Pierce the Veil’s European tour with Creeper and Letlive kicked off a month ago. Before the gig in Paris, RockUrLife met Vic Fuentes, the charismatic leader with whom we talked about touring, the band’s latest album “Misadventures” but also about the relationships with the fans
How was the “Made To Destroy Tour” with Neck Deep and I Prevail?
Vic Fuentes (vocals/guitar): It was great! It was filled with great shows, there were some ups and downs, with Ben dad’s passing, which kinda brought everyone even closer: all the bands came together and helped sing the songs and finish the tour for Neck Deep. That was unexpected. There were a lot of feels.
Are you ready for this European Tour?
Vic: Yeah we’re ready! This is the first day in Paris, there is no better place to start the tour.
Let’s focus about France, because you just talked about Paris. It’s the first time you’re headlining a show in our country. Why did you wait a so long time to come?
Vic: We had to make a new album, and we spent a lot of time on it, it was a very long process of recording. So we aware the whole world waited for a while but it’s even more special to us that there still a lot of people here. Selling out a show in Paris is pretty mind blowing, and we can’t believe it.
Do you think it’s more difficult to come playing in a non-english country like France?
Vic: No, I don’t think it’s more difficult, I actually find it more impressive. They’re listening to our music even if they speak a different language. I think it’s amazing. But every country has their different vibe and Paris has always been a very energetic place, always good shows here.
You came with Bring Me The Horizon in 2013 and ADTR before that, and now you’re headlining. It’s a bit different!
Vic: Yeah, It’s nice to have our own shows, using our own production, bring what we do back home here, really give our fans like an accurate description of our band and show them our show.
“Misadventures” is a perfect evolution of “Collide With The Sky”. You managed to create something different without betraying your own style. How did you proceed to write it?
Vic: We toured for 4 years on the last record. But writing this one was a long process. We kinda approched it pretty openly, pretty open minded. It was nice to see “Collide With The Sky” has success and take us to so many different territories and new places. It settled the bar for the next record. But with every records are just a lot of experiment and trying a million thing and picking the best.
It’s not a funny question but we have to ask you. You wrote “Circles” thinking about what took place at the Bataclan last year. Did this terror attack change your feelings about playing music shows?
Vic: Only for a little bit. After something horrible like that happened I think everyone is a little bit on edge. And even in America, everyone started setting up their security. But at the end of the day, you have to go outside, you have to open the door and just realise you can’t live your life in fear. So, I think it’s important just to carry on.
About “Misadventures”, we heard that on “Dive In”, you were talking about music industry and how you were fed up that you can’t do what you really want. Tell us more about that.
Vic: I think I’m still a believer that music is art, some people say it’s craft. Like “music is an art, you just getting better so you’re a craft”. But I don’t believe that, I still believe that the emotions come from inside. And when people try to tarnish that, I hate that. I think that the person making music should always be left alone to do his own thing. There should be no judgement on it, because you can’t judge that ! I think that’s how it should be. When people try to give negativity I think you have to fight back.
But you’re still feel free?
Vic: Always!
It’s seems you having a lot of fun realising your music videos. That’s why we imagine watching “Circles” for example. Where do you find all these ideas? Do you find them on your own?
Vic: Usually, we always have somebody that come up with a good idea for us, but it never happen, we always hate their ideas. We always end up having a come up on it. We’re just thinking up on our own. For “Circles” the idea was based on an old movie that we love called “Nothing But Trouble”, it’s kind of a comedy. We based our characters on this story.
There’s a Meet & Greet just after this interview. We all know you are really close to your fans, is it something that help you to keep your feet on the ground?
Vic: Yeah. For our band, it is important to stay connected with them in anyway that we can, because I think that’s what will keep the longetivity of this band. We’ve always built our band around this and tried to keep our relationship since the beginning. So every year that goes by we grow up, and we grow up together. That’s important to us, because all our fans come it for 10 years, we have a relationship.
How do you feel when you see someone that met you years ago?
Vic: It’s cool. It’s definetly a new thing like being approached lately by people that are like “Hey guys I was listening you when I was 14 now I’m 23 graduated, and I have kids” It’s amazing !
Is there something else you do to keep your feet on the ground and stay humble for what you have?
Vic: This is just kind the way we always done it. We control our band the way we want it. It’s just like our choices. It’s all these things: meet fans, show them how we are personaly. We always done it, we always told ourselves we want to be a band like My Chemical Romance or Thrice, people who always made an effort.
Your music change you too, you have grew up with this. We noticed that your last album was less angry. How can you explain that?
Vic: Every album is gonna be a time capsule. It’s almost like a diary: you gonna write about what happens in this couple of years. If you’re angry, it’s gonna be angry. Maybe our next album we’ll be about love, you’ll never know!
To finish, our website is called “RockUrLife”, so what rocks your life?
Vic: What rocks my life? I don’t know. My life is basically surrounded by my band. I guess I rock my life by touring all the time, playing shows. We tour a lot, we pretyy much fill our life by traveling. I guess I rock my life by living in a bus and sleeping in a coffin!
Thank you very much Vic!
Vic: Thank you!
Website: piercetheveil.net
