Bring Me The Horizon

Bring Me The Horizon were one of those bands that everyone, including myself, loved to hate. But with the release of their new album "Suicide Season", and a refreshing, new, albeit rockier sound, the band seems to but one that people now hate to love.

I spoke to bass player Matt Kean via email about the new album, touring the US with Misery Signals and a whole lot more!

Can you please tell us your name, what you do in Bring Me The Horizon and your drink of choice?

Matt Kean, I play bass and my drink of choice is water. If you don't like water, The human body is 75% water so really you hate yourself!

You guys are currently on your first headlining US tour, along with Misery Signals and The Ghost Inside. How have the shows been going?

The shows have so far been awesome all the kids have been going crazy to the new songs and old so its been amazing!!!

Were you at all nervous headlining for the first time in another country?

Not really nervous its more exciting would be the word i would use its so awesome to see everyone singing along and going nuts especially in another countries also when we've played countries where the main language isn't english thats really cool to see!

How does the prepare for such an ambitious tour, especially when you're playing with acts as highly regarded as "Misery Signals"? 

We just approach it like any other tour really just go out and perform our best and hope everyone goes away from the show impressed and had a good time!!!

You were lucky enough to take part in this summer's "Warped Tour", how did that did go for you guys?

It was one of the best tours we've been on so far it was an amazing tour to be part of and we'd love to do it again all the shows we're awesome and the crowds we're all crazy!!!

A lot of bands say that "Warped" is the most mentally and physically demanding tour on the calendar, how did you hold up?

 I don't think we found it that hard really! it was just real fun! we were only on half of the tour so maybe if your on it for the whole tour it can get physically demanding but i don't think there was any part of it we disliked!

"Suicide Season" was recently released, did it get the response – both from your fans and critics – that you were expecting?

We didn't really expect anything but we all believed that the album was the best songs we'd ever written and once it was released and we got feedback from the fans and the critics we were really pleased!!

The new record is a lot more diverse compared to your previous releases, how did the writing and preparation for this album differe compared to your past work?

We Didn't have as much time when we wrote the CD as we did when we wrote CYB also we were more open to more ideas this time so we were kinda under pressure but we would write everyday all day and we all seemed to be in the same mind set of where the album was going.

You were lucky enough to work on "Suicide Season" with Fredrik Norstrom (At The Gates, Archy Enemy, I Killed The Prom Queen). What did he bring to the table as far as the writing and arranging?

We were quite stubborn when it came to the arranging and all the songs were wrote before we entered the studio but Fredrik helped us so much with the sound of the CD and adding the effects and generally making the CD sound amazing!!

Do you think you would have got the same results had you worked with a different producer?

Its hard to tell!!! but i dont think so, I think every part of the album all came together at the right time and using Fredrik was a part of the album as us writing it.

Was it important for you guys as a band to try and diverse your sound at this stage of your career?

I think we wanted to diverse for our own selfish reasons rather than thinking about the bands career we all needed something fresh and i don't think we could have handled writing CYB part 2 and touring that for 2 years, we needed something we all felt was different and refreshing and that breathed new life into the band, we didn't wanna stagnate and become boring.

Were there any influences present at the time of writing that maybe hadn't affected your band on your previous work?

We went through alot since CYB was released just general things like 18/19 year olds go through on the way to being 21/22 but also things like Oli's court case, being on tour a lot more than we had ever been, Missing friends/family and all that defianlty affected the writing process of the SS.

The response to "Bring Me The Horizon" on your Australia tour in May was huge, when can we expect to see you guys back in the country?

Yeah the response was amazing and we will defiantly be back soon i think the plan is around spring 09 but we will defiantly be back its one of our favorite places in the world to tour and also just to hang!

2008 has been a great year for new music, what have been your three favourite records?

This will destroy you - This will destroy you

Norma jean - The Anti-mother

The Red Shore - Unconsecrated

If "Bring Me The Horizon" could tour with any three bands – dead or alive – who would they be and why?

Metallica - because Lee and Curtis love them so it would be there dream tour!

Micheal Jackson - because hes a legend and he can teach me his moves!

Dexys midnight runners - so we can dance drunkly to "c'mon Eileen" everynight

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

I'd like to thank all the nice people in Australia who came to see us last year and everyone who bought Suicide season and we'll see you soon!!!

Thanks for the interview.

Bring Me The Horizon's latest album 'Suicide Season' is out now through Shock Records. You can purchase your copy right now from the Killyourstereo.com store.