SAXON's BIFF BYFORD: 'Playing Live Is Where It Is At The Moment'

Vocalist Biff Byford of British heavy metal legends SAXON was interviewed on a recent edition of "The Great Metal Debate" podcast. You can now listen to the chat in the YouTube clip below. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On the biggest change in the music industry since SAXON first started:

"There have been quite a lot of changes. The digital thing was a messy change, when everybody wen digital. That was a crazy period, when we were experimenting with recording music on the Betamax video machine and stuff like this. We were all striving for a great sound, and the digital thing opened up a new level of quality. Obviously, the old-school vinyl stuff is back again. It's just different sounds, really. People these days, with the iPods and the streaming generation, I think people appreciate needles on vinyl and things like this. There's a big retro movement. But we've seen a lot of changes. I think maybe the digital thing… revolution was the biggest change in music… or, actually, in everything, really. You can make an album on a laptop now quite easily."

On something that he thinks will never change about the music industry:

"I think maybe the constant thing is live work. We try to keep it as live as possible. We don't use any supplement sounds — hard drives or anything. So I think the live thing ebbs and flows, but I think live music for a metal band is very important — playing live… We tour a lot through the year, and some of the festivals we play in Europe are absolutely huge — ninety, a hundred thousand people. So, playing live is where it is at the moment. I think it's where all the business endis generated, really. You can play four or five big festivals in Europe and then it allows you to go on tour and maybe invest money in the production. So its' a big thing — [playing] live. It feeds a lot of different things, basically."

SAXON's 21st studio album, "Battering Ram", will be released on October 30 in North America via UDR Music. The CD was produced by Andy Sneap (MEGADETH, TESTAMENT, EXODUS, ACCEPT) at his Backstage Recording Studios in rural Derbyshire.

The official video for the CD's title track can be seen below. In this no-nonsense, sharp clip, Biff and the boys are captured at Backstage Studios, throwing down a thunderous performance.

"Battering Ram" is available for pre-order now via iTunes, with "Battering Ram" as the instant grat track.