On March 16th, Black Veil Brides, who will release a live DVD soon, opened for Steel Panther at the legendary Olympia. RockUrLife had the chance to chat with guitarist Jinxx about the band’s latest record!
How are you today?
Jinxx (guitar): I’m great ! i’ve been hanging there this afternoon, seeing the sights briefly you know, I love Paris I wish I could spend more time here.
Did you have time to visit Paris before?
J: Quite a few times yeah, I think I’ve been here about four times in the past.
What did you see?
J: I’ve been at the Eiffel Tower for three times now and I just saw Notre Dame today, that was pretty cool, the outside of the Louvre, I haven’t been inside yet. Next time hopefully i’ll get more time to check it out.
Don’t you have time to do that tomorrow?
J: No, tomorrow we’re in Tilburg so yeah, no time!
Well, next time! Let’s get to the questions. Did you think about doing a sequel to “Wretched And Divine”?
J: We’ve been talking about something like that, can’t really say as of yet you know. But it’s kind of been talked about.
Alright, is it the same for “Legion Of The Black” then?
J : Yeah, again it’s something we haven’t really been saying anything about that, the idea has kinda been growing out there so… I don’t wanna say yes or no yet!
Ok, no problem then. What is your favorite song to play live?
J: Right now it’s been a new one, I like to play “Faithless” a lot, “Coffin” is also one of my favorite ones to play live, yeah I think those two are my favorites. I always liked to play “In The End” because everyone knows that one and sings along.
And what do you think about the french crowds?
J: The fans here are great, we’ve always had really good shows here. I was walking outside earlier and I saw the fans lining outside, you know they’re so dedicated.
Why aren’t you playing a headline show here for your current tour?
J: We’ve been talking about doing some shows with Steel Panther and we couldn’t do it in the past. We had the opportunity at the same time when we were both on tour so we thought we’d do a couple of shows together and we thought those shows would be a lot of fun to play together.
Do you think you’ll still come back over here with this record?
J: Yeah, I’m sure in the futur we’ll definitely be back in a headline.
You can say you don’t know yet!
J: I don’t know yet, yeah, it hasn’t been said!
What is your favorite song from «”Black Veil Brides IV”?
J: It’s kinda hard to say because it’s like choosing your favorite kid.
Everyone always says that!
J: Yeah! I love “Heart Of Fire”, I really really like “Goodbye Agony” lyrically, musically, I would say that’s probably my favorite one out of the record just because there’s so much to it and what I’ve been experienced during the last years of my life.
Is it about its signification then?
J: Yeah, because it’s about going through a lot of stuff, I’ve just had a breakup and this period in my life has been particularly hard and with that song it describes this situation and it means looking forward instead of backward and you know, moving forward with my life, saying goodbye to all the pain and just moving forward in a positive way.
By the way, this album seems to be talking a lot about dark subjects. Why is it darker that your last records?
J: As a band we’ve been experienced some things in our life that, I think we grew up a lot since our first records and it kind of expresses the pain of what we experienced, you know life is pain and it kinda represents a little bit more of a grown up, more adult theme than our past records you know that kind of had this juvenile approach. Everything was kind of positive and lightly but with this one we kinda wanna do a little bit more deeper with the meanings behind the songs.
Why did you name it “Black Veil Brides IV”?
J: Because we thought of some records of bands like Metallica. We didn’t name it “Black Veil Brides IV”, it’s just “Black Veil Brides”, what do you call it ? Eponym, that’s the word. But you know our favorite bands, like Led Zeppelin “I, II, III, IV”… we kinda felt like this record was the defining record for us. We finally come together as a band, we’re really tight unite and this is what we sound like as Black Veil Brides. You know I think in the past we were just trying to find that sound, the right combination of influences and with this record I think it represents us as a band. So calling the record itself Black Veil Brides made sens.
Do you think that in the future you’ll be doing “Black Veil Brides V” etc like Led Zeppelin?
J: No, not necessarily.
Why do you talk so much about religious subjects in your songs?
J: I think that’d be a question for Andy, he writes the lyrics but I do know that he grew up in a catholic family and he was always impressed by the, I guess, the theatric behind the church and even the name Black Veil Brides is when a woman came to the church and becomes a none you have a ceremony when there’s a black veil and she’s basically giving up all her life to god and in a way being in a band is kinda like that, you know it’s not glamorous let’s put it that way, you’re away from your family, your loved ones because you’re always traveling, always on the go and in a way we’re so dedicated to our music and our art that we’re married to it so we felted that the name kinda represented the same situation, we’re not married to god we’re married to our music.
But you’re still wearing a cross, that’s just for the look right?
J: Actually yes, sometimes I wear a reversed one so, yeah!
Talking about the looks, why did you stop wearing all this black makeup so suddenly?
J: Because, for one thing it’s a pain in the ass doing that every night! We’ve started seeing a lot of other bands kinda copying what we were doing and we were like “well, you guys can have that”. We feel like we can put on the same shows, the same theatrics without needing all the makeup and we still wearing some makeup, obviously I’m wearing some right now. We turned down a little with all the face paints and the body paints stuff but it’s still the same show and I think out music speaks for itself too. You’ll see when you see the show tonight!
Yes, we are looking forward to it. What band would you pick to make a song with?
J: I’d like to make a song with Steel Panther that would be fun.
Did you ask them yet?
J: Not yet, no.
You have to do it tonight! If you could change anything in your career what would it be?
J: Hum… It’d be nice to make more money! But actually I wouldn’t change a damn thing because I’m pretty happy with the band and where I’m at in my life, you know this is a dream come true this is what I’ve always wanted to do with my life and we just want to keep moving forward and keeping bigger and play bigger venues and get more exposure, more fans. I wouldn’t change anything though.
Where do you play your biggest venues by the way?
J: Probably I’d say in London. We sold out Brixton, we’ve had pretty big shows there. Los Angeles is pretty big, New York as well.
Do you have anything to say to your french fans?
J: Yeah, we can’t wait to play for you guys.
To conclude, our website is called “RockUrLife so what rocks your life ?
J: Playing music, doing what we do, being on tour!
Website: blackveilbrides.net
