Bring Me The Horizon originally delayed their new album Post Human: NeX GEn in September 2023, saying at the time "unforeseen circumstances rendered us unable to complete the record to the standard we'd be happy with." Then in December 2023, Bring Me The Horizon parted ways with longtime keyboardist Jordan Fish with very little explanation. Post Human: NeX GEn eventually came out in May 2023, but what happened between Bring Me The Horizon and Fish?
In an interview with Revolver, Bring Me The Horizon frontman Oli Sykes talked a little about the split and the album delay. Sykes said the delay was related to "personal reasons within the band, and it was directly connected to Jordan leaving," later noting that things "weren't good" in the Bring Me The Horizon camp last year.
On the first Fish-less single "Kool-Aid", Sykes said Bring Me The Horizon took a completely new approach and stopped being a self-proclaimed "Oli and Jordan show."
"We approached the song very differently, [though it was also] a lot more old-school and a lot more the way we used to approach music. Jordan was a whiz on the computer and a whiz at producing. We found ourselves mainly hunched over computers most of the time when writing albums. We even got to the point where we were hardly even putting any real guitar in anymore when we were [in the writing phase]. We were [demoing] on synths and doing everything within Pro Tools and MIDI. 'Kool-Aid' was the first time in a while where we jammed the song [as a band], [and where] we wrote the riffs on guitars, which sounds crazy. That was new again.
"And it was also the first time the rest of the band got a proper look into writing, [which] was a real eye-opener for me. Me and Jordan were like a force. We turned into the 'Oli and Jordan Show' without really realizing it. Ever since I got out of rehab, just before Sempiternal, I really had to throw myself into something, and I guess that was music. I became addicted to writing, and learning how to sing and produce. And Jordan was my partner in that kind of pursuit. We wrote all the time.
"I didn't realize how much we pushed the other guys out. I'm not saying they didn't [ever] write, [but] 'Kool-Aid' opened it up so much more…
On the split, Sykes said he hasn't heard from Fish. "No, not directly. I'm not going to bullshit and say, 'Oh, it was amicable and we all ended on good terms and stuff.' End of day, it's like any breakup… but there's no juicy story or anything. There's no headline there. At the same time, there'll be some wounds on both sides that are going to take a bit longer to heal before [getting back] on communicating terms again. But it's not something that I've ruled out.
"We all think Jordan's amazing, and we're stoked on the work he's done since being in the band, and we're excited to see what he does in the future."
