Happy songs “don’t make sense” to Oli Sykes

Bring Me The Horizon vocalist Oli Sykes doesn’t see the sense in making happy music.

He believes there’s not much to say about bright moments in his life, and finds there’s much more strength of feeling when things aren’t going well.

Discussing what the term “emo” means to him, Sykes told Kerrang: Emotion – your emotions and heart on your sleeve and complete vulnerability. I would really say exactly what you're feeling and expressing. What makes an emo song is the heart-wrenchingness of it all.”

He added: “I don’t like any songs that aren’t sad. I don’t really vibe with it. When a song is about being happy, it doesn't make any sense to me!

“I always think that when you’re sad, emotional, or angry, you’re in your head about it and there’s a lot going on. For me, when I’m happy, my mind’s kind of blank. You rarely have any photos of when you’re truly happy – you don’t think to get a camera out because you're in a really good place.

“I really don’t connect with songs about being straight-up happy because it’s not a conceptual notion.”

BMTH recently collaborated with pop icon Ed Sheeran on a heavy version of his track Bad Habits, which they performed together at this year’s Brit Awards.

“From receiving the email asking whether we’d like to open the brits with Ed Sheeran to us chatting and bouncing ideas to rehearsing and then performing and now releasing, this has needless to say been pretty mental,” Sykes said at the time. “But we are all about pushing the boundaries of our own and other genres, so this felt like the perfect challenge.”

BMTH will be appearing at festivals all over Europe during the summer.

Artists

Not only is one-time online news editor Martin an established rock journalist and drummer, but he’s also penned several books on music history, including SAHB Story: The Tale of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, a band he once managed, and the best-selling Apollo Memories about the history of the legendary and infamous Glasgow Apollo. Martin has written for Classic Rock and Prog and at one time had written more articles for Louder than anyone else (we think he's second now). He’s appeared on TV and when not delving intro all things music, can be found travelling along the UK’s vast canal network.