Black Veil Brides’ Andy Biersack Says the Band Will Not Sell Out 

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Black Veil Brides’ Andy Biersack Says the Band Will Not Sell Out

"I\'ve never once accepted money for something I didn\'t believe in."

Black Veil Brides are one of the biggest bands in the hard rock scene. So big, that many dedicated long-time fans fear their favorite men in black may soon outgrow the genre and leave behind throngs of endearing fans in favor of writing mass-appeal hits.

Frontman Andy Biersack says that won’t happen.

Biersack explains that although “Goodbye Agony,” from their new self-titled album, could be the band’s most mass-appeal song to date, he had no false hopes of writing a cross-format smash.

“I don’t think that we sat down with the intention of writing a song that had mass appeal,” Biersack says. “To say this is our cross-over song…because to be fair, in 2014 that’s kind of a fool’s errand to say were going to write a cross-over song for a hard rock band. Sort of like saying you’re going to be a rotary phone salesman and you’re going to paint your phones red so people will buy them. The fact is that we are a rock and roll band, and sometimes that isn’t the most popular thing in the world.”

Ultimately, Biersack says, “you really want to write the best song you can write, ’cause at the end of the day the records are going to sell what they’re going to sell.”

Biersack says that he and his band are “very fortunate that we’ve had multiple top ten records, but by the same token none of us are becoming millionaires off it, and we’re not getting that, ‘Oh, this is that song of the decade’ and ‘This is the song everyone is going to dance to at their high school prom.’ That’s the intention, but it’s just very unlikely.”

Fans of hardcore bands often believe selling out begins with the simple act of making money. But Biersack disagrees. As long as the money comes from a business that shares the same values, it’s not selling out. It’s simply paying the bills.

“My whole career I’ve just wanted us to be the band that we want to be, and sometimes to do that you have to make concessions when it comes to monetary gains,” confesses Biersack. “When it comes to companies wanting to be endorsers and that kind of thing, those might be perceived as sell out moments. But the reality is, I don’t see it as a sell out when those people are helping pay for a video screen or anything that goes on the stage and gives our fans a better show.”

And to punctuate the point, he adds: I’ve never once accepted money for something I didn’t believe in.”

But in contrast to a punk rock show that requires little more than a single mic, a few guitars and drums, Biersack concedes that some may view even what he’s doing musically as selling out. He simply sees it as entertainment.

“I want to show up with a bunch of microphones and big video screens and confetti and everything else ’cause I want to give people that show,” he explains. “While I ultimately respect the punk rock ethic, for me at the end of the day, I would probably side more with the sell-outs in terms of trying to get stuff done with my career.”

And, Biersack does have something to sell. His band’s new self-titled album is currently No. 8 and rising on the

Regarding that title, what was the reason behind self-titling a fourth album? Beirsack explains that its origin was really quite organic. “I had several titles that would have worked, but it just felt like the self-title was so much better.”

Biersack says that “BVBIV” was simply a way to refer to the album during the recording process, in lieu of an actual title. But over time, fans, friends and family warmed up to the simple moniker, and it just stuck.

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