.
02:01So, it's great, really.
02:02We like it.
02:03I mean, I've got the, you know, I've got Brian Blessed, the actor, to do the prologue for me on the prophecy on the beginning.
02:13So, you know, I think that's very 80s, doing that.
02:17I don't think anybody does that anymore.
02:20So, we thought we'd do that and bring back some of the 80s.
02:24I was going to say, yeah, bring it back.
02:25You've got some other really cool, I haven't had a chance to listen to the record.
02:28They said they sent it to me, but I couldn't find it.
02:30Maybe, you know, because I'm old and stuff, I couldn't figure it out.
02:33Of course, I've heard the title track, but, you know, Fire and Steel, there's something in Roswell.
02:38Pirates of the Airwaves was something that kind of struck my interest as well,
02:41because is that one kind of hearkening back to the beginning of the new wave of British heavy metal?
02:47Well, it actually harked back to the 60s when I was a lad, you know, when I was a young lad.
02:53There was no, the BBC, you know, the government radio station wouldn't play sort of, you know, what they considered to be, you know, anti-establishment music.
03:09So, you couldn't really hear the Rolling Stones and the Kinks and all those sort of 60s bands on radio here.
03:15So, there was a lot of pirate stations on boats in the middle of the ocean that used to transmit into the UK.
03:24We used to listen to that.
03:26We used to have these little Japanese transistor radios, you know, we used to try and get the station to do the static.
03:33That's what it's about, really.
03:34It started a revolution in the UK in the 60s, you know, the swinging 60s.
03:40That's quite a famous term people use.
03:43And that was all connected with it, really, you know.
03:47Yeah.
03:47Wasn't there a movie about that, I don't know, 10, 15 years ago?
03:50There was, The Boat That Rocks.
03:52Yeah.
03:52The Boat That Rocks is about it, yeah.
03:55Yeah, I remember seeing it.
03:56Yeah, pirate radio was something.
03:57So, that's funny.
03:58So, there was a lot of censorship back when you were growing up.
04:02There was.
04:03There was.
04:04And, yeah, there was in the sort of pop music, rock music era.
04:08You know, you could see it live, but you couldn't listen to it on radio.
04:12So, there was a massive explosion.
04:14In 1980, you know, that's the years that, you know, Saxon, Mortarhead, Judith Police, White Snake, you know, Iron Maiden, all were on radio all the time.
04:28And so, it had a big influence on the H's music scene, Miller.
04:34Yeah.
04:34And, of course, here we are in 2023 with a brand new Saxon album.
04:39I was kind of surprised.
04:41I didn't realize you're going to be releasing albums so fast.
04:43It seems like this is, is this like your third one since the pandemic struck?
04:47Yeah, yeah.
04:48The thing is, we weren't going to release it.
04:51We were going to release it in November next year.
04:54But we had, you know, we were talking to Juice Priest about doing this tour together in the arenas in the UK and Europe.
05:03And we were like, yeah, let's do it.
05:05That would be a great package for the fans with your IP on as well.
05:10And they said, yeah, let's do it in March.
05:13And we were like, March?
05:15You must be kidding, man.
05:16And we, you know, how can we make it album in March?
05:19Anyway, so I thought, you know, let's give it a try.
05:23And we actually didn't finish it until October the 15th this year.
05:28So, it's all pretty, it's all pretty fresh, the album.
05:32So, you're telling me that this record was kind of a push forward to just get on this Judas Priest tour,
05:36or at least have something new when you...
05:37Well, all the touring, really.
05:39We're coming to America in April as well.
05:41So, I think it has to be out for that as well, you know.
05:44Because if you're going to tour, then you need an album, really, to make it work.
05:49You know what I'm saying?
05:50Yeah.
05:51So, that tour is coming to the States with...
05:53Is that the one with Uriah Heep, the Hellfire Chaos Tour?
05:56Yeah, that's the one we're doing in Newark, yeah.
05:59I think...
06:00I mean, the dates...
06:02We have the dates, but they're not all finalized and locked in.
06:06But I think we start in Florida in April, and then go all the way across to Texas, I think.
06:13Yeah, that's awesome.
06:15I think maybe there'll be a part two later in the year.
06:18Okay, and if I'm not...
06:20If I'm correct, that tour gets announced coming up on January 8th.
06:23Yeah, the dates will be out on January 8th, and you'll be able to pre-order, you know,
06:28be able to get the tickets around that town as well.
06:31And so, getting back to the latest record here, Hellfire and Damnation,
06:34you talked about how you finished it up in October,
06:36but this record kind of came together pretty quickly as far as recording is concerned, right?
06:42Yeah, it all came together pretty quickly.
06:43I think if you condense the time down, it took us about six weeks.
06:49I mean, Andy Sneap mixed it.
06:51He did it quite quick, you know, just over a week, really.
06:53So, yeah, everything just went perfectly magical.
06:58So, if we'd have had a problem, then we wouldn't have made it.
07:03So, the metal gods were looking down on us.
07:06Yeah, the metal god.
07:07There it is again.
07:08Yeah, the metal gods.
07:09So, did you guys go into the studio with a bunch of stuff prepared,
07:13or did you go in with nothing?
07:15No, we went in prepared.
07:16We'd written, we wrote, we were touring, in summer we were touring festivals across UK and Europe,
07:24and we'd have like three, four days in between the festivals.
07:27So, we'd go back to our base in Germany where we were recording.
07:32And we'd just keep going back in every week, you know, and recording and writing.
07:38We sort of rehearsed everything live together in a room first, and then just recorded it.
07:45I mean, it does sound fantastic, the album.
07:48Oh boy, you haven't heard it yet.
07:50I know, I know, like I said, I'm kind of bummed out.
07:52I wanted to listen to the whole thing.
07:54I was like excited when I got the email.
07:55It's probably in there somewhere, but yeah, I heard it something.
07:58Well, yeah, it'd be in there somewhere.
07:59You have to put it in a code.
08:00You have to put it in a code, so if you upload it to the internet, we can tell it you.
08:05Yeah, yeah.
08:08And we send the metal police around.
08:11Yeah, I was excited.
08:14Yeah, I was so fired up when they said, yeah, we sent you the record.
08:17I'm like, I don't see the record.
08:18I see releases, I see press releases, all sorts of stuff.
08:21But you just mentioned Andy Sneap.
08:23So Andy Sneap, like my friend Jay Rustin, as far as the rock world is concerned, are
08:26some guys that metal guys and hard rock guys really go to.
08:30So what's it like working with Andy?
08:32That's great.
08:33I mean, we've done about five, six albums with him now.
08:36Yeah, Andy's great.
08:37He's a guitarist as well.
08:39So, you know, he works really closely with us to get the sounds right, you know, to
08:45sort of make it sound powerful and big.
08:50Yeah, it sounds great.
08:51Obviously, you haven't heard it, so I could be lying.
08:55Here we go again.
08:56I'm never going to live this.
08:57You're going to love the album when you hear it.
08:59I can't wait for sure.
09:01Holy mother, that's a monster.
09:03Yeah, a monster of a record.
09:05No question about it.
09:06I can't wait to hear it.
09:07But yeah, the 24th studio album.
09:09So what does new music mean to a band like Saxon?
09:12I think it's everything new music.
09:14I think it's the lifeblood that keeps you going because we're always going to write the
09:18perfect song, you know, the perfect rock song.
09:21That's what we strive for.
09:23Perfect rock song, perfect album.
09:26So, yeah, you know, that's what keeps our juices flowing, you know, writing an album,
09:31touring on the album.
09:32And that's what keeps you young and adrenalized, you know.
09:39Yeah.
09:39So speaking of writing the perfect song, the perfect album, how close have you gotten?
09:42What are some of your what are some of the do you think as far as Saxon's concerned?
09:47Well, I think the new one's pretty close, you know.
09:50You know, I don't know what we could do to make it better, really.
09:55You're going to have to listen to it and let me know.
09:59Here we go again.
10:00Just keep digging at me.
10:01I wanted to hear it.
10:02I told you, my God.
10:05Listen, if I have to switch over to my question from Don Jameson right away, I will.
10:10I'm trying to I'm trying to hold off on that one right now.
10:12It's so funny.
10:13It's so funny.
10:14I'm talking to you, by the way, because I was at dinner with my family over the weekend
10:17or whatever, and the thing of hot sauce came up.
10:20And so I I didn't even know I was going to interview you.
10:22And I started talking about to get on your tour bus.
10:24You got to do the what is it?
10:25The one drop challenge or something like that.
10:27Yeah, you got to go to the chili challenge.
10:29And how many people have done that?
10:33Quite a few.
10:34Quite a few people have done it.
10:36They weren't very, very happy after.
10:38Yeah.
10:39Quite a few people have done it.
10:40I mean, Don's done it.
10:41Don Jameson's done it.
10:43Chris Jericho's done it.
10:44You know, quite a few people.
10:46Quite a few people have done it.
10:47You know.
10:48I was thinking about this the other day that there was that Netflix special.
10:51I think it was during the pandemic.
10:53And it was something about worldwide games.
10:54And like one of the games was like they were rolling this this this this cheese wheel down
10:59the down the down the hill.
11:01And you had to chase it and stuff.
11:02But one of them was the chili contest.
11:04Did you watch that?
11:05Yeah, I've seen the chili contest.
11:07Yeah.
11:07They're crazy.
11:09The one guy that won, it was like he was eating ice cubes or something.
11:12It was it was insane.
11:13Yeah, there's a really famous woman, I think she's from India, who rubs the chummers in
11:21her eyes.
11:22You know, that's absolutely crazy.
11:25And you talked in the press release, you talked about it this with your the hellfire and damnation
11:29that your father would say something about you were messing up the cabbage patch or something.
11:33But don't you have a greenhouse with like all sorts of Reaper chili peppers or something
11:39growing?
11:40No, not not then.
11:41Not not my father didn't, but I grew I grew chillies in my greenhouse.
11:46Right.
11:46In the hot house.
11:47Yeah.
11:47Yeah.
11:47Not got any this year, but last year I had some great chillies, you know.
11:52So, yeah, hot.
11:53We like it quite hot.
11:54I mean, you know, we'll have a couple of we'll have we'll have an Indian once a week,
12:00sometimes twice a week.
12:01You know.
12:02Wow.
12:03Yeah, that's crazy.
12:04So, Don wanted to know, what is the what is your favorite record, Denim and Leather or Denim
12:09and Laughter?
12:10That was.
12:14It's very close.
12:15Very close, actually.
12:18It's enough to be Denim and Leather, really.
12:21Not wanting to.
12:22Yeah.
12:23Yeah.
12:23It's a good.
12:24It's a good.
12:24I love the artwork with his face on the on the eagle.
12:28That was great.
12:30Yeah.
12:30Don Don does some great work and some some great comedy as well.
12:33Hey, speaking of artwork, of course, again, on this record, I mean, Peter's Celia.
12:39I'm not sure if I'm saying that right, but the artwork is awesome.
12:43That's got to be important to a band like Saxon as well.
12:46Yeah.
12:46The thing is, I sent out some ideas, what what my ideas were, you know, what I wanted.
12:51And this guy came back with this artwork and I was like, whoa, you know, we all loved it
12:59straight away.
13:00So I gave him the job, really.
13:02You know, he sent us a black and white version to start with and absolutely stunning for the
13:09title of the album.
13:10So it's going to look great.
13:12It's going to look great in a battle jacket.
13:14I think we're going to do some patches so we can see if we can put them on the back of
13:19the jacket.
13:20Yeah, that's cool.
13:22I was going to say or look great on my on my turntable right next to it on the vinyl
13:26copy of the record when I buy it on January 19th to hear the whole thing.
13:29Yeah, well, I've got a vinyl here.
13:31I just got them.
13:32Actually, it looks fantastic.
13:34Yeah, that's cool.
13:35Yeah, I'm a huge old school fan like that.
13:37And then I have to ask you about your song you did with the guys from Aman and Martha,
13:41Saxons versus Vikings.
13:43I mean, I can't believe this hadn't happened before.
13:47Yeah, it's it's great, actually.
13:49I mean, they're good friends of ours in Aman and Martha.
13:52We met them.
13:52We met them years ago when they were just starting to play festivals and things.
13:57And we met them in a bar and they were drinking beer out of these, you know, the Viking horns.
14:04So I think we quite like that.
14:07So we had a Viking horn night with them and sort of friends ever since, really.
14:13I mean, you know, I'm the singer, sang a song on one of our albums with me.
14:17And, yeah, they said, do you want to write some lyrics with us?
14:21You can write the Saxon lyrics and I'll write the Viking lyrics.
14:25So, yeah.
14:26I mean, I do like the song, actually.
14:28It's a great song.
14:29No, it's really good.
14:29And what I really like about it, and I knew this was going to happen even before I heard
14:33the first note, is the yin and the yang of his voice and your voice, as how they play
14:40off each other.
14:41Yeah, it's great because you don't expect it.
14:43You don't expect, you know, a higher singer to come in there.
14:47And, yeah, I think the effect is great.
14:50I mean, everybody's freaking out about it.
14:52They're like, whoa, this is a great collaboration.
14:54You know, the best collaboration ever.
14:57So, yeah, I mean, I think it really works, you know.
15:01And then shooting the video, that looked pretty interesting.
15:04Yeah, we went up to somewhere in Latvia or somewhere.
15:09And it's obviously supposed to be set in England.
15:13But, yeah, it was great fun.
15:15We went up there for a couple of days, you know, with all the extras fighting and battling.
15:19And, yeah, it's good.
15:21You know, the boys wrote the solos, guitar solos, and popped them in there.
15:25So, it was a good experience, actually.
15:28It's nice to work with younger, you know, different bands, I think.
15:34Yeah, especially when you've been such an influence on their career.
15:37You've influenced so many bands through your career.
15:41Yeah, definitely.
15:42We haven't influenced their beards, though.
15:44They did that on their own.
15:46We've never had any beards in this band yet.
15:49So, yeah.
15:50Maybe I'll start growing one.
15:52They'd change the look of the band.
15:55Nobody would know who you were.
15:57Exactly.
15:58You know, I wanted to ask you about social media and stuff.
16:01I know you like to, you know, you like to get the phone up there and, you know, see the crowd and stuff.
16:06What are your thoughts on social media as far as from a band's perspective?
16:09Well, I think if you use it properly, it's pretty good.
16:14You know, you can create a lot of interest with social media, you know.
16:22But I think it all works well together.
16:25You know, we do use print.
16:27You know, we do a lot of magazine interviews.
16:29We like to support the magazines.
16:31We do a lot of radio interviews.
16:32So, yeah, we do both, really.
16:36We'll do podcasts occasionally, you know, make some interest.
16:40So, we're on it all the time, I think.
16:42I think you have to have something interesting to keep people's interest on social media.
16:50So, yeah, you just have to spend some time working with it, I think.
16:55Well, I'll tell you what, Biff will cut you loose here.
16:57The new record, Hellfire and Damnation, coming out on July – I'm sorry, January 19th.
17:01You'll be here in the States coming up with Uriah Heep and, like you said, that tour with Judas Priest.
17:06And congratulations on all the success.
17:08I can hardly wait to listen to the rest of the record.
17:10I apologize for not being able to figure out how to listen to the rest of the record.
17:13I really wanted to.
17:15But I'll take your word for it.
17:16That's the greatest record sack that's ever released.
17:19You just need to get some young guys to sort it out for you.
17:22That is exactly correct.
17:24I always say that.
17:25When you can't figure out the internet or social media, look for the youngest person in the room.
17:29And I didn't do that.
17:29It's my fault.
17:31Exactly.
17:31Yeah.
17:32Get it together next time.
17:34All right, Biff.
17:34I can hardly wait to see you guys here in the States.
17:36Thank you so much for your time.
17:38Brilliant.
17:38Can't wait to get there.
17:39Have a great Christmas and happy new year.
17:41You too.
17:42Thank you so much.
17:42Thank you so much.