Bring Me The Horizon frontman Oli Sykes has opened up on some of the difficulties he faced during the global pandemic, revealing that he returned to using drugs as a means to cope with some of his issues. Speaking to Loudwire, the singer points to his discomfort at suddenly having so little to do as a key factor in him returning to bad habits.
"I fell back into drugs," he says. "When it was the pandemic and stuff. And I think part of it was just because I was just so used to being burnt out, that when the pandemic hit, and I didn't have as much to do, I was just so bored and not used to just being a real person that I just fell back into drugs."
Sykes goes on to explain that his relentless work ethic and fears of Bring Me The Horizon losing their momentum had led him to a toxic state of mind that left him vulnerable when the world stopped and global lockdowns took hold.
"And I realised after that [Post Human: Survival Horror] record, I was like, 'I've just got to stop thinking the way I'm thinking.' I used to think that my success was based on the fact that I thought in this way: 'If we stop for a minute, our band's gonna drop off, no one's gonna like us any more, we won't be big any more. We've always got to make songs, we've got to keep pushing ourselves, we've got to...like, we have to deliver this and we have to do that, we don't have an album.' I've just realised that even if that was true, what is the cost of living that way? Like, I don't have a life! I still don't have a life. Even now, I'm slowly trying to get one back but I'm so into my work."
Earlier this year, Bring Me The Horizon released their seventh studio album, Post Human: Nex Gen. In the interview, Sykes says while his workload is still intense, he's getting better at managing life balances.
"Part of that [was] making sure that I'm not going too hard, you know," he says. "Not dedicating every day of my life without anything, without any holidays, without any time off, without doing something else, without spending some time with my family or friends."
Post Human: Nex Gen marked the first Bring Me The Horizon album since the sudden departure of keyboardist/percussionist Jordan Fish at the end of 2023. The band will hit shows in Asia, South America and Central America in the coming months.
