Vic Fuentes
Appearances
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
Please, slow it down. There's a secret place that I know. I could dig a grave out in Harlem underground.
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
My name is Vic Fuentes, and I sing for a band called Pierce the Veil, and I guess we're emo.
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
I've lived through all of it, and I was in all of it, and... I think I may have actually missed the very inception of it, which was not really at all what you see now. And, you know, with bands that were... What I first saw that were considered emo was guys wearing like sweaters and kind of almost like mod looking. Guys playing...
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
kind of aggressive music that had clean emotional parts and then explosive big parts. And then, but you got this guy that looks like, you know, he's got a sweater and he's got his hair all nice, but they go freaking crazy on stage. And it was such a rad combination. And then, you know, that developed into like the Warped Tour, the Vans Warped Tour.
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
So, you know, it just morphed into different things. You know, it started becoming this,
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
totally unique like genre that had its own fashion you know like everyone dressed a certain way and uh you know straightened hair tight girl pants like very androgynous but not but more in a gothy way rather than like a bowie type of way you know it's like uh had its own you know look and and and that is sort of
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
It's developed into what a 2025 is sort of looking back of young kids wanting to embrace what they, you know, what they think emo was. You know, they see these pictures of these kids and they're kind of, I don't know, I guess reliving that now in a way. I did it. I had my hair straightened. I had...
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
The tightest jeans you could find, you know, which had to be girl jeans because guy jeans didn't exist that were tight back then.
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
You had to shop in the women's section. And it was a funny story. One time I... I went on a date with this girl, and when I opened the door, we were both wearing the same exact outfit, the same shirt.
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
Yeah. Yeah, there's a totally new generation that has... picked up and embraced the genre and sort of, I don't know, made it, made it new and made it like relabeled it in a way. Cause we didn't used to call what we did, what we do emo. Like that was when we were playing, that was actually like an insult. You know, when people call this an emo band, that was like,
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
calling you whiny or, you know, like just like, you know, it was, it was like a, yeah, it was derogatory back then. And now it has sort of solidified itself and into like a proud genre name. You see big pop stars or like hip hop artists who are like old emo kids who grew up in, in that world, you know, like, um, um, and we see it pop up all the time. And, um,
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
I've been able to connect with a lot of these artists who are like, you know, listen to our band when they were kids and now they're, but now they're in a totally different world, but they take that, that emo, you know, root world of, you know, that emotional music and, um, and they use it in their music now. And it's, uh,
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
It's definitely stood the test of time in a crazy way, and it got bigger, which is even crazier. What music were you into at this time?
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
Same. I think somebody handed me the same booklet. Like it was like tool. You met Rodney as well. That Anima record or whatever. It was Anima and the fragile from nine inch nails. Yeah. Yeah. Uh,
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
like pantera and like oh yeah like vulgar display of power was like and then funny you think you're unique right in your musical taste at that age and then you talk to people later and you're like oh no we all grow up in that exact same bubble yeah and i had the same like hatred for types of genres because you're like like i remember i hated pop punk when i was a kid because i only liked
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
like like darker punk stuff you know like like i loved like pennywise and lag wagon but i hated like simple plan and stuff like that you know like it was like well it's also you're you're figuring out who you are and you don't really have a lot of ways to define yourself so it comes down to what you're interested in that's such a huge part of your personality right right yeah no it is i mean it's and that's a great part about it i love that you know
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
Yeah. I mean, it was... I mean, going back to like the dark emotional stuff, it was hitting like our fans in such... We were hitting at a time when... I don't know what was happening with like teenage...
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
like kids but like depression was like going crazy at that time and i don't know i don't know if it's still quite as bad as it was but we would do meet and greets and like kids would just tell us these stories and pour their hearts out and like they would even like give us their razors like that they were using to like and they would be like hey i'm never i'm never going to use this again like here you go and that was like too much for us to to handle um
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
Yeah, and I'm sure it's the same with a ton of genres, you know, metal or whatever it may be. But, you know, it's... Yeah, you're just hitting people at a time that's so confusing and hard, and music is just so helpful for them.
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
I've supported since day one because they did something that I wanted America to do for, I guess, like 10, at least 10 years. Because when we first started touring in the UK, we would go to a club or a bar after the show and they would be playing Blink-182 and everyone would be dancing to punk music. And they did it for years. They did it the whole time they were doing this.
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
And I thought it was so cool. And because in America, the only music they played at clubs was was dance music and hip hop. And it was the club scene was, you know, very specific button up shirts and slick hair. And like it was it was not like anything that we related to. So the club scene in the UK was was like punk kids, you know, probably had something to do with the drinking age being different.
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
But anyways, you know, it was just like kids dancing around, having fun to like their favorite music and to rock music specifically and pop punk. And it was just I loved it so much. I thought it was amazing. And no one did it in America. And finally, you and I figured out a way to do it in an effective big way. And it just grew. Morgan and TJ, the guys that started it, run it.
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
They started it in a way that. It was just so no rules, punk rock. I don't know how they were even getting away with doing the shows that they were doing without the police shutting them down. It felt to me like what would it have felt like to be in those clubs in the 80s, like the Studio 54s and those underground clubs that got really popular.
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
And also, they support my nonprofit where they donate a dollar of every ticket to my nonprofit, Living the Dream Foundation. Vic is the best.
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
Breathe you in with smoke In the backyard lights We used to laugh until we choked Until the wasted nights It was the best time of my life But now I sleep alone So don't, don't, don't wake me up Cause my thrill is gone And the sunset turning red behind the smoke forever ends alone. You've gone and summoned me to this bed that stays to you and me.
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
I'll never leave my lips again until the blinding rain. The blinding rain. I want to hold your hand so tight. I'm going to break my wrist. And when the vultures sing tonight, I'm going to join right in. I'll sing now.
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
I don't know any other song Whoa, whoa, whoa No, I'll sing along But I'm barely hanging on No, I'm barely hanging on By the time you're hearing this already begun Oh, there's nothing to do But scream high if the drum can make This isn't fair. Don't you try to blame this on me. My love for you was bulletproof, but you're the one who shot me. And God damn it, I can barely say your name.
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
So I'll try to write it and fill the pen with blood from the sink. Yeah. But don't just say it. You should say my name. Pretend that it's a song. Cause forever it's yours. We can sing this song. Now I sing along I don't know any other song Now I sing along But I'm barely hanging on
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
This already begun Well, there's nothing to do But tell him what he wants Now, nothing to do But scream at the drunken moan