Bring Me the Horizon Say Rock’s Songwriting Is ‘Mostly Sh-te’
The rock genre may not be at the top when it comes to streaming services, but there are some bands who seem to have broken through with listeners indulging their music habits in the manner, with Bring Me the Horizon being one of those acts. During a chat with Music Week, singer Oli Sykes and keyboardist Jordan Fish addressed what they see as the main issue that's led to rock falling short.
Bring Me the Horizon currently have over four million monthly listeners on Spotify, while the current single "Mantra" has generated over 21.4 million streams to date. Speaking about their success, the guys state that other bands in their genre could follow the same path by paying closer attention to songwriting.
"It's bad, generally," stated Fish, who added, "In my opinion, it's mostly shite. The people who are writing the songs aren't good enough songwriters. I don't love the music on Hot Hits U.K., but they are well-written songs, something a lot of rock bands don't appreciate. The craft of writing good songs is hard."
Sykes adds, "Any of these bands could write a big song, but it means they're just going to have to be so honest with themselves that it hurts. The amount of times you have to turn around and go, 'This is dogshit,' when you've been working on it for six days ... we could have half-written all these songs and then gone to see a producer, hoping he was going to sort them out. But one of the important things about being in a rock band is that you do write your own music."
Sykes says it's not a "very rock thing" to have people writing your lyrics and songs for you, but he doesn't see it as a bad thing having some help or outside perspective. "A lot of our contemporaries now just have people straight-up writing songs for them. I find that bonkers," he adds.
The group's upcoming Amo album finds the band working with a variety of acts as well, with Grimes, Dani Filth and Rahzel all making guest turns. It's that wide-ranging appeal that could also help the band when it comes to streaming and making new fans.
Bring Me the Horizon's Amo is due Jan. 25 and the group finishes out their 2018 touring this week in London. Look for the band heading stateside in January to kick off a North American tour. All of their dates are listed here.
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