It’s been a dramatic few months since FasterLouder last spoke to Biffy Clyro’s James Johnston.

The band’s new album Only Revolutions was been met with widespread critical acclaim, and was on many Top 10 lists of 2009 albums. The band was scheduled to come here for the Pyramid Rock festival over summer, but canceled and are now on their way back to make up for lost time.

What have you been up to since we last spoke?

We’ve been very busy, I spose I couldn’t tell you everything we’ve done since last time we spoke but we’ve done a couple of tours around Europe, and we just did a six week tour around the States. We just did some preproduction rehearsals tonight for our tour in the UK which starts tomorrow.

You’ve sold out the UK tour; is that where you’re most appreciated?

Yes, it’s obviously where we’ve spent the most time and we’ve built things up pretty slowly in the UK, we’ve played in every single toilet venue going and we’re lucky enough to play to a couple of thousand people every night. The States is somewhere we haven’t spent a lot of time, and you people talk about it taking a long time in the States and I think that scared us a bit but we’re used to the slow build and we enjoy the challenge.

How has the band changed since the release of the album?

The shows are starting to get a little bit bigger, I can’t say that my lifestyle’s changed, I think we’ve been doing this for such a long time and you get modes and methods of doing things that I don’t see things changing for us. Don’t get me wrong, I mean if someone gave us a million pounds tomorrow that could be a life changing thing, but I think when it comes down to the band and the music and the way we care about the band. I’d like to hope that nothing’s going to change now that we’ve come this far.

What’s touring like for you now, do you get fancy hotels and business class flights?

Definitely not, I wish you could see the hotel we’re in just now. The flights are certainly not business class, and I can’t really watch the football here because the television’s too small. But if I go on things like that you’re going to think I’m a pampered rock star and that’s not the case. I spose I’ll fly business class if someone else is paying for it.

You didn’t make it to Australia, what’s the deal?

Both Simon [Neil] and I had to get some medical procedures taken care of. I had a growth on the inside of my index finger that was starting to affect my playing. The Oz tour was something we were looking forward to all year, coming down for summer over New Years. It was an oversight on our side a bit, we should’ve looked things through a bit better..

The headline acts of Pyramid Rock Festival didn’t get to play anyway due to an electrical storm.

I’m sorry for all the people that went through it, but in a way I’m kind of glad now that you said that.

Before the album came out you said The Captain was your favourite song from the new album, has that changed now that you’re playing the songs in a live context?

That’s one of the ones I enjoy playing the most as well. In a live setting you’re just able to sing along and that’s something that’s nice to have, that connection with fans at shows, that’s why we do it. I’m sure you’ve heard the songs a lot but they change from day to day every time we play it.

Is it hard to adapt the songs to a live context seeing that they have orchestral parts?

I think that when we do live it’s all about the energy and the passion we put into it. A lot of the string parts, almost ingrain themselves in your head so that you can imagine them at a gig and you can picture them in your head. Hopefully it doesn’t matter if the shows have something different than the record and that’s something we’ve always aimed for, to have a different thing. There’s enough else going on that the songs stand up live without an orchestra behind them.

What’s your live set looking like now?

It’s a fairly broad mix, we’ve had five records now and I think we want to make sure we play at least one song from every record. I think a lot of bands disown their older music, and I think that’s a bit sad really, it’s all about a time and a place and luckily we still all love the old songs as well. The set at the moment is mostly Only Revolutions, but that’s the record that just came out and its the songs that a lot of people want to hear. We have some old favourites as well.

Every album is such a major progression from the last one, where do you go from an album like Only Revolutions?

We have some plans. We worked on some songs over Christmas time, and I think when we get some time over the summer we’ll start working on some more. I think what we’ve always tried to is not to repeat ourselves, that’s the key for us. Some bands have one sound and they keep chugging it out album after album, and we want to move forward. The answer is going to come to us, but the intriguing part is that even we don’t know what the next one’s going to sound like yet. We’re still really hungry and really excited about making new music, and hopefully the new record will be a step on from Only Revoltions too.

There were so many b-sides for the album, did you sit around as a band and discuss what tracks wouldn’t make the cut?

It’s definitely a strange process, we’ve always had the same idea of what songs we think are best. I don’t think we’ve ever had a disagreement with someone saying they want to do a particular song. The best songs stick around in your mind and reveal themselves. It’s also about constructing an album that has ebbs and flows, you know we might have enough dedicated rock songs and we need a few softer songs to balance things out.

You’re now 30, is there anything you wish you’d told yourself at 15 or 20? Any advice you’d give me as a 20 year old?

Probably the same boring stuff that you’ve heard from old codgers, but follow your heart. You can make decisions with your head but you’ve got to do things that you enjoy doing with people you enjoy doing it with. I think if you sit around at home you’ll just wonder what you’re missing out on. Follow your heart, man.

Do you have any favourite memories from being in the band?

When we played T in the Park, the festival in Scotland, we went from being on the unsigned stage to getting a record label and we made it to the main stage. I remember walking out and there were probably 10,000 people there, and it was truly as epic as I hope I’m making it sound. I remember that’s when I thought ‘this is the best thing in the world.’

What part of being in a rock band do you enjoy the most and what part do you hate the most?

Travelling. Going to new places is the most exciting thing in the world but when you have a tough day you feel so far away from your friends and family, I think it’s the exact same thing that makes it good and bad. I fucking love being in this band, though.

Biffy Clyro tour:

Wednesday 19th May – Hi-Fi, Melbourne
Thursday 20th May – Metro, Sydney