Vic Fuentes is an accidental
scene hero with a well-documented past: he’s soundtracked the beat of
broken hearts and practically written his own autobiography over three
albums. Along with his band Pierce The Veil, he’s also an advocate for
bullying awareness and an ambassador for the Keep A Breast foundation.
TMN sat down with the beleaguered frontman and bassist/vocalist Jaime
(pronounce hai-me) Preciado at Sydney’s Sebel Hotel to
talk about their ascent within post-hardcore and the genre-rewrite
that’s leading the charge.
“Have you ever got a text from somebody, somebody that you
care about and it’s like, ‘Last night was insane, I blacked out, I got
kicked out of our hotel, I lost my shoes - it was crazy’."
Fuentes is talking us through I’m Low on Gas and You Need a Jacket, the fast-paced song from latest album Collide With The Sky (2012) that uses as many Spanish chord progressions as it does personal experience.
“It’s someone you care about so you’re like, ‘Ah, that’s
not cool, that makes me really scared for you’… I can’t be with a person
that’s like that.”
Unsurprisingly, it’s these accessible tales mixed in with
his paternal Mexican influence and intricate breakdowns that have fans
obsessing. In the city for three days during Soundwave Festival, Pierce
The Veil can’t leave the hotel without bombardment. As this interview
takes place, a flock of five teenage girls stalk the outside steps of
The Sebel, and three rainbow-haired, panda-eyed minors have quietly made
themselves at home near the refreshments, because obviously being in
the band’s periphery trounces education.
“It’s strange when they’re at the airport,” says Preciado, unconcerned with the three girls. “Because in San Diego there’s security, but here you can just go in.”
“I don’t know what you look like when you get off an
airplane,” smiles Fuentes before stretching his hair out sideways, “I
look like an insane person. They’re like ‘is it him? He looks like
80-years-old!’”
Having formed in San Diego in 2006, Pierce The Veil, like
most U.S. bands, spent their green years performing the myriad club
venues across America. Sleeping in hired vans and on floors, all for a
ride on the coattails of their comrades on a slightly bigger label deal.
However, the slot with Soundwave opened doors to South East Asia where
the band toured just before making their way to Australia last month.
“It was definitely crazy to think we’d never even been to some of those countries,” says Preciado. “To have a whole heap of kids show up out of nowhere. We were like, ‘Who are they waiting for? Oh wait, we’re the last band.'"
“It was almost like a rite of passage,” adds Fuentes, “covering another step in our musical career.”
Despite the fact the conversation is suffused with
wide-eyed modesty, Pierce The Veil harbour an irrepressible belief in
themselves; a ballsy gumption sprints through each intoxicating riff.
America has cottoned on to the hype, having siphoned the crowd-drawers
to headline the annual (and highly bucket-listed) Vans Warped Tour this
year.
“When you’re a kid,” smiles Fuentes, “the headlining
mainstage guys, that’s what you looked up to. Those are the guys we
thought were the biggest bands in the world, and now that we’re in that
position, it’s, ah…”
“It kind of clicks,” finishes Preciado. “All the work we’ve done over the last however many years, it’s great.”
The four members of Pierce The Veil have an enviable
support system in their families. For parents raised in an era where
heavy music fell in line with the names Rush, Deep Purple and Led
Zeppelin, the brutality of post-hardcore can be confronting. For the
first two years, Preciado’s parents dismissed his position in the band as something he would outgrow.
“They were like, ‘Get a real job, let’s get your life
going’,” he recalls. “Then she saw us in a magazine she picked up at the
store and she was like, ‘That’s my son!’
“Sometimes when we play our hometown shows she’ll get me
off the bus and say, ‘Go sign for those kids,” Preciado claps his hands
in imitation. “Let’s go!’”
Sideline parents aren’t the only difference for a band who
are oft pigeon-holed into the post-hardcore genre; one minute Fuentes
will be acknowledging other acts on the bill using profane embellishment
before each tip of the hat, the next, he’ll be watching footage from
the same show on YouTube at his father’s request.
The band have always taken the road less traveled, lyrics
so descriptive they read like diary entries, but Pierce The Veil aren’t a
band who are open to interpretation. While Fuentes sees no choice but
to open his heart and bleed into each recording, that’s where it stops
for some of his more personal omissions - One Hundred Sleepless Nights is one track he has never sung live.
“That’s probably the most personal song I’ve ever
written,” he says quietly, eyes to the floor. “I can barely listen to it
on CD because of the way things are between me and her.”
With a little push, Fuentes elaborates: “She had a baby
with another guy and that solidified the fact that we probably won’t be
together. She’s trying to make it work with that guy and it’s just a
really confusing and hard situation.
“She thought it was the best song on the album,” he
laughs. “There were mixed feelings, there was a little bit of anger, and
I understand.”
Following this interview, Pierce The Veil will perform to a
sold out Hi-Fi in support of U.K. metalcore band Bring Me The Horizon.
Fuentes will invite our own Jenna McDougall of Tonight Alive onstage to
guest on new track Hold On Til May (the Sydney band toured the U.S. with PTV), but Fuentes won’t let the ties stop there. As he tells TMN, he wants 21-year-old
McDougall to guest on the band’s next record. “She’s such a great
person, she’s so nice. We just got along well so I’m going to try and
write something.”
People horde together by their passions and while
straegised collaborations are now the norm to keep chart toppers on top,
Pierce The Veil are one band who let their art manifest organically.
“I don’t sing on records for people that I don’t know,”
says Fuentes. “I’ve been asked to sing on a lot of random records and I
don’t want to do them.
“We try to keep it bands that we really respect both as
people and as musicians. So whenever you hear something that we’ve done
with somebody else it’s not just on a whim, it’s always very well
thought out and meaningful.”
It's hard to imagine today just how important this band
is; but whether they go on to make multi-Platinum records or sell out
arenas isn't how we should measure it.
