In a recent idobi Warped Radio interview, Andy Biersack—aka Andy Black of Black Veil Brides—cracked open one of the earliest influences that shaped him—not just as an artist and performer, but as a kid already drawn to the theatrical and macabre. While he’s been vocal about his music inspirations such as Kiss and Mötley Crüe, this influence was Sweeney Todd.
“Sweeney Todd was like the creepy thing, right? Like as a little kid, you look at it and I was scared of it, but I was also fascinated by it,” Black shares with idobi guest host Brandy-Baye Robidoux. “And they had the original cast recording, and I learned to sing all those songs, and I was like seven. So it’s just been a part of my life since I was really young. And I always wanted to find a way; I had this dream of like, ‘Oh, I wanna do a Black Veil Brides style version of “My Friends”’ for as long as I can remember.”
Read more: Andy Black (Black Veil Brides) Revisits Childhood Dream at Warped Tour
That childhood dream finally took form on Bleeders, a two-track EP featuring the title track and the Black Veil Brides cover of “My Friends.” But it’s not just theatrical nostalgia fueling the release; it’s thematically tied to something deeper.
He continues, “So I don’t know necessarily how it all came together beyond the theme of this record that we just finished recording and that ‘Bleeders’ will be on is, it’s a lot of stories about kind of revenge and getting back at things and you know, this idea of ultimately the kind of how feudal the idea of revenge is and how hard it is to actually have that moment of ‘I got you;’ the chasing of that and how I’ve always kind of had this chip on my shoulder in my life. And so the story of ‘Bleeders’ and the story of that song kind of plays into that. So it was also just, admittedly, an opportunity for me to get to do something I wanted to do since I was five.”
Watch the full idobi Warped Radio episode featuring Andy Black below.
