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Oli Sykes Explains Why Bring Me The Horizon Keep Letting Fans Sing on Stage
Oli Sykes says BMTH invite fans on stage because he once got to sing with Funeral For A Friend as a shy teen.
Oli Sykes says the logic behind Bring Me The Horizon’s habit of pulling fans up on stage is simple: he once got that same shot as a teenager, and it stuck with him.
The Sheffield band have made a regular ritual of inviting someone from the crowd to join them, often to take on “Antivist” partway through the set. In a new interview with SiriusXM, Sykes traced that idea back to a night he still clearly remembers, when he was about 15 and saw Welsh post-hardcore band Funeral For A Friend.
According to Sykes, the band’s singer was too ill to continue after collapsing halfway through the show. “The singer was really sick and he passed out halfway through the show. They all left the stage and came back saying ‘We can’t play,’” he recalled. “I don’t know what I was thinking because I was the most shy kid, but I went, ‘I’ll sing’.”
He said the band let him do it, and that the moment has stayed with him ever since. “They were like ‘What? OK…’ and they let me on stage! I sang a song, and it was the greatest moment of my life,” he said, adding that people came up to him afterward to tell him how much it meant. “I think I cried after. My mum was waiting outside in the car, and I was like, ‘Mum, I just sang with Funeral For A Friend!’ It was so sick… so if we can do that for another kid, it’s just cool,” he said. Then, with a grin, he added: “And I get a break during the show too which is great!”
Funeral For A Friend responded in the comments, calling it “a fun one” and saying “Oli nailed it”. They also confirmed that the song he sang with them was “The Art Of American Football”, taken from their 2003 EP Seven Ways to Scream Your Name.
The story lands at a busy moment for Bring Me The Horizon. The band kicked off their Ascension Program 2 North American tour last month, and on opening night they played “Youtopia” live for the first time while also bringing “The House Of Wolves” back into the setlist.
Lately, Sykes and co. have been spending a lot of time looking backward as well as forward. They recently announced two special shows for Manchester’s Outbreak to mark the 20th anniversary of their 2006 debut album Count Your Blessings. They’re also set to release a “reactivated” re-recording of Count Your Blessings in July, a version meant to make the record “sharper, heavier, and more vital than ever”. Around the same time, they shared footage of Sykes tracking deathcore vocals in the studio.
Before that, Bring Me The Horizon brought their immersive L.I.V.E. In São Paulo concert film to cinemas around the world, followed it with a 48-hour digital broadcast, and dropped a rave-leaning collaboration with Illenium called “Slave To The Rithim”. Sykes also launched a new live production company, Patient Zero, after debuting visuals at the Las Vegas Sphere.
Speaking to NME at Reading last summer, Sykes said there could still be 12 more songs coming as part of the Director’s Cut of …Nex Gen, though he suggested that timeline may have stretched now that he’s the father of twins. “The music will come, but it’s just not the be-all and end-all,” he said. “We’re realising that we don’t have to put another record out; we just put one out. Most bands would go away for two years, have an actual break. You don’t have to do this, but I want to and I enjoy it. If it doesn’t happen, then it doesn’t happen.”
As for Funeral For A Friend, it was confirmed earlier this year that the hardcore band will play an exclusive headline set at this year’s 2000Trees, alongside Alkaline Trio, Glassjaw, PUP, Sprints, Lambrini Girls, Cancer Bats, Dinosaur Pile-Up, High Vis, Ho99o9, Pinkshift, Superheaven, and more.
