Black Veil Brides’ Andy Biersack reveals the songs that made him the man he is today…
Andy Biersack chats helicopters, heartache, human disco balls and Batman (natch). This is the Black Veil Brides' man’s life in music thus far…
The first song that I remember hearing...
“This was on the Batman Forever movie soundtrack, so when I was four years old it was the most important song in the world to me, and I would sing it passionately in the back seat of my mom’s car. Seal’s [self-titled] record was also the first one I bought because I thought it was a Batman-themed album. I was very sad to learn that there were no Batman songs on it!”
The first song that I performed live...
“It was in the school talent show. I brought a cape and a mask and the nuns at my school were not pleased. I was a creepy kid who liked things like The Phantom Of The Opera and Sweeney Todd. The performance didn’t go down well – it surprisingly made me even less popular than I was before! I think doing elaborate cape gestures with your hands really creeps people out (laughs). It confirmed everyone’s suspicions that I was not someone to talk to.”
The song that reminds me of my parents...
“When I was a little kid and this would come on, my mum would say, ‘That’s me and your dad’s song!’ So it will always remind me of them. I love that whole era of ’80s music, where it’s in-between pop and post-punk.”
The song that reminds me of my first love...
“I thought this was an anthem for teenage break-ups. Little did I know that it is more likely about drug use (laughs). But at the time I thought, ‘This is about my ex-girlfriend, and how I’m gonna be fine without her!’ It wasn’t until years later when I read an interview where Matt Skiba talked about a bunch of his songs being about kicking drugs that I thought, ‘Oh…’”
The song that made me want to be in a band...
“I always wanted to be in a band, but when I got Good Mourning by Alkaline Trio it was the first time I thought, ‘This is what I’m going to do.’ It seemed tangible, like, ‘This is speaking directly to how I feel, and this is the type of song I would make.’”
The song that caused me the most arguments in the studio...
“It’s the first demo I ever recorded as a kid. It ends with 30 seconds of helicopter sounds panning from the right to left speaker, and then an explosion, for absolutely no reason other than the fact that I was excited that they had the technology in the studio to make sound effects. I remember being in an argument with one of the guys, like, ‘This has to happen, it’s so cool!’ It’s online so you can listen to that helicopter exploding to this day, 12 years later.”
The first song that I crowd-surfed to...
“I’ve only crowd-surfed a handful of times in my life and it has always been at one of my own shows. During I Am Bulletproof, on the 2013 summer Warped Tour, I went to the back of the crowd and I crowd-surfed back up to the stage. I did it successfully, but the audience tore off my in-ear monitors, my belt and my backstage pass. Everything I had on my person was gone by the time I’d made it back to the stage. I was like, ‘I can’t really crowd-surf again, because it’s far too expensive!’ The in-ear monitors are something like $1,200, so it was a very costly experience.”
The song that picks me up when I'm down...
“This one always works for me. It puts me in such a good mood because it’s an incredibly hopeful-sounding song. I always turn it up louder when I’m listening to it, because it’s so powerful. I played it to death during my first ever break-up.”
The song I'd like played at my funeral...
“I don’t know why, but this keeps coming into my head – I think it would get people hyped. I want lights and fog machines, and my body on some sort of rotisserie, so I’m spinning. I’d also like mirrors all over me so when they shine a light on me I’m like a human disco ball. While this is playing. I think it might be upsetting for my family, but you never know!”
The first of Black Veil Brides’ new series of duologies, The Night, is out now via Sumerian. The band return to the UK this summer for Download festival on June 12-14 – get your tickets here.
