Here's something you might be interested in.
Don't stress if you missed Pierce the Veil's last arena gig in San Diego.
They have a tour film slated for release Nov 11 titled This Is A Wasteland that will be available as a digital documentary on iTunes, along with a hard bound 28 page book and a bonus copy of Collide With The Sky. Previously unreleased live performance footage to be included, with three bonus music videos: "King for a Day," "Bulls in the Bronx," and "Hell Above."
"Our first world tour," says Vic Fuentes, "was absolutely the craziest experience of our lives." He says the San Diego quartet kept a camera rolling while they roamed pretty much the entire planet over the last year or so.
It's old news now, but Pierce the Veil managed to escape the gravitational pull of the all-ages club scene here where the band grew up. In the bargain Fuentes said, “We played every shitty bar and club almost in the world.” Before 2008, they were virtual unknowns with zero draw. “Sometimes, we just played to the other bands we were on tour with.”
Things changed after they were invited to join the Van's Warped Tour in 2008. By the end of the year, Pierce was headlining their own four-band tour in support of A Flair for the Dramatic.
Fuentes began building a fan base while still in high school. At Mission Bay HS, the Fuentes brothers had a punk band they called Early Times. It grew a little cult following, mostly of surfers and skaters. Early Times earliest (if unofficial) hit was a backyard kegger favorite called “5.9,” a song that made reference to Natural Ice beer.
“Natty Ice,” Vic Fuentes once told the Reader, “was my high school beer.”
Early Times became Before Today. They got a deal in 2004 to record for Equal Vision Records, a deal that remained intact when Before Today hit the skids and became Pierce the Veil. Fuentes re-worked the Before Today material and demoed tracks for A Flair for the Dramatic in the DIY studio that his parents had built for the brothers in their home near Mission Bay.
Pierce the Veil's second CD, Selfish Machines was a complicated indie hash of impeccable musicianship and songwriting seasoned by the band’s time spent on the road.
“The first record was just me and Mike. The new record was kind of a whole band project. The biggest change in the writing process was that we actually had a full band and we could play the songs before we recorded them. The first record, we didn’t have that option. We didn’t have a band that had played, like, a thousand shows.”
Described at various times as pop-core, screamo-hardcore, post-hardcore, and more, Fuentes told the Reader his music was "a new genre we’re creating called Mexi-core, basically a mix of heavy music with a little Spanish feel.”
In 2011 Pierce the Veil left San Diego on their first extended tour. “We aren’t gonna be home," Fuentes said, "for the next year or two.” Or three, counting time spent behind 2012's Collide with the Sky. But hard touring, Fuentes says, has been the band’s secret to success.
“It was huge for us, getting our first Warped Tour in 2008. We’d never played out door festivals like that. That was a huge step for us as a live band."
Huge?
"Huge.”
Don't stress if you missed Pierce the Veil's last arena gig in San Diego.
They have a tour film slated for release Nov 11 titled This Is A Wasteland that will be available as a digital documentary on iTunes, along with a hard bound 28 page book and a bonus copy of Collide With The Sky. Previously unreleased live performance footage to be included, with three bonus music videos: "King for a Day," "Bulls in the Bronx," and "Hell Above."
"Our first world tour," says Vic Fuentes, "was absolutely the craziest experience of our lives." He says the San Diego quartet kept a camera rolling while they roamed pretty much the entire planet over the last year or so.
It's old news now, but Pierce the Veil managed to escape the gravitational pull of the all-ages club scene here where the band grew up. In the bargain Fuentes said, “We played every shitty bar and club almost in the world.” Before 2008, they were virtual unknowns with zero draw. “Sometimes, we just played to the other bands we were on tour with.”
Things changed after they were invited to join the Van's Warped Tour in 2008. By the end of the year, Pierce was headlining their own four-band tour in support of A Flair for the Dramatic.
Fuentes began building a fan base while still in high school. At Mission Bay HS, the Fuentes brothers had a punk band they called Early Times. It grew a little cult following, mostly of surfers and skaters. Early Times earliest (if unofficial) hit was a backyard kegger favorite called “5.9,” a song that made reference to Natural Ice beer.
“Natty Ice,” Vic Fuentes once told the Reader, “was my high school beer.”
Early Times became Before Today. They got a deal in 2004 to record for Equal Vision Records, a deal that remained intact when Before Today hit the skids and became Pierce the Veil. Fuentes re-worked the Before Today material and demoed tracks for A Flair for the Dramatic in the DIY studio that his parents had built for the brothers in their home near Mission Bay.
Pierce the Veil's second CD, Selfish Machines was a complicated indie hash of impeccable musicianship and songwriting seasoned by the band’s time spent on the road.
“The first record was just me and Mike. The new record was kind of a whole band project. The biggest change in the writing process was that we actually had a full band and we could play the songs before we recorded them. The first record, we didn’t have that option. We didn’t have a band that had played, like, a thousand shows.”
Described at various times as pop-core, screamo-hardcore, post-hardcore, and more, Fuentes told the Reader his music was "a new genre we’re creating called Mexi-core, basically a mix of heavy music with a little Spanish feel.”
In 2011 Pierce the Veil left San Diego on their first extended tour. “We aren’t gonna be home," Fuentes said, "for the next year or two.” Or three, counting time spent behind 2012's Collide with the Sky. But hard touring, Fuentes says, has been the band’s secret to success.
“It was huge for us, getting our first Warped Tour in 2008. We’d never played out door festivals like that. That was a huge step for us as a live band."
Huge?
"Huge.”