Oliver Sykes

Oliver Sykes is known to suffer from a very rare sleep disorder named ‘Sleep Paralysis’ ever since he was 12 years old which makes the person unable to move while in their slumber.

Oli is an atheist and a hard core vegetarian. He pinpoints to a documentary on animal cruelty and believes in harmony and peace among different species in order to make the world a better place.

He is known to have drug addiction issues, and has been to rehab quite a number of times. He says that it took him years to overcome the phase of addiction and used music to replace that ‘other addiction’. He claims to be clean now.

Oliver Sykes was born in Kent, England on 20th November 1986 to Ian and Carol Sykes. The family moved to Australia soon after Oli was born and for the next few years, the Sykes family kept hopping from one place to another in Australia due to professional reasons. The family made their move back to their homeland while Oli was 8 years old and settled there permanently.

Oliver attended Stocksbridge High School. He was a year junior to Arctic Monkeys band members Alex Turner and Matt Halder. Sykes says that at the school, he was much more interested in English literature and art subjects as compared to mathematics or science. He would never miss the art class and was faculty’s favourite and his inclination towards music started while he was at school.

In 2003, he started taking his career in music seriously and devised ways to get a head-start. He started making compilation CDs and tiny tracks while using the moniker Quakebeats. He, along with his brother Tom Sykes, started performing in bands and gained popularity, which infused enough confidence in him to enable him to take making music as his full time occupation.

Oliver Sykes embarked onto the English music scene with the formation of his metal band ‘Bring me the Horizon’ in 2001, a band which tasted success very quickly owing to their passionate alternative rock beats and presentation, which was something fresh at that time. Their demo album ‘Bedroom Sessions’, which was released in 2004, resonated well with listeners and they followed it up with an extended play ‘This is What The Edge of Your Seat Was Made For’.

It took two full years for the band to come up with their debut studio album, titled ‘Count your Blessings’ which eventually got released in 2006. Their first attempt was received well by the public and the critics and the band, without wasting any time, immediately started prepping up for their second album and kept themselves busy with the tours and concerts.

Oliver and his comrades chose Sweden to record their second studio album titled ‘Suicide Season’. It was released in US and Europe in September 2008 while the band promoted the album through tours and online campaigns. In November 2009, the band came up with a remixed version of their second studio album titled ‘Suicide Season: Cut up’ and featured many prominent musicians in it.

However, earlier in 2009, their Guitarist Curtis Ward had left citing some personal and professional reasons which put the future of the band briefly in jeopardy. While the band looked for a new guitarist, the tours and concerts never stopped as they tried different guitarists for the same.

The band then released their third studio album with an unusual title, ‘There is a Hell, Believe me I have Seen it, There is a Heaven, Let’s Keep it a Secret’ in 2010. The album secured first spot in the Australian Albums chart, 17th spot in the US Billboard 200 and the top spot on the UK indie chart. The band went on to promote the album with tours across Europe and hired ‘Bullet for my Valentine’ as their main supporting band. The album was well received by the critics and the gothic themes were praised by a lot of prolific music magazines.