Bleeding Through

I spoke to Brandon, from Bleeding Through July1st shortly before there set at the Camden Underworld, London, heres the outcome, so consume. (Photos coming soon!)
How old are you?
24

Where are you all from?
Where based out of Orange County but, but our guitar player Brian is from Santa Cruz, California, Marta is from Seattle. But were all based in Orange County now.

What would you probably be doing if you weren’t in a band full-time, what were you doing before you started this?
Before playing music I was playing baseball and I would probably be a professional baseball player

Really?
Yeah, I played in high school and then I got scholarship offers to go to colleges and stuff like that, then I got in a band and started to do that.

I spoke to Scott from Terror yesterday and he was saying basically the same thing he was quite into sports and then of course he got into the music
I loved playing baseball but I think music just kind of took over a place in my heart instead of baseball.

Now you were a guitarist for both Throwdown & Eighteen Visions had you always wanted to be a singer and take centre stage?
I actually never wanted to be a singer

So what was it that made you make that transformation?
Well I was playing guitar in both Throwdown & Eighteen Visions after a while I just kind of wasn’t fulfilled with any of the lyrical content of either of the bands. The only way I was actually going to like the lyrics of the band I was in was if I sang. So I just started it out and it kind of I don’t know just eventually became comfortable with it but its actually something I never really wanted to be like a singer on stage.

Were you quite uncomfortable when you first started?
Yeah, I’m still uncomfortable now, but its alright, it’s fine now.

You started out on Indecision Records was that linked to you being in Throwdown? Because of course Dave Mendel did the first Throwdown CD
Well when I was in Throwdown we put out a record called Beyond Repair on Indecision, I had this history of working with Indecision Records, when it came to Bleeding Through and putting out our first record I trusted Dave and I decided to out it out on Indecision.

Did Mendel approach you?
No, were all just kind of friends

I kind of get that vibe that your all just this huge group of friends
That’s exactly how it is, and he’s known for putting out his friend’s bands

That seems to be how it all starts for people, helping out their friends. Where do you think the appeal of Bleeding Through lies its amazing that you’ve come from this hardcore background whilst keeping your integrity and branching out into people from metal influences, you draw a lot of influences from a lot of different places but essentially your a hardcore band. As an example of that you ended up playing second stage at Ozzfest last year
Yeah that was cool; it was like coming from the hardcore scene you learn how to connect with the crowd better that any other scene. We do take on a little bit more of a metal feel some metal kids are into us and its weird and I never thought Bleeding Through would be a band where girls come to our shows. It’s kind of weird but I don’t know I guess we still appeal more to a heavier music crowd or whatever I don’t know necessarily whether a lot of hardcore kids are into us any more but were going to do what were going to do and some of those people are going to be into it and some of them are not. We didn’t start this music wanting to please anybody so were not going to go out wanting to please anybody.

How has the rise of Bleeding Through affected you and does media attention phase you?
Nah
What’s it like seeing your self in a magazine?
It’s weird but its like you could either be a band that’s going to believe the smoke that people blow up your ass or you can be a band that doesn’t believe it. We don’t really believe it, they can write what ever they want to write about, and they’re going to have their opinions and all that stuff. If its good or not I think a lot of bands that get write ups in magazines I think they believe what these people write too much and turn into these fake big bands, that think there bigger than they are. We know it’s probably just one person that writes for a magazine that actually likes us

Going back to what we were just saying, You don’t look like the sort of guy that would get nervous before a show and another reason I was going to speak to you about this was I just started as a singer in a band as well, a youth crew band and I never thought I would get this opportunity, I kind of gave up on music hence why I promote it like this, I’ve always been involved more so in the background stuff.
Can you remember what was going through your head when the band started out?
The thing is when I was in Throwdown before Bleeding Through was a band I kind of like sang and played guitar in I guess a rocky singy emo band type thing that was a little bit different. Then a few times when I actually sang for Throwdown because Keith was sick and so I kind of got a lot of practise with that and still I’m really uncomfortable. But the funny thing with that was when I sang with Throwdown, it was more like a joke “oh Brandon’s singing for Throwdown again” and it was more like fun but Bleeding Through is way more serious so like it kind of took a long time and I still get nervous before every show. It’s hard because sometimes I don’t feel like talking to anybody, do you know what I mean? And then having to go on stage connecting with everyone

Would you say you get shy around people?
Yeah definitely, when I played guitar no matter what mood I was in I could just put it on and fucking play it & get into my own little world. I wouldn’t have to worry about what other people were doing but when you sing in a band you’re responsible for everybody there, so it’s hard.
What about talking to the crowd as well, is that something that you’ve had to develop
Well its weird because sometimes I go off the vibe I get from the crowd and if I think the crowd is really stand offish and pompous I won’t say anything but if I think the crowd is really young and impressionable and needs to hear some things then I’ll like throw in my two cents. It’s kind of rare that that happens these days.
You reckon?
There’s a lot more attitude with the scene than there used to be. People really don’t what I want to say about anything.

What was being on Ozzfest like in a nutshell? Was it surreal for you?
Yeah, because you go up on stage and you see al these people that you’ve never seen before.
How many people was it?
The biggest show we played was 15,000. That was in Southern California so that was a little easier cause a lot of people knew who we were. Usually it would be between 2-6,000 it was just insane. You really learn how to work the crowd when your in front of that number of people, its kind of hard playing in front of that many people trying to maintain connection with like everybody in the crowd is a hard thing to do.

How many tattoos’s have you got?
Both my arms are sleeves, my hands, and my stomach, wrapped around my stomach, my chest, my back, and my ribs.

Have you got any that particularly mean the most to you?
Just mainly my Misfits & Black Flag tattoos because they were both two bands that my brother go me really into

Was he older than you?
Yeah, other than that that’s kind of a reminder of like what I always wanted to do, follow in the footstep’s of those bands, those bands did there own thing and they didn’t really fucking care. The thing is with Bleeding Through I think we try to maintain not really caring what other people say & we know that we play for kind of a rough scene, I’m sure you could attest to it that a hardcore scene is never is embarrassed to give an opinion on anything it’s not like the punk scene or another scene it’s just a very free speaking scene and it’s funny I’ve learnt from being in a band like Throwdown and Eighteen Visions with Bleeding Through just how quickly people turn there backs on there bands, just how quickly one other persons influence who thinks your cool or they don’t like your band and then they can convince you to not like that band as well. I think that’s just the thing, I’d seen it when I was in Eighteen Visions people would get into them and then all of a sudden Joe Cool will come around and be like “Oh Eighteen Visions sucks, look at there hair, look at there clothes”
You mean like on message boards?
Yeah and then these kids are like (takes on mocking joke tone) “Yeah, you know what there right! fuck that band!” even though that band was responsible for getting them into the hardcore scene in the first place. So I knew that when I started Bleeding Through there was going to be a whole lot of that, and well the thing is we don’t want to just appeal to hardcore kids, we want to appeal to everybody. There is a place for everyone in the music.

Look how long it took for bands like Agnostic Front & Sick Of It All, I mean they’ve come in and out of fashion so many times I can’t even remember the amount of times I’ve heard stupid comments about those bands and there both incredible every time you see them, I must have seen them (sick of it all) 4/5 times last year.
What inspires you and your lyrics?
It’s kind of just a story of my life, just going through a lot of bullshit, like relationships it’s sort of just a story of all that.

I read that you like Stallone, Schwarzenegger & Christopher Walken I was going to ask if you’ve ever been influenced by them?
(Laughs) Nah it all has to do with heartbreak, I wish I could get influenced by a Stallone movie

Would you say that you were a romantic?
Definitely

Could you give me some tips on keeping my voice in good condition? Do you have some kind of drink?
Nah I don’t believe in drinks or sprays or anything like that. I do like a breathing exercise I went to a vocal place a couple of time to learn how to do it properly. I think if you’re a screamer or anything go to a coach or something and learn how to do it properly. Because there are ways to do these things, you can just show up and be like I’m in a band I want to learn how to do this, a scream and there like fine, cool and they’ll show you how to project it.

Did they show you how to carry on the breathing?
Yeah that basically what I do when I warm up.

How long does that take you?
15 minutes

Speaking of keeping in good condition, you obviously work out, do you?
Yeah, six days a week

Really, even on tour? What are your favourite gym activities like cardiovascular?
Usually when I’m at home I’ll bulk up and then right before I’ll go out on tour I’ll just do a whole load of cardio and a lot of light weight training just get ready for the tour.

Are you into boxing or running?
Yeah I run, but I train to do ju-jitsu as well, because I’m sort and it’s a good technique to have if your short and in a fight.

What can you press?
What do you mean like bench? My max that I’ve done at the peak of my weight and everything was probably like 315pounds
When did you first get into straight edge?
I was 12

So you’ve never really drunk?
No I have, see Southern California is a place where not matter how old you are you can get your hands on whatever you want I was like 12 years old and I was drinking and smoking, I’d done coke and all that kind of shit because all of my friends were older and I just wanted to be cool like them. But then I got out of it and I’ve been straight edge ever since I was 12.

I know that it’s something that you take seriously and I love the fact “Rise” to straight edge kids
Well rise is pretty much a song that has to do with straight edge and stuff like that. Everybody in the band is straight edge were not necessarily, were not like Throwdown a straight edge band but everybody in the band is straight edge.

So you don’t really X up?
Well I used to but then I got a hand tattoo, and I could put an X on the other one but I’m probably going to have that tattooed soon

Do you know what you’re going to have?
(It sounded like) I’m going to get a panther’s head

One thing I did want to touch on and a subject I have talked about with my other interviews was one of the reasons I got into hardcore was this anti-violence concept and being a main stay of straight edge culture. When I first got into it five or six years ago that was one thing that always struck me as something that struck me as really empowering. What do you think about stuff like Boston Beatdown coming through? Do you think it gives hardcore a bad name? Some of the stuff FSU does seems to be good like helping out with shows
Yeah I know in Boston they do a lot security at shows, I think they took it a little too far I don’t think trying to make money off people getting beat up is a good idea but then again…
Did you ever see Bumfights (where they pay hobos to beat each other up on film)?
I’m friends with a lot of those dudes and four of us in Bleeding Through are in Courage Crew and so it’s like I dunno

What is it?
It’s just a straight edge crew

We don’t really hear much about that, I’ve heard of them
It’s been around for a long time, probably like 10 years almost, it’s a straight edge crew, a group of friends, I can say that I know everybody in the crew, I think it has some good ambassadors. I’m in Courage Crew; Howard from Killswitch (Engage) is in courage crew. But again it gets kind of a bad rap some times I guess.

I think its probably just the word crew, people automatically assume gang and not just a bunch of people getting together.

Are you affected much by current affairs?
Nah, I mean I could be but its like what’s the point dude, we tired to get a different president but that didn’t work.

Have you ever had any weird stalker style fan happenings at all?
(Laughs as if the question is all to familiar) Yeah
Does it freak you out?
Kind of, we came home once & our roof was on fire! Me, Ryan and Marta cam out at two in the morning and our roof was on fire, that’s kind of scary, I have no idea why that happened. As far as stalkers go I’ve had a good few I guess.

Do you have any nerdy interests? Hobbies that you obsess about? Like an Ebay addiction?
One thing that takes me of guard is that I’m a really big Morrissey fan. You wouldn’t expect that but

So what other influences do you have outside of hardcore?
My favourite artists are probably like Morrissey & Nick Cave; I don’t know bands like Jets To Brazil.

I’ll just ask you this last one…What plans have you got for new material?
Were actually halve way done with the new record, we come home from this tour and do six weeks on tour in the states and then we come back home from that and finish it.

What plans & hopes do you have for not only the bands future but your own?
I just hope that the next record gets out to more people, Our record just got to 100,000 and its cool that all these people have the record and hear what we have to say. I know a lot of bands that try and be modest like they don’t care I kind of do care, it’s bullshit if you say you don’t care, what’s the point of doing your band if you don’t care

Exactly you want to get your music out to as many kids as possible
I hope it just gets better, there’s a message with Bleeding Through that I think everybody deserves to hear.

What is that message?
A lot of bands from the scene sing about how tough they are, this and that but they don’t deal with emotion so that’s what Bleeding Through gives back.