• Home
• News
• Features
• Reviews
• TV
• Photos
• Win
• Blog
• Magazine
• Merch
• Festivals

Bring Me The Horizon’s “cry for help”

Oli Sykes gets personal on BMTH's third record - "I refuse to say I have a problem."

Pressure? Fuck pressure. As far as eagerly-anticipated albums go, Bring Me The Horizon’s newie is at the top of the pile. And with good reason, too: ‘Suicide Season’ elevated them from scrappy noise-terrorist upstarts to genuine Brit metal contenders, and their forthcoming third record looks set to capitalise on its success. Rock Sound caught up with Oli Sykes during its recording in Gothenburg and found the frontman in typically defiant mood.

Note: this is an excerpt from an article in Rock Sound issue 135. To read the full article buy this month’s magazine, which is onsale now.

IS THE NEW ALBUM PURPOSEFULLY DIFFERENT TO ‘SUICIDE SEASON’?
“Perhaps. On the last album the lyrics were about not giving a fuck and I think a lot of people have read that as who I am and what I do. That’s not true – it was about a specific time and my thinking and my way of life. Being like that has had an effect on me, it’s lead to consequences and a lot of this record is about what happened to me as a result of living in that way and being in this band. The lyrics are a lot more blunt this time and I sing about stuff I wouldn’t dare tell my girlfriend, my family or my friends. It’s about the things I can’t say face to face to people that are really close to me. I think I’ll have a lot to answer for once this album is out.”

IS THIS YOU ADMITTING THAT YOU’VE BEEN LYING TO PEOPLE?
“It’s all stuff that people have asked me about that I’ve denied or lied about. A lot of this album is just admitting to myself what’s been happening in my life. Even when I was writing, I didn’t think I was doing that until I started saying it all out loud.”

ARE THE SONGS A STATEMENT OF WHAT WENT ON OR A PLEA FOR FORGIVENESS?
“I don’t know, perhaps they’re even a cry for help. I don’t get my problem, I refuse to say I have one and I find it so much easier to write it all on a piece of paper while denying it to everyone else. I know I can be difficult to be around, I shut people out very easily. This record lets everyone in.”

HOW CONTENT ARE YOU WITH THE OVERALL LIFE OF THE BAND? WHAT’S THE MOOD BEEN LIKE BEHIND THE SCENES?
“Writing was stressful as usual, there was worry about living up to our last album and we got at each other’s necks a bit, but the tension has disappeared since we got here. We were all worried that we couldn’t live up to our own hype, but we all think we’ve blown it away with what we’ve made now. We took a lot of risks with this album and I think they’ve all paid off. We’re not nervous and anxious at all, we just want to get it out there for people to hear.”

Andrew Kelham