'I'm still convinced that the next song I write will be the best song we've ever had'

After grappling with tough questions about their future as a band, Biffy Clyro return with their 10th album. They speak to Mark Beaumont about overcoming their existential crisis’

- Mark Beaumont

There was a point a few years back where Biffy Clyro seemed so futureless that frontman Simon Neil wrote them a suicide note.

"It's basically about just deciding to fuck this life off and go and see what's around the other corner," the tattooed, shirt-allergic singer says of an emotional new track titled simply, "Goodbye".

"It was like, 'if this band was going to end, there's nothing else' It's the thought of losing everything."

From the beaming, chattering typhoon of charm, hugs and goodwill that whips into the plush penthouse office of their record label's London HQ - as Simon and his bandmates, twin brothers James and Ben Johnston, billow out of the Tube strike traffic it seems inconceivable that such a cheerful and successful band might ever go even fractionally Gallagher.

Since the Kilmarnock trio bridged the yawning gap between hardcore rock and the mainstream with breakthrough albums such as Puzzle (2007) and Only Revolutions (2009), their story has epitomised the modern rock fantasy.

Six top-five albums - three of them No 1 - amassing over a million sales. Major chart hits with the likes of "Mountains" and "That Golden Rule", back when the terms "chart hit" and "rock music" weren't such irreconcilable strangers. There were headline sets at Download, T in the Park and the Isle of Wight Festival, and in 2010, they were even tossed into a Christmas chart battle with themselves when their single "Many of Horror", retitled "When We Collide", was selected as Matt Cardle's X Factor winner's song. A fan campaign saw the original version challenge Cardle from his eventual Number One. Mon, as the customary fan chant goes, the Biff.