Having had the career of which most musicians can only dream, Black Veil Brides’ frontman Andy Biersack considers himself fortunate to still call the industry home, and is set to return to Australia in the next few days for his first headline tour to promote his debut solo album, The Shadow Side (released under the moniker Andy Black). In this interview, with Jackie Smith he discusses what to expect from one of his solo gigs, his love for Australia and preparing for the band’s next record.

Click here for your copy of “The Shadow Side”

You’re heading to Australia in the next few days as part of your current tour. How’s it going so far?

Fantastic. We’re currently in Japan. We had two shows here in Japan; before that we were in Mexico, and prior to that we did about two months in the US, and we did about two weeks in the UK before that. So we actually wrap up the tour in Australia.

What are you most looking forward to when returning here?

I’m really excited just to play shows in a separate setting than Soundwave. I’ve only ever played in Australia as part of the Soundwave tour – and the sideways shows and everything – but I’ve never played a proper Australian tour. So part of the fun of this side project for me is playing in the smaller, more intimate settings, in closer proximity to the audience.

So I’m really excited for that … to experience the Australian tour. And to be honest with you, I love Australia. The times I’ve been there – I’ve been two or three times now – the entire country’s just beautiful and quite a lot of fun.

What can people expect from one of your solo live performances, as opposed to a Black Veil Brides show?

To tell you the truth, it’s a very different show. Obviously with Black Veil Brides, there’s five band members running around and there’s big staging and video screening and pyrotechnics and everything, whereas an Andy Black show is meant to be a much more stripped down experience. There’s just three of us on stage: myself, my drummer and guitar player, and it’s a lot more interactive.

I like to tell stories from my youth, touring and everything I’ve done over the years. I like to talk about each song individually and it’s meant to be a bit more personal.

So what makes Australian fans in particular so special?

From the first time we played in Australia, I had a really positive experience. There’s a level of dedication that you experience when you go to different countries. With Australia we just connected. I remember as a kid … I would watch my favourite band, KISS, and they went to Australia, and there was hysteria in the early eighties and late seventies. Australia just went wild for KISS. I always thought that would be so cool to go to a country that has such an amount of admiration and fandom for artists, particularly rock artists.

We’ve just always had a very positive experience in Australia.

For this album, was the songwriting process different compared to that of Black Veil Brides?

Absolutely! In the band, you’re writing in conjunction with the other band mates, whereas with this it was just myself and John Feldmann, my producer. I was able to have a lot of my friends come in from different bands to collaborate. I had my friends from Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance and The Used, and a bunch of other groups that came in, helped me out and played instruments on the record, added their flair here and there. It was great!

Will you play any Black Veil Brides’ songs in the upcoming shows or is it just your solo material?

The intention of the show is the solo stuff. Being that Black Veil Brides is a separate entity, it’s important to me. We might throw one song in here and there, but by and large, it’s mostly an Andy Black show.

I noticed that you’ve got some all ages shows, as well as those specifically for over 18s. Was that done specifically for the fans’ benefit or will the format of the show differ slightly?

Honestly, that’s just a country issue with Australia (laughs). Basically, we were told that’s the best way to do the tour. I really have nothing to do with the age range or what’s allowed in the show.

Is there a particular place in Australia where you’re looking forward to performing?

To tell you the truth, because everything is going to be fairly new to me – because I’m so used to the Soundwave format … – I’m really looking forward to the whole thing. That’s not very specific but to be able to do that in a way I’ve never experienced it before is going to be a lot of fun.

Do you have any songs from The Shadow Side that you specifically enjoy performing live?

… Well, I like all of them, I guess (laughs). I love performing the singles, so I love doing Ribcage, my latest single from the record. That’s probably my favourite to perform live.

What have you found the reaction has been like with this record so far, particularly as it is completely different from Black Veil Brides?

I mean, it’s been really positive, to the point where it seems that most of my fans – fans of Black Veil Brides previously – understand that this is a separate project. It’s also brought in a lot of new people who maybe didn’t always listen to my band. I’ve been very pleased with the reaction.

What do you love most about performing live and touring in general?

 Having the opportunity to connect with people all over the world on stage is something I dreamed of doing my whole life, particularly when I was very young, I wanted to go around the world and sing. The fact that I’ve gotten to do that with my life is pretty incredible. I hope I get to continue to do it.

How do you prepare for an Andy Black show? I know with Black Veil Brides you’ve got a whole regime regarding makeup and things, which takes a certain amount of time.

Sure. There’s really not [much to do] in terms of preparation. I do vocal warm-ups, eat something and then go play the show. There’s not a whole lot of pre-show prep work that goes on.

These upcoming gigs are at somewhat smaller venues than what you may be used to, and you’ve done a fair few festivals with Black Veil Brides; you mentioned [Summer Sonic in] Japan as part of this tour. Generally, do you prefer the more intimate venues or festival stages?

Well, for this project, while I enjoy and appreciate the opportunity at these larger festivals, I think the Andy Black project benefits most in a smaller room. It’s a show built for a smaller setting … While I appreciate Summer Sonic, and the crowds … I don’t know that the Andy Black show is necessarily built for that.

You started Black Veil Brides in 2006 and now have an incredible fan base with them. Did you feel any pressure when you started this project, to live up to previous success with the band?

Um, I don’t know if there’s necessarily pressure when you’re doing something that’s meant to be fun! One of the great things about this is that while you spend a lot of time [on it] and you’re serious and you work hard, you’re making music and performing on stage so there’s meant to be fun involved, you know.

How has the music industry changed since you started out a decade ago?

By far, it’s been a constantly changing decade. When the band first started there was still a kind of record industry. When I got my first major label deal, it was just before the decline of everything – things were obviously declining steadily but it was before the bottom really dropped out – so it’s been interesting even just in terms of the business end of merchandising and retail and everything. Seeing the differences in companies and places come and go.

One of the cool things is to be able to be around for 10 years, I feel very fortunate to [have] weather[ed] the storm. Not a lot of bands can say that so to have a decade of success is really a testament to the fans and it’s very much appreciated.

What are some of the highlights of your career so far?

Oh my God, too many to note! The biggest highlight right now is the fact that I still get to do this, and that people are still excited about it.

One of the funny things is that I started when I was so young [and] I’m 25 now. I’ve been touring since I was 16/15, it’s very interesting to watch people that are my age or older who grew up on my music and my band (laughs). Because I’ve been doing this since such a young age, people assume I’m much, much older than I am just because of how long I might have been in their consciousness.

One of the coolest things … is to meet someone in public, or for someone to come up to me that has graduated school and has a great job and a great life, and my music was able to help them in their teenage years. That means a lot to me.

 What music are you listening to at the moment?

Honestly, most often in my brain is my wife’s [Juliet Simms] music. She just put out a new record called “From The Grave”. She’s writing new material right now with John Feldmann, and those songs have been stuck in my head constantly, so the things I’m hearing right now in my brain is unreleased music from my wife.

If you could work with anyone in the industry, who would it be and why?

I’ve been very fortunate to work with a lot of really cool people. On this last record, I was able to work with some of my biggest heroes … the person who influenced me most to get into song writing and he sang on my most recent record. I’ve really been lucky to have the experience to work with most people so I will say that all of this happens because of John Feldmann, my producer. While I have worked with him already, he’s still the dream guy to work with so I’ll choose him.

What else have you got planned for this year?

I’m going to be very honest with you, my plans for the rest of this year are to finish this tour cycle and go home and finish the Black Veil Brides’ record. I won’t tour again until 2017, so the rest of the year’s going to be finishing the Black Veil record and enjoying some time with my family at home.

Will it be kind of weird for you to have spent so much time on this solo project and then go straight back into finishing the Black Veil Brides work?

There was certainly a transition. I’ve been working on the Black Veil Brides’ record for a couple of months now and there was certainly a transition for me, from one style or vibe to the other, but I think when you’ve been doing the band as long as I have, it’s pretty much second nature to get back into that.

What advice would you give to aspiring musicians?

The one piece of advice I always give to musicians, young or old, the kind of people who are trying to cultivate a career in this [is]: don’t be afraid if people tell you that you suck. Being told that you’re terrible is an inevitability and sometimes that is too discouraging for people and they’ll quit or they’ll stop because they don’t want to be told they’re terrible – nobody wants to hear that.

Being told that you’re terrible is going to happen. You can use it as constructive criticism or you can use it as a “Fuck you, I’m going to do better than what you think.” or you can ignore it entirely. I think probably a healthy combination of all those things is what creates a successful person.