Black Veil Brides Frontman Reflects On ‘We Stitch These Wounds,’ Teases Possible Reissue

Black Veil Brides have always been known for their open relationship with fans. People come to them with stories to share, and the group not only listen, but return the sentiment by sharing personal tales of their own. All of their success up to this point has been built on this notion of being open and connected with listeners, and now thanks to a new blog from frontman Andy Biersack, fans can feel even closer about their rock idols than ever before.

Taking to Tumblr late last night, Biersack opened up in a lengthy blog post about the early days of Black Veil Brides. He reflected on specifically on the days before We Stitch These Wounds took off, recounting the messy apartment the members shared and the feelings they clung to when times got rough. It’s a period Biersack has rarely spoken about before now, but his description of events is so clear you feel as if you were there. You can read his thoughts below.

While the stroll down memory lane is certainly worth time, the big takeaway from the paragraphs that follow is the line, “This record and everything that surrounded it continue to this day to be the single most important thing collectively in the career of Black Veil Brides and I want to say that in the remaining months of 2013…you, the BVB Army will see something very exciting happen surrounding it.” Andy does not offer enough insight to know exactly what he means by this message, but it seems likely a reissue or themed tour will surface in the months ahead. Comment below and let us know what you think his tease could me.

I remember sitting on the floor of my first apartment in Hollywood, the carpet was once grey I believe but at this point it was more of a brown/black after being soaked in spilled wine and cigarette ashes….cockroaches crawled up and down the walls, leading into a kitchen that was often more of a trash collection room than a place to store or cook food. It wasn’t as if we could afford groceries anyway…just to eat we’d have to pool our money and make a trip to the nearby 711 to split a day old taquito slathered in whatever dipping sauce we could find to try to hide the taste. More often we would buy a bottle of seagrams or a handle of cheap vodka and sit around talking about the the career we were planning…at this point there was a fair amount of people in the world that knew who Black Veil Brides were..we had released a video on a shoestring budget after pulling in some favors and through that video we had gained some momentum. It was enough to garner a manager, booking agent, indie label deal…all the things you dream of when you are starting that seem unattainable… but for us…no matter how destitute we may have been…we always believed that it was just the first step haha.

It’s interesting what perception does…given that only a few months prior I was living either in my car in a parking lot in North Hollywood or I was sleeping on an ex bandmates floor for 100 bucks a month (no easy feat to procure haha) but now I had a home…we had a place to write and drink and be a band. This was an incredible feeling. That “home” was nicknamed “The compound” as it resembled more of a Manson family esque bomb shelter than an apartment…but we loved it. It was ours. Its there that we sat and wrote songs like “Heavens Calling” and “Children Surrender” and its on that floor that I wrote the lyrics for a song called “Perfect Weapon” which became a song that would further help to define the ideals of the band and the relationship we would come to have with our fans (not yet the “BVB Army”)

As we grew as a band a clear message started to form between us and the audience…our songs and “Never Give In” attitude would serve as a means for all of us involved to break free from our past or the things that effected us, we could help people that were in the battle of life and hopefully give some strength to those who needed it. This was the beginning of the “army” mentality. The paint we wore on our bodies started to become “war” paint…something that would signify someone who was outcasted from society for having different interests or beliefs from what was considered “normal”. This was of course long before the notion of body paint became a commonplace idea. You need only to have an internet connection worthy of a google search these days to find many bands that now utilize this same image, some for theatrics and some..alarmingly…for corporate financial gain and social manipulation. However at this time in our history..our image, songs and “gang” vocals started to become a calling card for the disenfranchised…and amongst this we found something that we all yearned for, a true calling.

It’s important to note that while this was forming we by no means had it all figured out…we knew what we wanted to do and we knew our hearts were in the right place…it was genuine but we were still just barely sliding by with no money, lots of booze and what we thought was a badass idea. This was “We Stitch These Wounds”. The collected works of the first half of our lives combined into one 12 song LP.

The recording of WSTW took place (as with everything in our lives at the time) in modest means, we had a minuscule budget and I got horrendously sick the week before I was supposed to track vocals and was forced to delay the process causing all vocals to be tracked in 3 days with about a gallon of flem, mucous and whatever other random gross sickly fluids one could have in their nose and lungs. We didn’t care though…we were putting out an album and it was all we ever wanted it to be.

The record was released, the army grew…the critics absolutely hated it and we knew we were on the right track.
I started thinking about this time period tonight as I was on twitter looking at some of the mentions I was receiving about how the “band has changed” or how our recent actions “are shitty” or what have you. It intrigued me because as far as I know the only thing thats changed among the 5 of us is that we now get to enjoy the success of what we have worked for.

This record and everything that surrounded it continue to this day to be the single most important thing collectively in the career of Black Veil Brides and I want to say that in the remaining months of 2013…you, the BVB Army will see something very exciting happen surrounding it.

WSTW is going to take on a new life and I hope that this record, the record that took us from being punk street kids to members of a band that tours the world can be heard by each one of you in the light we believe that it deserves.

#WSTW2103

-Andy

James Shotwell
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6 Responses to “Black Veil Brides Frontman Reflects On ‘We Stitch These Wounds,’ Teases Possible Reissue”

  1. Crescencio Martinez says:

    Could black veil brides be bringing back the makeup and war paint lets find out in our next episode of black veil brides taking over the world town by town

  2. Dalton Erb says:

    we can only hope, I’ll admit I’ve seen them live now 3 times, each time in support of a different album…and in my opinion every time they have degraded. Not only in quality of music, but in attitude and overall care towards their fans. I can only hope this new life he speaks of brings back the feeling I had as a fan seeing them for the first time at a little hole in the wall venue in small town Ohio

  3. shana ann pyer says:

    Black Veil Brides Frontman Reflects On ‘We Stitch These Wounds XD

  4. Vanessa Jane Paulsen says:

    Ok. So just listen to all of you. Do you honestly not realize what it is you are saying? The appearance isn’t what Black Veil Brides want their fans to think of when they get down or something. They want people to LISTEN not with their eyes but with their ears. The way they dress should not in anyway interfere with your ability to appreciate the messages behind each lyric. The makeup and war paints were just for show it isn’t just about that. It is about how much of a connection you fell for the MUSIC not the make up or the paint. Hell if you love how they used to dress so much go fucking look on Google at their pictures. They are a band that plays and sings for people all over the world who feel like filth. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover. otherwise you will miss out on a lot of things that you could have seen if you only had not wasted the time given to you by complaining over costumes.

  5. Taylor Hardiman says:

    We Stitch These Wounds has very poor instrument quality due to the low budget and lack of experience. Black Veil Brides are re-recording the instruments to the album and re-releasing it now that they have advanced so far and become a much better band. I’m not too sure if the vocals will be redone though.

    -source: Jake Pitts (Lead Guitarist twitter.)

  6. TheConcertMom says:

    Show #14 coming up for me. I have to say that the boys have gotten better with time. I’ve met them and hung out with them many times. No I’m not some fan girl. Old enough to be all of their moms! They have always been polite and respectful to myself and the fans I’ve seen them interact with. Apparently you have a problem with people evolving for the better. But to each his own. The boys will continue their rise to the top with or without your support! They will always have my support!