Black Veil Brides Interview: We’re Giving Up Everything For This Band

By: Robert Cavuoto

I came across Black Veil Brides surfing YouTube and at first glance thought it was Motley Crue! The hair, the make-up, and the attitude drew me in and I was hooked. They looked like where Crue left off in 1982/83 with Shout at the Devil. The video was for their new single “Fallen Angels,” didn’t just rock, they shredded.

They sounded like a cross between Testament and Slayer. Motley Crue on steroids, how cool is that! Doing some research I found that they snagged the Best New Artist at the 2011 Revolver Golden Gods and that their first CD, We Stitch These Wounds charted #36 on Billboard’s Top 200 and #1 on the Billboard Independent chart.

On June 14 they will be planning world domination with their sophomore release Set the World on Fire and headline tour in the Fall. I was so intrigued and impressed by these guys that I needed to interview them to find out what makes the band tick. I sat down with the guitar duo, Jinxx and Jake Pitts to learn about the band and what the future holds.

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Black Veil Brides Photo: Paul Harries

Rob Cavuoto: I recently came across your video for “Fallen Angels” and was really impressed by the band. Can you tell me how Black Veil Brides were formed.

Jake Pitts: Jinxx and I met through a mutual friend. I played him some of my demos and he loved them. It was exactly the type of music he was into and looking for to put together a band. Right then we started playing guitar together. We were playing with CC (Christian Coma) our drummer, who at the time was bouncing around from band to band. We later ran into vocalist, Andy Biersack at a party in Hollywood and thing took off from there.

Jinxx: It was a real metal shredding band which never got off the ground until we met Andy and bassist Ashley Purdy.

Rob: Is there a meaning behind the name and who came up with it?

Jinxx: Black Veil Brides is Andy’s idea and vision from when he was a teenager. The name refers to a rite of passage for nuns when entering into the Catholic Church. They are marrying the church and giving their lives to the church. At the ceremony they wear a black veil. It’s also symbolic of the desire and passion that we have. That we’re giving up everything for this band to follow our dreams, relationship, homes, you name it.

Rob: How did the make-up and look of the band come into play?

Jake Pitts: The idea was from wanting to be different and stand out. Then we all took that idea and did our own thing with it. At first we just smeared body paint on and eye make-up and then started to refine it.

Rob: Do you think glam metal can make a comeback?

Jake Pitts: I don’t know and it doesn’t matter, we don’t care. We’re just doing our thing. There are always the Hollywood people that keep trying to live the dream but nothing will ever come of it. It’s really more about the music; you need to have a full package. There has to be something interesting about you. Nobody looks like a band anymore; they look like they got off at work from Best Buy. At least you can tell we’re band.

Rob: Is there an emphasis on one more than the other (look vs. music)?

Jake Pitts: That’s funny because we’re a band people love to argue about. They either love us or hate us. People on the internet will say shit about us and then our fans will back us up. For the people who say you should spend more time on your music than your look, I say it takes me 30 minutes to get ready for a show but I have been playing guitar for 12 years. So there is a little bit of a difference there!

Rob: What are some of your musical influences?

Jake Pitts: My mother. Guitar-wise, Paul Gilbert is my favorite guitarist and Eddie Van Halen of course. I’m a big fan of Avenged Sevenfold, Scorpions and Motley Crue.

Jinxx: I was brought up with Zeppelin and classic rock from my parents. When I started playing guitar I was getting into Metallica, Ozzy, and Randy Rhoads. I’m a huge Randy Rhoads fan and my 1st riff that I learned was “Crazy Train.” He got me into classical music too. I even took up the violin in school. Most of musical education and comes from that training. Then finding different melodies to make harmonies. It really transfers nicely to my writing on the guitar.

Rob: The first single “Fallen Angels” off your upcoming release Set the World on Fire is a little more commercial sounding than anything off We Stitch these Wounds. What can we expect from this new CD?

Jake Pitts: The new songs have more melody to them compared to the first CD. They’re catchier. On the new CD we have everything from tear your face off metal songs to big arena rock songs like “Fallen Angels.” This CD is better all-around from songwriting to production, from the guitar parts to drum playing. Everything is just a million times better! I can’t wait for everyone to hear it.

Jinxx: Yeah, It’s more brutal musically. The riffs are more complex and the solos are more intense. It’s heavier musically but the vocals have more melody with less screaming. We wanted to do something bigger than before. We had some older material that we revisited and were able to use on this CD. With the help of our producer Josh Abraham, he made us feel more comfortable to use that material. We found someone that was able to get the sound that we wanted from the guitars to the drums.

There is quite a variety of songs like “Legacy” which is very heavy and more commercial anthems songs like “Ritual” and “Fall Angels.” We also have an acoustic track called “Savior” which is a heavily orchestrated song. I added a lot of classical influences to it. It grows through-out the song and turns in to this heavy Metallica-esque song.

Rob: Tell me a little about the song writing for the band, how does it work?

Jinxx: We all collaborate. Jake and I do most of the writing, we work really well together, it’s almost like we share a brain. Jake will start playing around with a riff and then I’ll automatically hear where it’s going or vice versa. They we go back and forth almost like finishing each other’s sentences.

Rob: Your first release We Stitch these Wounds was on Billboard’s Top 40, how do you think this one is going to do?

Jake Pitts: I think it’s going to be in the Top 10!

Rob: You’ve achieved quite a bit of success very quickly. How are you going to sustain that success?

Jake Pitts: Just doing what we did on this new CD, writing better songs time after time.

Jinxx: We want to continue getting better on our writing and better on our instruments. You never want to hit that plateau. The 1st CD we felt rush and had no idea what kind of success this band was going to get. It’s hard to predict that. We did the best we could at the time and put it out. It charted on the Top 40. This record we had more time to write and had a bigger budget. I’m sure we will only get better with each release.

Rob: Your video for “Fallen Angels” has a strong resemblance to Motley Crue’s video “Looks that Kill.” Was that intentional?

Jinxx: We grew up to loving bands like Motley Crue and that is what rock n’ roll was to us. It’s what we think has been lacking over the last twenty years. So many bands get on stage and don’t have any enthusiasm. You need to put on a show. You need to look bad ass. We want be over the top at everything we do.

Rob: What can we expect at the live shows that are over the top?

Jinxx: Intensity, we go nuts and want our fans to go nuts. Our bassist smashes his bass; we have a killer light show. Our production will grow over time.

Rob: What are your plans for touring?

Jake Pitts: We are doing a headlining tour in the US in the Fall after we get back from England. I can’t talk too much about our stage show just yet but it’s going to be awesome.