Oliver Sykes

“I'm not a politically-charged person. I don't want to be. I don't want to talk about politics and I don't want to sing about politics, but if you're talking about environmental issues then you can't talk about one without the other.”

“You could have the thickest skin but Instagram and Twitter still affect you. It makes you envious, even if you've got everything you could ever want.”

“When it comes to the grieving process, we all try to ignore that feeling - but it's important to grieve. Even if something's happened for the best, you need to take that moment to feel something.”

“We need to be our own heroes. We need a new way of looking at things. Greta Thunberg has shown us that. It's crazy, but this kid has proven that we can be our own leaders.”

“For a moment you forget how much the loss hurts. Then you remember and it buries you.”

“The key to me recovering from drug addiction was figuring out why I was so upset and why I hated myself so much. I realised it was all to do with the way I was viewed by other people.”

“Your favourite songs by your favourite bands are never the singles. It's when they've done exactly what they wanted without any compromise and not worried about the reaction.”

“When you're in a marriage, you can't leave just because you're arguing all the time. But it does stuff to you that you don't realise at first. It damages you, and you start thinking the worst of people.”

“Once you've been painted as something it's very hard, especially when you're young, to wash that off.”

“Most of my favourite artists are women.”

“I must have been about 13 when I first heard Linkin Park and, to be honest, music had never played that much of a part in my life to that point.”

“You just want so badly to be the best version of what people are saying, you want to look like the covers you're on, but it's hard to do that everyday.”

“I've been a vegan and a vegetarian for 15 years and I've always just quietly kept and values and my beliefs to myself. I didn't want to preach or be outspoken about all these things.”

“Happy Song' is a sarcastic open letter to the world about how we use superficial and trivial things to ignore the real problems.”

“What puts people off metal is they think it's all nutters and blood. We don't want to be seen that way.”

“I used to feel like I was drowning. So I stopped trying to swim.”

“It's quite an easy way to write a concept album about love. Everything boils down to love in the end.”

“We try so hard to block out negative or dark thoughts, but sometimes embracing your demons is the most vitalizing thing you can do.”