 Saxon, and Biff Byford, have for more than 30 years been at the forefront of the British metal scene, recording hit after hit. In more recent times, the band have been the main focus of Channel 4's 'Get Your Act Together' from promoter Harvey Goldsmith, and have been riding a wave of renewed popularity ever since.
Komodo Rock's Krissy Elliott sat down with Biff at the recent Hard Rock Hell Festival, where the band were set to play the main support slot to Twisted Sister, to find out more about Biff, the band, and where Saxon were heading.
Krissy Elliott: Fantastic to be talking to the Saxon I know and love,
for the pure and simple reason that my boss interviewed the other Saxon
recently, and I went “what other Saxon?” So what do you get out of
festivals like this?
Biff Byford: The thing is it's a bit unique this one isn't it. I've
been to the one in Skegness, a bike week, I've been to that one on my
bike. It's quite a good idea because you haven't got all the tents and
the mud that's associated with festivals. I think the younger
generation don't know what Butlins are anyway. I think it's a great
idea to use these camps in winter when there's nobody here, there's
nobody here in summer either!
KE: I don't know, I did Clacton with my kids this year!
BB: It's not somewhere I would come.
KE: To Hell and Back again, your DVD from Wacken. Did you have a good time?
BB: There's lots of footage on it actually, from all over the world. It's a bit of a road movie, 5 hours of road.
KE: A studio album?
BB: We started writing our new studio album, well, now really, so that will be coming out next year sometime.
KE: Your going to be touring to support that?
BB: Probably yeah. We're off back to Japan next year, and then Australia. We're just doing a World Tour so quite busy really.
KE: That's fantastic though, you're still doing this full time, this is what you do.
BB: Yeah.
KE: I've been chatting to a lot of people who have side projects and
bits of this, people who have been in rock bands for a long time who
are saying that we do this part time, we've got extra bits we do here
and production we do there.
BB: No this is what we do for a living.
 KE: This is what your going to stick with?
BB: We've just come back from Japan. Very luck really.
KE: The future of rock music then, the future of music in general, is all internet and download?
BB: I think for our genre it's not so much about
downloads it's more about the package. You buy the DVD, it has a book
in it, it has a CD, the DVD, it has pictures and things which are hard
to download.
KE: That's true. Do you think it appeals to the more mature market, or
are you getting response from the youngsters that are buying the whole
thing?
BB: I don't know so much about today, but in general, our audience is 50% teenagers I would say.
KE: What do you think's drawing them in to that now, because there's
been a very long period where rock music has been a little bit in
decline, and there's been talk of a revival.
BB: I think it's cool again.
KE: You reckon it's cool again?
BB: Definitely. We did a Channel 4 documentary,
and all the people that worked on that were quite young. And they were
totally into it, they completely eat up everything about rock n roll.
They're just so on it these days!
KE: I sometimes wonder, they've got everything handed to them, they've
got their internet, telly whenever they want, their phones, they've got
all of this. I sometimes think that what's drawing them back to the
rock music we like...
BB: Well there's not many unique British rock
bands around. The new ones aren't really of our style. You've got
Maiden, you've got us from the 80's, and actually you might have Def
Leppard, but actually, there's nobody else left from that time. They're
all new bands like Machine Head and Pantera and Nightwish, and all
these sort of rock bands who are brilliant, but they're not really
Classic Rock like us.
KE: So what defines Classic Rock to you?
BB: For us, what defines it is heavy guitars with
melodic vocals. A classic style that's been around for years. Obviously
we're much darker now and we are much heavier now when we want to be.
So our albums now consist of half rock n roll and half full on heavy
metal. And that seems to be the right mixture for us.
KE: So we're talking commercial success, we're talking 'I've Got To
Rock To Stay Alive' your new single featuring Lemmy [of Motorhead],
Angry Anderson [of Rose Tattoo], Andi Derris [of Helloween, ex Pink
Cream 69], good grief, there's a cast of a thousand on there! Was that
fun to make?
BB: I just asked some mates to sing with me on
the song. It's a song about being in the business for a long time, and
obviously Lemmy and Angry have! Andi's not been around quite so long.
KE: You had a good time making it. Do you think some of what your doing
now, obviously you're a jobbing singer, this is what you do, this is
what's making your living. Is it more about fun rather than making it
big now. I was talking to Dee Snider earlier [Check out the interview here ],
and he said it's more about enjoyment now, because people know who we
are, we've already made it, the thing is now to give people a good
time, give the people what they want?
BB: No, actually it's not like that with us. We
like making records. Every record we make we try to make it better than
the last one. It's really important to us that people are interested in
what we're doing musically, because we're song writers. We're not
vaudeville entertainers so I think it is fun, yeah, but it's tinged
with a seriousness that people take our music seriously, because we
release albums every year or two years.
In Dee's case they don't. They play classic songs from the 80's, we're
slightly different from Twisted Sister. Dee makes records, but the
rest, I don't think the rest our interested. It's the old thing, if you
sell 3 million albums, why would you make one that sells 56 thousand?
They're a little bit scared, and actually we don't give a shit! We just
make records, we like making music, it's what we do.
KE: Do you think that the record industry has become really corporate and people aren't in charge of their own destiny?
 BB: We're with an independent company.
KE: So you've still got the creativity and the chance to make the choices you want to?
BB: Yeah definitely.
KE: You sound like the band to be in right now!
BB: We are the band to be in definitely, and we're the band to beat.
KE: The challenge is out!
BB: Everybody listens to our albums, and they go
hmmm that's pretty heavy. I'm not being critical of other people, I'm
just saying where we are and where other bands are. I mean in all
fairness, Twisted Sister fly in to do this show, they don't stay here
touring and doing things, they just come in and do these one off shows.
That's fair enough, there's a massive audience because they don't play
very often, whereas we play year in year out. It's not the same for us.
People can hear our big 80's hits like Wheels of Steel, very regularly,
they just have to travel around to see us. A band like Twisted Sister,
they come in once every three or four years, and it's a bit special, so
people are gonna go and see them, and see I Wanna Rock, and all the
rest of the hits, which is fair enough, there's nothing wrong with
that, but we're slightly different.
We're not American though, we're English.
KE: And it is culturally different.
BB: I mean I like Dee Snider's solo albums, they're fucking great. I really like them actually.
KE: You go to any Bike Rally in the country and you mention the name
Saxon, and people go yeah! Saxon. Not Saxon 20 years ago, it's Saxon
now.
BB: Our songs are classic biker songs, and always will be.
KE: What does it feel like to be a legend?
BB: If you can write songs that become an anthem
for people it's a great thing, like Wheels of Steel or Motorcycle Man.
We really like it.
KE: It keeps you going.
BB: And you'll hear some of our new stuff in there.
KE: So do you have an iPod or are you still a CD man?
BB: I have them all actually, we just bought the new iPhone actually.
KE: Oooo I'm a bit iffy with technology.
BB: Oh they're good. We have to embrace the
technology. Our website's totally state of the art, I've just done a
podcast now actually, it'll be up tomorrow. We have to use it.
KE: So what you listening to on your iPod right now? When you put your
feet later what's the album you'll probably be putting on?
BB: I'll tell you what we were listening to last
night, somebody played me the Jerry Lee Lewis album, where he does all
these venues, there's Keith Richards and Sting and everybody. It's
really good. I'm gonna buy it, well download it.
At this point the interview paled into insignificance as Biff began to
extol the virtues of his new iPhone. Over a glass of very nice red
wine, for a man who is not always keen on technology, he did an amazing
job of showing Krissy the devices many functions. He then added almost
as an after thought “Oh by the way you heard it here first – we'll be
playing the St. Georges Day Celebrations at the Shepherds Bush Empire,”
with a wicked grin. Krissy, not always good with technology but always
keen on a scoop, smiled sweetly and did an amazing job of guzzling the
red wine!
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