METRO: Oliver pens ‘Hello My Name Is… Oliver Sykes’ feature (19/02/2023)

My name is Oli Sykes and I’ve replied to over 1000 emails meant for the lead singer of Bring Me The Horizon…

When I set up my first sensible email address, aged 16, I didn’t think that it would one day bring absolute chaos into my life. 

But just a couple of years later, when I was in my second year of Lancaster University studying theatre, it did. 

For those that aren’t aware of my namesake Oliver Sykes and his oeuvre, he is the frontman of metal and screamo band Bring Me The Horizon (BMTH).

And back in 2008, when I was happily living the life of a student, they released their second album, Suicide Season. Featuring such hits as It was Written in Blood, The Sadness Will Never End, and Sleep with One Eye Open, I was initially blissfully unaware; I’ve always been into folk music, loving a bit of Laura Marling and Mumford & Sons. 

But within a week of it hitting the shelves, that changed. My inbox started piling up with messages – predominantly from teenage girls – desperately trying to contact Oli Sykes. I had about 30 or 40 people telling me how much they loved ‘me’ and ‘my album’. 

I just remember thinking, ‘what am I going to do?’

A case of mistaken identity isn’t exactly a walk in the park, but what was harder was reading the content of some of these emails. By nature of the record’s name, these vulnerable young people who had connected with Oli started telling me about their mental health and really intimate parts of their lives. 

Some of them even started off with things like, ‘The first time I tried to kill myself.’ 

I was a student and completely unequipped to help or do anything about it, but I couldn’t just leave them unread – not when they were baring so much of themselves. 

Initially, I started sending responses to each person saying, ‘Thank you for your message. I’m not actually the Oli Sykes that you want to contact, but I’m really sorry to hear about what you’re going through and I wish you all the best. Here’s a link to the charity, Mind’. 

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Oli Sykes reaches out to Oli Sykes

After this article was published on Saturday 19 February, Oli Sykes (of BMTH) reached out to Oli Sykes (our author) to thank him.
‘Hi man – my drummer just showed me the Metro article’, his Instagram DM to Oliver read. ‘That’s an incredibly sweet and selfless thing to do, thank you. You will of helped so many people looking for some kind of answer or connection in a dark time, in a time where I was really struggling myself & tbh I wouldn’t of equipped myself to deal with.
‘So thank you. Xxx’

Oliver’s Story was picked up by NME, Metal Injection, Manchester Evening News, Buxton Advertiser, Derbyshire Times, The Line of Best Fit, 105.7 The Point, Louder Sound, Loud Wire and We Are The Pit, and reached approximately 1.2 million people!