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Bleeding Through: “There was no Plan B. I thought that maybe music is a part of my life that is just done?”

In our latest Cover Story, Bleeding Through vocalist Brandan Schieppati talks about the dedication and struggles behind new album ‘Nine’.

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For Orange County hardcore band, Bleeding Through, their upcoming new album, Nine (out on February 14th through Sharptone Records), is not just the latest addition to their savage catalogue of records.

For frontman Brandan Schieppati, Nine represents the truest form of the band possible. It represents their dedication, their struggles, their committment and, for their fanbase, Nine is an album that represents their community.

In our latest Cover Story, V13 sat down with the frontman to talk about Nine and find out more about the struggles and dedication the hardcore heavyweights poured into their new album.

It’s been seven years since the last record. Taking the pandemic into consideration was the plan for such a kind of long gap between records?

“No. We thought we were back on a roll around Love Will Kill All. We were playing shows. We had a lot of stuff booked and planned that we had to cancel the plans because of COVID. We look back on it, and what we were so bummed about was really who fucking cares in the greater scope of what that fucking shit did? What it did do is it did take us a little bit out of the rhythm that we were in. We put that out and then when Covid happened, it was strange as we lost track of each other which has never happened with members of Bleeding Through.

Marta and I are really close but we didn’t talk and it was like weird. After the first year, we’re not really talking about anything so I start writing some songs to give us a reason to unify again. I started writing the Rage EP. I just told the band that I was going to write some stuff but I didn’t know if the guys are in a position, personally, where they can do Bleeding Through anymore or if they want to do Bleeding Through. Coming back after the hiatus, we wanted to do it, but do we still have the energy after COVID and all the horrible things that have happened off that?

Marta just opened her bar right before that happened. I had my gym and we both almost lost our businesses so we had no idea. We started writing the Rage EP and it went really well. We started playing shows and then after the first time coming back, we just realized we are probably back on a level where we are enjoying it more. We were more appreciative. We were grateful. We had full gratitude for everybody who was at our shows and it gave us a fresh start.

Love Will Kill All kind of seemed like a comeback-ish, this seemed like the real comeback. We have an energy that we’re locked in. I haven’t known Bleeding Through to be this much of a machine in fucking years, man. Even when you see us play live now, I keep getting the same thing. It’s like, ‘You guys are better now. Like, how the fuck is that possible?’”

That’s a good compliment though…

“That’s a good compliment, right? I see bands that come back after taking time off, or they’re in their 40s and that was cool not as good. That just happens sometimes. I never want that to be the case with Bleeding Through.”

Love Will Kill All dropped to rave reviews. The band were back. Do you feel you lost momentum and do you think that partly contributed to you thinking that the band is not going to continue? Did that frustrate you?

“I felt like we lost momentum when COVID happened. I felt like the momentum was done. We could feel the momentum creeping up when we put Love Will Kill All out and the shows were getting better and everything was getting to that level but I almost feel like things happen for a reason. I know this is self-serving for me to think about this right now, but I’m going to say it anyway, that timeframe in humanity was catastrophic but maybe that did happen for a reason.

Maybe that timeframe for us to come back and play wasn’t really when we were going to be most effective. Maybe this time was? We didn’t want seven years to go by. The Rage EP was initially gonna be a full-length and I scrapped that because half of this record I didn’t feel like was good enough. I didn’t feel like this represents us as the band now and I want our passion to be shining through this record. I just didn’t think that we were there to write that so let’s just do an EP or some singles and then we’ll get to our full-length.”

“We have an energy that we’re locked in. I haven’t known Bleeding Through to be this much of a machine in fucking years, man…”

You talked about your conversations with Marta and reigniting that relationship. Do you remember those conversations and did your view of Bleeding Through and what you wanted from the band change after those conversations?

“When we came back with Love Will Kill All, we saw the band as like a business a little bit still. I think the conversations that I had with her were about if we do this band again, it needs to purely be because this is exactly what we want to be doing for the love of this music and let’s not hold back. Let’s not even ask ourselves whether this is good for business or not. It just has to be good for Bleeding Through. If it’s good for us, no more worrying about who fucking cares. If we just do our job, things will fall in the line. If we just do the best and be the best version of ourselves as we can be, then things will happen.

We just made this agreement to not overextend ourselves to the point where we’re doing things to try to posture and sell records or whatever. Let’s not do stupid shit that doesn’t represent us. We’re past that 25 years in. We don’t need to do those things. Do what we want, play what we want, play where we want, enjoy playing with bands that we want to enjoy playing with, and not be persuaded by outside influence saying we should take this band because they do this and this. I don’t care.

If we don’t like it we’re not gonna play with them like… that’s just the way it is. I don’t care if they’re gonna bring an extra 300 people. It doesn’t matter to us… the numbers don’t matter so really the conversations we were having were more if we come back like this I think the pure representation of what Bleeding Through has been for 25 years will shine through and we’ll enjoy it more and that’s exactly what is happening.”

Cover Story - Issue78 - BleedingThrough

Cover Story – Issue78 – BleedingThrough

When did you start discussing a new record then as a band? Did you have a common goal for what you wanted it to sound like?

“I wanted everyone to put their part into it. I feel like Love Will Kill All, I just wrote most of that record but, for this record, I didn’t want it to be like that. I wanted it to be everybody’s input, everybody’s vibe, where their emotion is coming from and then, overall, even if the songs kind of sound different from each other, the overall vibe, if it’s purely us, will sound like us and I feel like that’s what happened.

I feel like I wrote a couple of songs. John wrote a couple of songs and then Marta just put her whole fucking vibe over the whole thing. She is the blanket that keeps it all in. The songs are very different from each other. There are a lot of songs that are very different but, overall, the dark vibe of the record keeps it very unified.”

“Let’s not do stupid shit that doesn’t represent us. We’re past that 25 years in. We don’t need to do those things…”

One of the things you talked about was exploring your struggles with your mental health. Going back to COVID and those years, If you’d had those conversations and the rest of the band had said, “Look, we don’t wanna carry on,” had you considered a plan B?

“No. I didn’t. I’ve said it before, I don’t want to do the band without Marta. Ever. I don’t want to do it without Derek. At the time when Bleeding Through got back together, Ryan, our bass player, was doing Light the Torch so, really, I just said to myself that as long as Marta, as long as Derek can do it, then I want to keep doing it. But there was no plan B.

I thought if they don’t want to do this band, then I’ll just try something else or join another band if I want to keep doing music but it was close to being that maybe music’s just part of my life that is just done. Which, to think about it now, fuck, hell no, man. This is the only thing I purely love in my life. Like, I love fitness and the relationships I have with people, but the one thing that is purely me and has been my life’s work has been Bleeding Through.

That’s weird to fucking think of when you’re 19 years old, and you’re playing in your drummer’s bedroom, and you have no idea what the fuck’s gonna happen from it. To think that 25 years later, to be known for something like this, it’s crazy. It’s fucking crazy.”

Everyone connects with you though. For all the struggles with your mental health, seeing the reaction at festivals like Damnation must make getting up and doing it even on the bad days worthwhile?

“It’s hard. It’s something that I struggle with on every show. It’s the enormity and the emotion that I feel from the crowd it’s fucking overwhelming. Take one of those things where you don’t want it, you don’t feel worthy of it, but you have to embrace it and even if you feel that shit, it gets me sometimes, it does. I have to stop and collect myself and breathe but that’s been the thing that’s kept me my fucking heart beating. It’s the thing that’s kept me going through my days is how we have such an infatuation with our fan base and with the people who love this music and find some sort of escapism within the music from what they’re dealing with.

It’s such a great thing that we have. To be part of this underground music scene, the heavy music world, extreme music world, or whatever facet, or genre you familiarize yourself with. What a fucking great thing that we have this in our life. A lot of people don’t have anything like this. We take it for granted because it’s part of us. We read gossip columns of bands and we talk shit. We do our fucking garbage opinions to garbage music but what a fucking great thing, because we have this to discuss and no matter how fucking shit your day is, you can fucking put music on and you can fucking lose yourself in it for a little bit.

Bleeding Through ‘Nine’ Album Artwork

Bleeding Through ‘Nine’ Album Artwork

Fuck, what a great thing, right? That is why we play this music still. That is what I get from it and the people in my band get from it and we are all unified in that feeling of what we get from it.

It’s like with this new record, people want to know why we call the record Nine because what the fuck is nine records, right? Why is nine so important? It’s because, 25 years into this record, I will say, whether you agree with it or not, because I’m so sure of this record in my mind because I know how I feel when I listen to this record, when I listen to this record, I feel like a fan of Bleeding Through.

It’s weird. I pull myself out of it and it makes you feel lots of different things through this whole record. I think this record is so fucking good that I wanted to stamp it Nine. This is the record. This is the one. I have such confidence in it that people are going to listen to this record and not hear just the band putting out another record, they’re gonna listen to this and be like, “This is fucking like a new band.

How cathartic has recording this album for you?

“That is the most helpful. Now, if I don’t play a live show every other month something happens to me. I need that release now, and that’s something that I feel like I didn’t have for so long. I didn’t even realize how much I needed it but that is everything, it really is. I go out there and I just want the connection.

Also, I like being a vessel for people who need something in their life to hold on to. If we are that for them for that hour, fuck yeah. That’s so appreciated by us. We want people to feel like they’re not alone. This type of music is the one thing that keeps isolation, complete isolation away. It gives you that purpose. It gives you that family, people that have your back. It means everything to me.”

Away from your own personal struggles, there are songs on Nine about the state of humanity. Where do you look for inspiration for those songs? Are there events that trigger you to write?

“You go on fucking Instagram and it’s a bunch of people that are just telling you what to buy, what to wear, what you’re doing wrong. They have all the answers, right? You know, sometimes in my career of fitness and stuff like that, I’ve been known as being one of those people, but people are so at you. I feel like we live in a society where nothing is good enough for fucking anyone. You could have all the success in the world but somebody is gonna be out there telling you that you’re doing something wrong and you need to do this and it’s a bunch of people that are telling how dare we have opinions.

“We want people to feel like they’re not alone. This type of music is the one thing that keeps isolation, complete isolation away. It gives you that purpose.”

There’s so much garbage out there. Thoughtless, mindless, emotionless garbage out there that people are just trying to sell you and people buy it and it’s fucking ruining relationships. It’s ruining the sense of loyalty. It’s ruining all these elements that I think are deeply rooted in humanity that we can stand on and be proud of. If you have a successful business, stop fucking listening to somebody tell you how much more successful you can be.

Be okay with where you’re at now and be okay with your personal growth. Don’t be completely enamoured by the grass is always green somewhere else. I just feel like we live in a society where everybody’s fucking selling some bullshit and we just need to like, look at our loved ones and love them more. Look at what we have in life and appreciate it more. Look at our friendships and give more to the friendships than we have. Be okay with a small bubble.”

You had several guests on the record. Where are they people that you share a similar ethos and personal opinions with?

“Well, it’s interesting because, with Andrew from Comeback Kid, we connect on a level where we’re just talking about how this is like our community, this is our life. We connect in a way that gets us through it. We feel like we are all in this together. It’s like a unifying thing. I’ve always loved his energy with that. I’ve found inspiration in that and he’s just a great entertainer.

Brian from Shadows Fall has been a friend for a long time. That’s more just like an admiration for them as a band, from our band to their band. They opened a lot of doors for bands like us. They were one of the first bands to wave that banner of metalcore, even though they consider themselves like a metal band, whatever the fuck. They came from hardcore bands for the most part and that was cool as it was where we came from.

With Doc, he is one of my best friends, and he’s one of the coolest dudes. There’s nobody so positive in life and it’s kind of crazy as I don’t understand where he gets it from. God Forbid and what he did as a guitar player has inspired me to write music and so that was a homage to that band because they’ve been such a driving force behind Bleeding Through but never really knew it. This is our way of letting them know that they are.”

From being a 19-year-old playing in a bedroom, you’ve been through a lot personally and musically as people and friends, if you had to sum up the band on this record in 2025, what does it mean to you?

“Loyalty sums this up and chaos and love and gratitude. That’s what this music is. That’s what this band is. This band is something where I’m a fan of this band. It’s funny because some people in bands aren’t fans of their band, but I’m a fan of this band just because my fucking bandmates inspire me. We’re all like in our fucking 40s, man. You do this shit because you love it and we’re trying to do it as hard as we fucking can and that’s inspiring and the gratitude comes from the fanbase that we have.

“With Andrew from Comeback Kid, we connect on a level where we’re just talking about how this is like our community, this is our life.”

To us, that is second to none that connection we have. This record is for them. This record… we want people that have fucking had our back forever to hear this record. For their friends that maybe don’t like us and give them shit for listening to us or whatever, here’s Bleeding Through 25 years in… What’s your band fucking doing now? Oh, the same shit you’ve been doing for fucking 20 years but now it’s getting worse and worse with every record.

We never want to be that band. Here’s what sums up Bleeding Through in 25 years of being a band. Dedication. We’re not easily swayed. We didn’t follow the rockstar blueprint. We didn’t try to be like our friends in Avenged Sevenfold like everybody else in this area tried to do. We stayed Bleeding Through because we were dedicated to each other, to our emotions, to what we feel and to our music. We stayed dedicated to our fucking music.

It’s okay to be proud of this band. We’re proud of you as our fans. We’re proud of this band too and this record. This record is about all of us. It’s about what we have in our lives right now that we get to lean on. We have each other. It’s about us. It’s about all of us.”

I have an unhealthy obsession with bad horror movies, the song Wanted Dead Or Alive and crap British game shows. I do this not because of the sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll lifestyle it affords me but more because it gives me an excuse to listen to bands that sound like hippos mating.

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