Black Veil Brides – Shooting Higher with BVB IV

By: Robert Cavuoto

Black Veil Brides are constantly growing, reinventing themselves, and vowing to never make the same CD twice.

For their upcoming release; BVB IV, due out on October 28^th, the band has taken a mega leap forward in their musical career by enlisting producer Bob Rock of Metallica and Motley Crue fame, to assist with the band’s vision of world domination.

The 11-track CD features some of the band’s most aggressive and diverse songs to date, while acknowledging their roots in classic metal.

Their first single “Heart of Fire” is a melodic hard edged song that showcases the band’s ability to marry driving riffs with intense lyrical messages.

The band will embark on a 37 headline run of the states dubbed, Black Mass 2014, which kicks off on October 21^st in Niagara Falls and runs through mid-December.

Black Veil Brides are Andy Biersack [vocals], Jake Pitts [guitar], Jinxx [guitar/violin], Ashley Purdy [bass] and Christian “CC” Coma [drums].

While in New York City for a press run to support the new CD, I had the rare opportunity to interview the entire band about their new CD, a look at their success, and how they avoid the trappings of excess and poor business decisions.

With sunglasses on from a rough night of setting New York on fire, so began a 45-minute interview of epic proportions.

For the entire interview the band didn’t stop joking, laughing, and busting each other’s chops relentlessly – just what you would expect from putting five friends in a room to answer questions tossed at them like grenades.

Buckle your seatbelts, grab a beer and join me for an in-depth conversation with a band that’s on their way to becoming a household name!

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Robert Cavuoto: Tell me about the CD cover for BVB IV, does the winged creature have a name?

Andy Biersack: Yeah, his name is “Legion.” He’s a culmination from all our album covers put into one creature – he’s like our mascot. The morning star in his hand also has different connotations from each CD.

On We Stitch these Wounds we used it as a badge, on Set the World on Fire it was a flaming highway, on Wretched and Divine it was used as a throwing star and for IV the idea was for it to have a more menacing quality, like a batter-rang.

Robert: Tell me about the direction for this CD, did you decide to incorporate all the best qualities from your previous works?

Ashley Purdy: I just think it’s where we are right now in our career. We wanted to make a heavy record in the context of classic metal and with Bob Rock at the helm, he helped us achieve our vision.

Robert: Can you each share your insight into your favorite aspects of your last three CDs; Set the World on Fire, Wretch and Divine, and BVB IV?

Christian “CC” Coma: My favorite thing about all the CDs is their diversity. Every CD is its own entity. None of the CDs sound alike!

We recorded them while in different places in our lives, as well as at different studios.

Ashley Purdy: This time we were all together during the recording. It embodies us as a group even though we recorded parts of it at different spots around the globe. We spent more time together as a group, particularly in Vancouver.

Andy Biersack: I think every CD represents a different period in our life whether a good place or a bad.

With Wretched and Divine it wasn’t a negative experience, it’s just that we were distanced as a band. I know that CC was very open about that CD, and said, “It felt as if his soul was removed during the recording.”[Laughter].

Because of that, the agreement was that we would work on this CD as a team, so nobody’s soul felt as it was being removed. It’s not to talk shit about the last CD; we were confined to writing for a concept.

I think when you remove the conceptual aspect you get more honesty and it feels like a band. I know that it’s the standard thing to say, “It’s the best CD or the heaviest CD,” but I think this is the most genuine and artistic CD we have done. I’m really happy with it.

Robert: CC are you happy with the CD and is your soul back?

Christian “CC” Coma: I’m happy and my soul is returned! [Laughing]

Andy Biersack: So much so that we took 18 hours to go over every drum part. If CC is not happy with this CD, I’m going kick his ass. [Laughing]

Jinxx: When he says his soul was removed it wasn’t about any one of us or the producer, it was because it was a concept record.

Robert: How did Bob Rock come to produce the new CD?

Andy Biersack: Bob heard “In the End” on the radio and was interested in working with us on our next record even though he didn’t know anything about us.

We were all so excited to meet him because of his extensive history with Motley Crue, Metallica, and The Cult.

We met him at a restaurant for breakfast at 8:30 a.m. and found him to be a really nice person and a true orchestrator.

Some producers are hands-on when it comes to the writing process, but Bob doesn’t give a fuck about that. He helped us when he knew that we had something substantial. We would write or jam on something and then he would suggest moving parts around. That minimal change meant a world of difference to the songs.

Ashley Purdy: He’s a mentor for us in the song writing process. We all walked away better songwriters.

Andy Biersack: …and a better Black Veil Brides which is something we never had before. In the past we always had someone who said they wanted the band to sound like this or that. Bob liked what the band sounded like and wanted to help us.  It shows on the record and I think we sound like an advance version of ourselves.

Robert: I recently saw one of your webisodes where you were chasing some crazy guitar tones by combining multiple amp heads simultaneously.

Jake Pitts: It’s was all about blending amps. We then profiled those tones to a Kemper amp. We used every head possible – Marshall, Bogner, Diezel, Mesa Boogie, and Friedman. Steve Steven’s Friedman was one of the most amazing sounding amps we used.

Andy Biersack: We thought it would be fun to compare our profiled guitar tones to those Metallica used on the Black album – because Bob still has them. We thought our tones seemed heavier, thicker and fuller.

Robert: Were you stock piling riffs for this CD or did you write at the studio?

Jake Pitts: It was a little of both, some riffs we had for a while, others we came up with on the fly in the studio. Put the two of us together in a room and that’s how we work best. We feed off each.

One person doesn’t write everything, while the other sits back. We pass the guitar back and forth. For the most part it’s all brand new stuff.

Jinxx: We work really well together and noticed that right off the bat. When I heard the stuff Jake had written early on, I quit my band of four years to work with him. For this CD we did something that was quite new to the band, during pre-production all five of us wrote together.

Andy Biersack: We usually don’t have the luxury to sit in a room and jam out or jam off because studio time is money! [Laughter erupts].

It was a lot of fun to do that so when it came time to record, we still had that live vibe.

For vocals I was in a big room with the mic in my hand with play back speakers like it was a live environment. It gave the vocals a little more personality.

Robert: Do you think that you captured the band’s signature sound with BVB IV?

Andy Biersack: We haven’t made the same record twice, so I can’t say what the future holds. We are always looking for something new and different. We want the aesthetics of the band to match the music. The album cover is indicative of what the CD will sound like. That applied to Set the World on Fire and all the other CDs.

I think we get better with each one. After five years of touring and making music together, I think we are lucky to be doing this successfully.

Robert: Is it difficult for Black Veil Brides to find their own voice and style in such an overcrowded market?

Andy Biersack: Maybe when we started. It was hard to convince people we were worth the listen. I think we are fortunate to be at the point where we can do what we want to do.

Ashley Purdy: I don’t think anyone looks or sounds like us and people recognize that now. We had a listening party the other night here in New York and people confirmed it. We are definitely separating ourselves from the pack.

Robert: Is popularity on social media a mark of success for bands nowadays?

Andy Biersack: I think it’s a barometer for how big your reach is in terms of public opinion.  I don’t think it’s indicative of success.

The funny thing is in the rock world, radio pays no attention to social media. The band, Nothing More, has a relatively small number of followers on Twitter yet have a #1 rock song. They’re really a good band.

I would like to think that the rock music scene is less based on social media.

Having said that, the fact that we do have a large following online is hugely beneficial. Without those fans, we could have never broken down the walls and get in a record company. We would still be a bunch of guys living in our cars struggling. It is very hard to be a successful new rock band, but social media has helped us in ways.

Robert: Combined, you have you have more followers on Twitter and Facebook than the population of some small countries.

Andy Biersack: I have 800K on Twitter and 700K on Instragram, but at the most I see it as an opportunity to connect with people, post photos that followers find interesting, and to update fans.  Were not at the Justin Beiber level, but I think we are doing well to connect with people.

Robert: Tell me about the first time each of you realized your success?

Christian “CC” Coma: I’m not complacent; I’ll always try to shoot higher. I would base a lot of success off our rabid fans and the fan base on the social media sites. They share their tattoos drawings, and photos. That’s what success is. It’s not a fancy car or a fancy home. It’s the level in which we relate to the fans!

Jinxx: At the Q&A for the listening party fans, told me how certain songs impacted their life and changed it for the better.  That affects me. I picked up the guitar when I was feeling something and wrote a song which is now affecting someone else in a positive way. That’s what this is all about, helping out in some way, that’s success to me. That’s why I started playing guitar.

Jake Pitts: I agree with what Jinxx said, but on a different aspect, I spent my whole life saving money to buy guitars, amps, and music gear and now I can afford my own studio. Of course I always want more, but right now I have everything I need which is a really cool place to be.

Andy Biersack: Growing up I never had aspirations that rock music would bring me wealth. I grew up in the ’90s when rock was dead.

I associated rappers with wealth. I associated rock stars more with putting on a bombastic show. I saw KISS and Motley Crue doing it and didn’t associate them with making millions of dollars, but how their stage show was awesome.

I never attached myself with the idea I’m going to make money and have a bunch of bitches [everybody starts laughing]. To have the opportunity to put on a large show every year is a barometer for success. The more we can stack on a stage in the way of LED screens and spectacle lighting is how I measure success. I get happiness from that. To accomplish something that I always felt I needed to.

Robert: Ashley, do you base your success on the number of bitches you get [Laughing]?

Ashley Purdy: Of course [Laughing], that’s just the icing on the cake!

I’m a kid from Missouri, a super small town of 200. People I went to high school with never left the state. Success is when we sold out tours in London, Paris, and Milan. To sell out those shows seems like a dream.

Robert: I’m sure it took a lot of hard work to get to the place you are. What were some of the sacrifices you had to make?

Andy Biersack: We all grew up in similar small areas in the Mid-west, except CC who grew up in L.A.. We all had similar experiences. To some degree when you look back at your adolescence it’s nice to feel that you did the right thing by moving out to California.  It was risky for us to do.

Ashley Purdy: It was a tough to get to where we are.  We had to have a serious work ethic. We made a lot of compromises and sacrifices to get here that people don’t realize; like living on the street or living in our cars.

Our first tour was with an SUV and a U-haul attached to it! [Laughing].  The following year we got a van with a trailer.

Andy Biersack: We were sleeping on top of each other, five people in a Dodge Durango. I had to sleep sitting straight up with my legs out the window wrapped in blankets during the winter not to get frost bite [Laughter].  The drummer at the time was underneath my legs.

Ashley Purdy: We didn’t know Jake at this time. We told him to quit his full time job, join the band, and go out on tour [Laughing]. It’s just a level of commitment that you have to have when you care about your craft.

Robert: I interview many established artists regarding their autobiographies where they tell how they have been taken advantage of financially. Do you have any safety mechanisms in place to prevent that from happening to you?

Andy Biersack: We read the same books so we don’t do that shit [Laughing].

We always said that we learn from our predecessors. I really don’t understand why anyone would use heroin! No success comes from using heroin or any drug. They’re only alive to tell about it because they stopped using. Same thing applies with investing in stupid things or spending money on a gold fountain of a little kid pissing.

We’ve been pretty lucky with all of our people. We have a good team around us and we trust everybody. We like transparency; we get our financials every month.

Ashley and I are very hands on with what’s happening day to day on every element that affects the band. We really don’t have any fear because of that.

Jinxx:  Most of us grew up not drinking or taking drugs! [Room explodes with laughter and everyone denies taking drugs] What inspired us wasn’t the drugs or alcohol. My drug was picking up the guitar and playing music. That’s the reason why I’m here.

Ashley Purdy: Our foundation was built on a team right away. We have a manager and a legal team. Our lawyer is Motley Crue’s lawyer; our manager is Ozzy’s bassist. All of these people are from this genre and know this type of band.

Robert: You had some great guests come visit you in the studio. Who came down and did anyone play or contribute to the CD?

Ashley Purdy: Nobody contributed. Paul Stanley came by with his Corvette, Kerry King from Slayer, Brian Adams, The Cult, and Justin Bieber visited. They either were recording in the studio or just being nosey [Laughing].

One day we were in pre-production and tried to jam out to “I Was Made for Loving You” ala Black Veil Brides style when Paul Stanley walked in two minutes later unannounced. That was surreal.

Robert: What can we expect at a live show to support BVB IV?

Andy Biersack: It will be the best set list we have ever put together. We are looking to play five or six new songs and some that we’ve played live, like “Coffin.”

Well be doing a 90-minute to 2 hour set and using the European tour’s stage with the stairs. Well have a lot of LED screens and custom lighting. As the band gets bigger we can make the stage bigger and bring more things to it.