Black Veil Brides

Andy Biersack of Black Veil Brides

Photo by Jack Lue

The Reawakening of Black Veil Brides

Interview by Ken Morton - Live Photo by Jack Lue

Black Veil Brides find themselves on the road in the midst of the Trinity Of Terror Tour, with a local date taking place at the YouTube Theater in Inglewood on December 7th. The band has just unveiled a new EP entitled The Mourning, now available via Sumerian Records. Highwire Daze recently had the opportunity to interview lead vocalist Andy Biersack to find out more about The Mourning EP, what it was like to return to the stage after the pandemic, early days of the band including opening for From First To Last at The Whisky, their great admiration and respect for the fans, and a whole lot more! Read on...

Is there any overall story or concept behind the title and songs on The Mourning EP?

What we had originally intended on doing was a supplementary thing for The Phantom Tomorrow – and really, we had kind of gone into the studio with the intention of doing it that way. Once we sat down to write the songs, it sort of felt like as if that story had been told. When I invest in any kind of world building, I really feel like I want to live in this and continue to tell the story and do this stuff. But once we actually sat down and started to write the songs, it started to feel like that wasn’t really representative of where we were at. The truth is, that for so long and for so many years, we had gone through such a tumultuous time – the band nearly ending and all this stuff – and then finally coming back and experiencing from the fall of 2021 through the beginning part of 2022 while on tour. Such a renewed sense of the band – not just as musicians but as friends and people who have shared this life together after all these years. So, it felt like – the talk about what it was to turn the page and to start this new chapter. It’s sort of funny – the idea of The Mourning. Obviously, you mourn things that have passed – I think in some ways it’s more of a turn on the phrase, because we were waking up to something new and letting go of something old.

How influenced were you by the pandemic and all of the social unrest in the world when writing The Mourning EP and your previous album The Phantom Tomorrow – if at all?

I would say more on The Phantom Tomorrow because we were literally writing and recording the album during the peak of all that stuff. It’s hard to not have it mirror the art that you’re making in some way. The Mourning is kind of more representative of whatever this current version of our world is – where things seem to be as normal as they can be – whatever this new normal is. So I wouldn’t say it had any direct influence on The Mourning, but certainly the idea – particularly the political sphere and sort of this avatarism and hero worship that was created by what they call the political football – where everybody had a team and everybody had a hat and everybody had a sign – and people’s personalities sort of became entirely entrenched in being represented by people who ostensibly – as far as I could see – could really give a fuck about them or their family or anything else. It was just sort of an odd thing where so many people I knew became – their whole identity became associated with a political ideology. That, to me – because I was writing a story about hero worship and false gods and stuff like that – it all kind of became part and parcel of the same idea.

Describe that first show back for you after the pandemic, and what that meant for you to be back after probably two years.

You know, it’s so funny. I’ve been performing in some capacity since I was a child. It’s not uncommon to hear that the lead singer of a band is someone who made everyone watch them perform constantly all the time as a kid – that kind of goes with the territory. So, I was putting on concerts in my living room to anyone who I could make watch me from the time I was three years old. I’ve never had nerves onstage – I’ve never had stage fright, or no moment has ever felt too big. I’ve always just been excited about the opportunity to do it - and maybe that’s narcissism or humorous or whatever it is. So, we played Lincoln, Nebraska first in the fall of 2021 – and it’s the first time that I believe I could remember really having legitimate nerves going on the stage. We were backstage and we

were almost kind of laughing about it, because the thing about it was the band had been on a several year hiatus at that point. We only played one show in about a four-year period – and the only shows that we had played prior to that were a residency that we did in LA. So, it was really our first bite of the apple when it came to the current lineup of our band – our opportunity to get back out there coupled with the fact that it was after this crazy thing that was going on. And now it’s our first show back. It was extremely exciting, but it was also a little nerve wracking. And then you get into the swing of things, and we’ve really not stopped touring ever since then. Here we are a year later, and we’ve only had a handful of weeks that we weren’t touring from the fall of last year right up until today.

At this point in your career, when you look at these fan made signs that say “Black Veil Brides Saved My Life,” how does that make you feel?

It’s a pretty incredible thing to think that, for me – and obviously, everybody in the band has different experiences – I think we could all share a similar sentiment, which is being kids that grew up idolizing bands – and also none of us were popular kids – none of us had great social skills. We all felt that music was our outlet to get through life. To be able to sit here at 31 years old and know that the music that I wrote with my friends in this band 12-13 years ago is deeply affecting people that were toddlers when the songs were written – it’s really crazy! You see so many people of different age ranges at our shows – and not only people who grew up with us, but people who just discovered the band. And to know that we’ve been able to have that deep of an impact on essentially a whole generation of rock music fans – it’s a pretty incredible feeling and it’s something that we don’t take lightly.

The first time I interviewed you – and this was quite a few years ago – you were opening a show at The Whisky and From First To Last was headlining. Your band pretty much exploded after that. Tell me about your memories of that show and about that particular time in the history of your band.

A very funny thing happened at that show that will always stick in my mind. We had a guy who was – I’m not even sure how he ended up living with us – he was a guy in a German band who came to LA – he’d gotten signed to a major record deal. He was friends with some people we knew, and I guess he was a really poor house guest to them, because they contacted us and said, “Hey, can such and such come over and spent a night at your guy’s apartment?” And I think Jake lived in the shit hole apartment in Hollywood – it was a studio apartment – we had blow up mattreses – there were cockroaches everywhere - and it was just a party pad kind of thing in the heart of Hollywood. And he shows up at the door with all of his suitcases and bags – and the people that dropped him off are just driving off and we’re like, “Oh, okay! Well, I guess this guy lives here now.” This guy just lived with us, and we didn’t really know him at all – and he was a nice enough guy. One night, we said “Well you know we’re going on tour. We could definitely use some help.” Obviously, we didn’t have any crew or anything. So, we’re rolling up in the van and we get the stage all set up – and he’s up on the stage with us. And all of sudden, these immigration officers come into the venue and up onstage behind that little makeshift curtain that we had – and escort him off the stage and we didn’t see him again. We thought we would never see him again, but we did see him again years later at a show in Europe and he told us the whole story. It’s obviously not the question that you asked, but that show always sticks out in my head.

You know, we played The Whisky 800 times – especially in those early days. But that one – the one where we were opening for From First To Last sticks out to me as the time where that friend of ours who existed briefly in our lives got taken away by immigration, because it turned out that he didn’t have a green card or anything. He was just staying in the States, I guess. (Laughter)

Those shows in the early days, it was such an innocent period in the sense that we were so bright-eyed, and everything was brand new. And just the opportunity to

play The Whisky and be in the LA scene and all these things that we dreamt of – being played out in the sense that here you are onstage – oh you’re going on tour and the band was growing – all of this hype and traction. We were the first band on the bill – I believe it was either us or Sleeping With Sirens that opened up the show each night – and each of us played 15-20 minutes at the most. And then ironically, it was two or three years later that our two bands were, you could sort of argue, ruling the scene. And when you consider the fact – I would say more so for us than anyone else – we were in a position where we were not critically lauded. We were told for those first couple of years that we were basically a joke. The other bands on these tours looked down on us. The only thing that we had going for us was this fan base that wouldn’t give up on us and really hoisted us up and put us in the position where we could succeed. So, looking back at that time, I have both tremendous memories of the joy of the ascent and also sometimes laugh at some of the things that were said to us and about us in those early days by people who both within the industry and without, that didn’t believe that we had a chance of any kind of success. There’s no real vindication in this, but in any event, that one that you’re referring to was The Royal Family Clothing Tour.

What are you looking forward to the most about the remaining dates of the Trinity Of Terror Tour – including the show here in Los Angeles at the YouTube Theater?

Yeah, that’s a new venue. I’ve never been to the new stadium down there or anything. As far as I understand, it’s adjacent to the new football stadium, so I’m really looking forward to it. You know, this tour has been really a blessing for all three bands. We’ve really enjoyed it, and we all get along really well. On a tour where you’ve got three headliners who rotate every night – inherently there could be some political issues just within that – and we’ve been really lucky that there hasn’t been anything. No bad blood – no feuds – nothing – we’ve all just really gotten along and enjoyed this opportunity that we’ve all been given. You know, this is the last one for now. I wouldn’t say that it isn’t possible that we wouldn’t try to pursue in the future – but I think this is something that’s really exciting and we’re looking forward to kind of ending it with a bang here and heading towards Christmas.

And do you have any messages for fans reading this right now?

Well beyond anything, the biggest message that I believe will always remain for our band is that we are sincerely and genuinely appreciative, that despite what’s been said about our band, or criticisms that have been thrown at people for wearing our shirts or supporting us or whatever it is – that despite all that, people have stood up for us and have given us a career – and here we are well over a decade into our career and we’ll still here and playing the biggest shows of our career – and that’s really down to our fans and entirely a testament to them.

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