Pierce the Veil

Melissa Interviews the band during their last stop in Montreal

Pierce the Veil is a band that originated in San Diego, California. The line-up for the band is as follows: Vic Fuentes (vocals & guitar), Jaime (pronounced Hi-Me) Preciado (bass & backing vocals), Mike Fuentes (drums & percussion) and Tony Perry (guitar). Vic and his brother Mike started making music together in 1998 with another band called Before Today. In 2006 they officially formed Pierce the Veil with the current line-up and have been together ever since. The band is now signed with Equal Vision Records where they released a full length album called ‘A Flair for the Dramatic’ in 2007. Pierce the Veil has just finished up the Taste of Chaos tour alongside Thursday, Four Year Strong, Bring Me the Horizon and Cancer Bats. On the last date of the tour, Montreal, Vic and Tony took some time to answer some questions for CONFRONT magazine. Vic led me to his tour RV and this is the conversation that ensued:

CONFRONT: So, do you guys mind just telling me who you are?

VIC: I’m Vic- I sing and play guitar

TONY: I’m Tony- I play guitar

CONFRONT: So how’s the tour been going so far?

VIC: It’s good! It was the last date of the tour. It’s been very, very awesome, touring with all these bands. Especially Canada has been really surprisingly amazing since we’ve been here. We didn’t know what to expect but it was really awesome.

CONFRONT: Do you guys have any crazy experiences, anything that stands out?

VIC: Hmm, crazy… last night Olli from BMTH DJ’ed at a club and it was really funny because he didn’t know what he was doing… he was literally like “I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M DOING…” it was pretty funny

CONFRONT: Do you guys have a favorite place to play; somewhere you had a really cool experience?

TONY: I love playing at home

VIC: Yeah, San Diego

CONFRONT: That’s cool

VIC: I like New York City. That was pretty cool too.

CONFRONT: You guys must have a lot of fans back home?

VIC: Yeah! San Diego is always really awesome for us

CONFRONT: I read that after TOC you guys are planning to work really hard on making a new album?

Vic: Yup!

Me: What can fans expect from it? Do you have any idea what direction it’s going to go into?

VIC: Yeah. It’s gonna be inspired by all of the touring that we’ve be doing, because we realize that you make a record and pretty much the rest of your life becomes playing shows you know? So we want to make a record that will be really fun to play live every night. It’ll be something like really energetic that people can participate in and have a really fun show with.

CONFRONT: Cool! Do you guys know when you want it to come out? Any approximate date, anything like that?

VIC:  We’re shooting for next year sometime, not sure exactly yet.

CONFRONT: Still in the works?

VIC: Yeah, exactly!

CONFRONT: Awesome. So is there a favorite band that you guys met on any tour that you guys had a really cool experience with, or something that you just really enjoyed playing a show with?

VIC: On any tour?

CONFRONT: Yeah!

VIC: We got pretty close with Mayday Parade, Devil Wear’s Prada…

TONY: Yeah! There’s a lot of bands we’ve gotten pretty close to actually…. Emarosa too- I got some good friends from touring with them, Four Year Strong too- I like those guys a lot.

CONFRONT: Cool- what other bands have you toured with in the past?

VIC: Umm… Tons of bands! Scary kids scaring kids, Poison the Well

TONY: Poison The Well! *Laughs*

VIC: Uh… So many more

CONFRONT: *Laughs* cool. And just for the sake of Confront readers who aren’t familiar with you guys, do you mind just giving us a bit of a history, how did you guys get together?

VIC: Yeah! The band was started with me and my brother Mike, he’s the drummer and Mike and I pretty much wrote the first record before we met the other guys and we wanted to start the whole band up… So Tony jumped on and brought Jaime with him because they were in a band together before and we just basically touring after that. We were ready to go pretty much once we got the band together.

CONFRONT: How long have you guys been together?

TONY: It’s been… 2 years now

CONFRONT: Who decided to name the band Pierce the Veil?

VIC: I did

CONFRONT: Yeah? Where’s that from? Is there any meaning behind it?

VIC: Yeah there’s some meaning. It means if there’s a problem in your life that is bothering you or building up over time, sometimes the best thing is just to cut it out completely from the source, not let things grow over time. So it just means to cut it out completely.

CONFRONT: Wow, that’s really cool… I read that in 2006 you guys kind of changed direction- you had a name change and member change… What made you decide to head into that new direction?

VIC: It was basically that our old band broke up and we knew we wanted to do another band… And we had music ready… the new stuff was just really different so we wanted to treat it as a new band and start over basically.

CONFRONT: On the topic of the two bands, what’s the big difference from the music that you’re doing now compared to back then?

VIC: The old music was a lot faster, a lot more punk-rock fast… But I think it was just a natural change… We were trying to change.

CONFRONT: It happens!

VIC: Yeah

CONFRONT: And as you were saying, you started the band with your brother, how is that- playing with your brother all the time?

VIC: It’s awesome!

CONFRONT: Oh yeah?

VIC: I mean we’ve played together since we’re really young, so it’s really easy for us to play together

CONFRONT: No fighting together on tour, that kind of thing? You guys get along really well?

VIC: Well, we bicker every once in a while!

CONRONT: Yeah, that makes sense

VIC: But it doesn’t really matter

CONFRONT: What have been your music influences along the way?

TONY: It’s just every band we’ve toured with- my likes personally have changed a lot just by watching other bands play and stuff like that

CONFRONT: Yeah, I guess you get something from all the shows you play

TONY: Yeah

CONFRONT: Do you guys have one of your songs that you particularly like to play live?

VIC: I like playing “Yeah Boy and Dollface”

CONFRONT: Why?

VIC: It’s got some good sing-a-long parts- I really like when the crowd participates, that’s what makes the show pretty much for us

CONFRONT: Well yeah, it makes the show a lot more fun

VIC: Yeah!

CONFRONT: So what do you guys do when you’re not playing on tour?

TONY: I don’t know…

*laughter*

TONY: I sit around at home and don’t do anything really…

*more laughs*

CONFRONT: So this is like your life

Tony: Yeah!

CONFRONT: So I read somewhere that you guys were in a Tony Hawk video game?! How did that happen?

VIC: I dunno! I think our manager or something submitted it… And yeah, I don’t really know we were just trying to get into videogames and stuff like that because we thought it might be funny- but I don’t exactly know how it happened but we were stoked, it was pretty cool

CONFRONT: You guys I guess play the game? Was it weird hearing yourselves?

VIC: Yeah it was pretty weird! It doesn’t seem like it’s really us, it’s just like someone playing songs

CONFRONT: Yeah I can imagine… So the last five questions are questions we ask all the bands we interview…  What were the first and last albums that you guys purchased?

VIC: The first album ever?

CONFRONT: Yeah!

TONY: Mine was… Greenday… it was… Nimrod I think. First CD I ever bought.

VIC: Really? I think mine was probably like a rap CD… probably like Snoop Dogg or something like that!

*Laughter*

CONFRONT: And your last?

VIC: The last one I bought was the new ‘The Fray’

CONFRONT: Oh yeah?! Cool!

VIC: Yeah *laughs*

TONY: To be perfectly honest I can’t remember…

CONFRONT: It’s been a while?

TONY: Oh yeah… I don’t even know

CONFRONT: That’s okay! It’s all good- what were your first and last concerts you guys attended?

VIC: First concert was I think just a local show in San Diego- a friend’s band, and the last one I went to was… I think it was like Boys to Men or something? In San Diego *laughs*

CONFRONT: You guys I guess don’t get the chance to go to a lot of other shows since you tour so much

VIC: Yeah pretty much

CONFRONT: Alright… So, finish the sentence: I have never…

VIC: I have never smoked weed

TONY: I have never… I don’t know, what have I never done? Umm… I have never kissed Jake *points to manager sitting nearby*

*laughter*

CONFRONT: Finish the sentence: I would never…

VIC: I would never… hmm… I would never hook up with a girl that had one of those *points to a picture on the wall of the RV*

JAKE: Oh you can’t see it!

VIC: Show her!

*lifts a flap on the picture and shows what’s behind*

CONFRONT: Good times!

*laughter*

TONY: I would never do that either!

*more laughter*

CONFRONT: And the last question… in 5 or 10 years from now, what do you want your legacy to be? Either as a band or an individual

VIC: I think I’d like our band to be a band that progresses with each record. You know, like you feel like you’re getting better with each album

CONFRONT: Yeah, definitely

VIC: And then, I dunno I’m a big fan of bands who grow like that, you know- who keep coming out with new records and still have careers because they’re coming up with new stuff and better stuff

CONFRONT: So I guess you’re kind of hoping to just keep doing this for a while

VIC: Yeah! Just keep writing as a band and progressing as a band, making new albums. But you know we’ve been growing as a band in the last 2 years live too; starting with little tiny clubs and then moving up to middle-range and now Taste of Chaos is in really big rooms and stuff

CONFRONT: Yeah for sure!  Well thanks a lot guys

VIC: Yeah no problem!

Although I hadn’t heard much about this band before interviewing them, my conversation with Tony and Vic definitely peaked my interest. I gave their album a listen and really enjoyed it! If you want to learn more about the band, you can check them out at:

www.myspace.com/piercetheveil

or

www.ptvmusic.net