Loudwire Presents: PIERCE THE VEIL and SUM 41 - We Will Detonate! Tour

Since 2006, Pierce The Veil unassumingly, yet consistently have climbed their way into the hearts of millions worldwide via an unshakable devotion to making honest and hypnotic hard rock. The San Diego quartet—Vic Fuentes [vocals, rhythm guitar, keys], Mike Fuentes [drums, percussion], Tony Perry [lead guitar], and Jaime Preciado [bass guitar]—staunchly uphold that tradition once again on their fourth full-length album, Misadventures [Fearless Records].

We went into making this record wanting to top the last one, something we try to do with every record,” said Vic  “We wanted to make one of the best-sounding records out there as far as quality goes,” said Vic.  “We weren’t going to stop until we achieved that.”

“We wanted everybody to shine on the record,” added Jaime.  “It was important that each member stood out.  It was about going with a broader listening range and expanding on what we’ve built.”

That work ethic gradually elevated the band to the forefront of modern rock’s vanguard. Following the success of their first two albums A Flair for the Dramatic [2007] and Selfish Machines [2010], the group’s quiet rise detonated loudly with 2012’s Collide with the Sky. The album would bow at #12 on the Billboard Top 200, move 350,000 copies by 2016, and spawn their first RIAA Gold-certified single “King for a Day” [featuring Kellin Quinn]. In between sold out tours all over the globe and a headline stint on 2015’s Warped Tour Main Stage, the musicians garnered four Alternative Press Music Awards, two Kerrang! Awards, and a Revolver Golden Gods Award. They’ve graced the covers of Alternative Press, Kerrang!, Rock Sound and more, multiple times.  Their diehard audience comprises a staggering online presence, encompassing 5.5 million Facebook “likes,” 4.5 million Twitter followers, and 4.5 million Instagram followers. They’ve generated over 200 million cumulative YouTube views (their 2012 “King For A Day” clip alone has logged nearly 65-million views), while Collide racked up 110 million-plus Spotify streams.

With fans properly primed for new music, Vic and the boys wanted to deliver beyond all expectations, but that tall order required both time and travel.

“For every track, I was honestly searching for something meaningful enough to write a song about,” continues the singer. “As a result, they were each written in different parts of the world. I wanted to tell stories. Traveling brought this out of me.”

Between 2014 and 2015, Vic would hole up in Airbnbs across San Diego, Santa Monica, Big Bear, Venice, and New York, writing everywhere he could.  He finished penning lyrics while staying at the music-centric Max Hotel in Seattle. Bookending these writing trips, he and the guys recorded Misadventures with producer Dan Korneff in Long Island, NY.

“Dan opened our eyes,” adds Jaime. “He was able to give us the perspective to focus on achieving a cohesive vision.”

“We made all of these sacrifices for the record,” says Vic. “Dan and I got really close, and he just cared about making it right.”

As a result, songs like the first single “Texas Is Forever” see them playing as if their lives depend on it, as speed demon skin-of-your teeth riffing crashes into a powerful chant. “The Divine Zero”  ignites another infectious hook, while “Circles” paints a picture of perseverance amongst friends in the face of the Bataclan Massacre—touting the band’s most unifying sing-along yet in the process.

Misadventures remains an appropriate title, reflecting Pierce The Veil’s journey to their most rewarding body of work to date. “Misadventures sums it up pretty well,” Vic leaves off. “We started this with a plan two years ago, everything spun out of control, and we did something completely different. It was done at the right moment though. Now, I hope the notes and lyrics spark something positive inside fans.”

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Multiplatinum rock outfit Sum 41 wrapped its final tour supporting 2011’s Screaming Bloody Murder in April 2013. It was one of the band’s longest and most attended touring cycles in its 20 year career, and they found themselves nominated for a Grammy for the first time ever. However things were not as perfect as they seemed, as vocalist, guitarist, and producer Deryck Whibley found himself on the brink of destruction.
“I can’t pin-point one exact moment that put me over the edge, it was more of an accumulation of many things when I slipped into a fog of partying and booze. I tried to detach myself from any and all responsibility whatsoever,” Whibley reflects. He spent the next year doing just that, and at the end found himself in a Los Angeles hospital fighting for his life.

Whibley spent most of April and May 2014 in and out of the ICU with his mother and fiancée by his side. When he was finally released as an outpatient he realized that his journey was just beginning, and it was then that he began to write while simultaneously going through intense physical therapy. “Being sober and out of the fog made me realize that the only things I really cared about were music, making a record, and getting better so I could get back on stage again.”

The music came together in tandem with Whibley’s health; he recalls: “Due to neuropathy, muscle atrophy and medication that caused permanent nerve damage in my legs and feet left me unable to walk and in excruciating pain for months. I had to learn how to do everything again—my motor skills, learning how to play guitar. It was really difficult, but at the same time if I didn’t have a record to make, I don’t think I would have recovered as quickly, or even at all.”

He continues, “Writing music gave me a purpose and I started from scratch with absolutely nothing to work with. I would put on movies with no sound and start writing guitar riffs and music to the images. Mostly movies from Tim Burton and Quentin Tarantino like Edward Scissorhands, Sweeny Todd, Kill Bill and Inglorious Bastards. The process led me in a direction that I had never gone in before which made me feel like I was writing a theatrical score called “hard-score punk”.

Soon, he was gathering his bandmates at his home in Los Angeles to begin laying down tracks for what would become the group’s sixth full-length album, 13 Voices. The record includes a surprise return from original guitarist Dave Brownsound, who parted ways with the band a decade prior. The first song Dave played guitar on was “Goddamn I’m Dead Again” a track that proves that the fiery guitar riffs that came to define SUM 41 are back.
In addition to bassist Cone McCaslin and lead guitarist Tom Thacker, Sum 41 would also
formally welcome Frank Zummo (Street Drum Corps, Krewella, Thenewno2, Dead By Sunrise) behind the kit.

Whibley produced and engineered 13 Voices entirely on his own in his house. Drums were set up in the living room, guitar amps in the bedrooms. The end result stands tall as SUM 41’s most intense, cathartic and all-around finest work in years.
The album was written from a place of optimism, and speaks to the necessity of Whibley’s drastic fall before he was able to rise again. Opener “A Murder Of Crows,” the first track written upon the frontman’s release from the hospital, is about how those closest to Whibley quickly abandoned him when things got bad. The song’s haunting refrain (“You’re all dead to me”), repeated over bombastic percussion and steadily building guitars, is Whibley’s rallying cry; he’s letting go of the past in order to salvage his future.
He touches upon the theme of letting go further in “Fake My Own Death,” the fan track being released first from the record. “I just wanted to get away from everything that I had been doing. I needed to start a new life—like faking my own death.”

With the upcoming release of this album we see SUM 41 as an impenetrable unit putting
everything they’ve got out into 13 Voices. The result is a dynamic, impassioned collection of melodic, guitar wielding, rock songs. “I can’t say whether this is our best record or not, as I don’t know if it is,” states Whibley. “All I can say is I did the best I possibly could during the toughest period of my life”.

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