Pierce The Veil Interview

So far they've had a pretty hectic year, but San Diego band Pierce the Veil aren't letting anything get in their way; as they're about to embark on yet another tour at the end of the month.

We had chance to chat to the band and discuss upcoming new music, touring experiences and what's hot on their iPod playlists right now.


R13:Firstly, how was the band name decided?
VF: It came from a class I was taking in school.
R13:What class was that?
VF: A philosophy class and the guy said something about piercing the veil, he was taking about it in a corporate sense, to pierce the corporate veil, and that meant that if a company has a problem they go directly to the source and cut it out, and that's what pierce the veil meant. So I kind of thought it was a cool concept, for more of a life situation, so if someone has a problem in their life, sometimes the best situation is to just cut it out, completely at the source, not let things build up over time and hurt you. And I thought it was a good idea.
R13:So you all just agreed on that?
VF: Yeah.
JP: I wanted to be pierce the whale (laughs) be like an anti-whaling band (laughs).

R13:You went through several name changes before settling on Pierce the Veil, why so many changes?
VF: Well we only really changed it once, despite what Wikipedia might say. (Laughs)
MP: We had member changes, and pretty much became a new band, so pierce the veil, has always been pierce the veil.

R13:With Vic and Mike being brothers, has there ever been any sibling rivalry between you two in the band?
MP: We've never had that sibling rivalry.
VF: We get on pretty well, we're pretty close in age, and we've grown up together and now we can all hang out together.

R13:You have been around for quite a while now; how did it feel when you were first signed to Equal Vision Records back in 2004?
VF: That was awesome that was our dream, we never knew that it would happen, I think every local band hopes that it happens and not sure how to do it, and the opportunity just popped out of nowhere and they approached us, and our lives have not been the same since.

R13:How do you feel about being signed to Fearless records?
VF: awesome, really good, it was a hard decision to leave equal vision, their great people and we still really love them. We've been with them for a long time and the band has been progressing over the years, and we wanted to keep progressing and Fearless was going to be a good thing for the band, and so far it's been amazing. And it's kind of cool that all these bands are Fearless bands on this tour.

R13:Did you ever think you would make it as far as you have?
VF: It's all about taking slow steps for us, we're not a band that just blew up overnight, it took years to get where we are, and as long as it keeps making steady progression up, then I'll be happy, if we start going backwards that's not the way we want to go we just want to keep taking little steps bigger and bigger.
MP: Baby steps.
VF:Yeah baby steps, eventually growing to new places, and new countries and expanding as much as possible.

R13:Talk me through the song writing process of Pierce the Veil?
VF: It's changed over the years.
R13: Is it just you? Or do you all incorporate bits?
VF: It's a little combination, it started out as just me and Mike and I was writing all the music and all the lyrics, and I still write all the lyrics and stuff. But now it's had a bit of progression as we grow as a band, you know were able to have everyone put their input in the studio, like Jaime is a producer as well you know. And that helps having someone like that bring in their view.
JP: On the last record we got the chance to jam the songs before recording them, with the producer, so that was a different step, like the first record was just them two recording the songs, they couldn't play them. And that was a huge step and hopefully the third record will be big.
VF: Totally. We just did a lot of writing over the summer, and the owner of fearless gave us this cabin, up in the mountains outside of San Diego, and could write stuff there and then come back to san Diego and jam it out and every week we'd get back together and work on stuff.

R13:In your opinion, is it more important to write a song that is meaningful to you or a song that you know people will like?
VF: It has to be meaningful to me, because we're going to be playing them so much, that every time you play them you want that emotion to come out on stage, and every time you hear the song you want to be reminded of that, I consistently write every day, new things, every time something pops into my head I write it down so then later all the songs become real thoughts and real events.

R13:What was it like working with Jeremy McKinnon of A Day to Remember on your song 'Caraphernelia'?
VF: That was cool, it was kind of a strange process, as we were never in full contact , as in doing the recording together, he recorded his part in another studio as he was in the middle of session, so we just sent him the parts and he sent them back and we were like that's perfect, that's exactly how we wanted it, when I wrote the part I just heard his voice, and he's a good friend of ours and I was like Jeremy has to be on that chorus.

R13:Is there anyone else you'd like to collaborate with?
VF: There are a lot of cool bands out there right now.
JP: We always try and bring recording stuff on the road with us and just have little writing sessions.
VF: For our next record I'd try and get our good friends in on it, I kind of want to get Johnny Craig would be down; I'd love to sing with him, but nothing solid as of now.

R13:You released 'Selfish Machines' in 2010 how has the album done since then?
VF: Pretty good, Selfish Machines, has brought us all over the world, to Japan, Australia, Europe, the UK and hopefully we'll get down to south America and Mexico. It's been amazing for us so far.

R13:In support of the album, you played Vans Warped Tour how was that?
VF: It was awesome, always fun, any band that complains about warped tour are pussies, I must say that right now. So many bands try and say oh it's so hard it's so hot, yeah it's hot, but it's the best tour.
JP: It's the best summer tour.
VF: Tones of kids.
MP: The barbecue's every night,
VF: It's awesome.
MP: Hanging out with your best friends all summer.
JP: Summer camp (laughs)

R13:Are there any festivals you'd like to play but haven't played yet?
JP: I want to play Australian Soundwave Festival.
VF: Soundwave for Sure. I want to do the ones here.
R13:Like Download and Sonisphere?
JP: Yeah, with like all those festivals all our friends' bands they all talk about how great the shows are out here.
VF: Yeah, like all the overseas we hear are just so amazing and we want to do them all.
JP: Right now (laughs)

R13:You have toured with a lot of bands who and what performance was the most memorable?
VF: I think our last tour here with A Day toRemember; we played in London at the Brixton academy.
JP: Biggest show we've ever played.
VF: That was like 5000 people, and that was sold out.
R13:So Wembley's next then? (Laughs)
JP: No doubt (laughs)
VF: That show was the biggest show we've ever played it was a bit scary and was awesome, that whole tour was probably the biggest thing we've ever done since we formed.

R13:Is there anyone you would like to tour with that you haven't yet had chance to?
VF: I always go with Thrice as I love Thrice.
JP: I'm going to have to go with Blink 182.
R13:You're back in Europe, what are you looking forward to the most?
JP: Seeing old faces.
VF: We're actually really stoked for this UK run we've heard there selling really well, so that's exciting for us, as it was really great for us having that A Day to Remember tour being our first really tour over here, as it gave us a good kick off trying to gain fans over here, and meet people, so just returning to all these cities and countries has been really cool, and like as JP said seeing familiar faces.
JP: Making relationships with fans and meeting them and stuff is cool.
VF: And also seeing these countries is really radical, I find myself seeing places that I've seen before and I know where I am at and I think it's a really cool thing for sure.

R13:I can imagine you've toured a number of places; but what's the one place you would keep coming back to because of the experience?
JP: I love Australia; just something about that place makes me feel that it's awesome.
R13:What about the rest of you?
MP: I really like Japan, it has a place in my heart, I might live there someday.
R13:what parts have you played?
MP: Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo.
TP: I'd like to go back to Mexico again I've only been there once though.
VF: Amsterdam was pretty insane for me, as I said our first day on this tour was in Amsterdam and we had the day off for the first day, and it got pretty wild.
MP: It was a great way to break the ice too, as we'd never met, Blessthefall or Motionless in White, and first day we got to know each other. There's a lot of bands that are shy and don't want to jump in right away. And were not like that, we just want to meet all the other bands, and see what their like, that's why this tour has been awesome, sharing a bus with two other bands has been great.

R13:So are there any other countries you'd like to tour but not yet toured?
VF: I want to go through all of South America, maybe the Philippines as well; we get a lot of tweets from the Philippines.

R13:What have you been listening to recently, that you would recommend to us?
JP: We've been listening to a lot of the weeknd, this dude from Toronto Canada;It's like an RnB thing, its spelt Weeknd, spell it the other way and you'll never find it for some reason (laughs).
VF: Were about to tour in the states with a band called Let Live and their definitely a band that has surprised me since I first listened to them.

R13:I see you're featured on the new Punk Goes Pop due for release November 22, what's the reason behind the Bruno Mars song choice?
VF: I saw the list of songs and was like oh Bruno mars that be great.
R13:so you get a choice then?
VF: yeah, there were a few good songs on the list and I just like his vocal range and it's kind of cool for me to sing his songs it feels comfortable, and I don't know I just really love a lot of his songs, I love the way he sings, the first time I heard him I was like man this guy has a lot of soul in his voice, and I thought it was a really good thing.

R13:Were there any others you'd have chosen?
VF: I really liked the Adele song. Go Radio did that song and it's sick. When you hear that song you'll be blown away they did a great job.

R13:Do you feel you have to keep up with an image in order for the band to succeed?
VF: When we first started the band we kind of thought that but the more we toured we found that people wanted us to be ourselves, so we just started dressing how we normally dress and just being ourselves, we'd do video chats with kids and just show us being normal, doing the same thing we do every day, how we talk to each other, and think that's been really important for kids getting to know us on a personal level across the world they can see how we are and right away know what kind of people we are.

R13:Where do you see Pierce the Veil in 5 year's time?
VF : I always say, doing the same thing but on a bigger level that's our hope.