Interview: Tony Perry from ‘Pierce The Veil’

Quickly becoming one of the biggest post-hardcore bands to date, Pierce The Veil are bringing their electrifying sound to Australia this August in support of their new album ‘Misadventures’. We chatted with guitarist Tony Perry about his life with Pierce The Veil, the recording of their new album, and some things fans might not know about him!

Being the guitarist do you feel like you have to fight for attention or do you feel like the band is pretty equal?

Actually in our band especially we are all pretty equal. We have always made it about all four of us, we have never really pushed just the lead singer or anything. Because of that I feel like our fans latch on to each individual member, they recognise all of us. Where is you do get a lot of bands where people only know the lead singer so its kind of cool to think people have found interest in each of our personalities because we are all different enough from each other.

How are you feeling about releasing your new album ‘Misadventures’ into the world?

Good, really good! Its really exciting because a lot of things have been different when announcing the release of this album compared to others.  A lot of the press and media attention that we have received has been from bigger companies and radio stations that we had never been apart of before. We have never experienced this with another record, so its pretty exciting to see exactly where ‘Misadventures’ is going to take us.

What kind of themes are you tackling in this album?

In every record, Vic Fuentes makes sure every song is very very personal, so each records tells a story about a different part of his life. This time it was actually more difficult for him to sort out what he wanted to write about. But when he finally did, all the stories about things that have happened to him or impacted him through this last four years its all in there. We finally tried to let our fans in so they could take a peek at our little world and throughout ‘Misadventures’ they get to hear it all.

How long was the recording process?

When it started and we actually went into the studio to record, as a band I think we were there for about two months. Once we finished recording all our instruments the three of us went home and Vic stayed for maybe another three months after that. We ended up having to break up the process to go on ‘Warped Tour so during that the record was pushed to the side. I think it was still a few months after Warped Tour before Vic was able to finish the lyrics and get everything sorted. It was a pretty long process!

Is their a track on the album that you connect with more than others or that you enjoy playing the most?

The second single we released Texas Is Forever is probably my favourite on the album right now. We went back and played stuff like we used to play straight out of high school which was really fast punk because that’s what we were all into back then. It was fun going to back to what we used to be into, but we were unsure whether our fans would respond to that or not. It’s gone pretty well so far, so its cool that our take on that style of music still came through to our fans.

Are you happy with the album as a finished product?

I’m very happy with how it turned out! Its kind of our thing that for any part that we write we keep trying more and more things. Basically we exhaust every option until we end up going back to what we started with initially. For us we felt like we did actually try everything we could by replacing parts and fixing things and this is exactly what how we wanted it to turn out.

How do you stay connected with your fans during the writing and recording process?

All of us still post random pictures or videos things like that from our personal life. The fans are always pretty on top of us to stay connected so if someone hasn’t said something in a while they will let you know. They will let us know if we haven’t posted something in a few days by tweeting at us or sending us a message. They are very much on top of things.

What has been your most memorable live performance?

That’s a tough one. Just recently we played Reading and Leeds Festivals and I’d actually been injured when we were suppose to do ‘Warped Tour this past year. I missed out on that entire tour so when Reading and Leeds happened I was finally better so I joined back with the band. It was pretty crazy because at that point I hadn’t toured in about a year, so my first full show back with the guys just so happened to be the biggest show we have ever played. The crowd was huge out there so it was pretty crazy to come back to something that big!

What do you think sets Pierce The Veil above other hardcore bands?

Our producer kind of came up with it during one of our records before. He said I don’t care what you play or what you do as long as it is interesting, it has to be interesting! Because of that we always strive to find something whether its a little Spanish riff or something like that that song needs to set it apart from whatever else we have done before. I think that’s all we try to do, we just try to keep it interesting and I think we have insanely dedicated fans who appreciate that. That is what I think sets us apart is the dedication we have from all our fans.

Tell us something no one knows about you?

These days people have figured out pretty much everything about me. They basically know it all. Something people may not know is that I actually set out to be a drummer when I first started playing. But here I am playing guitar so that didn’t really work out!

Favourite after show meal?

Umm…pretty much all we get is pizza after shows. It’s the easiest thing to grab. Pizza is pretty good too because you cant really mess that up, even bad pizza is good pizza!

Pierce The Veil 2016 Australian Tour

TUES 16 AUG
Eatons Hill Hotel, Brisbane
WED 17 AUG
Big Top at Luna Park, Sydney
THURS 18 AUG
Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide
SAT 20 AUG
170 Russell, Melbourne
TUES 23 AUG
Astor Theatre, Perth

Get Tickets HERE