Pierce the Veil Talk Internet Haters, Grunge Inspiration, Risky New LP
When San Diego pop-punk group Before Today dissolved in 2006, guitarist-vocalist Vic Fuentes and drummer Mike Fuentes barely took a breather before founding Pierce the Veil. In the ensuing decade, the Fuentes brothers, guitarist Tony Perry and bassist Jaime Preciado have pushed their hyperactive, progressive post-hardcore sound in new directions. Pierce the Veil’s fourth album, Misadventures, features some of their most accessible work to date; the single “Circles,” inspired by last year’s Paris terrorist attacks, fuses chugging metalcore riffs, sweeping arena-rock melodies and sugary pop-punk vocals. The track premiered in late April and racked up half a million streams in less than a week.
Those kinds of stats aren’t new to Pierce the Veil. The group’s previous album, 2012’s ambitious Collide With the Sky, peaked at Number 12 on the Billboard 200. Part of Pierce the Veil’s success can be attributed to their relentless work ethic, which kept the band on the road for much of the past four years; in 2015, they juggled a worldwide tour and a two-month stint on Warped Tour while wrapping up Misadventures. The hectic schedule delayed the album, but according to Vic Fuentes that was to the band’s benefit. With Collide With the Sky producer Dan Korneff (My Chemical Romance, Chiodos, Breaking Benjamin) back behind the boards, Pierce the Veil were able to take more time to finesse their new music.
Misadventures drops on May 13th, and that night, Pierce the Veil will celebrate the release with a show in Mexico City. A few weeks later, the band will hop back on the road for a month-long U.S. tour. Before kicking off the festivities, Vic Fuentes spoke with Rolling Stone about the stalled release of Misadventures, trekking to different cities to write the album’s lyrics and the unexpected pains of popularity.
Collide With the Sky came out four years ago, and this is the longest gap you’ve had between albums. Why did it take so long to release Misadventures?
For one reason, Collide With the Sky was a huge growth album for our band. It called for a lot of touring – we toured pretty much throughout the entire four years, and the band just kept growing. We kept selling records; people just kept finding out about us even though it was our third full-length – it was as if we were a new band. So the album took us all over the place, into new territory.
When we went to do the record, we took our time on it. We ran into a lot of twists and turns, and that’s why we called it Misadventures, because we had such a crazy time creating the record; we ran out of studio time, we ended up doing a world tour right smack in the middle of recording the album. I went on all kinds of journeys to do lyrics. I lived in different places all over the world, pretty much, working on this thing. It was a bit of an unexpected, crazy journey making it as well.