Black Veil Brides’ Andy Biersack Ready for 2013 Warped Tour Return as Main Stage Act

Black Veil Brides are a perfect example of a group that came up through the ranks of the Vans Warped Tour over the years. Having previously played a smaller stage on Warped, this summer they will be one of the main attractions, performing on Warped's Main Stage.

Loudwire caught up with Black Veil Brides frontman Andy Biersack a the Warped Tour press conference in Los Angeles last week, and the vocalist gives his thoughts on returning to the Vans Warped Tour this summer and the dedication they're putting in to making their show the best it can be for those attending the festival. Check out our Q&A with Andy Biersack below:

How does it feel to be back doing Warped Tour?

It's pretty great, especially for us and it being main stage and a much bigger situation than we've done before, it's definitely a dream come true. Growing up, I went to the Warped Tour a lot and I got to see bands like Rancid and AFI and Dropkick Murphys and these bands that meant so much to me when I was a kid -- all in succession on these stages, so to get to play that same stage that I watched those bands play is a huge thing for me.

And then obviously we played it in 2011 and it went really well. For [Warped founder] Kevin [Lyman] to have us back, it feels good to be part of the community. I know that we're definitely the weird kids at the lunch table so to speak. We don't really fit in that well stylistically. We're always different from other people, but as much as we aren't the guys that are going for the summer camp aspect, you can't deny that everyone that works for Warped Tour is so kind and we do have a great time. You can only be the bad ass and the rebel for so long. [laughs]

I think that for us, we really do enjoy it and are excited for the whole thing. But make no mistake, Black Veil Brides is not there to hang out and hug every other man in the world. Cause a lot of the fun of the Warped Tour that I like is that they party and hang out at the end of the night, but Black Veil Brides has always been about the show and that's the most important thing. As much as it's nice to see our friends, we're there to work and give our fans the best show we can and to test the limits to what Warped Tour will allow us to put on the stage.

It's been difficult going back and forth with, 'No Black Veil Brides, you can't put pyro on the stage, it's a truck.' And we're like, 'Okay, Warped Tour, can we do confetti cannons?' 'No, it's the middle of the day in summer,' so it's been back and forth. We're like the little kids that want to do more and more things. And they're like, 'Ok, we'll let you do this …' so we've got to be good kids.

Sounds like you should have in mind what you want but ask for something extravagant to make what you'd like seem more reasonable.

Well you know what, we started with our current staging plot. Let's just see if this works, cause our current staging has big ramps and everything, and it was like, 'Let's just see if we can get the whole thing …, ' and of course, you know, it's not that they wouldn't let us do it, it's that the stage would allow for it. It's a traveling stage. [laughs]. But we're going to bring at least some form of production with us on this tour. It's a daytime thing, so it's more about the performance and giving the aggression that we give, but you won't see us with t-shirt guns or something silly like that. We're a rock 'n' roll band, you know. There'll still be a show.

You mentioned feeling like the weird kids on the bill, but a look at the lineup shows a pretty solid representation of harder rocking bands. It seems like they've added more in that aspect this year.

Yeah, absolutely. We were just talking about it. It's very heavy on rappers. It's very heavy on EDM, but the other thing is that there's a lot of heavy metal bands. There's a lot of metal bands on the tour this year, far fewer punk rock bands or pop punk bands than we've seen in previous years, but more of a metal band bill and I think for us, we've always fallen somewhere between … there's definitely the punk rock and the short kind of three-and-a-half minute gang vocals and all that stuff, but we're definitely a hard rock band and in some rights, depending on whether you refer to metal as what we think of metal as in the old days as opposed to what metal is now which is just cookie monster and breakdowns … but I think that for a band like us to find our niche and do something like this on this tour and be one of the headlining bands on this tour is awesome.

Black Veil Brides will kick off their run on the Vans Warped Tour June 15 in Seattle. Tickets for this year's traveling festival may be purchased here. Stay tuned for part two of our interview with Black Veil Brides' Andy Biersack about their 2013 touring, the band's current hit single 'In the End,' and the effect that creating the 'Legion of the Black' film had on the group's members.