August 14, 2025 • 21 mins
As the lead singer of Black Veil Brides is well regarded as one of the best front mans in the modern crop of heavy metal. They are a band who for the past 15 years who just consistently release quality heavy metal music, but Andy is more than just a metal singer. He's also a writer and their publishing company has released graphic novels, novellas and more based on the music of Black Veil Brides, you see every album tells a story. On top of all that he's also an actor, having most recently starred in the movie American Satan, and the show Paradise City.
Black Veil Brides have new music out, with a new record on the way sometime early next year.
Black Veil Brides have new music out, with a new record on the way sometime early next year.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Attention plays and no It cutters.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Rock Cat and he from Blackfield Brice joining us. Dude,
it's good to see you.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Man. Listen.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
First of all, Hallelujah is a brutally heavy song, maybe
the heaviest song called Hallelujah. I think I've heard you
know what I mean, you hear Hallelujah and I'm going
to church. I'm going with my mom and dad, and
you know, we're going to church and we're getting the
sacrament after.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
But you're this is a heavy tune, man.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Well, I will take the distinction of it being the
heaviest Hallelujah of all of it. You know, when a
song comes out, particularly like a heavy song, much is
made about is this the heaviest song that the band
ever did or whatever.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
But I'll take at the very least it may be
the heaviest song with that title.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
I mean, you know, I grew up.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Catholic, and it plays into a lot of my lyrics
and always has. I'm not practicing, but it anytime you
grow up in any kind of religious situation, the good
and bad filters its way in.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
And I went to Catholic school and I got the.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Negative side of it and then I had family members
who were practicing, and it was a very positive thing
in their life. And so in some ways I can't
help but have it find its way into the things
I write. This is not a religious song, but the
content is such that I sort of see the way
things are going culturally where it almost has this sort
(01:26):
of religious zealot nature to it, where things, whether it's
ideological conversations or whatever else, sort of always come from
the perspective that it's a deeply held belief and you
can't possibly have any pivot.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Points on it.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Oh that's the thing with Catholicism, right, because I too
grew up Catholic, and you know, we're both from the Midwest.
It's probably the same type of family, you know whatever.
My aunt was a nun. Yeah, oh wow, she was.
She was one of my absolute favorite people. I'm also
not practicing, but but she was very open to those
(02:02):
conversations about theology and history and the sort of melting
points of and in her later years she was actually
teaching refugees how to assimilate into American life.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
That's incredible. That's a much better nun than I ever had.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
Right, the nuns that I experienced were not particularly big
fans of.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
My theological questions. So really, yeah, the questions were the
things that got me in trouble.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
See luckily I had her to go ask before I
got in trouble at a catechism class. You know, it's interesting,
right you take to take so many of that and
put that because heavy metal as a whole, and you know,
obviously Blackfield Brides can very easily go back and forth
between a straightforward hard rock band and a brutally heavy
metal band because I've always been very good at that.
(02:49):
But there's always these types of themes. These types of
themes tend to pop up a little bit and a
lot of our music and you know, obviously dig back
to your child, that's always going to come up. But
this type of stuff plays really well in the music
we are fans of or write well.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
I think it goes obviously all things go back to,
you know, and obviously a lot of people are talking
about it recently, but Ozzie and Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath
being kind of the other end of that spectrum, right,
It was almost I don't want to I don't want
to say something that's going to make people mad. But
in a way the sort of doom and gloom satanism,
(03:28):
sort of almost cartoonishly evil stuff.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Right, that's one end of the spectrum.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
And then all throughout, you know, whether you talk about
a band like Iron Maiden has a lot of historical
references in their songs too, You've got a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Of these sort of pivot points.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
And then there's kind of the more fanatic or a
fantastical or whatever you want to call it, dio various
swords and daggers and all that kind of stuff, And
I think history, war, theological ideologies, these are things that,
for whatever reason have always found their way into heavy metal.
And maybe it's just because tonally the music suits that
(04:04):
kind of grandiosity in terms of what you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Yeah, in case anybody forgot, I think a bunch of
us really are just nerds at the end of the day.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Sure, I'm in a room of hundreds of action figures, right.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Point proven. But that's and that's that.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Also, obviously, you know led Zeppelin writing songs about Tolkien
and you know do O and obviously you know the
list goes on, what is.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
The song expanding to?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
For what Blackveil Brides is doing kind of moving forward. Obviously,
the last thing we had heard from you guys was
you know some stuff about Sweeney Todd, So you know,
swing this back in this uh pendulum.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Then well, I would say that so Bleeders is on
the record, and it was kind of I look at
this record as I've done a lot of concept records
over the years, and this one is more of I
guess I would call it a theme record, and that
there's not an overarching narrative that's being told.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
It's not a.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Dystopian world with a superhero character or whatever. It's I'm
looking at it from the perspective of various stories about
the idea of revenge and kind of having that chip
on your shoulder and the ways that that manifests. And
so the track listing and the record itself goes through
different versions of that experience and in some ways talks
about the futility of feeling that way constantly.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
But it's just the truth of my life.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
Since I was sixteen years old and I started the band,
I've always been somebody who's been a.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Little bit of an underdog. We've never been the darlings
of any scene.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
And you need only type our name into the internet
to see people who have decided that we're the worst
thing that ever happened to.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Music, or and versely the greatest.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Thing, and that sort of battle when that duality is
something that has always had a part in what we do.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
You know, I.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Have the word revenge on my It's the sort of
literal monkey on my back that I carry around, and
so tonally this record is about those ideas and whether
it's viewing this sort of insanity of sort of groupthink,
whether it's viewing the betrayal of a friend, the anger
(06:20):
that you have towards people who don't believe.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
In you, on and on and on, all those kind
of ideas.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
And the ways that they manifest, or how I have
shaped this record lyrically.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Okay, I do remember. It's funny you bring that up
because I don't remember. Do you remember the I think
it was. I think it was Northern Invasion. It was
a it was a festival, you know, Danny Wimmer Festival
in northern Wisconsin, right on the Mini Minnesota border.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Yes, Okay, I believe it was there.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I think it was the first year that they did
that and watching you guys play, and it was the
first time i'd actually seen Blackveil Brides in person. I
remember looking at my friend and going, why don't I
listen to them more?
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Sure you know what I mean, because that's a that's
a consistent refrain.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
By the way, even go wait a second, I thought
this was supposed to be terrible as it turned out,
So fifteen years in we are still I think a
lot of that look.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
A lot of it just comes down to the time
that we came out.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
It was an unfortunate scenario where you had a lot
of not so great sort of like you know, I
don't know, I don't even want to name names, but
these sort of emo sort of electro talk singing stuff,
and aesthetically a lot of them had sort of copped
our look a little bit, and so you ended up
where people didn't listen to us. They just saw us
(07:37):
and thought, oh, that's that must be that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
And so we've benefited from it because all these.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Years later, people will see us play on a festival
and go, oh, this is a good band. I was
told that this was terrible, So we still have, like,
you know, nearly twenty years after I started the band,
we still have the element of surprise.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Excuse me, I was told you suck, but you don't.
So we'd like to discuss this.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
It is that time frame is interesting, right because, and
I think that's such a good way of saying it.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
There were so many.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Copycats to a lesser's but right, it's the originators that
never get the full credit at the end of the
day that you know, the originators of a scene, and
not to say you're originators of a scene, but definitely
at the forefront of something that happened, of a movement
of music. You know, whether it's Black Failed Brides, whether
it's Avege sevenfold. Just to think of a couple of
(08:29):
the bigger ones off the top of my head, it
always seems like, Wow, the one that came first isn't
the one that gets the credit for it.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's also about time.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
You know, when when I was a kid, I really
got into the New York Dolls. And no, it's interesting
is when I was a kid, the New York Dolls
seemed like they must have been a big band. And
then you look back at history and during the time
the New York Dolls were in their prime, they really
couldn't draw outside of New York City. They didn't really
have an audience anywhere, but they influenced Kiss and then
(09:04):
the eighties rock bands and on and on and on.
So it's interesting you sort of see that and then
with time, all of a sudden, this sort of credibility
comes around for an artist and then they find their time.
And I think for us, we've been very fortunate that
you know, we did the Work tour show last week
and there's all we're we're seeing a new sort of
(09:25):
rising people discovering the band and kind of realizing.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
What we're all about.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
The reality is, all of the stuff that we were
doing in twenty ten now has aged pretty well visually
because you need only look around to see every single
metalcore band covers their neck and black paint and has
some sort of you know, theatricality to their show.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
That was what we were doing.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
And people were throwing, you know, bottles of piss at
us on stage at the time, so.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Well, you didn't actually get a bottle of pist on
at you, did, you?
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Oh, like a bottle of well, So that's that's the thing.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
In the UK, right, they call it bottling, and it's
a pretty common thing for your first time that you
do a major.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Festival Bottles of Piss.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Famously, d Snyder tells the story of the first time
he played Donnington, someone threw a piece of shit at him,
which then begs the question did the person bring the
shit in?
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Or you know what was it?
Speaker 3 (10:18):
How did that happened?
Speaker 1 (10:19):
But yeah, we get here if you google it.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
I responded because I was like twenty two at the time,
by standing at the end of the catwalk with my
butt out and stared anyone to actually hit me in
the ass.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
With a bottle and they all missed.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
So you know, I was not hit that we are
you're skinny, I mean, yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
There you go.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
They're not a big target, right, especially at the time. Look,
I probably weighed twenty five pounds less than I do now.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
I had no butt. It was like, you know, it
was just sort of verse became the back in verse.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
But yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
What's the what do you think, man, what's the secret
to Blackville Brid's longevity?
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Because you have been doing and you have gotten better
as you've.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Gotten, you know, to this point, and more well respected
and obviously all of that.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Well, you know, look, a lot of that is not
down to the artist, right, A lot of that comes
down to how an audience responds to it. But the
thing you can control is just doing what you perceive
is really good work. And we care a lot. You know,
we've never been a band. I think that there's maybe
one record in our catalog and everybody has one where
you kind of look at it and go, maybe that
wasn't our best effort, but regardless, we have always tried
(11:30):
really hard.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
And I think one of the benefits of not being the.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Darlings all the time is that we have always had
to push harder than a lot of our contemporaries. A
lot of our contemporaries could put out a record and
they could fart onto the album and people will go,
this is the greatest thing I've ever heard.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
We have always had to push a little bit harder
and grow and make our live show better. And now
we are benefiting from the fact that.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
We've worked so hard because we're really good live band,
and we're good songwriters, and we know what we're doing.
And you know, I'm not trying to be egotistical, which
is simply I'm confident in what we do and we
care a lot about it, and so I think that
reflects I think our listeners know that we're not just
phoning it in to make records and go on tour
and try to be famous.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Like, we want to make good stuff for people, and
we care.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
A lot about fantastic musicianship. I don't know that that
gets talked about enough. Your guitar players are absolutely shreddy shredding. Yeah,
I mean full on thrash metal shredding. The drums are perfect.
Like the musicianship in Blackveil Brides is up there amongst
(12:38):
the best.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Well, that's been a.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
Thing where I have had to push myself. I've had
the great fortune of being in a band with for
the last you know.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
However many years.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
Three of the and I would say best musicians that
our scene has to offer, Jake and Jinks, our guitar
players and CCR drummer are world class talents, and I
have had to be on stage with them and go
I need to I gotta up my game. So I
got to get better at singing, better at screaming, better
at everything, better front man. And then we brought in
(13:09):
Lonnie to the band, who's also in his own right.
He could play blackfelt songs on guitar, you know, like
he's he is as much a musician in that way.
Great singer, great year for music.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
So now you.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
Got five people in the band who are really giving
you well, like well rehearsed hard work on stage, and
you're right, I don't think that Jake and Jinks and
CC get enough credit. I always tried to make sure
that people understand that you've heard our band for so
long that it's just accepted that we have these shredded
(13:41):
guitar solos and.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Intricate riffs and stuff.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
But the stuff they're playing is basically I used to
you know, when I was a much angrier, younger man,
I used to yell at people who would flip us
off and say, well, why don't you come play these songs?
Speaker 1 (13:53):
I don't think you can. Like, these guys are doing
something that I promise you you can't do.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
But yeah, they're incredible, And I appreciate you saying that
because I want to make sure people understand. You know,
if you find me to be annoying or egotistical or
a blowheart, that's fine, but you have to give the
credit to the other guys.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Well, I mean, listen, you're you're an actor, a writer,
a singer, a model at some point, like you know,
you get you got every points where you should have
an ego, but every time I've met you, Andy, you haven't.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
So that's very kind. Thank you, thank you. You know,
maybe that's the Midwest.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Thing, right, It might be it might be find the
good and everything. Find the good and everything. Speaking of acting,
you're gonna do more of that and if for people
who don't know, obviously the movie and there was a
show and based off the movie, and you know that
all went.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
But but yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Don't know what the future for American Satan World is.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
I've heard that they want to do a follow up film,
maybe to close out the story.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
I'm not sure. I do know that I'm currently working on.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Adjacent project that's unrelated to that, that we're hoping to
film by the end of the year, So you know
those things. I'm a musician first and foremost. I look
at writing songs and that is the main thing, that's
the most important thing to me. I also enjoy writing
in general, so obviously we started the publishing company and
I've been writing novella's and short form stories. But acting
(15:22):
is something that if I'm given the opportunity and something
comes along and it makes sense, you know, tonally and
schedule wise. I'm always gonna want to do it just
because it's it's a really fun thing to do. I
don't consider myself some sort of world class actor, but
if the right circumstances there, I think I can. I
can do a good job, and like anything kind of
going back to it, I definitely apply myself and work
as hard as I can on it. So yeah, hopefully
(15:44):
by the end of the year, this horror project that
we're working on will get shot. And you know, that's
about all I can say about it now as far
as American Satan Paradise City goes. I know what everyone
else knows, which is that I think that they're trying
to do a second film.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Well, I enjoyed it. I really did the movie especially,
I'll be honest. The show dragged a little at times,
but well.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Look, I you know, it's interesting, I'll say.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
This, but it was good. It was entertaining for me.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
It was really unique for me because everything we do,
like everything we're discussing in terms of Blackveil World, my
I am, you know, pulling all the strings that I'm designing,
and I'm the it's a group effort to write a record,
but I am on over top of everything, obsessing over
every detail. When it came to American State in Paradise City,
(16:36):
I just read on the script, you know, and and
I really enjoyed that because it was fun to step
into someone else's creative ideas and vision. And really all
I'm doing is is their work, you know, I'm not
There's no creative end for it for me other than.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Building up what I think the character is and the
performance in that way.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
But that was fun and this and this horror project,
and we're going to the end of the year on
I'm not I'm not a writer.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
On as well.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
So it's it's fun to kind of step into somebody
else's creative endeavor.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
So the last you know, a couple of collections of music.
Obviously you last one, especially you had a book to
go with it. Is that something you're going to continue
to do with the graphic novel or or that kind
of world perhaps.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
You know, I think.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
That is not the focus of this record. This is
much more of a straightforward, grounded album in that way.
But you know, obviously Bleeders is on the record, so
that's very you know, oriented and but as far as
overarching stories, I've got some ideas. I think it would
(17:42):
probably end up being something that's a little bit more
multimedia oriented than a novel or a book, But we'll
see where it goes.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
I'm I'm just about.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
Finished with the Bleeder's sort of origin story novella that
we're going to release through my publishing company.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Okay, so that'll be something that's out there.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
But as far as comic books around this record, I'm
just not sure.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
This stuff's available as far as the publishing company goes.
Are you releasing stuff both digitally and on actual physical right, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
You can get the Kindle version or the digital version
as well as the physical paperback books.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
And then don't try reading this stuff on your phone,
especially graphic novels.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Man, it sucks. You got to get like an actual screen.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Well look, you know that's however you want to buy
these books for me?
Speaker 3 (18:28):
There you go, There you go.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
I will say, probably within the next couple of weeks,
I'm going to head into the studio and start cutting
the audiobook for the first book that's out, the first
Vampire as well, because the Bleader's book as well. So
I know a lot of people like audio books. We
will have audiobook formats for the Knives and Pens publishing books.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Hey, if you need a if you need a narration voiceover,
I'm just raising my hand.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
I'm just raising my hand.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
There you go. Hey, I gotta be honest with you.
I think I can. I can cover that. That is
the one job that I'm certain I can handle on
this one.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
But always people will do like an alt version version,
you know, like what you're Taylor Swift, like Taylor's version versions.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
What's it like?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
If somebody less talented and only because he talks for
a living does it, then that's not true that.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
They're certainly not less talented, but definitely more experienced at
at talking into a microphone. I'm more experienced at yelling
into a microphone. Those are those are different.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
I don't know. If you haven't heard my morning show,
so I don't know.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Oh that's fair. Are you streaming? Are you doing like
metal course screams?
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Sometimes sometimes somebody, you know, see, that's all I got,
that's all I got, it's all I can do. I'm
gonna have to add effect to that and then it's fake.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Anyway.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Andy, So okay, So what's the time what's the realleast
time frame for new music then for this album, for
the whole collection.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Well, you know, we're do we know what? I would
say that I don't.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Know the answer I needed.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
Yeah, well, look the record it is not done, so
that is what complicates the release. I would say that
we are very close to we're eighty eighty five percent
of the way there, and we're actively mixing the songs
as they're finished, and so I would say that before
we start doing sort of the wimmer festival runs, the
(20:19):
record will be quote unquote done and then we'll figure
out what the release will.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Be from there.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Okay, so we'll find out more by springtime next year. Yeah,
because I don't think you meant like next months or
do you mean next months?
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Because I mean next month.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
I gotta get this ship done, Like we can't recording
this thing since February. But what the reality was, we
we went and we want this to be the best
record possible, right, So we went into the studio with
our batch of songs, and then we kept writing while
we were in the studio. And so there's three or
four things that have just not yet been tracked. Zach
Servini's mixing the whole record. He's actively mixing the songs
(20:55):
as they go. We wanted to put how Lujah out
to kind of give people an idea of where we're at,
and it was the song that we kind of got
done first.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
But yeah, we're not. It will be done long.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
But if it's not done until next spring, there's a
real problem because we're just about done.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
With it right now.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
So something bad happened. Excellent Holly Luiah courses out now Bleeders.
Of course, we all know that song that'll be on
the record, as you said earlier. Another I'm sure another
taste probably too, once that's all figured out.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Oh yeah, yeah, I thought.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
So there's gonna be more songs and and a release date.
I promise those things are being talked to me.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
It's not theoretical.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
It's going on. Andy, you're the best man. I really
appreciate your time always.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Thanks Bell, I appreciate you. Cutter's rock Cast. Don't forget
to tune in exactly
Attention plays and no It cutters.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Rock Cat and he from Blackfield Brice joining us. Dude,
it's good to see you.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Man. Listen.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
First of all, Hallelujah is a brutally heavy song, maybe
the heaviest song called Hallelujah. I think I've heard you
know what I mean, you hear Hallelujah and I'm going
to church. I'm going with my mom and dad, and
you know, we're going to church and we're getting the
sacrament after.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
But you're this is a heavy tune, man.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Well, I will take the distinction of it being the
heaviest Hallelujah of all of it. You know, when a
song comes out, particularly like a heavy song, much is
made about is this the heaviest song that the band
ever did or whatever.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
But I'll take at the very least it may be
the heaviest song with that title.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
I mean, you know, I grew up.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Catholic, and it plays into a lot of my lyrics
and always has. I'm not practicing, but it anytime you
grow up in any kind of religious situation, the good
and bad filters its way in.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
And I went to Catholic school and I got the.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Negative side of it and then I had family members
who were practicing, and it was a very positive thing
in their life. And so in some ways I can't
help but have it find its way into the things
I write. This is not a religious song, but the
content is such that I sort of see the way
things are going culturally where it almost has this sort
(01:26):
of religious zealot nature to it, where things, whether it's
ideological conversations or whatever else, sort of always come from
the perspective that it's a deeply held belief and you
can't possibly have any pivot.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Points on it.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Oh that's the thing with Catholicism, right, because I too
grew up Catholic, and you know, we're both from the Midwest.
It's probably the same type of family, you know whatever.
My aunt was a nun. Yeah, oh wow, she was.
She was one of my absolute favorite people. I'm also
not practicing, but but she was very open to those
(02:02):
conversations about theology and history and the sort of melting
points of and in her later years she was actually
teaching refugees how to assimilate into American life.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
That's incredible. That's a much better nun than I ever had.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
Right, the nuns that I experienced were not particularly big
fans of.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
My theological questions. So really, yeah, the questions were the
things that got me in trouble.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
See luckily I had her to go ask before I
got in trouble at a catechism class. You know, it's interesting,
right you take to take so many of that and
put that because heavy metal as a whole, and you know,
obviously Blackfield Brides can very easily go back and forth
between a straightforward hard rock band and a brutally heavy
metal band because I've always been very good at that.
(02:49):
But there's always these types of themes. These types of
themes tend to pop up a little bit and a
lot of our music and you know, obviously dig back
to your child, that's always going to come up. But
this type of stuff plays really well in the music
we are fans of or write well.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
I think it goes obviously all things go back to,
you know, and obviously a lot of people are talking
about it recently, but Ozzie and Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath
being kind of the other end of that spectrum, right,
It was almost I don't want to I don't want
to say something that's going to make people mad. But
in a way the sort of doom and gloom satanism,
(03:28):
sort of almost cartoonishly evil stuff.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Right, that's one end of the spectrum.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
And then all throughout, you know, whether you talk about
a band like Iron Maiden has a lot of historical
references in their songs too, You've got a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Of these sort of pivot points.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
And then there's kind of the more fanatic or a
fantastical or whatever you want to call it, dio various
swords and daggers and all that kind of stuff, And
I think history, war, theological ideologies, these are things that,
for whatever reason have always found their way into heavy metal.
And maybe it's just because tonally the music suits that
(04:04):
kind of grandiosity in terms of what you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Yeah, in case anybody forgot, I think a bunch of
us really are just nerds at the end of the day.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Sure, I'm in a room of hundreds of action figures, right.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Point proven. But that's and that's that.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Also, obviously, you know led Zeppelin writing songs about Tolkien
and you know do O and obviously you know the
list goes on, what is.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
The song expanding to?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
For what Blackveil Brides is doing kind of moving forward. Obviously,
the last thing we had heard from you guys was
you know some stuff about Sweeney Todd, So you know,
swing this back in this uh pendulum.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Then well, I would say that so Bleeders is on
the record, and it was kind of I look at
this record as I've done a lot of concept records
over the years, and this one is more of I
guess I would call it a theme record, and that
there's not an overarching narrative that's being told.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
It's not a.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Dystopian world with a superhero character or whatever. It's I'm
looking at it from the perspective of various stories about
the idea of revenge and kind of having that chip
on your shoulder and the ways that that manifests. And
so the track listing and the record itself goes through
different versions of that experience and in some ways talks
about the futility of feeling that way constantly.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
But it's just the truth of my life.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
Since I was sixteen years old and I started the band,
I've always been somebody who's been a.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Little bit of an underdog. We've never been the darlings
of any scene.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
And you need only type our name into the internet
to see people who have decided that we're the worst
thing that ever happened to.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Music, or and versely the greatest.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Thing, and that sort of battle when that duality is
something that has always had a part in what we do.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
You know, I.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Have the word revenge on my It's the sort of
literal monkey on my back that I carry around, and
so tonally this record is about those ideas and whether
it's viewing this sort of insanity of sort of groupthink,
whether it's viewing the betrayal of a friend, the anger
(06:20):
that you have towards people who don't believe.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
In you, on and on and on, all those kind
of ideas.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
And the ways that they manifest, or how I have
shaped this record lyrically.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Okay, I do remember. It's funny you bring that up
because I don't remember. Do you remember the I think
it was. I think it was Northern Invasion. It was
a it was a festival, you know, Danny Wimmer Festival
in northern Wisconsin, right on the Mini Minnesota border.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Yes, Okay, I believe it was there.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I think it was the first year that they did
that and watching you guys play, and it was the
first time i'd actually seen Blackveil Brides in person. I
remember looking at my friend and going, why don't I
listen to them more?
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Sure you know what I mean, because that's a that's
a consistent refrain.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
By the way, even go wait a second, I thought
this was supposed to be terrible as it turned out,
So fifteen years in we are still I think a
lot of that look.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
A lot of it just comes down to the time
that we came out.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
It was an unfortunate scenario where you had a lot
of not so great sort of like you know, I
don't know, I don't even want to name names, but
these sort of emo sort of electro talk singing stuff,
and aesthetically a lot of them had sort of copped
our look a little bit, and so you ended up
where people didn't listen to us. They just saw us
(07:37):
and thought, oh, that's that must be that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
And so we've benefited from it because all these.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Years later, people will see us play on a festival
and go, oh, this is a good band. I was
told that this was terrible, So we still have, like,
you know, nearly twenty years after I started the band,
we still have the element of surprise.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Excuse me, I was told you suck, but you don't.
So we'd like to discuss this.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
It is that time frame is interesting, right because, and
I think that's such a good way of saying it.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
There were so many.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Copycats to a lesser's but right, it's the originators that
never get the full credit at the end of the
day that you know, the originators of a scene, and
not to say you're originators of a scene, but definitely
at the forefront of something that happened, of a movement
of music. You know, whether it's Black Failed Brides, whether
it's Avege sevenfold. Just to think of a couple of
(08:29):
the bigger ones off the top of my head, it
always seems like, Wow, the one that came first isn't
the one that gets the credit for it.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's also about time.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
You know, when when I was a kid, I really
got into the New York Dolls. And no, it's interesting
is when I was a kid, the New York Dolls
seemed like they must have been a big band. And
then you look back at history and during the time
the New York Dolls were in their prime, they really
couldn't draw outside of New York City. They didn't really
have an audience anywhere, but they influenced Kiss and then
(09:04):
the eighties rock bands and on and on and on.
So it's interesting you sort of see that and then
with time, all of a sudden, this sort of credibility
comes around for an artist and then they find their time.
And I think for us, we've been very fortunate that
you know, we did the Work tour show last week
and there's all we're we're seeing a new sort of
(09:25):
rising people discovering the band and kind of realizing.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
What we're all about.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
The reality is, all of the stuff that we were
doing in twenty ten now has aged pretty well visually
because you need only look around to see every single
metalcore band covers their neck and black paint and has
some sort of you know, theatricality to their show.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
That was what we were doing.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
And people were throwing, you know, bottles of piss at
us on stage at the time, so.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Well, you didn't actually get a bottle of pist on
at you, did, you?
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Oh, like a bottle of well, So that's that's the thing.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
In the UK, right, they call it bottling, and it's
a pretty common thing for your first time that you
do a major.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Festival Bottles of Piss.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Famously, d Snyder tells the story of the first time
he played Donnington, someone threw a piece of shit at him,
which then begs the question did the person bring the
shit in?
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Or you know what was it?
Speaker 3 (10:18):
How did that happened?
Speaker 1 (10:19):
But yeah, we get here if you google it.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
I responded because I was like twenty two at the time,
by standing at the end of the catwalk with my
butt out and stared anyone to actually hit me in
the ass.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
With a bottle and they all missed.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
So you know, I was not hit that we are
you're skinny, I mean, yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
There you go.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
They're not a big target, right, especially at the time. Look,
I probably weighed twenty five pounds less than I do now.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
I had no butt. It was like, you know, it
was just sort of verse became the back in verse.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
But yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
What's the what do you think, man, what's the secret
to Blackville Brid's longevity?
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Because you have been doing and you have gotten better
as you've.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Gotten, you know, to this point, and more well respected
and obviously all of that.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Well, you know, look, a lot of that is not
down to the artist, right, A lot of that comes
down to how an audience responds to it. But the
thing you can control is just doing what you perceive
is really good work. And we care a lot. You know,
we've never been a band. I think that there's maybe
one record in our catalog and everybody has one where
you kind of look at it and go, maybe that
wasn't our best effort, but regardless, we have always tried
(11:30):
really hard.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
And I think one of the benefits of not being the.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Darlings all the time is that we have always had
to push harder than a lot of our contemporaries. A
lot of our contemporaries could put out a record and
they could fart onto the album and people will go,
this is the greatest thing I've ever heard.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
We have always had to push a little bit harder
and grow and make our live show better. And now
we are benefiting from the fact that.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
We've worked so hard because we're really good live band,
and we're good songwriters, and we know what we're doing.
And you know, I'm not trying to be egotistical, which
is simply I'm confident in what we do and we
care a lot about it, and so I think that
reflects I think our listeners know that we're not just
phoning it in to make records and go on tour
and try to be famous.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Like, we want to make good stuff for people, and
we care.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
A lot about fantastic musicianship. I don't know that that
gets talked about enough. Your guitar players are absolutely shreddy shredding. Yeah,
I mean full on thrash metal shredding. The drums are perfect.
Like the musicianship in Blackveil Brides is up there amongst
(12:38):
the best.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Well, that's been a.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
Thing where I have had to push myself. I've had
the great fortune of being in a band with for
the last you know.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
However many years.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
Three of the and I would say best musicians that
our scene has to offer, Jake and Jinks, our guitar
players and CCR drummer are world class talents, and I
have had to be on stage with them and go
I need to I gotta up my game. So I
got to get better at singing, better at screaming, better
at everything, better front man. And then we brought in
(13:09):
Lonnie to the band, who's also in his own right.
He could play blackfelt songs on guitar, you know, like
he's he is as much a musician in that way.
Great singer, great year for music.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
So now you.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
Got five people in the band who are really giving
you well, like well rehearsed hard work on stage, and
you're right, I don't think that Jake and Jinks and
CC get enough credit. I always tried to make sure
that people understand that you've heard our band for so
long that it's just accepted that we have these shredded
(13:41):
guitar solos and.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Intricate riffs and stuff.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
But the stuff they're playing is basically I used to
you know, when I was a much angrier, younger man,
I used to yell at people who would flip us
off and say, well, why don't you come play these songs?
Speaker 1 (13:53):
I don't think you can. Like, these guys are doing
something that I promise you you can't do.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
But yeah, they're incredible, And I appreciate you saying that
because I want to make sure people understand. You know,
if you find me to be annoying or egotistical or
a blowheart, that's fine, but you have to give the
credit to the other guys.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Well, I mean, listen, you're you're an actor, a writer,
a singer, a model at some point, like you know,
you get you got every points where you should have
an ego, but every time I've met you, Andy, you haven't.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
So that's very kind. Thank you, thank you. You know,
maybe that's the Midwest.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Thing, right, It might be it might be find the
good and everything. Find the good and everything. Speaking of acting,
you're gonna do more of that and if for people
who don't know, obviously the movie and there was a
show and based off the movie, and you know that
all went.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
But but yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Don't know what the future for American Satan World is.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
I've heard that they want to do a follow up film,
maybe to close out the story.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
I'm not sure. I do know that I'm currently working on.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Adjacent project that's unrelated to that, that we're hoping to
film by the end of the year, So you know
those things. I'm a musician first and foremost. I look
at writing songs and that is the main thing, that's
the most important thing to me. I also enjoy writing
in general, so obviously we started the publishing company and
I've been writing novella's and short form stories. But acting
(15:22):
is something that if I'm given the opportunity and something
comes along and it makes sense, you know, tonally and
schedule wise. I'm always gonna want to do it just
because it's it's a really fun thing to do. I
don't consider myself some sort of world class actor, but
if the right circumstances there, I think I can. I
can do a good job, and like anything kind of
going back to it, I definitely apply myself and work
as hard as I can on it. So yeah, hopefully
(15:44):
by the end of the year, this horror project that
we're working on will get shot. And you know, that's
about all I can say about it now as far
as American Satan Paradise City goes. I know what everyone
else knows, which is that I think that they're trying
to do a second film.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Well, I enjoyed it. I really did the movie especially,
I'll be honest. The show dragged a little at times,
but well.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Look, I you know, it's interesting, I'll say.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
This, but it was good. It was entertaining for me.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
It was really unique for me because everything we do,
like everything we're discussing in terms of Blackveil World, my
I am, you know, pulling all the strings that I'm designing,
and I'm the it's a group effort to write a record,
but I am on over top of everything, obsessing over
every detail. When it came to American State in Paradise City,
(16:36):
I just read on the script, you know, and and
I really enjoyed that because it was fun to step
into someone else's creative ideas and vision. And really all
I'm doing is is their work, you know, I'm not
There's no creative end for it for me other than.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Building up what I think the character is and the
performance in that way.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
But that was fun and this and this horror project,
and we're going to the end of the year on
I'm not I'm not a writer.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
On as well.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
So it's it's fun to kind of step into somebody
else's creative endeavor.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
So the last you know, a couple of collections of music.
Obviously you last one, especially you had a book to
go with it. Is that something you're going to continue
to do with the graphic novel or or that kind
of world perhaps.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
You know, I think.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
That is not the focus of this record. This is
much more of a straightforward, grounded album in that way.
But you know, obviously Bleeders is on the record, so
that's very you know, oriented and but as far as
overarching stories, I've got some ideas. I think it would
(17:42):
probably end up being something that's a little bit more
multimedia oriented than a novel or a book, But we'll
see where it goes.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
I'm I'm just about.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
Finished with the Bleeder's sort of origin story novella that
we're going to release through my publishing company.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Okay, so that'll be something that's out there.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
But as far as comic books around this record, I'm
just not sure.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
This stuff's available as far as the publishing company goes.
Are you releasing stuff both digitally and on actual physical right, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
You can get the Kindle version or the digital version
as well as the physical paperback books.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
And then don't try reading this stuff on your phone,
especially graphic novels.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Man, it sucks. You got to get like an actual screen.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Well look, you know that's however you want to buy
these books for me?
Speaker 3 (18:28):
There you go, There you go.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
I will say, probably within the next couple of weeks,
I'm going to head into the studio and start cutting
the audiobook for the first book that's out, the first
Vampire as well, because the Bleader's book as well. So
I know a lot of people like audio books. We
will have audiobook formats for the Knives and Pens publishing books.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Hey, if you need a if you need a narration voiceover,
I'm just raising my hand.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
I'm just raising my hand.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
There you go. Hey, I gotta be honest with you.
I think I can. I can cover that. That is
the one job that I'm certain I can handle on
this one.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
But always people will do like an alt version version,
you know, like what you're Taylor Swift, like Taylor's version versions.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
What's it like?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
If somebody less talented and only because he talks for
a living does it, then that's not true that.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
They're certainly not less talented, but definitely more experienced at
at talking into a microphone. I'm more experienced at yelling
into a microphone. Those are those are different.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
I don't know. If you haven't heard my morning show,
so I don't know.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Oh that's fair. Are you streaming? Are you doing like
metal course screams?
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Sometimes sometimes somebody, you know, see, that's all I got,
that's all I got, it's all I can do. I'm
gonna have to add effect to that and then it's fake.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Anyway.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Andy, So okay, So what's the time what's the realleast
time frame for new music then for this album, for
the whole collection.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Well, you know, we're do we know what? I would
say that I don't.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Know the answer I needed.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
Yeah, well, look the record it is not done, so
that is what complicates the release. I would say that
we are very close to we're eighty eighty five percent
of the way there, and we're actively mixing the songs
as they're finished, and so I would say that before
we start doing sort of the wimmer festival runs, the
(20:19):
record will be quote unquote done and then we'll figure
out what the release will.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Be from there.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Okay, so we'll find out more by springtime next year. Yeah,
because I don't think you meant like next months or
do you mean next months?
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Because I mean next month.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
I gotta get this ship done, Like we can't recording
this thing since February. But what the reality was, we
we went and we want this to be the best
record possible, right, So we went into the studio with
our batch of songs, and then we kept writing while
we were in the studio. And so there's three or
four things that have just not yet been tracked. Zach
Servini's mixing the whole record. He's actively mixing the songs
(20:55):
as they go. We wanted to put how Lujah out
to kind of give people an idea of where we're at,
and it was the song that we kind of got
done first.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
But yeah, we're not. It will be done long.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
But if it's not done until next spring, there's a
real problem because we're just about done.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
With it right now.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
So something bad happened. Excellent Holly Luiah courses out now Bleeders.
Of course, we all know that song that'll be on
the record, as you said earlier. Another I'm sure another
taste probably too, once that's all figured out.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Oh yeah, yeah, I thought.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
So there's gonna be more songs and and a release date.
I promise those things are being talked to me.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
It's not theoretical.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
It's going on. Andy, you're the best man. I really
appreciate your time always.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Thanks Bell, I appreciate you. Cutter's rock Cast. Don't forget
to tune in exactly
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