The Sheffield rockers have had more than their fair share of heartache — resulting at one point with singer Oli Sykes going into ketamine rehab — but you really can't keep a good band down
OVERCOMING tough times and working through personal problems inspired the new album by Bring Me The Horizon.
The Sheffield rockers say they could never have made Amo earlier in their career. It shows the confidence the five-piece have gained by getting over their troubles together as friends.
Singer Oli Sykes, 32, says: “I guess we forced ourselves to have the confidence. I don’t think we went into the writing process thinking, ‘Oh yeah we can do anything’. We just knew we had to come up with something we were really excited about.”
We meet at the band’s base at Church: Temple Of Fun in Sheffield. This is where it all happens for BMTH — where Sykes runs his Drop Dead fashion label, while there is also a stage for live performances, a vegan cafe, a tattoo parlour and retro game consoles.
Amo means “love” in Portuguese, the language of Oli Sykes’ Brazilian wife.
The record is a major departure from the band’s trademark heavy sound, experimenting with pop and dance influences, as well as ballads.
It wasn’t easy. After six months of writing, the band hit a wall — and realised they still had nothing to show for their efforts. Sitting down with Sykes and keyboardist Jordan Fish — plus Sykes’s rescue dog Luna — they tell me it has been quite a journey... one culminating in a Grammy nomination for their new song, Mantra.
Sykes says: “It’s incredible for us to be nominated. It’s so good to see that acknowledgment.
“It’s a big moment for the band in the US after the last two albums went gold over there. We’re looking forward to the ceremony.”
Sykes says: “It was when we wrote Mantra that things started to take shape.
“Before that, I’d had a meltdown as we didn’t have anything.”
Fish, also 32, adds: “That was the worst time of the whole thing. Oli texted me and said, ‘We’ve got nothing’.”
Sykes continues: “Jordan was like, ‘What do you mean we’ve got nothing? We’ve been months on the album! I’ve been coming down here five days a week, so don’t tell me we’ve got nothing!’
“We were going to LA to start recording and I was panicking. I’d go home and feel like crying.”
Mantra is about how falling in love can be like joining a religious cult. Inspiration came after Sykes watched the Netflix series Wild Wild Country about a notorious sect in Seventies America.
Sykes says: “I had this, ‘Do you want to start a cult with me?’ I thought, ‘Oh, that’s a cool line, what could it mean?’ I started writing it and subconsciously it became about starting a relationship.”
Sykes said it was at this point he knew he had to write about what he’d been through in his personal life but from a positive angle of getting through heartache.
In 2016 Sykes split from his first wife, tattoo artist Hannah Pixie Snowdon, after he found out she was cheating on him.
He says the split was painful to get over but he has overcome that heartache and is now happily married to Brazilian model Alissa Salls. Sykes says: “I found out about the affair because her emails were open one day.
“It was a huge shock. It messed with my head. I was like a zombie for a while and I was more worried about my ex than myself because I could see she was going through a hard time dealing with what they had done.
“There wasn’t really a lot of anger at first. But then that turned into denial and almost blaming me for everything.
“That was when it got bad because I’d kept my mouth shut for this whole time and tried to help this person through it, but now she’s trying to drag me down because she can’t cope . . . Jordan kept saying to me all the time, ‘Why aren’t you writing about this?’ So I decided to write about it but not be angry.
“It was going to be more reflective. That’s why songs like Medicine are happy, poppy songs.
“I’m talking about something dark and I don’t like what she did, but I don’t want anyone thinking I have any real malice.”
Fish says it was difficult to see his friend suffering.
“The only advice we gave him was that he needed to get out and not try to help her,” Fish says. “All you can do is try to be supportive but it’s not nice when one of you is hurt.” Fish himself was also going through a tough time personally.
His newborn son Eliot fell ill after suffering a brain haemorrhage at just four days old.
In 2017 Skyes and Fish did an eight-day climb up Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania to raise cash for the paediatric intensive care unit at Southampton Hospital.
Fish says of his son: “He’s fine now. Our hands were a bit tied and we went on tour just after, which was stressful. But we got through it and we have another baby due next month.”
Formed by Sykes and drummer Matt Nicholls in 2004, when they were teenagers, the band’s 15 years since have seen plenty of ups and downs. Sykes admits going to rehab in 2014 for addiction to ketamine was a make-or-break moment for the band.
He says: “It was a wake-up call. I’d surrounded myself by people in a really bad place. I was hearing voices in my head and that was scaring me. I felt I was going mad.
“I never wanted to go back there. I’m so glad I got through it and am here today, looking forward.”
Standout tracks on Amo include electro banger In The Dark and dance track Nihilist Blues, the latter featuring Canadian singer Grimes.
“It’s got a tribal, euphoric dance feel to it and we love how it turned out,” says Fish. “We really wanted a female vocalist and Grimes was the person we wanted the most. When she came back within a week saying she loved it, we couldn’t believe it.”
The album’s closer I Don’t Know What To Say is another highlight.
Fish says: “It’s a different type of song for us. We wanted a combination of dark, Bjorky electronic sounds with The Verve’s swagger. It’s a weird concoction but it felt like a good one to finish with.”
Sykes wrote the track about his friend Aidan, who died from cancer in 2017.
The singer says: “He’d got the all-clear but then the cancer came back. That song is for him, as he amazed me how strong he was.
“He was only 26 but he was keeping his family together. He said, ‘I’ve had a really good life and I am really happy and cancer hasn’t won’. It really affected me.”
On May 31, BMTH headline All Points East, a series of shows spanning ten days in London. Their supporting line-up — assembled by the band — is impressive.
Sykes says: “So far we have Run The Jewels, Nothing But Thieves, Scarlxrd, Yonaka, Architects and Idles playing.”
Fish adds: “It’s basically anyone we like who is also high-energy. It’s not necessarily rock music. We are really looking forward to that and they gave us free rein with the line-up.”
Before then, the band will tour the US and bang the drum for Amo. Previous albums have charted at No3 and No2, through 2013’s Sempiternal and 2015’s That’s The Spirit respectively. Are they now hoping for a No1?
Fish laughs and says: “We disagree on this one. I want a No1 but Oli doesn’t care.”
“It’s not that I don’t care!” says Sykes. “Last time we got so hung up on it that we were disappointed — and No2 was great. We ruined it for ourselves.
“When Stereophonics won (topping the charts with Keep The Village Alive), we were sat with our managers, drinking, with our heads in our cups. We just achieved something absolutely insane — and there we were, sat there like someone had just died.
“We were acting like a bunch of w*****s. I don’t want to get worked up like that again.
“I’m proud of what we have achieved, as we are not a mainstream band. And I’m more proud of Amo than any other record we’ve made.”
1. I Apologise If You Feel Something
2. Mantra
3. Nihilist Blues
4. In The Dark
5. Wonderful Life
6. Ouch
7. Medicine
8. Sugar Honey Ice & Tea
9. Why You Gotta Kick Me When I’m Down?
10. Fresh Bruises
11. Mother Tongue
12. Heavy Metal
13. I Don’t Know What To Say
RATING: ★★★★☆
