Scottish alternative rock trio Biffy Clyro began life when Simon Neil and twin brothers James and Ben Johnston first formed a band in Kilmarnock in 1995. The trio started writing songs and rehearsing together as teenagers before moving to Glasgow to attend college in 1997. It was there, under the name Skrewfish, that they cut their teeth in renowned local haunts such as the Cavern Bar, Nice n Sleazy and King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut.
The Johnston brothers were enrolled in a sound production course at Stow College, which they put to good use in the making of their 2000 EP thekidswhopoptodaywillrocktomorrow, released through the school’s Electric Honey student label. This collection featured the tracks Justboy and 57, which would later reappear on the band’s 2002 debut album Blackened Sky.
It took Biffy Clyro several years of perseverance – as well as two more records (2003’s The Vertigo Of Bliss and 2004’s Infinity Land) – before they broke through in 2007 with their deeply personal fourth album Puzzle. Their newfound popularity was cemented with the number two spot on the UK official albums chart during the first week of release and the album has since sold over 340,000 copies in the country. Puzzle featured the notable hits Semi-Mental, Saturday Superhouse, Folding Stars and Machines, and led to coveted support spots with Muse, The Who and the Red Hot Chili Peppers as well as slots at Glastonbury, Download and Reading & Leeds festivals that summer.
Biffy Clyro's international breakthrough came with their next record, 2009's massively anthemic Only Revolutions. The album reached number three in the UK albums chart en route to bagging the band a Mercury prize nomination. With their sixth album Opposites in 2013, the band signalled a move towards a more ambitious sound, blending elements of prog-rock with the guitar-fuelled hooks of their earlier records. Off the back of the single Black Chandelier, the album became the band's first ever UK number one.
Following this success, Biffy Clyro headed to Los Angeles to record their seventh album with producer Rich Costey (Death Cab For Cutie, Muse, Interpol). Ellipsis arrived in 2016 to further critical and commercial success, marking a return to the festival-ready anthems of Only Revolutions.
In 2017, the band recorded a live, stripped-back set, released in 2018 as MTV Unplugged: Live At Roundhouse, London. This was followed by their soundtrack for Jamie Adams' film Balance, Not Symmetry.
Their ninth album, A Celebration Of Endings – also recorded with Rich Costey – came out in August 2020 and the band performed a livestream show from Glasgow the next day, playing the tracklist in full. Later that month, they released the single SPACE.