„When was Britain great, when there was slave trade?”

Brexit, Scotland, hypocrisy, museums and religion-some topics which we touched on in our interview with the drummer of Biffy Clyro, Ben Johnson at Sziget.

 

Ben Johnson at Sziget Festival’s backstage /// Photos by Károly Gergely / Ígéretes titánok / Promising Titans

 

At Sziget Festival, we had the chance to interview Ben Johnson, drummer of Biffy Clyro. We talked about how brothers can work together in a band, the situation of Scotland after Brexit and whether rockstars can try on the Papal dresses.

 

How can you and your brother work together? Is there a rivalry between you, like in the case of Noel and Liam Gallagher?

James and I get on really well, we’ve always been in some ways best friends. And we’re twins, I guess, that’s a difference, with Noel and Liam, there is quite a large age-gap, 8 years, that’s a lot, that’s more than what’s between me and my younger brother. So yeah, he (Noel) is older and he definitely holds this over Liam, and Liam is a bit of a brat so they just clash. Me and James are very different in many ways but similar enough to get along very well. I can’t imagine being in a band without my twin brother. Even at home, we go play golf together, we hang out, we are definitely very good friends. I love him, I can tell you.

 

When you’re on tour, do you have time to look around in the cities you are visiting? Or is your schedule incredibly strict? How do you manage, how can you relax?

It got a little bit better. I think you have to go back like four-five years, we were very, very busy, we went from one gig to the next, we said yes to every gig but this is when you are trying to build your band. Then you realise that this is your life, you have to enjoy what you’re doing. We are a bit more strategic now on how long we spend on places, on how long we are on the road. So, we make it so if we have a few gigs in Europe, instead of trying to get home all the time, travelling along, being tired, we tend to stay in the places where we’re playing and eat all the food and meet local people. James and I go to play golf everywhere, even yesterday here, it was really good! And yes, we do get to see places, we go to museums, we just went to the Vatican in Rome! I’d love to go see some more. We make time though for these kinds of things. To have a full day in the city and then eat the food, I always look up a local delicacy and then I’m on a mission to find that food. I also try to meet people, talk to them. I always try to talk to a taxi driver! I always find out a lot about the city from taxi drivers. And then they never know who we are, so that’s perfect.

 

 

Are there any perks for being a rockstar? Are you allowed in the Papal chambers or can you try on his robes?

No, not in that respect. We also don’t tend to tell anybody that we’re in a band, although maybe that’s just our Scottish nature. It’s not like that me and James want to play golf and we tell the owners so he’d go ‘Oh yeah, there’s these guys from this rock band let them play for free!’ No, we don’t tend to do that.

 

As a Scottish band, what do you think about Brexit? Is Scotland being independent and then joining the EU an ideal scenario?

Oh, yeah, that is ideal! We need to get our independence from the absolute jokeshow and pantomime that is British politics. And maybe join the Nordic Council and still be part of the EU and that’s the ultimate goal. And anybody with half a brain can see, that’s what we need to do it. Too many people read newspapers that are full of shit and lies and fear, scaremongering. ‘Oh, if we did this then this will happen and you’ll have no money!’ and later the same paper said ‘Don’t vote, you’re gonna get a rupture!’ Well, no shit! Right now, I feel like the whole Western world is taking a massive step backwards. With America backing out from the Paris Climate Change Agreement, it’s like every move that we take seems to be backwards and Britain almost seems to be falling. I’m really disillusioned in the way how politics is right now. It feels like everyone wants to make a U-turn, to go backwards, to return when America was great, when Britain was great. Seriously, when was Britain great, when there was slave trade? When was it better than it is now? I just wish people were a bit more open. We just need to try to be more open and move forward.

 

We missed them 3 years ago, but we had a more interesting conversation now 😀

 

How do you think personal religious beliefs should be included in music? Or do you think they should be part of music at all?

I think it is important for some people, to steer people towards religion, I think it can be a good thing but I think it is important for some people who are very religious but it generally starts conflicts and start wars, so for us, not so much. We sing a lot of songs, that’s what this band is about, we sing about stuff we care about. As we get older we sing a little bit more about politics, religion but it’s not a major thing.

 

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Gergely Károly