The Bring Me The Horizon frontman has opened up about his experience of fatherhood while headlining Reading festival after revealing: ‘I feel like a different human being’
When it comes to welcoming new additions into the family, new parents can often feel overwhelmed by the multitude of demands suddenly placed upon their time. Yet one parent that appears to be in his element, is Bring Me The Horizon’ s Oli Sykes, who welcomed twins with his wife Alissic back in July.
“I’m feeling good, yeah,” he told NME. “[The twins] have been sleeping, so it’s been alright. It’s been hectic but not too bad.”
Having embraced fatherhood with both hands, Oli has even found that it has given him a new lease of leave and now more than ever, the singer has been thriving with a new sense of purpose and passion in his day to day life.
“I feel like a different human being for sure,” Sykes said.
Elaborating on how things had changed for him in particular ahead of this year’s headline performance at Reading festival, he added: “I’ve actually never felt so calm and peaceful before a headline festival. I’m usually way more stressed than this!”
Delving into his thought process and pinning down exactly how he was feeling, Oli explained that in the past before a performance, Oli had found himself worrying about all the things that could potentially go wrong on stage, including his fears about hitting a bum note and making a fool of himself.
Yet since having children, this is now no longer the case, with his newborn twins instead having opened his eyes to the realisation that the “most important thing” was now “waiting for him at home”.
“It has instantly killed so much stuff that I had before,” he admitted. I used to keep myself awake with regrets, fears, the future and what could happen – worrying about petty stuff with a band. [Having kids] just obliterated it overnight.”
“It had lightened the load so much. Obviously having kids is hectic, but it has taken so much from me in another place. I’ve been trying to get to this place, and I never thought it would be kids that got me there.”
While fatherhood appears to be something Oli has more than happily taken in his stride, it has still come at a price, with the 38 year old star admitting that it means Bring Me The Horizon’s music has been produced at a much slower pace – something which isn’t necessarily a bad thing for Oli or for his bandmates.
“We’re still making music but it’s a bit slower with more delegating and working remotely,”he told the publication. “Then at the same time it’s what I love doing. I’m doing it, but I don’t need to finish it. It’s not like we go into the studio and if we don’t finish it, then I get depressed. It’s just slowly ticking over.”
“All that external noise is gone and that’s even making me a better writer. I’m not thinking, ‘Where’s the next single?’ ‘Will this do well?’ I just want to make something cool. Even to that level, it’s helping. On a creative level, it’s going to be really good.”