MEB: Let’s start with what’s going on right now, how is the “No Guts No Glory” tour going? I figured it’s pretty epic as from I can tell right now.
Vic: You could say that our minds equal blown. (laughs)
Nice plug. (laughs)
Jamie: Yeah man, the tour has been awesome. I think it actually exceeds our expectations. This tour has been insane. I can’t believe the turn-outs on some of these days. After doing the signing tonight, we knew Dallas was gonna be crazy.
Vic: We could have had a show with just the kids from the signing. There was that many kids.
Mike: I just want to thank Tino from Of Mice and Men for everything he’s done. We always thank Tino.
Surrounding all of the hype with fellow tour-mates letlive, do you think it’s great they’re touring as much as they are? I’ve literally caught them on 3 tours in the span of a year. Is there such thing as too much?
Vic: Not when you’re starting out, you know? That’s what we did, we just toured like crazy until we got our name out there a little more. We’re stoked to have letlive, we’re stoked to have all of the bands on the tour. Letlive in particular, they were one of the first bands we thought of when we were putting together a headlining tour. We just had to have them on it, because they’re doing something different and we like it.
Mike: I think kids just don’t really get it at first with letlive. I mean, kids all watch and clap which is awesome. It’s just I think it’s gonna take a little time for them to grow on them.
Vic: It’s so shocking, they put on such a crazy show and it’s such a different kind of music. Kids just want to watch it and be mesmerized. We’re stoked for them, they’re a punk rock band with a lot of soul.
I can completely agree with that.
The next time you guys get a tour lined up, who would you want to be on it? If it had to be bands that you haven’t toured with yet?
Jamie: That’s tough, it took us a long time to figure out this line-up. We got so lucky with this tour. It would take us a day to figure out a “dream” line-up.
Vic: I wanna tour with Sleeping With Sirens, because kids have been tweeting like crazy that we need to tour with them. So, I actually finally talked to their singer Kellen, and we’re going to hook it all up.
Do you think there are any misunderstood songs in your catalog? Maybe people take the context presented the wrong way?
Vic: We have a older song that’s called “I’d Rather Die Than Be Famous”. That wasn’t like a literal thing, it’s more because I’ve met so many stupid people in Hollywood. Those people think they’re so cool because they’re famous. If you’re not famous, they don’t even want to talk to you. There was so many people like that. That’s why I wrote that song, because it’s so mindblowing.
Now we know that you guys are in the process of creating the new record, what sort of elements are being brought into the writing mix? More theatrics? More screaming? Heavier riffs? Things of that nature.
Vic: It’s coming out a little more aggressive, a little more heavy lately. Not for any particular reason. Just that’s the riffs that are coming out. We’ve been touring with a lot of heavy bands. We’re getting in that zone. I don’t know, Jamie’s been working out a lot.
Jamie: I’ve been hitting the gym. We gotta start playing “man” music, you know what I mean?. We can’t be doing this “sissy la-la” stuff. (laughs)
Are there any topics you guys haven’t covered yet in a song but want to cover in the future?
Vic: I think this record is going to send out a little more positivity and little more boom-shaka-laka (laughs). We got a lot of kids that hit us up about really serious situations. Thoughts of suicide, and depression. We get it a lot from kids and they try and confide in our music. I want to keep that in mind while we’re doing it, that side.
Are there any songs you guys are most proud of? Like one of those kind of songs that 10 years ago you never could of imagined being involved in creating?
Vic: For me, there’s one song on the new record called “Stay Away From My Friends” where for a change we kept it super mellow and didn’t do a lot of things to it. Usually our songs have a million elements in them, tons of guitars, tons of crazy staff. That song we were like “Alright! We’re just gonna do this simple beat the whole time”. We made ourselves do it simple.
What has been the craziest thing to happen to you guys on tour so far?
Tony: In Hollywood, we were standing outside talking to our manager. A bunch of cops run up on a guy and he ends up getting shot right in front of us.
Are you serious?
Jamie: Yeah, we were part of a crime scene. We couldn’t leave.
Tony: Everyone else was inside, except for me and my friend Jaxin Hall and Mike.
Mike: There were undercover cops walking behind this guy, and they were about to pass us. Then they start running after this guy, and tackle him. We back up, because we thought they were normal people but undercover. We just heard a shot and all ran on the bus.
Jamie: I was on the bus and it was funny, because I was playing Tupac at the time. I just was like “Oh god!” Everybody just fell. “Get down!”.
Vic: The worst part about it, was for those of us that were not there could not get back to our bus until like 4 AM. It was a crime scene. It was crazy.
At what point in your tenure together as a band did everything just start to click? You know, that prevalent moment where everything was just coming together naturally?
Mike: It’s been a long, long journey for us. We didn’t just come from some label that put together a band. We gradually made our way up to where we are right now. I think that’s what’s cool about our band because our fans are so dedicated.
Jamie: It’s kinda crazy too, because we’ve been playing this venue since we started out opening for other tours and stuff. I was talking to a kid inside and she was so stoked for us. She was like “I remember when you guys were opening, and no one knew who you were. And you guys kept going and going and finally now you guys are headlining tonight and all of these kids are here”. You never really notice because you’re so busy. But it’s definitely crazy to think that we started from the bottom and just built this amazing fan base. It didn’t happen overnight. That’s why we’re on a first-name basis with tons of kids.
Mike: They grew up with us, pretty much.
Exactly. I can definitely vouch for that, because the first time I caught you guys was 4 years ago when you were opening for Scary Kids Scaring Kids right here, in this venue.
Vic: The singer from Miss May I Levi, was like “Dude, I saw you guys 4 years ago with my girlfriend on the Emery tour”. I was like “really”?
Jamie: It’s just crazy to see from playing to the 20 kids that knew who we were, until now is just crazy.
What are ya’lls favorite albums of 2011 so far?
Mike: Definitely not Yelawolf (laughs). What happened to trunk music?
Vic: There’s this dude that we rock all of the time called The Weeknd. He’s pretty badass.
Jamie: That record came out like 2 years ago, they did mixtapes in 2009. 2010 I think was the earliest one. We rock that a lot. I’ve been listening to the new Thrice a lot too.
Man, everyone’s been talking about Major/Minor. I can’t agree more really. It’s such a great record.
Jamie: In Europe I listened to it a lot, that’s when I got it. And it’s funny, because it reminded me of it today when they were playing it on the house music. I hear a song, and it brought me back. It’s so funny how music takes you to that place, I just thought of when we were in Europe when we were driving down the road. It’s a chill record to put on, and play cards to.
Mike: The new Mayday Parade.
Oh yeah! I just got that one too.
Vic: I’ve really been diggin’ that one.
What is the next step for Pierce the Veil?
Vic: We’re gonna record another album. We’re just gonna do it. We’re gonna keep the ball rolling this time instead of taking 3 years to write a record. We’ve already been working a lot on it, we’re writing on this tour as well. We have a studio in the back of the bus. So, after this tour we’re gonna record.
Any closing words for fans?
Vic: Don’t do drugs.
Jamie: Stay out of gangs.
Definitely don’t get shot in Hollywood.
Vic: Wear condoms.
Jamie: Only on the weekends though, cause monday-friday will be fine (laughs). Worst advice ever. Always give 20% for tips. Don’t go 15%, don’t be that guy. Go 20.
Go 20.
