Oliver Sykes

Biography

Oliver Scott Sykes, known professionally as Oli Sykes (born 20 November 1986) is an English musician, and the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the rock band Bring Me the Horizon. He founded apparel company Drop Dead Clothing and opened a vegan bar and restaurant in Sheffield.

== Early life == Sykes was born on 20 November 1986, in Ashford, Kent, England. As an infant, he moved to Australia with his parents, Ian and Carol Sykes, living between Adelaide and Perth during a period of about six years. The family returned to the United Kingdom when Sykes was about eight, settling in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. As a teenager, he attended Stocksbridge High School then Barnsley College.

== Career ==

=== Womb 2 Da Tomb, Purple Curto and Olisaurus pseudonym (2000–2004) === In early 2000, while still in school, he began crafting compilation CDs and short tracks under the name Quakebeat. He also played in the mock hip-hop band "Womb 2 Da Tomb" with his brother Tom Sykes and fellow Bring Me the Horizon member Matt Nicholls, and in metal band "Purple Curto" with Neil Whiteley, as the drummer/vocalist under the pseudonym "Olisaurus", which he would later use when releasing solo material.

=== Bring Me the Horizon (2004–present) ===

In 2004, Sykes formed Bring Me the Horizon. The band released their debut EP This Is What the Edge of Your Seat Was Made For in 2004, then releasing their debut studio album, Count Your Blessings in 2006. Their second studio album, Suicide Season, was released on 29 September 2008. During a tour in 2008, Bring Me the Horizon and the British metalcore band Architects filmed two videos. The first showed a fight between Sykes and Architects' lead singer Sam Carter, while the second showed an ambulance with Sykes supposedly inside. The videos were uploaded to YouTube, leading to outrage from many Bring Me the Horizon fans, and resulting in hate mail and death threats being sent to Carter. However, it was later revealed that the videos were a stunt staged by both bands, and that they are in fact good friends. Sykes said, "All-day events can get boring very fast so we conjured up the first idiotic thing we could think of and made it as unbelievable as possible." Their third studio album There Is a Hell Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is a Heaven Let's Keep It a Secret. was released on 4 October 2010, followed by fourth studio album Sempiternal on 1 April 2013, which features the new member Jordan Fish for the album. In June 2013, Sykes and Bring Me the Horizon were sued by the parents of a 12-year-old girl due to injuries received in the mosh pit while watching the band's performance during the Warped Tour 2013. This led to Sykes announcing via Twitter that legally he was no longer able to start any form of moshing activities during his concerts. However, Sykes later stated that the suit had been dropped and that moshing was not going to be banned. The band released their fifth studio album That's the Spirit on 11 September 2015, and their sixth album Amo on 25 January 2019. On 27 December 2019, they released their commercial release Music to Listen To.... On 30 October 2020, they released another commercial release, Post Human: Survival Horror.

=== Collaborations and musical projects === Sykes has been featured on You Me at Six's "Bite My Tongue", Architects' "Even If You Win, You're Still a Rat", Admiral's Arms' "Dawn of the New Age" and Deez Nuts's "If You Don't Know, You Know Now". He is also featured in a music video that accompanied "All I Want", a song by American rock band A Day to Remember. In 2017, Sykes was featured as guest vocalist on the song "Silence Speaks" with English metalcore band While She Sleeps. Sykes was briefly featured in the music video for Charli XCX's 2017 song "Boys" along with other artists including Brendon Urie, Denzel Curry, Charlie Puth and Stormzy. Sykes has also collaborated with DJ Skrillex as the backing vocals of the song "Visions", featured on the Bring Me the Horizon album There Is a Hell Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is a Heaven Let's Keep It a Secret.. Skrillex has also remixed a Bring Me the Horizon song "The Sadness Will Never End" off Suicide Season which the remix was featured on the Cut Up! version of the album. On 27 October 2017, Sykes performed with Linkin Park at Linkin Park and Friends: Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington. He performed the song "Crawling" with DJ and record producer Zedd on percussion.

=== Other ventures === Sykes is the founder and owner of the alternative clothing line Drop Dead Clothing (stylized as DROP DEAD). On 1 February 2013, Sykes launched Kickstarter project to fund a graphic novel created by him and Drop Dead Clothing artist Ben Ashton-Bell, entitled Raised by Raptors. With a £15,000 goal, the project exceeded its target within weeks of launching, attaining a final total of £39,223. In July 2018, Sykes opened a vegan restaurant/bar in Sheffield called "Church - Temple of Fun". The restaurant has an arcade and live music.