When it comes to heavy music, there’s nobody pushing boundaries quite like Bring Me The Horizon. While 2019’s ‘amo’ was divisive, the impact it had on metalcore is undeniable; the urgency of ‘amo’s experimentation gave a vital shock to the scene, breeding a new wave of ferociously fresh metal acts. The Sheffield legends wrote the rulebook for metalcore, all before tearing it to shreds and starting afresh – and that constant pursuit for evolution is exactly what keeps them on top.
We had a chat with frontman Oli Sykes at the Bring Me The Horizon & Friends Malta Weekender to discuss this innovative mindset – delving into the group’s role in redefining the scene over the years, as well as considering how their festival line-up and unconventional collaborative work is sure to influence the future of metal…
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Let's start by having a think about the festival – Malta! Why Malta, why now?
I mean, if I'm perfectly honest, it wasn't our idea necessarily – it was kind of presented to us. And we were like… "yeah, this sounds cool!" We've curated a festival before for All Points East, and it was great, but it was a bit of a nightmare! So we were a bit like, we'll do it again, but let's do it right. Last time we just wanted ALL these different artists – a big spectrum – and it was cool but you soon realise that that doesn't really help ticket sales. Everyone's like, "well, I don't want to pay all that money to see THAT band…"
So we thought, okay, let's do it again but let's focus on the scene we come up in – but obviously still keep it diverse, getting a big spectrum of rock bands. And luckily it's worked out!
It definitely has! Even when thinking about the spectrum – you've got bands from all different eras too. Like, so many people grew up with Bullet For My Valentine, or Motionless in White, but then we've also got new faces like Nova Twins and Static Dress. Was that a conscious decision, to mix in those classic bursts of nostalgia with acts that you think will be the future of the scene?
I mean, another thing that's so different now, thinking back to All Points East… we were almost underwhelmed with the state of rock music at the time. But that's so different now – I feel like I'm listening to so much more rock, there's so many exciting alternative acts.
Nowadays, under the rock umbrella, you can find way more alternative artists. Five years ago everyone would be a bit more like "you're not metalcore, you're not hardcore…", but now those more alternative sounds are being embraced. Which I think is really nice. We can have people like DeathbyRomy and know that people are going to embrace it a lot more than they would have five years ago. And I think because we're really excited by the state of rock and alternative music right now, it wasn't difficult to piece together a line-up at all – and in the past we have sometimes struggled to do that…
It definitely feels like nowadays people are ready for more diverse sounds! But it's obvious that you've had a massive impact on that in the heavy scene – you’re ‘tastemakers’, you don’t follow the crowds. When 'amo' dropped everyone was sort of taken aback – and tracks like 'heavy metal' of course hint at that "we're going to do whatever we want" kind of attitude. In a way, it's like you started the push of being experimental in heavy music… you made it easier for yourselves to be experimental now!
You're actually quite right about that – that's how we feel. When we released 'amo', even though it was doing well, internally we were like "oh God, we've released this album and it's REALLY split people…" Some of our hardcore fans were like "what the fuck is this?" Some people loved it, some people hated it, some people didn't know what to make of it. But now it feels like we can do WHATEVER we want. Y'know, we can go back and write an album like 'POST HUMAN: SURVIVAL HORROR'…
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That totally shocked me by the way – 'Dear Diary,' I was like "oh! my god!!"
Ah! And see, you wouldn't have got that if we never wrote 'amo'!
Totally – I was expecting maybe more of the experimental ‘amo’ vibes, so when it started with such a CRASH..! It was such a brilliant surprise. But even me saying that, do you feel like those heavier moments crop up to satisfy those older 'hardcore' fans you mentioned? Even if we think about the fact that you're knocking out a throwback set – do you feel like it's something that you HAVE to do?
On a personal level, I'm at a point where I'm just embracing the person that I am. Like, there was definitely a time when he's trying to distance ourselves from rock music. We were just trying to get out of it – we were disillusioned by it all, it was a bit restrictive. So we had a period where we didn't want to do anything that was remotely rock. Y'know, we pushed it away, I was screaming less, we didn't want to do any of the tropes of rock or metal. Not that we were embarrassed by it, but we were just so sick of the cliches and stuff. But, as time's gone on, we're realising like… we are one of the last of our era's rock/metal bands properly in the mainstream. There isn't anyone else at our level doing what we do.
And we're not going straight back to our old sound, but it's acknowledging like "yes, this is who you were at one time, this is what you did." And it doesn't matter whether you think it's your best work or not, but there's people that it makes really happy. So like, why not? Why keep running from it? It's the same with our band – with 'amo', we pushed it to this place so that we could explore, and when we came back we wanted to take everything we'd learned from it but also make sure we didn't lose what made us different. We didn't want to lose what made us stand out in the first place.
Like, if we let go of all of those heavy elements, who's going to be in the mainstream screaming?
Even the fact you were able to scream next to Ed Sheeran…!
Yeah – like, even if we tried to do that with 'Sempiternal', it wouldn't have happened. But I think by now people know not to expect the same thing as twice. And, y'know… with 'amo', we weren't trying to write an album to get massive, we just do what interests us most. If we did intend to get massive off of 'amo', we wouldn't have written 'amo' – it's all over the place, honestly. It's a collage.
So, I feel like people know deep down that we never try to 'sell out', we're never trying to be something we're not. We just do have a lot of love for different music, different sounds. We love pop, we love dance – and we just have to express ourselves. We have to do what is truly us, and there's just no way that we could write the same album twice.
Thinking about 'writing the same album twice', are you going to 're-write' any of the throwback set? We've heard rumour of a few onstage collaborations being in the pipeline – are you reimagining any of the tracks?
I think we're just gonna try our best to play WELL, haha. Mat (Nicholls, drummer) broke his wrist a couple of weeks ago… which has been really bad, because not only has he had to learn the hour and forty minute main set that we've not played since November, but he's also has to learn songs we're not played in 10, 15 years…
I did say to Jordan (Fish, keyboard/programming/vocals) that, as he's not doing a lot, he could add some bits and bobs but, again, he's had a nightmare with his tech. So we're just going to play the tracks as well as possible – and, of course, have some friends come out.
These friends coming out to perform with you – they're going to be a selection from the line-up. Looking forward, did you make sure to choose a line-up that represents the future of the heavy scene?
I hope so. And, with the collaboration, I think it's so important. Like, with Sigrid, I'd never in a million years have guessed that she liked us, that I've seen her live a bunch of times. Just you'd never in a million years finished. She liked us. And we'd like yeah, I've been to see a lot of times. When I found out she liked us it made my day!
And, yeah, I think it's so important to be vocal about loving a band or an artist. I do it all the time – like, when I'm listening to stuff in the gym and I like something I'll just post it on my story and put up some horns, y'know? Especially when you've got a platform as well, if you can help that band – because it is so hard. If you're an artist or in a band who just want to make music for the love of music, in this climate, it's not the easiest. If we can support them like that, or by bringing them onstage, or taking them on tour, we will.
Do you ever worry about whether fans will react badly to really rogue acts you take on tours? Or do you feel like the fans are used to being presented with new sounds now?
I mean, back in the day we definitely took some artists out with us before quickly realising, like… we shouldn't have done this. WE like them, but this crowd does NOT. But I think we know a bit more now – like, we've been on so many tours with artists that we fucking love, but together it just doesn't make sense. So we can have that persepctive now, of thinking "okay, will this be best for the show? Will the fans like it? Will they have a good time playing?"
And that's also one of the reasons why I've been doing a lot more collaborations recently too – it might not make sense to tour with someone, but that doesn't mean I can't work with them. And it means that I can work on a crazy pop song without it being something attached to Bring Me The Horizon – so the fans aren't always having to be like "Oli… why are you making all this pop music!!!??"
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Words: Emily Swingle // @EmzSwiggle
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