In mosh better spirits
Bring Me the Horizon’s drummer Matt Nicholls talks musical influences, on-stage nerves and how he keeps it real, with Vicki Anderson.
Matt Nicholls may have more than a million followers on Twitter, thanks to the success of his band, but he’s not interested.
The drummer of British band Bring Me the Horizon says he just isn’t ‘‘bovvered’’.
‘‘I’m not a big gossiper on the internet,’’ he says, from Barcelona. ‘‘I think it’s just full of dickheads. I don’t need any more friends. I like my own girlfriend, I have my own friends already. I don’t have Twitter or Facebook. I have Instagram because of the band. I go on the internet and look at things but I’m not into social media. I’m not bothered about being internet famous, I just want to play my drums and get on with my life.’’
When he and his mates formed Bring Me the Horizon in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, in 2004, they named the band after the Pirates of the Caribbean movie and didn’t imagine they’d ever play to 500 people.
Influenced by an eclectic mix of death metal and emo, Bring Me the Horizon is fronted by vocalist and sought-after clothing designer Oliver Sykes, bassist Matt Kean, guitarist Lee Malia, and keyboardist Jordan Fish.
The band’s first EP, This Is What the Edge of Your Seat Was Made For, released through indie label Visible Noise, caught the eyes and ears of British deathcore fans and raced up the charts, and earned them the Best British Newcomer Award.
Although their first full album, Count Your Blessings, released in 2006 and which had more screaming than your average horror movie, was deathcore and emo, their sound has changed considerably in the past decade.
Suicide Season, released in 2008, was a critical turning point for the band and saw them take a sidestep away from death metal. Its follow-up, 2010’s There Is a Hell, Believe Me I’ve Seen It. There Is a Heaven, Let’s Keep It a Secret incorporated elements of classical, electronica, and pop music.
But it was Sempiternal’s arrival in 2013 that really expanded the group’s horizons.
The latest release, last year’s That’s the Spirit still has emo elements but it’s best described as alt-metal.
But Nicholls doesn’t want to pigeonhole the band’s music, or stamp it and put it in a box.
As he tells it they’re just a bunch of good mates from Northern England who play their music ferociously in front of tens of thousands of people at the Glastonbury Festival, Wembley Stadium, or on stages around the globe.
‘‘I get my musical influence from my dad,’’ says Nicholls. ‘‘He was singing in pub bands when I was growing up. He brought me up on Motown, Al Green, rock music like Queen . . . not so much metal, just English rock bands. He’s a big fan of Slade.’’
When his parents divorced when he was 14, his dad sold the house and told him he could buy one thing he really wanted.