Bring Me the Horizon’s Oli Sykes Had ‘Spiritual Rehab’ With Monks at an Ashram

The past year has been tough on many during this period of social distancing, but Bring Me the Horizon frontman Oli Sykes recently worked through some of the "dark times" by spending a month at an ashram living with Hare Krishna monks.

In an interview with The Sun, the vocalist spoke of his recent "spiritual rehab." “For a while I just went into a very dark place, a place that I’ve been in before, but it was the start of a beautiful thing finding myself again," said Sykes. “I think everyone experienced some level of this during lockdown. Even the most positive of people can’t hide from the fact that these are very dark times. It was depression for me, for sure, but that worst kind of depression where it’s not like you’re feeling sad but where you’re feeling nothing at all. You’re really just out of touch with your own emotions."

Sykes continued, “A couple of hours from where [my wife] Alissa’s family lives there’s actually an ashram, a Hare Krishna ashram, and they invited us to go and stay there. So for the best part of a month we went and lived on an ashram, without all our devices and disconnected and basically lived as if we were Hare Krishna for a month."

He says of the experience, “We woke up at five in the morning and prayed to Krishna and sang and danced, to just connect with who we are. And these people are just the happiest people in the world, these monks, you go and meet them and they’re the most positive and spiritual people, and I just thought, I want a piece of that. I want to see what it’s like.”

The singer, who previously spent time in rehab for a Ketamine addiction in 2014, likened the experience to the therapy he received in rehab. “When I came here it was a detox, but from everything .., emotional issues, dependency on devices, dependency on being a musician. I just learned how to be still and wake up and think I’ve got nothing to do today and that’s absolutely fine.”

Bring Me the Horizon have been pretty busy throughout the pandemic, issuing their Post Human: Survival Horror EP last fall. The group initially planned to issue a series of EPs over the course of a year, but keyboardist Jordan Fish recently revealed that their release plan has been altered due to an influx of material. "The spacing will be a bit longer than intended," said Fish, adding, "Just because they're probably going to turn out bigger than intended. That doesn't matter, as long as they're all really good."