Photo: WENN.com
Metalcore five-piece, Bring Me The Horizon have been keeping their heads down for the past year, writing and recording their fourth studio album, Sempiternal and waiting patiently to ‘tour the s**t out of the world.’
After signing to a major record label, the Sheffield band have made their biggest album yet to match their equally big ambitions of bringing a bit of metal to the masses, whilst pulling in new listeners with their most mainstream-sounding record to date.
We caught up with lead singer Olly Sykes to find out how he felt about the band’s new record…
Hi Olly. What can we expect from the new album and what are your hopes for it?
In my opinion it’s quite a big step in terms of the sound. I don’t think it’s a departure from what we've done before but it’s definitely a big evolution. It’s more melodic and personally I push myself vocally and put a lot more melody into it. We've got a new member (Jordan Fish) who has done all the programming and keyboards which is a huge part of the new album. Hopefully everyone is going to dig it. It’s much more of a commercial record and it’s got a much bigger, more epic sound. It’s heavier in some place and in other places it’s a lot more ambient. It’s a clichéd thing to say but the heavier bits are heavier and the softer bits are softer. I think it could reach out to some new people. People that haven’t liked what we have done in the past might like this record.
You said that you had really big aspirations for this record, do you think its reached those aspirations?
Yeah. I think it has and that’s not something I’d usually say about our albums. Every record we make, I'm always happy with it, but I'd think we could have done this better or that better. I'm used to being worried about how the fans are going to take it. I've never really felt so confident about something before and I’m really excited for everyone to hear.
You've got a pretty busy 2013, have you got any UK festivals planned yet?
Apart from Reading and Leeds, right now there’s nothing else. I don’t think we’ll do Glastonbury or anything, but we've been off tour for a year now and we’re so hungry to get back on tour and tour the s**t out of the world. We’re pretty much up for anything.
Watch Bring Me The Horizon's video to 'Shadow Moses' below:
You've recently toured Australia where you are pretty huge, do you see a major difference in crowds in different countries?
We’re quite lucky because we can go to pretty much every country in the world and we've got a good following. I'm not saying we can go anywhere and we've got a f**king huge crowd, but everywhere we go we've got a passionate bunch of fans. All the fans are as crazy as each other so it’s hard to see any noticeable differences.
Your sound seems to have moved slightly towards a more mainstream type of rock recently, is that a conscious effort?
We weren't like ‘we've got to make us a record that gets us on the radio’. It’s kind of the CD we've always wanted to make and been working towards. We have always wanted to have more digital and synth driven leads, but we didn't have the knowledge to do it. I've had time to sit down and figure all that s**t out and I guess this is the result. For us, going mainstream isn't a problem and we aren't all about being ‘underground’. We think heavy music should be enjoyed by everyone. It should be out to the masses, but it wasn't a conscious thing to think which song should be for the radio.
What's it like being a frontman to a band that get the crowd into such a frenzy? What's the worst thing you've seen when looking onto a crowd mosh pit?
It’s fun. It’s what I live for . There was one incident a couple of years ago when we went to America and were playing in Salt Lake City. There was a ‘crew’ who were a bunch of 15-year-old kids just on a power trip and literally beating little girls up and punching them in the face. I stopped the music and called them out and they all ran on stage, attacked me, nearly kicked the f**k out of me. That was the worst thing I have ever seen. People had just turned up to the show just to beat up little kids. Someone lost an eye…
Thanks Olly. Bring Me The Horizon’s new album Sempiternal is out on 1 April, 2013.
