{"id":5844,"date":"2025-10-10T16:29:59","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T16:29:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/still-holding-on-pierce-the-veils-hard-won-victories-follow-from-tragedy\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T16:29:59","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T16:29:59","slug":"still-holding-on-pierce-the-veils-hard-won-victories-follow-from-tragedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/still-holding-on-pierce-the-veils-hard-won-victories-follow-from-tragedy\/","title":{"rendered":"Still Holding On: Pierce the Veil\u2019s Hard-won Victories Follow From Tragedy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/LEADPierce-the-Veil_7.jpg\" width=\"\" height=\"\" alt=\"Pierce the Veil. (All photos by Steve Appleford)\"><\/figure>\n<p>Inside the Frolic Room in Hollywood, a small crowd of early drinkers leans up against the bar as an old Rolling Stones song blares overhead. It\u2019s another hot day outside on the boulevard, but in here, it\u2019s all shadowy glamour and laughter as the locals knock back one drink after another.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not where the three members of Pierce the Veil would normally find themselves at lunchtime, on this day-trip to L.A. for meetings from their home base in San Diego. But the 91-year-old landmark tavern, with its classic neon sign above the front entrance, was a convenient spot for a rendezvous.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>More from Spin:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/10\/taylor-momsen-interview\/\">Magic, Music, and Movies: Taylor Momsen Is Seeing Things \u2018in a New Light\u2019<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/10\/no-doubt\/\">No Doubt Reuniting For Sphere Residency<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/10\/5-albums-i-cant-live-without-kyle-stoopid-of-slightly-stoopid\/\">5 Albums I Can\u2019t Live Without: Kyle Stoopid of Slightly Stoopid<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The band is gathered around a little cocktail table by the cash machine. A framed picture of Mickey Rourke as a champion boozer in the film <em>Barfly<\/em> hangs on the wall. But our group is not exactly party central. Singer-guitarist Vic Fuentes and lead guitarist Tony Perry are drinking coffee, and bassist Jaime Preciado just finished a tall glass of ice-water. I\u2019m having a Coke.<\/p>\n<p>Pierce the Veil have been getting their thrills in other ways since the early 2023 release of <em>The Jaws of Life<\/em>, the band\u2019s fifth album, and a tour that has the SoCal act playing major venues around the country, including three recent nights at the Forum in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p>With a new single out from the expanded deluxe version of <em>The Jaws of Life<\/em>, the lush \u201cKiss Me Now,\u201d the band were set to return to the road with two shows in Austin, Texas, on October 10 and 11.<\/p>\n<p>The rise of Pierce the Veil, which formed in 2006, might have once seemed an unlikely destiny for a band of punks from San Diego, but Fuentes had high expectations. \u201cI looked up to bands who came up in our genre who were doing it, like Paramore and Green Day\u2014seeing that it is possible,\u201d says the singer-guitarist. \u201cI always hoped that we would find our way organically somehow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The members still live within 15 minutes of each other in San Diego, and often rehearse in a studio built at the home of Fuentes\u2019s parents near Mission Bay. The band have expanded their sound in multiple ways since the early days, but they still look like dudes raised on hardcore in their T-shirts, sneakers, Doc Martens, and tattoos.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"812\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/GROUPPierce-the-Veil_6.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-481559\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/GROUPPierce-the-Veil_6.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/GROUPPierce-the-Veil_6-340x230.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/GROUPPierce-the-Veil_6-768x520.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/GROUPPierce-the-Veil_6-498x337.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI was in bands that played really fast SoCal punk, and really loved Epitaph and Fat Wreck Chords and all those bands back in the day,\u201d says Fuentes, clad in a frayed blue California T-shirt and backward baseball cap, the only band member sans tattoos. \u201cThat\u2019s still in our music.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pierce the Veil was a guerilla operation in that early period, traveling to far-flung gigs in an RV, learning to be rockers from the ground up. It led not only to this moment of swelling popularity, but also established the resilience to go on after a tragedy within the band\u2019s circle. Fuentes describes this last year as, \u201cThe highest highs and the lowest lows.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On May 22, a crash of a private plane killed several of their close friends and colleagues, including longtime agent and manager Dave Shapiro. It happened after the band\u2019s triumphant headlining concert at New York City\u2019s Madison Square Garden, when Shapiro and the others flew back to San Diego, and crashed barely a mile from the airport.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI lost my whole crew, my buddies, and it was awful,\u201d Fuentes says. \u201cWe\u2019re still trying to, like, deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Continuing to play the scheduled tour was all they could do, and Live Nation provided grief counseling to the band and crew still on the road. Preciado remembers seeing a girl in the crowd at one show holding up a sign. Rather than a song request, it simply read, \u201cI hope you\u2019re okay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was like, <em>whew<\/em>. I had to turn around,\u201d he says of the emotional moment. \u201cBut that\u2019s the kind of love that we have for our fans and I think they have right back for us. They realize that we\u2019re dealing with this horrible thing that is just super-hard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Back in 2007, Pierce the Veil played one of their first-ever shows as a band right down the street from here at the now-defunct Knitting Factory. There was an audience of about a dozen witnesses, mostly friends and family. The band drove up from San Diego for the gig.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, the band already had a record deal, and a debut album about to drop, <em>A Flair for the Dramatic<\/em>, recorded by Fuentes with his brother, Mike, on drums. Perry and Preciado had just left their own hardcore band to join up. And soon enough, the quartet were opening for other acts at the Whisky, the Troubadour, and other rock nightclubs, slowly building a career.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1779\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/GROUPPierce-the-Veil_5.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-481561\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/GROUPPierce-the-Veil_5.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/GROUPPierce-the-Veil_5-340x504.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/GROUPPierce-the-Veil_5-768x1139.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/GROUPPierce-the-Veil_5-1036x1536.jpg 1036w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/GROUPPierce-the-Veil_5-498x738.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><\/figure>\n<p>The true turning point came when they joined the annual <em>Vans Warped Tour<\/em>, where Pierce the Veil found themselves and their audience. For a band with a punk rock pedigree and few resources, <em>Warped<\/em> became a nurturing second home.<\/p>\n<p>On their first <em>Warped<\/em>, Pierce the Veil shared a low-budget tour bus with 3OH!3. \u201cIt was the bottom of the barrel, but we treated it like it was a Rolls Royce,\u201d Fuentes recalls with a smile. \u201cAt that time it was such a luxury.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Perry says of that bandwagon, \u201cI remember a cab driver bringing me back to the bus and I was like, \u2018It\u2019s that black one.\u2019 He was like, \u2018The janky one?\u2019 I was like, \u2018<em>Oh, man<\/em>.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The band signed up for four <em>Warped<\/em> caravans across the country, which Preciado remembers fondly as \u201ca traveling circus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTalk about the school of punk rock\u2014you learn everything,\u201d says Preciado. \u201cWithout <em>Warped Tour<\/em>, a lot of bands would not be where they\u2019re at. That was definitely a jumpstart for the playbook of how to be in a punk rock band at the time. We learned so much from those shows.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe would look forward to getting the call every summer, \u2019cause at the time, that was the biggest thing we\u2019ve ever done, playing with some of our favorite bands and learning and trying to figure out who we were as a band. That was a really special time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now that Pierce the Veil are headlining arenas, the <em>Warped Tour<\/em> is no longer a realistic venue for the band, but when <em>Warped<\/em> returned to action with three shows this year, Fuentes made a surprise solo appearance on the acoustic stage in Long Beach. \u201cI love <em>Warped Tour<\/em>,\u201d says the singer. \u201cIt\u2019s really deep in us, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was during their third <em>Warped<\/em> <em>Tour<\/em> that the band first sensed a shift in their fortunes, and they noticed a growing intensity in the crowd, following the 2012 release of their <em>Collide with the Sky<\/em> album. Their audience soon spread overseas to the U.K. and Australia, and that album has since been increasingly acclaimed as one of the era\u2019s best.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were already in that zone of like, this is our third <em>Warped<\/em> <em>Tour<\/em>, but something was different that time when we played songs from that album,\u201d Preciado remembers. \u201cThe crowds were different, the size, the emotion. It was the energy, you could just feel it. And that was something that we could like latch onto and be like, \u2018Something is happening, let\u2019s roll with it.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Adds Fuentes, \u201cOne cool thing about <em>Warped<\/em> is that if growth is happening, you can see it, you can see your crowd growing.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"841\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/GROUPPierce-the-Veil_1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-481563\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/GROUPPierce-the-Veil_1.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/GROUPPierce-the-Veil_1-340x238.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/GROUPPierce-the-Veil_1-768x538.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/GROUPPierce-the-Veil_1-498x349.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><\/figure>\n<p>One song from that album had special resonance: \u201cHold on Till May,\u201d embraced by fans as a motto for getting through difficult times, and holding on until things get better. It was originally written for a fan who committed suicide. Now, every May 1, the band receives thousands of messages declaring, \u201cI held on till May!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After 2016\u2019s <em>Misadventures<\/em>, the road to Pierce the Veil\u2019s fifth studio album, <em>The Jaws of Life<\/em>, was longer than anyone expected. It was finally recorded in New Orleans with producer Paul Meany, in a rented house in the French Quarter, where the band lived and set up a studio. It was the band\u2019s first album in seven years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe always knew we were going to make a new record, but after that pandemic, we had to dust ourselves off and get back in the studio and tackle these songs that we\u2019ve been playing around with for years,\u201d says Fuentes. \u201cWe started writing it pre-pandemic and then everything just kind of stopped.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce we locked in Paul Meany as producer, it lit a big fire under us. We get to work with this producer who was very exciting and doing amazing things. That really got us super-inspired to continue making the best record we could.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For the album, Pierce the Veil recruited drummer Brad Hargreaves of Third Eye Blind. They all rehearsed the new songs together in Los Angeles before heading to New Orleans. Hargreaves wasn\u2019t a random choice, as Third Eye Blind remains Fuentes\u2019s favorite band from his adolescence, and he had already gotten to know the drummer.<\/p>\n<p>Hargreaves even helped Fuentes and frequent collaborator Curtis Peoples write the song \u201cThe Divine Zero,\u201d from <em>Misadventures<\/em>. Once they settled into their temporary house in the Big Easy, daily work typically began by 11:00 a.m., while Meany drove in from home. There was the main space where a control room was set up, and the back house was a secondary studio, plus more gear in the kitchen. The band sometimes worked into the night on their own.<\/p>\n<p>In case things drifted into a mellow direction, they put a sign up that read: \u201cMore Teeth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a great experience, man,\u201d says Fuentes. \u201cIt was just living in that New Orleans world. The weather was perfect at that time. People would be walking by hearing us play and they would leave us little notes, like, \u2018I like what I\u2019m hearing guys. What band is this?\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1681\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/GROUPPierce-the-Veil_2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-481562\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/GROUPPierce-the-Veil_2.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/GROUPPierce-the-Veil_2-340x476.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/GROUPPierce-the-Veil_2-768x1076.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/GROUPPierce-the-Veil_2-1096x1536.jpg 1096w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/GROUPPierce-the-Veil_2-498x698.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><\/figure>\n<p>The first song recorded for the album was \u201cPass the Nirvana,\u201d originally just a working title for a track designed to \u201ccome out swinging with something aggressive,\u201d says the singer-guitarist. Built on a growling guitar riff, and a hint of the dark undercurrent of the grunge legends, Fuentes rages a biting lyric and name-drops their producer: \u201cPower until the target bleeds \/ This gun (this gun) will never turn on me \/ So, Paul Meany, will you drop that beat?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s now one of Fuentes\u2019s fave songs to play live. \u201cIt was one of the weirdest songs we\u2019ve ever written,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a strange tune and it was hard to figure out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A very different song on the album is \u201cSo Far So Fake,\u201d which has since become a viral TikTok sensation, as fans post videos of themselves dancing to the song, with extra slinky butt moves. \u201cI always thought we would have the sexiest trend in music,\u201d Fuentes jokes. He also knows it\u2019s inevitably brought new listeners into the Pierce the Veil fold.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s very odd,\u201d says Fuentes. \u201cWe had a big trend on TikTok with our song \u2018King for a Day,\u2019 and it was during a time when we were home, we didn\u2019t have a record, we didn\u2019t have touring. We were just sitting on our asses at home. Then all of a sudden this whole thing started happening. You just gotta sit back and be thankful for the fans doing it and just ride it and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Their experience making and performing <em>The Jaws of Life<\/em> has already informed how they will approach the next one, not with a second trip to New Orleans, but to another inspiring location.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re already talking about what the experience could look like. I think we\u2019re going to change the process from the last few records,\u201d says Fuentes.<\/p>\n<p>Preciado interjects, \u201cThe main thing is we don\u2019t want to take seven years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fuentes agrees and adds, \u201cWe want to keep the ball rolling and keep the creativity flowing. Our crew too\u2014everyone around us that we work with is, like, in a great flow-state right now. From our tour manager to our graphic designer, everybody is just firing and we have a good team to create. So it\u2019s a good time to keep things moving.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2021\/07\/the-greatest-rock-stars-of-all-time\/?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=bottomlink&amp;utm_campaign=yahoolink\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Inside the Frolic Room in Hollywood, a small crowd of early drinkers leans up against the bar as an old Rolling Stones song blares overhead. It\u2019s another hot day outside&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,840,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-pierce-the-veil","category-pushly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5844\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}