Oliver Sykes

Oliver Sykes
Sykes performing in 2010
Background information
Birth name	Oliver Scott Sykes
Born	(1986-11-20) 20 November 1986 Ashford, Kent, England
Origin	Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom
Occupation(s)	Musician, clothes designer, businessman, photographer
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, drums,[1] keyboards[1]
Labels	RCA, Columbia, Sony, Epitaph, Shock, Visible Noise, Earache, Thirty Days of Night
Associated acts	Bring Me the Horizon

Oliver Scott "Oli" Sykes (born 20 November 1986) is a British musician, best known as the lead vocalist of the band Bring Me the Horizon. He also founded the apparel company Drop Dead Clothing. Sykes has also created the graphic novel Raised by Raptors with Drop Dead Clothing artist Ben Ashton-Bell.

Early life

Oliver Sykes was born 20 November 1986 in Ashford, Kent, England. As a baby, he moved to Australia with his parents, Ian and Carol Sykes, moving between Adelaide and Perth during a period of about six years. The family returned to the United Kingdom when Sykes was about eight, settling in Stocksbridge in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. As a teenager, he attended Stocksbridge High School.^[2]

Career

Sykes performing with Bring Me the Horizon in 2014

Music career: Womb 2 Da Tomb, Purple Curto and Olisaurus pseudonym (2000–2004)

In late 2000, while still in school, he began crafting compilation CDs and short tracks under the name Quakebeat.^[3] He also played in the mock hip-hop band "Womb 2 Da Tomb" with his brother Tom Sykes and fellow Bring Me the Horizon member Matt Nicholls, and in metal band "Purple Curto" with Neil Whiteley, as the drummer/vocalist under the pseudonym "Olisaurus", which he would later use when releasing solo material.^[4]

Bring Me the Horizon (2004–present)

Sykes in 2012

In 2004, Sykes formed Bring Me the Horizon, a band which rose to fame very quickly. The band released their debut album Count Your Blessings in 2006. Their second album Suicide Season was released on September 29, 2008 and their third studio album There is a Hell. Believe Me, I've Seen It. There is a Heaven, Let's Keep It a Secret on October 4, 2010 and they released their fourth studio album Sempiternal on April 1, 2013 which feature the new member Jordan Fish and Sykes playing rhythm guitar for the album and they released their fifth studio album That's the Spirit on September 11, 2015.

Collaborations and other musical projects

Sykes has been featured in songs for the bands You Me at Six's "Bite My Tongue", Architects' "Even If You Win, You're Still a Rat", Admiral's Arms' "Dawn of the New Age" and Deez Nuts' "If You Don't Know, You Know Now". He is also featured on a music video of American rock band A Day to Remember music video All I Want. Sykes has also collaborated with DJ Skrillex as the backing vocals of a Bring Me the Horizon song "Visions" off the Bring Me the Horizon album There is a Hell. Believe Me, I've Seen It. There is a Heaven, Let's Keep It a Secret. Skrillex has also remixed a Bring Me the Horizon song "The Sadness Will Never End" off their 2008 album Suicide Season which the remix was featured on the Cut Up! version of the album which featured remixes.

Clothing line

In addition to his vocal and song writing contributions in Bring Me the Horizon, Sykes is also the founder and owner of the alternative clothing line Drop Dead Clothing. (stylized as DROP DEAD).^[5]

Writing

On February 1, 2013, Sykes launched a Kickstarter project to fund a graphic novel created by him and Drop Dead Clothing artist Ben Ashton-Bell, entitled Raised By Raptors. With a £15,000 goal, the project exceeded its target within weeks of launching, attaining a final total of £39,223.^[6]

Influences and legacy

Influences

Sykes has cited Black Flag, Misfits, My Chemical Romance, Simple Plan, Every Time I Die, Skycamefalling, Poison the Well, Norma Jean and The Dillinger Escape Plan.^[7] Musicians such as Sam Carter of Architects have also cited Sykes as his biggest influence.^[8][9]

Musical style

Bring Me the Horizon's debut album has been described as deathcore, their next albums has been described as metalcore. Their latest album, That's the Spirit has been described as various types of rock including alternative rock, electronic rock, emo, and pop punk. Bring Me the Horizon has been described as metalcore, alternative metal, electronicore, pop punk, pop rock, emo and alternative rock and sometimes heavy metal, post-hardcore and nu metal.

Vocals and lyrics

Sykes' lyrics has a strong feeling of catharsis for him, he mainly draws from personal experience and has likened the band's live performances to being therapeutic.^[10] In 2006, when asked about the lyrics of Count Your Blessings, as they had been criticised for their content solely fixated on heartbreak to other themes that were called "shallow and meaningless", he responded "My life's never been that bad so I've not got that much to talk about".^[11]

Personal life

Since the age of 12, Sykes has suffered from a form of night terrors known as Sleep Paralysis, which is the inability to move during sleep.^[12]

Sykes became a vegetarian in 2003 after watching a documentary about animal cruelty online, "When I saw how animals are tortured on factory farms, I couldn't justify being a part of that cruelty." He went on to become one of the faces for PETA, eventually designing charity T-shirts with the slogan "Meat Sucks" via his Drop Dead clothing line.^[13] He later became a vegan in 2013.^[14] Sykes has been quoted as saying he is an atheist, "I don't believe in God. I was asked to believe in him when I was in a shitty place. I couldn't understand why I needed a god or, in my opinion, something that doesn't exist."^[7] In an interview with Radio.com in 2013, he also stated "in my opinion, I don't think believing in God is a victimless crime. It's not that I'm right and everyone else is wrong. If it was just people believing in God had no effect on the world, then it wouldn't matter. Then you can believe in what you want, if you want an imaginary friend that lives in the clouds that's fine. But it's the fact that it does have an effect on other people and other things and the whole world is in turmoil mainly because of religion, at least a massive part of it."^[15][16] After receiving the Album of the Year award at the first Alternative Press Music Awards in 2014, Sykes revealed a history of addiction and abuse of the drug Ketamine. Addressing the crowd, he said "My band wanted to kill me, my parents wanted to kill me, my fucking brother wanted to kill me," and also admitted, "I went to rehab for a month, and you guys were sending me texts and e-mails. When I got out of that rehab, I didn't want to scream anymore, I wanted to sing from the fucking rooftops."^[17]

On 12 July 2015 in Tuscany, Italy, Sykes married model and tattoo artist Hannah Pixie Snowdon.^[18] In 2016, Sykes announced that he and Snowdon had separated.^[19] According to Rockfeed.net, Sykes used his wife's Instagram account to accuse his wife of having an affair with another man. Snowdon's Instagram account has since been deleted.^[20] In posts that Snowdon later deleted, she revealed that she had been abused by Sykes.^[21]

Controversies

Videos with Architects

During a tour in 2008, Bring Me the Horizon and the British metalcore band Architects filmed two videos. The first showed a fight between Sykes and Architects' lead singer Sam Carter,^[22] while the second showed an ambulance with Sykes supposedly inside.^[23] The videos were uploaded to YouTube, leading to outrage from many Bring Me the Horizon fans which resulted in hate mail being sent to Carter. However, it was later revealed that the videos were a stunt staged by both bands, and that they are in fact good friends. Sykes said, "All-day events can get boring very fast so we conjured up the first idiotic thing we could think of and made it as unbelievable as possible."^[24]

Moshing incident

In June 2013, Sykes and Bring Me the Horizon were sued by the parents of a 12-year-old girl due to injuries received in the mosh pit while watching the band's performance during the Warped Tour 2013. This led to Sykes announcing via Twitter that legally he was no longer able to start any form of moshing activities during his concerts.^[25] However, Sykes later stated that the suit had been dropped and that moshing was not going to be banned.^[26]

Discography

Bring Me the Horizon

• This Is What the Edge of Your Seat Was Made For (2004)
• Count Your Blessings (2006)
• Suicide Season (2008)
• There Is a Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is a Heaven, Let's Keep It a Secret. (2010)
• Sempiternal (2013)
• That's the Spirit (2015)

Singles Featured On

Music videos

Graphic novels

• Raised by Raptors (2013–present)

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Oliver Sykes.