BLACK VEIL BRIDES Frontman: ALICE COOPER 'Has Been Really Complimentary Of Us'

Brian Fischer-Giffin of Australia's Loud conducted an interview with vocalist Andrew Biersack of Los Angeles theatrical rockers BLACK VEIL BRIDES. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Loud: I can sort of tell that you'd be a big Alice Cooper fan.

Andrew: Definitely. And what's really interesting and what's really cool is that Alice has been really complimentary of us, especially recently, in the press. He's been saying that we're the sort of band who's bringing back everything that he loves about rock 'n' roll music. So it's really cool to hear that. And he was also quoted as saying that if we put out a really good record then the world is sort of ours to be the biggest band in the world. When you look at one of your heroes saying things like that about you, it's definitely a very cool experience.

Loud: Well you really do have your haters, but that's all part of it isn't? Does that give you something to prove?

Andrew: I don't know. Most bands are as exciting as a bowl full of sugar-free vanilla pudding. There's so many bands that are just sort of there, and that's great, you can close your eyes and it's a soundtrack to whatever. But I like the abrasive nature of what this band is, and I think that... there's no one who just kinda hates us. The people that hate us go on the Internet and talk about how much they hate us, which is an amazing thing to me! I never disliked something so much in my life that I felt like I needed to go online and tell other people about that. I think it's interesting. It only stands to make our fans stronger and feel more unified.

Loud: I have to ask you about the whole Andy Six persona. I grew up with MTLEY CRE, and a lot of people are just going to think you're ripping off Nikki Sixx.

Andrew: I certainly went by that name at a younger age. I don't really use it anymore. A lot of fans still call me that and I don't get upset. But I think that, as a kid, especially growing up where I did I grew up in a very small place and my heroes were pretty obvious. I used that character to escape the drudgeries of being a kid in a small town. I grew up on comic books, and comic book characters always had their hero persona to rise up against the things that were shitty in their life. Especially a character like Batman, he used a disguise to become stronger. For me, Andy Six was a character I used to make myself stronger as a kid. Now, being that I'm an adult and in a successful band, I don't really need it anymore. I'll always understand and respect when someone needs a shield to hide behind. And now, as a band, we represent that shield to a lot of young kids.

Loud: And those kids are your target audience obviously, and many of them have probably not really heard much of the music that influenced you.

Andrew: Obviously we're influenced by the glam bands. We're also heavily influenced by punk bands like DEAD BOYS, LORDS OF THE NEW CHURCH, THE DAMNED and as much as we're influenced by METALLICA and SLAYER, we have forty years of rock music to work with and we try to mix all our influences equally. It's sort of a huge melting pot of all the things we like best about rock music.

Read the entire interview from Loud.