BRING ME THE HORIZON's OLI SYKES: 'The Only Rule With Our Music Is We Never Write The Same Album Twice'

In a new interview with Esther Wang of Estherini, Oli Sykes spoke about BRING ME THE HORIZON's musical evolution since the band's inception more than two decades ago. Asked if BRING ME THE HORIZON's shift from brutal deathcore roots to stadium-filling alternative rock, pop and electronic-infused cyber-metal was "intentional" or if it was "driven by circumstances", the vocalist said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I think it was just a natural progression. I think when we wrote our first album, [2006's] 'Count Your Blessings', it was more derivative of the bands we loved, we were very inspired by. We just wanted to sound like X, Y and Z. It wasn't like we were happy ripping off bands and just, like, 'We just wanna sound like that.' Whereas after that album, we were, like, 'Okay, that actually went really well. What's our sound? What do we wanna sound like? What makes us special and unique and sets us apart from everyone else?' By the end of that album, there was a lot of bands that sounded like us, and we sounded like a lot of bands, and we were just, like, 'Okay, we wanna step out of that world now, and we wanna make a sound that makes us feel different from everyone else.' And we wrote this album called 'Suicide Season' [2008]. And I remember when we first released it, when it first came out, the first week, people hated it. People were, like, 'What the hell is this? They sound like nu metal. It sounds like SLIPKNOT,' which at the time was not the cool thing for this scene. And they were, like, 'What's wrong with his voice? Why is he not screaming as much anymore?' And all this stuff. And I remember [thinking], like, 'Oh, my God, we've like ruined our career.' But then over the next few months, people started to get it. And it became this huge... Like, it just pushed us into the top of our game, really. And I think we took a big risk by doing that, and it paid off so well. It was another kind of internal kind of message to ourselves. We were, like, 'Let's always do that.'"

Sykes continued: "Every time we write an album, we push ourselves again. We try and do something different. We never write the same album twice. That's the only rule with our music, is we never write the same album twice. Because it worked, and it just kept working time and time again, and we were just, like, 'What's next?' And I think just a creative desire to just go, 'What's next? What instruments? What mediums?' As soon as we could get electronics and all that stuff, we just wanted to explore every avenue. We always felt like we needed a new thing. And that's just always worked for us. And I think we'll always be that band. We'll never write the same album twice."

Asked if he worries about losing fans every time he and his BRING ME THE HORIZON bandmates make a big musical shift, Oli said: "Not anymore. Maybe at a time. But I've just realized that as soon as you start to try and think about what your fans want and you try and write music to either you think, 'Oh, I'm gonna write this song. It's gonna be huge,' or you go, 'I'm gonna write this song. This is what the fans are gonna want,' it never plays out like that. It always fails, because that's not how great music's written. You don't write music for someone else. You write music for yourself. You write music that really excites you. And that's all we do. Every time we put out a record, every song on that record is, like, 'I love this. In this moment, this is perfect for me.' And, yeah, I know some people aren't gonna like it, but at the end of the day, if I try and write music for those people, I'll end up writing music that nobody likes. So all I can do is write music that I love, that excites me, and I think when you do that, if you love it, there's gonna be all these other people out there that feel the same way. And if it's genuine and it's not contrived and it's not forced, I think — that's the thing with our music. Every album we've got is someone's favorite album. There's not a single album we've ever written where it's, like, everyone agrees, 'We hate that album,' even if there's an album we've got where less people like it and more people like this other one. I've heard every single song, like, people come up to me, 'This is my favorite song.' And I think that's because even if you don't like what we do, it never feels disingenuous. It's always, like, this is what we wanna do. We're not trying to write music to be bigger. We're not trying to write music to be like someone else. It's just this is genuinely what we like. And there's been a couple of times where I've gone against that, and every time I've just [been], like, 'Oh, that did not work.' So it's all I know. It's the only way I know to write music and be successful, is to just make music that I love."

BRING ME THE HORIZON released a 20th-anniversary re-recording of its debut album, "Count Your Blessings", on July 10. "Count Your Blessings | Repented" was described by the band as a "reactivation" and "recontextualization" of the 2006 LP, which included such singles as "Pray For Plagues", "Slow Dance" and "A Lot Like Vegas".

Sykes and guitarist Lee Malia worked on "Count Your Blessings | Repented" with Odeholm, resulting in an effort that is "reborn, sharper, heavier, and more vital than ever," according to the band. The song "Liquor & Lost Love" also appears under its original working title "Dragon Slaying".

BRING ME THE HORIZON performed "Count Your Blessings" in its entirety on July 10 at Manchester, United Kingdom's B.E.C. Arena as part of Outbreak festival.

One of the world's most influential modern rock acts, BRING ME THE HORIZON has sold over 6.6 million albums worldwide and amassed more than 9.4 billion global streams.

BRING ME THE HORIZON's "L.I.V.E. In São Paulo (Live Immersive Virtual Experiment)" concert film was screened in theaters in late March. Filmed live at São Paulo, Brazil's Allianz Parque Stadium in late 2024, it captured BRING ME THE HORIZON as the band was traveling the world in support of that year's "Post Human: Nex Gen" LP. This was their biggest headline show to date. "L.I.V.E. In São Paulo" arrived on LP and CD on April 10.