Pierce The Veil recently performed live at the Helpful Honda Sound Space at KROQ. Before the set, the band members joined an interview with host Megan Holiday, discussing details about their latest album, ‘The Jaws Of Life.’
During the interview, Holiday asked them whether the track ‘Pass The Nirvana’ was inspired by The Bled’s debut, ‘Pass The Flask.’ So, Vic Fuentes replied:
“That is correct, yeah. It was never supposed to be called ‘Pass The Nirvana.’ That was like a joke title we made up in like two seconds.”
And explained the origin of the song title:
“We just sat down, wanted to write a riff that was like – It reminded me of the first song of the Bled album, where it starts small and then it really goes hard. And that was our goal for that little moment, so we called it ‘Pass The Nirvana’ because we were also trying to write a Nirvana-feeling guitar part, and it ended up sounding nothing like either one of those. But that was the beginning of it, so yeah.”
‘Pass The Nirvana’ came out as the first single from ‘The Jaws Of Life’ in September 2022. It marked a new phase for Pierce The Veil, being their first new release after the departure of co-founder Mike Fuentes in 2017 due to sexual abuse allegations.
With the drummer’s absence, the band collaborated with Third Eye Blind’s Brad Hargreaves for the new record. In a chat about the collaboration with Kerrang, Vic Fuentes described reaching out to Hargreaves as ‘one of the scariest moments of his life’ and revealed:
“Third Eye Blind is my favorite band, and when he said yes, it really put a new fire into the album. I was like, ‘Oh my god, what could this be now?'”
He shared his thoughts about the drummer by saying:
“Brad is probably the most creative drummer in the world – he’s one of my favorites. His style is very memorable, and so it just opened up a whole new world for this record when he joined because I was just like, ‘Man, what could this be with him on it?’ It was really such a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
While recording ‘The Jaws Of Life’ with Hargreaves, Pierce The Veil hired Loniel Robinson as its touring drummer for the live performances in 2022. Now, the band is set to continue touring the US with him until the end of the year to support the new album. Then, they will kick off the European leg of the trek in late March 2024.
