SAXON Frontman Discusses Songwriting Process For New Album

Sweden's Metalshrine conducted an interview with vocalist Biff Byford of British heavy metal legends SAXON on Friday, December 12. A few excerpts from the chat follow below.

Metalshrine: The new album ["Into the Labyrinth"]. In what way does the title represent the songs?

Biff: It doesn't! (laughs) Well, I wrote a song... some lyrics... a song called "Into the Labyrinth" and we didn't finish it. It didn't make it, but I liked the title. You know, into the labyrinth, the labyrinth of life, the labyrinth of the album you know, different songs. I just liked the title, so we went with the title. We could have called it "Battalions of Steel", which is a good title as well. I didn't really want people to focus on that one song, so we went with "Into the Labyrinth". The artwork's great! I like all that celtic, religious, medieval stuff.

Metalshrine: Yeah, it looks great. Are you using the same guy for the last couple of albums?

Biff: Yeah, we used the same guy. Not the last album. The last album was a Russian guy, I think, but we used the guy that did the "Crusader" album and "Rock the Nation" and a few others. But the artwork for the single was done by a German friend of ours that does a lot of work on our website.

Metalshrine: When did you start working on the album?

Biff: In spring this year, actually. It's all been done quite quickly. We were writing it in January and February and we were recording it in June and July, really, or July and August. In fact, when we played at Sweden Rock we were recording and we were travelling backwards and forwards to Germany. That's why we recorded it in northern Germany, because it's easy to get in and out of, so every weekend we were at a festival and then in the week we would record the album.

Metalshrine: When you write an album like this one, how much of it is old ideas, leftovers, and how much is all new?

Biff: None of it [is old], really. There's one song on there that was left over from the last album and that's "Protect Yourselves". It wasn't called "Protect Yourselves", it was called "The Lair of the White Wolf". Don't ask me what it was about, some wacky idea I had. But I moved it over to "Protect Yourselves". I mean, I've obviously been watching too many disaster films. (laughs)

Metalshrine: What did [producer] Charlie Bauerfiend bring to the recordings?

Biff: He brings... It's quite good to have Charlie in control of everything and keeping everything in check, because we can get quite loose. We like to play live, so... we like everything to sound pretty live which is not always great. We work on digital now and have massive files, 98 K, so he has to control all that and bring it all in. He doesn't paticulary have too much to do with the songwriting, but me and him worked together quite closely, trying different ideas and just trying to come up with more sort of newer stuff that interest us and hopefully the band as well. For instance, on "Battalion of Steel" we tried a few female choirs, which worked really well we thought. We didn't go over the top. We could've gone full NIGHTWISH, you know what I mean? We just thought it added a majestic quality to the song. And we can also do that live with bass pedals.

Metalshrine: About the new album, some of the songs have a bit of a more classic SAXON feel to it, like "Live to Rock" and then some of the stuff like "Battalions of Steel" are really heavy and maybe some of the heaviest stuff you've done. It sounds brilliant.

Biff: Well, the thing is that we're always trying to blend the two styles together really. The more rock and roll side of it and the heavy metal side. We're always trying to blend it together and I think it probably gives it a bit of a unique sound, actually. A unique approach rather than having all the songs sounding the bloody same. We try to blend it more, because we are two bands in one. We always have been. Like "Wheels of Steel", for instance. You've got "Wheels of Steel" and "Motorcycle Man". You've got "Strong Arm of the Law" and "Heavy Metal Thunder". We've always had this love of blues-based music, but also the love of "rip-your-face-off" metal stuff. I think we've actually got it together now, writing both styles and we put them on an album and it seems to work really well.

Metalshrine: What's your take today on albums such as "Crusader" and "Innocence is No Excuse" where the company wanted you to focus on the U.S. market?

Biff: I think "Crusader" is our biggest album and obviously the song... over a million people looked on it on YouTube, so it's obviously a massive song for whatever reason. I always think that albums can be better, even the new one. We're so close to the albums and so into the production process that for me, I'd always be twiddling and adding something else, so somebody has to say that "Enough is enough, lads! Let's release it!" I think "Crusader" stans up well, actually. There are a couple of songs on there that are bit sort of "pussy rocky," as the Germans call it. But I think it stands up and I think there's some good stuff on there. I think the style of the band is changing in that period, after "Power and the Glory", but I still think it retains some of the classic elements, especially the song "Crusader". I like the album! I can't say that I listen to it much, but the album's worth buying for the artwork, for that one song actually. It's a classic, classic album.

Metalshrine: What about "Innocence is No Excuse", which was even more commercial?

Biff: Well, again I really love that album! As musicians, we really reached a great point as songwriters on that album. I think some of the songs are great. I think the production is... the thing is we could've done it much rawer, like the new stuff is. More sort of in your face, but I don't know if it would work. We're gonna re-record a couple of them tracks and see if it works. With a more raunchy, full-on guitar-orientated, rather than more... that album is more vocal-orientated I think, so we'll give it more guitar and it might bring it to life. I don't know, but I do like that album.

Read the entire interview from Metalshrine.

SAXON will release "Into The Labyrinth" in Europe on January 12, 2009 (Germany: January 9; USA: January 13) via SPV Records. The CD was recorded at the Twilight Hall in Krefeld, Germany, under the direction of Charlie Bauerfeind. SAXON laid down 13 new songs at BLIND GUARDIAN's studio, starting with monumental opener "Battalions Of Steel" through "Demon Sweeney Todd" and "Valley Of The Kings", which both cover historic events, to the final slide guitar blues track "Coming Home" (fans are already familiar with the electric version of this track from SAXON's "Killing Ground" album).