Bring Me the Horizon have given fans their first taste of a new song “Strangers” while hosting their Malta Weekender festival Thursday night (May 26).
While the song didn’t receive a live concert debut, Oli Sykes decided to give it a spin during a DJ set, leading the crowd in a sing-along of a part of the song’s chorus.
“We really wanted a new song to play you before but we didn’t quite get the video in time, so we’re not going to play you a new song …. tomorrow. But if you guys really want to hear a new song right now … we’ll do it,” Sykes told the crowd.
Revealing the “Strangers” was “about family,” he went on to marvel at the amount of fans that turned up for their Malta-set fest, joking, “Why in the hell would a bunch of goths come to Malta at the end of May? It makes no fucking sense.”
Further elaborating on the song, he offered, “Right now, we’re all a room full of strangers. We don’t know each other and it don’t fucking matter cause we’re all here for the same fucking reason, right?” Then he proceeded to teach the crowd three lines of the chorus, that he wanted them to sing along to – “We’re just a room full of strangers / Looking for something to save us / Alone together.”
After a couple of call and responses, Sykes played the song, urging the crowd to sing along to the emo-leaning and uplifting new track, as you can see in the fan-shot video below.
Oli Sykes Debuts Bring Me the Horizon’s “Strangers” During DJ Set
Bring Me the Horizon have been working toward the second EP in their Post Human series. Back in January, Sykes revealed that the emo-leaning next installment would focus more on recovery and practicing self care.
“With this record, I’m going to try to teach people to have compassion for themselves, as someone who fucking hated themselves,” the frontman told Rolling Stone U.K. “It used to make me sick to hear ‘you’ve got to love yourself’ — never. I used to put all my awards in a cupboard, I wouldn’t look at them. If someone asked me what I did, I would never say I was in a band, I’d say I own a clothing company or a restaurant. I just didn’t wanna talk about it. Now I love myself. I can look in the mirror and go ‘You’re doing good.’ I can say ‘I’m a rock star, my band’s doing well.’”
He went on to add, “‘Can You Feel My Heart’ is ten years old now and comes at the end of that [emo] scene. Extreme emotion disappeared for ten years and kids are rediscovering that level of it. That’s why I think we’ve got a chance, because we’re highly emotive – that’s our bread and butter.”
In addition to delivering the new song, the DJ sets provided another memorable moment as festival goers created a circle pit in a swimming pool while “Can You Feel My Heart” played.
Bring Me the Horizon will be back on tour stateside, with land-based circle pits likely started, this fall. Get more info on their upcoming trek with Knocked Loose, grandson and Siiickbrain here.
