|
By Stephanie Mora-- Regional Head, Pacific/Southwest
Back on August 10th, 2010, the hometown band Pierce The Veil took the stage at Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre during the Warped Tour stop in San Diego, California. And home, the guys were; they received a more than warm welcome. You couldn't walk around the venue without seeing posters, signs and homemade t-shirts supporting the San Diego natives, Vic and Mike Fuentes, Jaime Preciado and Tony Perry. During their set, Pierce The Veil brought their A-game and put on a top notch rock performance. The fans threw their hands in the air with out a care in the world as lead singer, Vic Fuentes belted out lyrics fan favorite songs. The crowd couldn't help but jump up and down and even mosh a little to the band's new, Caraphernelia. It was no secret, who the favorite band was for the San Diego Warped show. It was Pierce The Veil, hands down.
All in all it has been a crazy summer for Pierce The Veil. They landed a slot on Van's Warped Tour for the second time and they released a new album entitled Selfish Machines on June 22nd. Selfish Machines made quite the debut, too, landing a spot on Billboard's Heatseekers chart. Musiqtone was able to catch up with Vic Fuentes and talk with him about the writing and recording behind the brand new album, and about playing to hometown crowds.
Stephanie Mora: Please introduce yourselves, and describe your music to our readers who might not have heard it yet.
Vic Fuentes: Yeah, sure. I'm Vic Fuentes and I sing for Pierce The Veil. My brother, Mike Fuentes, plays the drums. Jaime Preciado plays the bass, and Tony Perry plays the guitar. As for our music, it is very diverse. We have never stuck to just one thing, which is always kind of cool and unique to find these days. It also gives us a lot of freedom in the studio to do whatever we want. Our music very diverse and progressive. Our fans will never know what to expect next.
SM: Recently you played in San Diego on Warped Tour. What was it like playing to a hometown crowd?
VF: It was amazing! The San Diego show was enormous. It was crazy. We had shirts made that had these San Diego logos on them and we wore them on stage. One thing we don't like about playing hometown shows, though, is that they can get very stressful. Everyone wants to get into the show like friends, family, etc and things can get hectic and out of hand. Other than that, the shows are amazing.
SM: Pierce The Veil toured with Warped in 2008. How has this tour differed from Warped Tour in 2008? How has the band evolved since the previous tour?
VF: This year's Warped Tour was cool because we knew what to expect. After being on Warped once, you are a veteran. We were a lot more prepared; we knew the type of crowds, the type of shows to expect, and we were able to put songs together that would be the fun for the crowd. We also knew what little things to remember, like camping showers, tents to hang out, and lawn chairs. Also, between Warped '08 and this year's Warped, we made a new record. We are always taking steps to do bigger and better things, like make our show bigger.
SM: Moving on from Warped Tour to your music...
SM: Your new album Selfish Machines was released on June 22nd. What was the recording process like?
VF: Honestly, it was kind of a mess and very intense. We moved up to Los Angeles to record and we were only supposed to be there for two months, but the record ended up taking four months to finish. It was definitely crazy and hectic. We even ran out of studio time, so I had to stay up in L.A. and finish up the vocals by myself. I did a lot of writing during the day in another studio. Even though times were crazy, you just have to remember that the harder you work, the better something comes out.
SM: Selfish Machines debuted on Billboards Heatseekers chart. What do you believe contributed to its success?
VF: Initially, a lot of anticipation was built up for the record. We toured so much for the first record that we gained loyal and completely awesome fans. Through Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, and other sites like those, we were able to stay in touch with fans and get everyone excited about Selfish Machines. When it finally came out, it was a big relief. It was like---finally!
SM: Your album has a unique array of songs. One song in particular, "Stay Away From My Friends," is featured as a piano ballad. We hear it was the first song you wrote on the piano. What pushed you to write a song on the piano? Can your fans expect more songs similar to this in the future?
VF: It was interesting how it all came about. I was just hanging out at my house in San Diego, and one day my roommate got a piano. We put it in our living room and I just started playing it a lot more. Eventually, after messing around on it for some time, I came up with the piano part for "Stay Away From My Friends." As a band, we are going to try to incoproate piano keys more often. We also collaborated with Dave Hayes. Hopefully we will have Dave Hayes on every album; Dave Hayes is an amazing musician and is fantastic in taking songs to a new level. We are lucky to have been able to collaborate with him on this album.
SM:Your first single off Selfish Machine is "Caraphernelia." Why did the band choose this song for their first single?
VF: We chose that song, I really don't know why. I guess we felt it best represented us as a band, for it's a little bit of everything. The song is catchy and it just felt right. We're excited about it. This song, actually, was a collaboration with a friend, Jeremy McKinnon. We felt that "Caraphernelia" was a strong opener song and that it was going to grab people right away.
SM: And you are finishing up the music video for "Caraphernelia" soon...or have you already finished it?
VF: I actually just got the final cut today.
SM: Awesome. Can you kind of explain the concept behind the music video?
VF: It was cool...kind of spread out over a month...shot on the first day or warped...drove to this house when the director had set everything up...shot performance there, footage from tour, stuff musicians can relate to. keeping touch on the road, making new relationships...and how difficult it is
SM: What are your plans after Warped Tour?
VF: We are going to Austrailia for the Take Action Tour for a few weeks. After that, we have dates for our fall tour with Attack Attack and Of Mice and Men set up. Basically, after Warped we are going to be doing a lot of touring. We were home writing and recording for a while and we want to be on the road now.
SM:Is there anything else you would like to say to your fans and the Musiqtone.com visitors?
VF: Our new record is out in all the stores and on itunes. We want everyone to go buy it, check it out and come to our shows. It's basically the whole point of what we do. If anybody hasn't heard of us, check us out on Myspace. Also, a big thank you to our fans. None of this would be possible without you
SM: Thank you for taking the time out to chat with me on behalf of Musiqtone. I hope to catch you on tour this fall.
VF: No problem. My pleasure. Hope to see you there! |
|
