THIS. IS. SEMPITERNAL. The day of release has arrived, and to celebrate, we’re posting an interview we did with Bring Me The Horizon last week. We went down to Sony HQ to have a chat with Matt Nicholls, Matt Kean, Lee Malia and new member Jordan Fish. We talked Sempiternal, touring and maintaining that hype. Check it out!
HOW ARE YOU FEELING ABOUT THE RELEASE OF SEMPITERNAL?
MATT NICHOLLS: Yeah, I think we’re just ready for it to come out now. We’re ready to hold a physical copy of it.
JORDAN FISH: Yeah, some people have got physical copies of it and we haven’t. We’re devastated.
MATT KEAN: I’m sure someone will have one here [Sony HQ].
JF: Yeah, someone will have one here.
MN: But yeah, we’re excited. It’s about time it came out, innit?
WHEN WAS IT ALL DONE?
JF: We finished it in December.
IT WAS DUE TO COME OUT THE END OF APRIL. WHY WAS THERE SUCH A BIG GAP? DID YOU FINISH EARLY?
LEE MALIA: They just wanted a massive gap.
JF: They just wanted a big gap before it came out and then it leaked and then we moved the release date forward because of that I guess, but it’s cool for us because we don’t have to wait another month. Two months would’ve been tough to be doing press and stuff. Even one month seems like ages to start talking about it before it comes out.
HOW DID YOU FEEL WHEN IT LEAKED?
MN: At first we were gutted.
JF: The first night we were gutted. We were on tour.
MN: We were in Australia.
JF: I found it. We always check for leaks because we knew it was gonna happen anyway and I found it on my laptop and I downloaded it and I played it and I was like “That’s it”.
MN: “It’s ruined!” We were gutted at first but we just had to accept it. I mean, the day after we just accepted it.
JF: Once we got a response from people it took the edge off it a bit.
MK: Yeah, we had messages off people saying “I’ve just listened to it and it’s awesome so I’ve pre-ordered it” so we thought “Oh, maybe it’s not gonna make that much of a difference”.
YEAH, IT WORKED OUT PRETTY WELL. AND THESE SHOWS FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE PRE-ORDERED THE ALBUM ARE A GREAT IDEA – HAS THAT WORKED OUT WELL?
MN: We hope so!
JF: Bristol Thekla will be good! It’s kind of on a boat. It’s a boat but you can’t sail off or anything. It’s joined to the shore, but it is a boat. But boats aren’t renowned for their sound, so we’ll see.
MK: Apparently the sound on the Titanic was terrible!
HOW’S THE RESPONSE BEEN TO THE ALBUM SINCE YOU STREAMED IT?
MN: Good! It’s been pretty positive hasn’t it?
JF: It’s been really good with the fans, and the critics.
IT’S ABSOLUTELY CORKING.
MN: Thanks! Corking, that’s a reyt word.
ARE YOU EXCITED FOR THE UK TOUR NEXT MONTH?
MN: Yeah. We just did Australia and South Africa and that. They were our first shows back after over a year or whatever. I mean, we did the UK Warped Tour show and we played the Leadmill in Sheffield but it were our first proper run of shows. I think we just got a proper taste for it and we’d missed it so I think we’re all wanting to get back out there and play. We’ve got a bit of a buzz now, everyone’s buzzing. We were on tour for fucking years and then it ran us down a bit and when we came back round to doing it again we were all just itching, you know what I mean? So we’re all ready for it and excited.
YOU’VE MANAGED TO KEEP A LOT OF HYPE AROUND YOUR BAND WHILE THE REST OF THE MUSIC INDUSTRY ISN’T DOING TOO WELL. HOW DO YOU THINK YOU’VE DONE THAT?
MN: Brought Jordan Fish in!
JF: I’m the hype man!
MN: Hype man!
MK: I think people just get bored of bands doing the same thing again and again and I guess we try and change it up every album.
JF: Trying to do a different sound every album helps and pushing yourselves a bit and if you just do the same record again and again people don’t really respond to that. You just end up on a downward trajectory.
MN: It gets boring dunnit?
JF: It’s boring to be in the band if you’re doing that stuff and it’s boring for other people too.
SO WHEN DID YOU COME IN, JORDAN?
JF: June last year is when I started working with the band and then I did a couple of shows with them. I officially joined in January.
HOW HAS THAT CHANGED THE DYNAMIC OF THE BAND?
MN: I think it’s changed the songwriting.
LM: Even live, all the songs he plays on – we’ve revamped them so the set all sounds different. It’s the same songs but it all sounds fresh. The whole live set up’s different now because we’ve got Matt and him set up on either side and it’s like a new, fresh start.
MN: It’s like a new band. That time off, we needed it, you know what I mean, and it did refresh us a lot and we got excited about touring and playing shows again and everyone’s in a good place, feeling positive, and we’ve got Sony backing us now. We feel good.
WHAT HAVE YOU GOT COMING UP NOW?
MN; UK, Europe, Warped.
JF: UK, Europe, Warped and then Reading and then it’s not been decided but we’ll probably do another UK tour at the end of the year.
MN: I think we’ll probably do Australia, a headline tour.
JF: Maybe Japan too.
DID IT GO WELL AT SOUNDWAVE? IS THAT WHY YOU’RE KEEN TO GO BACK?
MN: We always wanna go back. I think even since the first time – actually the first time we went was with Megadeth and it were a bit shit. We opened the tour and we were literally playing as they opened the doors so kids were like sat down at the barrier while we were playing, not bothered at all and it were shit but we still had a good time. But then when we went back after that it were probably one of the best tours we’ve ever done. It’s one of them places that’s reyt good every time we go. The people are laidback and the weather’s nice, birds are sick, good place.
WITH SOCIAL MEDIA, I THINK YOU’VE MANAGED TO GET THE BALANCE RIGHT: YOU’RE THERE ENOUGH TO MAINTAIN THE HYPE BUT YOU DON’T OVERLOAD PEOPLE.
JF: To be honest, we don’t do too much. All we do is write the record and try and make it really good, and most of that stuff is other people.
MN: We have a saying don’t we, we get it run by us…
JF: If we don’t like something we can say no, but all we can do is write the best record we can and if people like it then they’re gonna like it.
MN: It’s Sony as well I think. Sony have really helped us out with that. Visible Noise did all they could for us but Sony’s another level.
JF: They know what they’re doing.
MN: Visible Noise had two people in the whole label and Sony’s got two people to wipe your arse when you go to the bog.
HAHAHA. WHEN DID YOU JOIN SONY?
MN: Last year or summat like that. They wanted to sign us and they were saying mad shit like it’s as big as signing Metallica back in the day. I were like, “What you talking about?” For us it’s like the same band but for them it were like Metallica for some reason. They seem right into it.
SO WHAT’S THE INFLUENCES BEHIND SEMPITERNAL? WHAT WERE YOU LISTENING TO WHEN YOU WERE WRITING?
JF: Pretty much everything. Loads of different influences. Pretty much everything but metal. I think we tried to take different influences for different songs so that’s why it sounds quite varied. Some of them are more influenced by electronic stuff, and some are more influenced by pop, and some are influenced by rock and some are more like metal influenced.
MN: We take influences from everything, it’s not just music.
JF: That’s why it’s interesting. It’s not just taken from one source.
MN: Like film soundtracks and stuff like that. Even TV adverts. If you buzz off something it’s an influence, innit?
JF: That’s how to write music isn’t it? You have to have varied and interesting influences.
WHERE ARE YOU GONNA GO NEXT AFTER THIS?
JF: 3D DVD! I think we could do a lot of different songs on the next album. It just depends on how we feel in a year and a half or two years.
LM: Next CD we won’t know what we’re gonna do until we do it.
MN: We’ve always been like that.
JF: When you’ve just finished an album it feels like the last thing you’re thinking about is the next one. I’m sure it’ll be interesting.
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