Culture
Dorks, doctors, and devils: talking with Andy Biersack of Black Veil Brides at Louder Than Life
By: Bradley Cunningham
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LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (WOUB) – On September 20, Black Veil Brides took the stage at Louder Than Life for the first time. Before their set, I sat down with frontman Andy Biersack.
Find a transcript of our conversation, edited for length and clarity, below.
Bradley Cunningham: What do you want to talk about? What’s going through your head?
Andy Biersack: Oh boy. What do I want to talk about? Well, it’s tough because I’m about five interviews deep talking about the record and myself, so now I’ve got to think of other things. I like the question, though. The main thing on my mind is something I just heard before walking over here — this is now the largest music festival in the United States in terms of attendance. That’s wild. It’s our first time playing Louder Than Life. I’m excited to be here, very appreciative of Danny Wimmer for putting this festival on, and I can’t wait to get out on stage.
What’s on your mind?
Honestly, I’m in a grateful state. I think my cup is overfilled. I remember listening to your music in junior high and getting made fun of for wearing black and studded belts, but I kept doing it anyway. Now I’m sitting here talking to you — it feels like a full circle moment. I’m trying not to be a dork about it, but sometimes it just comes out naturally.
Biersack: As someone who’s always been a dork about everything, I can relate. I like to like things. I think that there’s, in this world especially, a lot of people who are trying their hardest to outdo each other. It’s a lot of tension. People aren’t necessarily mad at each other, but bands, when they’re in the same vicinity, there tends to be this sort of hierarchy of ‘people don’t like that guy or that guy’ or whatever. I like to be somebody who doesn’t try not to engage in that. I like to just like the things I like. For example, I’m a person who collects action figures. I think it’s a much more freeing way to be.
How does it feel to be the subject of a lot of people’s security in their interests? You helped a lot of people develop their identity within the rock and metal community.
Biersack: It’s incredibly gratifying. When I was a kid, there were bands I looked up to. I didn’t know them personally, but over time, it became clear that some of them, for lack of a better term, didn’t like their audience. I swore I’d never get to that place. I wanted this band to be a communal experience — something people felt part of. Because I was so young when I started the band, my perspective was closer to the audience. A lot of bands coming out in 2010 were guys in their mid-20s with teenage audiences. I was 17, 18, 19 when things took off, so I felt like I could speak more directly for the people listening. I took that seriously.
So now as we’ve gotten older and we’ve been around longer, it’s fun to see that not only the young people that come in new to the band, but now the people I was on the plane yesterday and somebody that, you know, I would never in a million years perceive them as a fan of the band because, you know, I guess there’s visual cues that you get, right? Like I could say that you probably have heard my band before, based on how you dress, but this guy, he was a doctor, and he had two kids and a family and a life. He told me we were integral to his life, and he was showing me pictures of himself wearing the set the world on fire makeup when he was a kid. That’s a very cool thing to get to experience.
That’s awesome. I can’t even imagine how that feels. So, you’re from Cincinnati, Ohio. Did you ever play The Attic? [Editor’s note] The Attic, now closed, was an underage venue in Kettering, Ohio.
Biersack: Yes. One time. I think we were banned. The Attic was owned by a Christian family. They had strict rules on what you could do. I think we just got chaotic backstage or something, and we got banned. Look, I’ve always been respectful, but that was the early van tour days. We were pretty wild.
Earlier, Black Veil Brides felt larger-than-life, almost like characters, but now the music leans more into storytelling. What drove that creative shift?
Biersack: I just view it as seasons. I loved all these different types of things. I loved Kiss, AFI, and Alkaline Trio. When we first started, the first record was tapping into The Days of Phoenix era of AFI. The natural progression felt like, well, I also love Mötley Crüe and Kiss, so then we’ll do that too. I also love Mad Max and these post-apocalyptic stories. So, then we went into that. I viewed all of it as just getting to do all these things. I think I have a different perspective on it because I knew as a kid that I wanted to do all those types of things.
Your recent videos draw on big visual themes—Bleeders nods to Sweeney Todd, while Hallelujah is biblical with Lucifer references. At what stage in songwriting do you start envisioning the visuals?
Biersack: I see colors first. It’s always started with a color palette for a record, and then that kind of informs the way that I put it together. Before we did Wretched and Divine, I just kept seeing sand and sky tones and things like that. It’s a very odd perspective, but it always starts that way for whatever reason. I think with this record, there is a story to the record. But it’s more of an overarching theme as opposed to a concept album.
If you had some kind of intro song for you as a character, what would that intro song be?
Biersack: I used to literally walk out to Sting’s WCW Theme — The Crow era song. That became my Andy Black intro, and it felt really good. I’d probably just steal that again. No one else is using it. The old “This is Sting” from WCW, the Attitude Era WWF days — that era is irreplaceable.