Skip to main content
MusicRadar MusicRadar The No.1 website for musicians
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Artist news
  • Recording Week 25
  • Music Gear Reviews
  • Synths
  • Guitars
  • Controllers
  • Drums
  • Keyboards & Pianos
  • Guitar Amps
  • Software & Apps
  • More
    • Recording
    • DJ Gear
    • Acoustic Guitars
    • Bass Guitars
    • Tech
    • Tutorials
    • Reviews
    • Buying Guides
    • About Us
More
  • As It Was preset
  • Don't Give Up
  • Ron Wood's drum secret
  • 95k+ free music samples
Don't miss these
Greg Mackintosh of Paradise Lost plays his custom 7-string V live onstage with red and white stagelights behind him.
Artists Greg Mackintosh on the secrets behind the Paradise Lost sound and why he is still trying to learn Trouble’s tone tricks
Zach Myers of Shinedown plays a hunter green PRS NF53 live onstage at Download Festival 2025.
Artists Zach Myers on Shinedown’s secret weapon, the limits of shred guitar, and getting schooled by BB King
Orbit Culture's guitarists
Electric Guitars Orbit Culture show us their ESP guitars – and tell us why the EverTune bridge is a game-changer
Wolfgang Van Halen
Artists “Usually I’ve done the demos on my laptop, which can be a bit creatively stifling”: Wolfgang Van Halen on his new album
Korn's Brian 'Head' Welch and James 'Munky' Shaffer show off their new Ibanez signature 7-strings
Artists Korn’s Head and Munky unveil new Ibanez 7-strings – and explain how it all comes back to Steve Vai
Colin Brittain of Linkin Park performs at the I-Days Festival at Ippodromo Snai La Maura on June 24, 2025 in Milan, Italy
Drummers “I love this band, I love the people and the music": Colin Brittain on life behind the kit with Linkin Park
LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 7: Yungblud performs a live set on Denmark Street during the launch of his new store 'Beautifully Romanticised Accidently Traumatized' at 20 Denmark Street on August 7, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Nicky J. Sims/Getty Images)
Artists “I wanted to bring a new generation to this iconic street”: Yungblud launches his Denmark Street B.R.A.T store
NEW YORK - JULY 11: Mark Ronson performs at the High Line Ballroom on July 11, 2007 in New York City. (Photo by Donna Ward/Getty Images)
Artists Mark Ronson on having to come to terms with the fact that he would never be a great guitar player
A still from KHDK's Instagram reel with the logo emblazoned over one of the stompbox company's new and as-yet-unannounced and unreleased electric guitar designs.
Guitars KHDK Electronics makes pedals for metal's biggest stars; now it's going to make electric guitars too
PRS Mark Holcomb: previously only a limited edition run, the Periphery guitarist's Core Series signature model is now part of the PRS Guitars catalogue, as the Maryland high-end brand continues its 40th Anniversary celebrations by keeping the releases coming each month.
Artists Mark Holcomb’s limited run PRS is officially added to the Core series – and it ships in Drop C
Ozzy Osbourne and Zakk Wylde onstage in 1989. Both shirtless, Wylde takes a drink as he holds his bulleseye Les Paul Custom.
Artists “We were doing that riff and cracking up laughing the whole time”: Zakk Wylde on how a “joke” riff won Ozzy Osbourne his first ever Grammy
Mark Knopfler
Artists Mark Knopfler on the Dire Straits song he's come to accept that he has to start in the same way every time
Jackson American Series Rhoads: the Rhoads is now officially being made in the USA again, and is offered with a choice of a hardtail or Floyd Rose, with the hardtail finished in Satin Black and Snow White, and the Floyd in Satin Black, Matte Army Drab and Snow White. Note the reverse headstock.
Guitars All Rhoads lead to California as Jackson brings one of its most-iconic metal guitars home for a high-end upgrade
Warren Haynes takes a solo live onstage with his Gibson Les Paul Standard. He wears a black shirt.
Artists Warren Haynes on the Allman Brothers, Woodstock ’94, and finishing what Gregg Allman started with Derek Trucks’ help
Derek Trucks takes a slide solo on his Gibson SG as Tedeschi Trucks Band performs live at Madison Square Garden.
Artists Derek Trucks is one of the greatest slide players of all time – here’s how he decides when to use it
  1. Artists
  2. Guitarists

Lee Malia talks Wembley, gear and his guitar roots

News
By Matt Parker ( Total Guitar ) published 17 November 2014

Bring Me The Horizon guitarist discusses band's rise and, er, rise!

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Introduction

Introduction

Name us a bigger metal band to emerge from the UK in the last 10 years than Bring Me The Horizon and we’ll name you a liar.

We can get into semantics about what does and does not constitute metal - indeed, we do, down the page - but love ’em or lump ’em, in the last decade the Sheffield-bred five-piece have been there, done it, and started the t-shirt brand.

"I was always dead shy as a kid and the last thing on my mind was having people stare at me! I just loved playing guitar”

Guitarist Lee Malia is, as frontman Oli Sykes once put it, “the brains, the technique” behind the Northern rock regents. From the mad metalcore of 2006 debut Count Your Blessings, through to 2010’s acclaimed, post-rock channeling landmark There Is A Hell... and last year’s major label debut Sempiturnal, his growth as a player has matched that of his band.

Now, looking forward to a landmark December show at Wembley Arena and armed with a stunning new Epiphone signature model, we sit down with the man of the moment...

You formed the band 10 years ago. What were your expectations back then?

“When you’re that young you don’t really have expectations. We just wanted to play music. I started going to Sheffield and I saw Hundred Reasons and Sparta, then it was going to Manchester Arena and seeing Slipknot, and I used to go to Monsters Of Rock with my dad, so everything from local gigs to [big festivals].

“I played guitar and I just thought it would be fun to jam. I was always dead shy as a kid and the last thing on my mind was having people stare at me! I just loved playing guitar.”

How did you first start playing guitar?

“My dad used to play a bit and he left an electric guitar in my room, but I was never bothered about it. I asked him to take it out because I didn’t want to break it when I had mates around playing PlayStation. Then, three months after he got rid of the guitar, I got really into music and decided I wanted to play! I remember it was Boxing Day and I had like £80 Christmas money, so I went and bought one from Fox’s Music in Sheffield.”

Page 1 of 4
Page 1 of 4
Changing tastes

Changing tastes

Would you say that guitar music was your way of bonding with your dad?

“Yeah, I think when I started enjoying guitar music he was like, ‘Ah, great!’ He started taking me to shows. He’d take me to watch club bands doing covers, or we’d go and watch Gary Moore at the Arena. I think he was trying to influence me with what he thought was good music.

"We saw Gary Moore a couple of times and we were both gutted when he died, because you weren’t expecting it. We’d always had a mutual love for his guitar playing.”

"When I heard Sigur Rós I realised that to be heavy you don’t have to do a ‘chug’. It can be powerful in a different way"

How has your guitar taste changed since the early days of the band?

“A lot. When you’re young, you just want to do everything to extremes. That’s what the first EP and the album [2006’s Count Your Blessings] were like: too over-excited sounding.

"You’d see someone sweep picking and then you’d want to learn that or you’d want to learn pinch harmonic squeals. It was just trying to learn too much, rather than getting good at one thing. Now I feel like I know what my strengths are and I play to them and whatever suits the song.”

Are there any guitarists that people might not expect you to draw influence from?

“I really like Bon Iver, Justin Vernon, and what he does on guitar. It’s such a different genre that it gives me so many more ideas. The cool stuff they do with EBows, when you take that into heavier music, you can use it in a really dark way.

"Then, also, Sigur Rós. That whole side of building sounds up and soundscapes, I took a lot of influence from and I realised that to be heavy you don’t have to do a ‘chug’. It can be powerful in a different way.”

Page 2 of 4
Page 2 of 4
Go-to guitarist

Go-to guitarist

Have you always been the band’s main contributor, in terms of guitars?

“Yeah, since [2008 album] Suicide Season I’ve played all of the guitars on every record. I remember [producer] Fredrik Nordström being like, ‘You should play all of the guitars on the CD.’ We didn’t understand why, because we always did both guitarists before then, but he was like, ‘If you want it to sound good, you do it.’ Everyone went, ‘Alright, fair enough...’

"I got really into standard tuning, but dropped, and it opened up a whole new style of writing"

"So I did it from then on because it seemed to make more sense than trying to teach someone the right phrasing and being like, ‘No, do it again’. From then on, I just fell into the role of doing everything ‘guitars’.”

Third album There Is A Hell... brought in post-rock/indie influences and marked a change in your sound and fortunes. Were you the driving force behind that direction?

“I guess so, because I changed tuning. Suicide Season, a lot of it, was still in drop A#, and there were like two tracks on there where I tuned to Standard C. Then on There Is A Hell... I got really into standard tuning, but dropped, and it opened up a whole new style of writing, because I started using more traditional chord shapes. Changing the tuning changed a lot of what I wrote, because it wasn’t just chugs - you’re not just stuck going over the same four fret patterns.”

How did your pedalboard change to incorporate the new sounds?

“It’s got bigger, but easier in some ways. I’ve got a switching system now, so everything loops into that one pedal and I can press one button and switch my amps and four pedals at the same time.

"It’s still pretty simple: I have a Boss DD-7 Delay, an RV-5 Reverb and then an Electro-Harmonix Cathedral Reverb, which I use for the reverse reverb noises. Then I’ve just got a Tube Screamer on top of my Marshall, because the JCM800 isn’t super-distorted. All of that came in on There Is A Hell... pretty much.”

Page 3 of 4
Page 3 of 4
Evolution

Evolution

That sound reached full fruition on Sempiternal. Do you feel as though the band transcends metal now?

“I suppose so, because it’s not really a metal CD. It has aspects of metal, but it’s not like we’re trying to be a metal band, or anything else. We just had a go at something we wanted to hear. I think it’s put us in our own little space because we can go and play festivals that don’t have any rock bands on and still go down well.

"All the sub tracks that Jordan [Fish], our keyboard player, does live, I think people that go and watch, say, Prodigy, they love that bass feeling of it, and I guess you’ve got that side of it coming across now.”

"To be playing Wembley Arena and headlining... For a band like us - it’s just crazy"

The band’s other guitarists have both left under acrimonious circumstances. Will you ever bring in a second guitarist again?

“No, I mean, we’ve all talked about it, but none of us really see the point. It works now and we tried using other people and never found somebody that fits. That’s why it’s so weird that we found Jordan and it worked, but it just seems easier. Me, Oli and Jordan all work really well together when writing.

"We’ve got a friend who plays [guitar] live now, and he knows exactly how it is and he’s not bothered. It makes life a lot easier. It’s not as hard in the studio to tell somebody they’re not going to be playing, you know? [laughs]”

Has your choice of backline changed now you’re playing for increasingly big crowds?

“I use Marshall JCM800s for both my clean and distortion now. You can’t really get a Marshall 800 wrong, and everywhere you go they always sound the same - you hear the sound of the guitar more than anything, so that’s why I really like it. They always send us backlines, which is cool and, to me, they always sound the best, so I always go back to them.”

You’re playing Wembley Arena in December, a landmark moment for so many British bands. What makes that show special?

“It’s mental. It’s our 10-year anniversary this year, so that’s one thing. We’ve played there a couple of times, supporting, but to be playing there headlining... For a band like us - it’s just crazy to even be able to play there.”

Finally, in 2013 you said, ‘We’re never gonna sell out arenas. If you get that in your hopes, you’ll be let down.’ Do you still feel the same way?

“I don’t know... It depends whether we sell out Wembley!”

Page 4 of 4
Page 4 of 4
Categories
Guitars
Matt Parker
Matt Parker

Matt is a freelance journalist who has spent the last decade interviewing musicians for the likes of Total Guitar, Guitarist, Guitar World, MusicRadar, NME.com, DJ Mag and Electronic Sound. In 2020, he launched CreativeMoney.co.uk, which aims to share the ideas that make creative lifestyles more sustainable. He plays guitar, but should not be allowed near your delay pedals.

Stay up to date with the latest gear and tuition. image
Stay up to date with the latest gear and tuition.
Subscribe and save today!
More Info
Read more
Greg Mackintosh of Paradise Lost plays his custom 7-string V live onstage with red and white stagelights behind him.
Greg Mackintosh on the secrets behind the Paradise Lost sound and why he is still trying to learn Trouble’s tone tricks
 
 
Zach Myers of Shinedown plays a hunter green PRS NF53 live onstage at Download Festival 2025.
Zach Myers on Shinedown’s secret weapon, the limits of shred guitar, and getting schooled by BB King
 
 
Orbit Culture's guitarists
Orbit Culture show us their ESP guitars – and tell us why the EverTune bridge is a game-changer
 
 
Wolfgang Van Halen
“Usually I’ve done the demos on my laptop, which can be a bit creatively stifling”: Wolfgang Van Halen on his new album
 
 
Korn's Brian 'Head' Welch and James 'Munky' Shaffer show off their new Ibanez signature 7-strings
Korn’s Head and Munky unveil new Ibanez 7-strings – and explain how it all comes back to Steve Vai
 
 
Colin Brittain of Linkin Park performs at the I-Days Festival at Ippodromo Snai La Maura on June 24, 2025 in Milan, Italy
“I love this band, I love the people and the music": Colin Brittain on life behind the kit with Linkin Park
 
 
Latest in Guitarists
2013 Inductees Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee of Rush perform onstage at the 32nd Annual Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame
“I realised how hard it was to play these songs”: Alex Lifeson makes a surprise admission
 
 
Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones accept the award for Album Of The Year: Public Vote for their album 'Blue & Lonesome'
“He tried it when he came in and he said ‘I can’t do it as good as you, Ronnie. You get back on the drums.’”: When Charlie Watts ceded the drums to Ronnie Wood on a Stones track
 
 
Epiphone Joe Bonamassa 1959 Les Paul Custom: a the dual-pickup Custom was a lesser-spotted model in the Gibson catalogue in the '50s – they didn't make many of them. But Bonamassa presents us with one and this 'Black Beauty' is equipped with a Bigsby.
Epiphone raids Joe Bonamassa’s Nerdville archive for another reproduction of a vintage unicorn
 
 
Korn's Brian 'Head' Welch and James 'Munky' Shaffer show off their new Ibanez signature 7-strings
Korn’s Head and Munky unveil new Ibanez 7-strings – and explain how it all comes back to Steve Vai
 
 
Ritchie Blackmore with Rainbow
“I think every serious fan of hard rock music would love Stargazer”: How Ritchie Blackmore created his magnum opus
 
 
Wolfgang Van Halen
“Some riffs have that swing. You hear it in the first Van Halen album”: Wolfgang Van Halen's new song echoes classic VH
 
 
Latest in News
Charvel Limited Edition Sean Long Signature Pro-Mod San Dimas Style 1 HH HT M: the While She Sleeps guitarists artist model is now officially available in Neon Pink by popular demand.
By popular demand, Sean Long of While She Sleeps’ Charvel signature model now comes in Neon Pink
 
 
Apple M5 MacBook Pro 14-inch
Apple announces its new M5 chip and puts it in the MacBook Pro 14-inch, iPad Pro and Vision Pro headset
 
 
modx m
Yamaha's MODX M synth squeezes the power of the Montage M into a more affordable package
 
 
brian eno
"It felt fitting to broadcast it into the unknown, into dark matter": Brian Eno to beam his new album into space tonight
 
 
DJ Seth Troxler performs on stage during the Primavera Sound Festival at Distrito Anhembi on November 5, 2022
“It’s just too emotional”: Seth Troxler is offering €10 an hour to anyone willing to help him clean up his vinyl
 
 
NEW YORK, NY - MAY 20: Musician D'Angelo plays a private concert at a media event announcing updates to the music streaming application Spotify on May 20, 2015 in New York City. The latest updates include the ability to stream video content, podcasts and radio programs as well as original songs for the application. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
Beyoncé, Lauryn Hill, Jacob Collier, Flea and many more pay tribute to D'Angelo
 
 

MusicRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...