Oli Sykes has shared his thoughts on how he believes Bring Me The Horizon to have been perceived throughout their career.
In spite of their monumental popularity today – the Sheffield band have just completed their self-curated festival weekender in Malta alongside some of metal's biggest names – Sykes recalls how in their earlier days, Bring Me The Horizon weren't always so well respected.
In a recent conversation with Kerrang!, the vocalist explains that when the metal heavyweights first started to gain popularity, the media treated them with the same disregard afforded to glam metal legends Mötley Crüe – a reputation Sykes thought the band were undeserving of.
“Our band was kind of branded as a Mötley Crüe-esque bunch of fucking dickheads,” the frontman says.
"One of the first interviews I did, the guy twisted every single word. Things that were said as a joke were put like I was saying it angrily, and it was just a massive shock to me that we were portrayed as these people.
"I thought I was a nice guy, and there were all these magazines that said I wasn’t. It was amazing just how your words could be twisted into something you didn’t mean, and I struggled with that."
Of how he was perceived individually as a frontman, he continues, “People either painted me as an idol or I was fucking hated. You’re the guy on the cover and it’s Photoshopped and put in the best light, but you can never look like that.
"And you’re also not this horrible, evil person, you’re just a regular person that makes mistakes like everyone else – but no one thinks you’re a regular person. You’re either a cunt or a god. It’s quite a headfuck.”
Although Sykes may have had a hard time starting out in the industry himself, the frontman was keen to share his sympathy for emerging artists today who feel pressured to gain popularity by establishing themselves online.
“Most labels want you to do skits for TikTok, or be thinking about your social media presence, and that alone is a full-time gig. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be a new artist and have that responsibility," Sykes said. "It’s not just making music, you’ve also got to be an actor, almost. I’m watching it with my wife [Alissic] now, and it’s mad.”
