On the release of new track LosT, we catch up with Bring Me The Horizon’s Jordan Fish to chat about their new emo anthem…
Ten months since Bring Me The Horizon released sTraNgeRs, the Sheffield heavyweights have dropped another taste of their upcoming second Post Human instalment, LosT. An infectious rock club-ready banger, clearly wearing its emo influences on it sleeve, it's perfectly primed for a cacophonous, joyous sing-along when BMTH headline Download Festival this June.
Speaking exclusively to Kerrang!, electronic maestro Jordan Fish reveals all about their new track, working in different styles, what's to come from Post Human, and why they'll always challenge themselves…
LosT is the first new music from Horizon in almost a year. Why did you pick this song as the next song to put out there?
“That’s a good question. Usually on the singles we’re looking for something that’ll help people who don’t necessarily like our band – or know our band – engage with it. That’s part of the reason, I know it’s not a particularly artistic one, but catchy songs end up being singles. Compared to DiE4u and sTraNgeRs, it’s very emo-y feeling. That’s kind of one of the themes of the record musically, it goes a bit more there compared to the other two. It’s a bit more fun and upbeat compared to other songs we’ve done. Both Die4u and sTraNgeRs are more like ballads, so doing something a bit more upbeat and fun was cool. It was either that or do something slightly heavier, and we’ve got some heavier stuff coming on the rest of the record, so it felt like a good thing to drop now. We’ll see if we’re right!”
It’s interesting that you didn’t choose to drop a heavy song considering you’re headlining Download next month.
“We’re on a journey of doing different types of records, which we set ourselves up to do thinking we’d get through it really quickly, and it hasn’t panned out that way for a number of reasons. We’re working on four Post Human records and we’ve been working on them all at the same time; one of the reasons why it’s taken longer is that we’ve done stuff for the third and fourth ones as well. The fourth one is where we want to explore the more heavy stuff, so in a way it limits how much we want to go heavy on this one. You don’t want them all to sound the same and you want to be confident in your conviction of going all-in on a style. It’s been a bit challenging working out how to do heavy-ish stuff on the record that doesn’t feel necessarily ‘metal’ heavy. I can imagine this song being a popular song in a rock club. It’s a rock-y, emo-y pop song.”
The chorus in particular has that big, emo, My Chem influence.
“Yeah definitely. I think you’re not meant to talk about your influences – people usually say everything except what it’s obviously influenced by. You hear a band do a song that sounds exactly like Deftones and they’ll say they were listening to a lot of Glassjaw or something else – just say Deftones (laughs). So this song is influenced by My Chem. I feel the verse is a bit different, it’s kind of indie-sounding to me, like The Strokes or some pop-indie vibe. I don’t know why you make what you make, it just comes out.”
As someone who really focuses on the electronic and production side, do you relish working on those indie-synth sounds?
“It’s not something I’m craving, I kind of like it all. I’m involved in the writing of all the music, whether it’s the heavier side or more melodic stuff, and it’s the same with everyone else. It’s just sometimes you fancy a different challenge. When you’ve been working on more rock-y stuff sometimes it can feel a bit boring, so you want to find some different sounds. We’ve all got very broad tastes and I know that can be annoying for fans who really like the heavier stuff, but it’s not all that we like.”
Photo: Gobinder Jhitta
BMTH will always have fans who just want the heavy stuff. Do you get a thrill from subverting their expectation and making something they didn't think they'd like?
“I think it’s better to not think about it at all. The aim is to make something that we think is cool and that we haven’t done before. I’ve been in the band for 10 years now and the band’s been going for a long time, and you kind of realise it’s okay to have moments that aren’t for everyone. If every song is trying to appeal to 80-90 per cent of your fanbase, you’re going to end up making a lot of the same stuff. I just think that’s not a good recipe for a long and interesting career. Bands often go through phases, and that’s the same with a lot of bands that I like – there are times where I don’t vibe with certain stuff. Just from a creative point of view we try to keep it interesting, and there was a chance to make some poppier kind of music on this record. If we want to make a song with a big emo chorus, then why not? We’ve been in that world before with songs like Drown, but it feels fresh and it’s exciting for us to make.”
In the band's recent YouTube series, we see you tinkering away on songs in various green rooms and backstage areas around the world. Is that indicative of the creative process as a whole?
“That’s the main reason why it’s taken a lot longer than we thought it would to make this record. Since we started touring again, it’s been quite relentless for us, and I’ve got two children so I’m not willing to put everything second all the time anymore. A lot of the time we’d be touring and we’d go away and write for a few weeks, then we’d go back out on tour. For me, with two kids, that’s not going to work because I’d never see them. I’m away for six weeks touring, so when I come back I’m not going up to Sheffield – I’m not going to leave my house for a few weeks. That’s just me; everyone has their own commitments, and other people in the band have kids as well.
"We’ve been trying to do it more on tour so when we’re away we really are working. We have shows in the evening and all day we’ll be writing; we’ll bring someone to help us work on music which keeps things moving quicker, so we can write all day, then say, ‘Right, we’re gonna go play a show, you sort out that mess we made and tidy up those guitars or whatever.’ We’ve been working with Zakk Cervini – who does more than tidy up guitars – who mixed our last record and has been helping us produce, helps with the writing and is a really good guy to have around. On the last European tour we worked constantly for five weeks, so there’s not much daylight, but it does mean we’re moving the record along – otherwise it would be impossible with the amount of touring we’ve got and trying to be some kind of good dad on the side.”
Bring Me The Horizon headline Download Festival on June 9 – get your tickets now.
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