Gotten over the Soundwave 2013 lineup yet? Nah, neither have the Music Feeds team. The world is now looking at Australia, who seem to be progressing to the forefront of the international festival scene for the first time, well, ever. In the wake of the announcement, I caught up with Vic Fuentes, vocalist for Post-Hardcore outfit Pierce the Veil. Having just released their brand new album, the band have been biting their tongue after being added to the lineup, but now the secrets out; here’s what Vic had to say!
“I just saw the bill like 20 minutes ago and it looks insane, it looks so good… It’s crazy; we don’t get stuff like this in the States. I don’t know of any tour here that would involve us, and Metallica,” Vic explained as even he tried to calm the excitement of being included in the Soundwave 2013 lineup. “I can’t believe it, it’s got the huge, huge bands and it’s also got bands that are our friends: Memphis May Fire, Sleeping With Sirens, Of Mice & Men… I’m so excited, we’ve never done anything like this, it’s going to be great.”
Though many of the bands on the bill were leaked over the past weeks and months, Pierce the Veil managed to stay off the confirmed list, well, until this morning. We got talking about this and why some bands decide to spill the beans and others don’t: “I honestly have no idea, maybe they’re just too excited and just accidentally leak it to their friends… I’m sure there are repercussions, but I think it’s best to keep the element of surprise in the music industry; I’m a fan of laying it all out when I’m supposed to. I mean, I almost slipped a couple of times in interviews. It’s tough cos we want our Australian fans to know we’re coming again, but you know, all in good time, it’s all good.”
Speaking of leaks, the conversation soon steered towards the band’s third and latest studio release Collide with the Sky, which found its way onto the Internet a month before it was supposed to. “We really didn’t want to leak anything else haha…” Now on the topic, we got to the nitty-gritty of the whole process: “This record was altogether a totally different process – new producer, new studio, very different writing process, a lot more, I dunno, I think we gave ourselves a lot more freedom and a lot more time, we did everything the best we could, the way we wanted to and that made for a much more enjoyable recording process, and gave us freedom to take some risks and try things we’ve always wanted to try. We told the producer, ‘let’s do everything you’ve ever wanted to do on a record that you never have before’. This led to unique recording practices such as occupying an abandoned building next door to the warehouse to record the drums live, giving a raw and ominous tone to the record. “You know, things like that,” Vic concluded.
Fans of the new release will be pleased to know that Sleeping With Sirens’ Kellin Quinn will be performing King for a Day with Pierce the Veil at Soundwave 2013. “We’ll definitely be doing that.” Boom!
What’s interesting about the release is that parts of it were inspired by an Australian fan. Unfortunately though, it was to honour her passing. “It’s a sad story… While we were recording the new album some kids from Australia contacted me and said, ‘Our best friend recently committed suicide, she was a big fan of you guys’, and they wanted to let us know because it’s very important. She was only 16; she had gone through so much stuff in her life: bullied, very depressed, she felt like she wasn’t wort anything. She posted a goodbye video online. It was probably one of the saddest, most haunting, heartbreaking things I’ve ever seen in my life. The song Bulls in the Bronx deals with that whole situation. We wrote that as a gift to her, and also as a story that might help other kids in that sort of trouble.”
Fuentes explained that the whole album was inspired by fans, who have helped him as much as he’s helped them, adding even more excitement amongst the band to showcase their new tunes here in Australia. So it was time to let Vic go and unpack from Warped Tour, which he described as so far the best tour the band has had, though according to the vocalist, “I’m sure Soundwave will be a big challenge to that claim”.
Pierce the Veil’s new album is Collide with the Sky, up on iTunes right now. There’s plenty of time to learn the words before you see them at Soundwave 2013. Get keen!
Check out the full Soundwave 2013 lineup here.
