When Black Veil Brides first appeared on the metal scene in their makeup and body paint, they caused quite the stir. With a glam look reminiscent of KISS and Motley Crue and a modern metal sound, they quickly gained a huge following of frenzied fans. They have a brand new album out, “Black Veil Brides IV,” and are busy out on tour. I had the chance to chat with the man behind Black Veil Brides, vocalist Andy Biersack. Join us as we get the inside scoop on the new record, tour and everything else Black Veil Brides.
KE: Hello Andy. Welcome to BackstageAxxess.com. We’re glad to have you with us today.
AB: Thank you.
KE: You’re fourth album is out, selftitled, number four. Can you tell us a little bit about the record and how it is different from prior Black Veil Brides releases.
AB: Well, I think that like anybody that’s releasing a record you try to improve upon the things that you’ve done in previous efforts. To me it’s that we are a better band than we were two years ago or three years ago or four years ago. That’s probably pretty par for the course with any artist that wants to evolve or change or grow. But I find this record to be the best one. I really think that we are at our most mature point in terms of writing, as musicians. I think the quality of the songs are better.
KE: This record seems to be a bit heavier, to have a more metal edge to it.
AB: Sure.
KE: Did that just evolve naturally during the writing and recording process?
AB: Absolutely, and I think that obviously having Bob Rock to produce the record was a huge part of that as well. Just his abilities in terms of the sonic qualities of the whole record is something that we didn’t want to miss out on. And I think just be being around him, the interest grew to have heavier songs and have heavier material .
KE: You mention Bob Rock as the producer. How did that relationship come about? Were you looking to go heavier?
AB: It worked out really great because we knew that this was the type of record that we wanted to make but we didn’t necessarily know that someone like Bob Rock would ever be interested, in the context of our ability to work with someone of that stature. So he happened to hear our song “In the End” on the radio several times in Hawaii where he’s from, where he lives, and he loved the band. What’s interesting about Bob is that he doesn’t really keep up with modern rock. He has his own thing and he has bands he likes and he very rarely gets involved with younger bands. It’s been years since he’s made a heavy metal record, a Bob Rock record. He just happened to like the band and he, unbeknownst to us, decided he was going to produce the next Black Veil Brides record which is, you know, sort of funny. He wound up saying this is the band I’m gonna work with and now he had the arduous task of getting a hold of us which I guess couldn’t have been that hard considering all he had to do was tell the guys in my band that he wanted to have breakfast with us. (Laughter) We were all very excited so. He was able to get a hold of my manager and I wound up getting a call saying hey Bob Rock wants to meet and talk about producing the next record. We met with him and we had breakfast at a place called Slinger’s in Hollywood and it was great. I mean he had the right vibe, the right ideas. We all clicked immediately. I mean honestly, the next six months that followed after that were so easy and fun in terms of working. I have nothing but great things to say about how it was.
KE: What was the writing process like for this album? Is it a collective effort where everyone brings ideas to the table?
AB: Well everyone is different. I think that all of the process on this one was that we wanted to try to be as involved as a band, the five of us, as much as possible and try to maintain that. All of us wanted to work on every song. We try to do things as democratically as possible and make sure that literally all of us were involved in every facet of every song. In previous records, I think sometimes we became fractured and wrote some elements of songs separate from each other. On this record though, we really tried our best to maintain being together as a band.
KE: You’re kicking things off with a new tour to support this record, The Black Mass Tour. How is that going so far?
AB: It’s great. We’re in Vegas tonight. The show has been kicking ass so far. We’re having a great time on stage.
KE: What can the fans expect to see this time around?
AB: We brought out a much more extensive stage show this time around. We’ve got things just in terms of the staging and the reality of the show that we’ve never had before so that’s, I think, the most impressive run that we’ve had so far.
KE: How do you decide on the setlist for the tour? Is it a band decision and does it change throughout the tour?
AB: Sometimes it will change just based on how well a song plays within the sense of the band. We have a great situation with our fanbase where they react pretty positively to our setlist. We’ve never had people complain about the setlist that we’ve done. We’re playing nearly and hour and fourty five minutes on this tour so we have quite a bit of material spanning all of our records. I guess it came down to wanting to play songs that A) we’ve never played live or B) ones that the fans enjoy hearing that they haven’t heard in a long time you know. Try to bring back some of the fan favorites. Maybe songs that over time you get sick of playing because you’ve just been playing them for so long. You can bring them back and kind of make them sound new and fresh and we enjoy doing that.
KE: You’ve got a great video up for “Goodbye Agony” and that’s up and available to view. Who came up with the concept for that and can you give us a little background on the story there?
AB: Honestly, it’s supposed to be, well if you’re a fan of Black Veil Brides and you’ve been a fan for a long time, it’s nothing but Easter eggs and references to other videos and things we’ve done. From the character of Eve from the movie we’ve done to the male character in the video is the little boy from “Knives and Pens.” Same actor. The reference to our “Coffin” music video, even elements of what we’re wearing come from other videos. It’s basically a big love letter to the BVB Army for staying with us for so long, kind of showing every year and every element of our career.
KE: What was your first introduction to music as a child and what led you down this path as a career choice?
AB: I can’t really remember specifically what my first introduction to music was because I was always around it. My dad sang. He was in bands and I went to Catholic Church as a kid and I was always singing and involved in the choir. I was always around it. It was the only thing I really loved so intrinsically I just knew it was going to be what I wanted to do with my life.
KE: What are some of your biggest musical influences?
AB: Well, the span I think for me lyrically. My lyrical inspirations are very different from my aesthetic inspirations or even my rock and roll inspirations. I mean I’m equally influenced by, you know, KISS as I am, I don’t know, Bruce Springsteen. To me, I find interest in different types of rock music for different reasons and not necessarily always the same ones. I’m not one of those people who blanketly enjoy like an era of music. I always thought that was funny because you can’t really account for individual personal tastes of every writer or whatever else. So it’s always funny when someone says “Oh I like 80’s music.” Well what does that mean exactly because you know you could say you enjoy Poison or Murray Head and you know they are very different.
KE: What about new music? Are you checking out any up and comers?
AB: It’s so hard to maintain any reality with younger bands or what’s happening especially when you’re making your own. I try my best not to listen to other bands when we’re making an album because I don’t want it to even rub off on me in any way. I prefer it to be a situation where my ideas are mine. But there is a young band from Pheonix Arizona that I am very friendly with and they are big fans of my band. They are called Farewell My Love and they just got signed to our old label. They’re really sweet kids and I wish them all the luck. I don’t know everything about their music but from what I’ve heard they seem very talented. So anybody that I’m around and they seem like nice people I’m always cheering for them.
KE: Whenever Black Veil Brides is mentioned, there always seems to be a really strong response to the band and you had mentioned the BVB Army standing by you through all these years. What do you think it is about the band, and especially the music, that elicits such strong feelings from the fans?
AB: I think in all reality the connection that we have with the fan base is based entirely on something that we are able to facilitate. I mean you look at social media statistics and everywhere else. The BVB Army is what they call themselves and it’s something that was created by the fans. We play our part in it and we try to connect as best we can. We owe so much just to the rabid level of dedication that they’ve shown us and I can’t explain. They ask how do you develop such a dedicated fan base and to me you don’t ask the guy how did he win the lottery. He just won the lottery.
KE: What’s up next for Black Veil Brides?
AB: We’re gonna take a little bit of time off for the holidays and then we’re gonna head back out at the start of the year and do another US run and then we’re gonna probably go to Canada and then we’ve got a lot of European shows coming up, so just constant touring. The reality is, I don’t see us off the road until well into 2016 with this record.
KE: Will you be working on new music on the road then?
AB: Sure, we’re always working. I’ve got my solo project as well that I’m writing music for all the time so there definitely will be a release within the next couple of years.
KE: Any possibility of a tour in the works? Well, you probably don’t want to go back out on tour after this record though?
AB: (Laughter) I tell you what, I would love to play shows with the solo project. Obviously they’re different and I think it would be an interesting thing but Black Veil Brides is really where my heart is at and I have so much fun with the guys on stage. I don’t know. I don’t think I would have a band as such as a solo thing. I think it would be very different musical presentation.
KE: We’ll look forward to that as well as the current tour. Best of luck with the new record as well.
AB: Thanks so much. I appreciate it
We would like to thank Kevin Chiaramonte from PFA Media for scheduling the interview. for more information on the Black Veil Brides including their self titled disc, please go to: Black Veil Brides.
