MC: Speaking of Instagram, you recently posted your trip to a Third Eye Blind show. How important is it for you guys to remain fans of music and not just be music makers?
Fuentes: It’s important for me! Me and my brother still really love going to shows. It’s more surprising how common it is to hear tour guys be like, “The last thing I want to do is go to another show.” I don’t know, I just don’t understand it because I really love it. I love watching what they’re gonna do next and studying their production and their songs, their playing style, their guitar tones, everything––it’s all interesting to us. I think that’s what’s been so fun for us as a band. We love touring, we love the production and that side of things as well. The Third Eye Blind show was super fun.
As we go on being a band, surreal crazy things happen. We actually ended up writing “The Divine Zero” with Brad from Third Eye Blind last summer. It’s just cool to be connected with the people you’re inspired by.
MC: Your career has progressively grown from a touring Warped band to selling out venues all across the U.S. If you could give one bit of advice to a band who just finished their first successful Warped Tour, what would it be?
Fuentes: I think for us, longevity is a big key to any band. I would love to still be playing shows when we’re in our 40s and 50s and continue to make records that will probably sound nothing like our current records, but they will be something else.
I think your decisions need to be made thinking about longevity, as exciting as it is to be thinking about RIGHT NOW, all the time––to want to take every little thing that they feed you. Questioning decisions like that early on is really important. That’s what we did. We denied a lot of stuff that would have compromised the vision of the band and what we wanted to do and how we wanted to represent ourselves. Those are the decisions that you need to make early on to keep your band going for years to come. I think that’s a strong thing. Don’t let other people shape your band. If you have an idea of what you want your band to be, you need to shape it yourself.
**QUICK FACTS**
• Misadventures marks the longest Pierce The Veil had gone without releasing a full- length album (4 years).
• Misadventures, the band took a break to do a world tour and reconnect with their fans for creative inspiration.
• Pierce The Veil were a large part of the success of PUNK GOES POP 4 with their cover of Bruno Mars’ “Just The Way You Are.” The band has also released covers of “Don’t Fear The Reaper” and “Beat It.”
• Vic and Mike both learned to play guitar from their father, a jazz and rock guitarist.
• They have been nominated for four Kerrang Awards including Best International Band and have three Alternative Press Music Awards for Best Live Band, Best Drummer and Best Bassist.
• Pierce The Veil launched a charity auction where fans bid on a guitar to raise funds for Teenage Cancer Trust.
• One of the original merch concepts was to have a fake Pierce The Veil half-stack guitar amp that fans could put in their room.
• Pierce The Veil are no strangers to co-writing and have penned songs with Tom Denney (A Day To Remember) and Jonny Craig (Dance Gavin Dance), among others.
For more information on Pierce The Veil, contact Heidi Ellen Robinson-Fitzgerald.
