Pierce The Veil's Jaime Preciado talks weird dreams, Ryan Reynolds, more

The Proust Questionnaire is a famous survey designed to get to the core of the interviewee’s personality. Since taken by the renowned French author Marcel Proust over a hundred years ago, it’s been reused in countless interviews . So we figured, why not put some of our beloved and quirky band members to the test? Some questions are taken from the original questionnaire, but others are 100 percent AP. Our first guinea pig? Bassist Jaime Preciado of Pierce The Veil.

What’s on your mind today?

Today we’re playing Norfolk, Virginia, and my mind is on the basketball court upstairs. It’s been a tradition that we always get [in] a random game up there and it gets very, very competitive. I’m the worst basketball player there is, but it’s not about that. It’s about playing in the game. Last time we were here we played against letlive. and before that we played with, I think, A Day To Remember. It’s a cool venue so we definitely take advantage of the basketball court.
 

What first got you interested in playing music?

Just watching bands growing up. Going to shows with my friends. I think the first thing we actually did was band. We had a band teacher come to our middle school and the fact that he could play every instrument I was like, “You can do that? That’s crazy!” So I got involved with that and I pursued it after the fact. I think that was like the one thing that was like you’re not really limited. You can do whatever you want if you put the time and work into it.
 

What’s your favorite record of all time?

Woah. Holy smokes, sister. I have a ton of different favorites from plenty of genres. What I’ll say right now, because I was literally listening to it right before you called, the new Thrice record I really love, but The Illusion of Safety by Thrice is one of my favorite ones just because that set the tone for what I wanted to do musically, and I just love their band.
 

Your biggest passion outside of music?

I like flying a lot. I’m trying to get my pilot’s license, and I’m so close. Obviously, it’s tough when you travel but I’ve always loved it. I’ve always loved airplanes and flying.
 

If you could be anyone else in the world other than yourself, who would you be?

Probably Ryan Reynolds, ‘cause he’s a babe and he’s hilarious.
 

Is he your man crush?

Oh, totally. No shame. He takes care of himself. Good on him, man.
 

What was the last dream you had?

I have really, really weird gig-mare dreams, because there’s so much that goes into our show and a lot of it is behind-the-scenes and getting stuff ready, and I do all that stuff, so I always have crazy dreams of us playing and us not having the right instrument. Instead of a guitar, somebody has a flute. I’m like, “We need one more guitar!” and they go “All we got is flutes, man!” and I’m like “This isn’t going to work, but we’ll make it work!” We’re always missing something, like Mike doesn’t have a chair. There isn’t a single chair in the entire venue. It just freaks me out.
 

What was your biggest on stage catastrophe in real life?

I have mini ones every single night. I fall a lot, and the reason I fall a lot is because I jump a lot. And the reason I jump a lot is because I’m feeling it. But I’ve fallen off the stage, I’ve broken stages. One time when we were playing a show in Malaysia I went to jump on the side speakers and the whole thing holding up the speakers just collapsed on top of me. So I’m sure there’s a funny video/GIF of me just eating shit and getting crushed.
 

What is your biggest flaw, other than the fact that you tend to fall over a lot?

I guess I’m always on. In the mornings I’m already ready to go and people are still waking up and I think they’re just super annoyed by me. So I think being just 100 percent all the time just gets people riled up.
 

What do you think your best quality is?

I’d probably go with the same thing. That I’m always on, 100 percent, all the time. If you’re having a bad day, I’ll pep you right up.
 

Yeah I find that whenever somebody asks me these questions, they tend to have the same answer. The best quality and the biggest flaw tend to be one in the same.

For sure. I think people could take that as, “Oh man he’s really pumped! He’s always excited to be alive!” or some people are like, “You’re so fucking annoying.”
 

What characteristic do you admire most in another person?

A sense of humor. If they can make me laugh and make other people laugh I think that’s the greatest thing in the world. Especially when you’re meeting new people all the time.
 

What fictional character do you wish could be a member of your band?

I would probably say Mark Wahlberg from the movie Rock Star. Because he has his shirt off all the time and they call him Izzy. It’s fantastic. If he wants to come onstage and sing a song, by all means.
 

What’s the number one item on your bucket list?

I want to visit all the Disneyland’s in the world. I’m on my way. I think I’m missing some of the ones in Asia.
 

What’s your favorite Disney movie?

Oh man, so tough. I like Toy Story a lot. It’s a couple of dolls that are doing really adult things. The production value is insane. I love all the Disney movies going back to The Lion King to Aladdin. I think I was watching Aladdin like two days ago. Robin Williams is just so great in that movie.
 

If you were a mythical creature what would you be?

Dragon.
 

I like how you didn’t even have to waste a second. You immediately had an answer for that one.

[Laughs.]They’re so badass! You can fly and you can breathe fire and you can be really mean or you could be really chill. Full package.
 

What would your role be in a horror movie?

I would be the first guy out.
 

I’ve asked other bands this question, and every time they say they would be the first to die.

My favorite scary movie is Scream, and I feel like I would just be the guy that gets stuck between the killer and I would just panic and try and take the guy and he would take me down.
 

Matthew Lillard is so good in that movie.

I met him on Warped Tour. The whole band was like, “Dude, Matthew Lillard. SLC Punk!” And I walked up to him and said I’m a huge fan and he was super pumped and we had a drink together. It was great. I was freaking out. “My mom and dad are gonna be so mad at me!” I love it.
 

Which one of your songs would you choose to be the theme song of your life?

The first track on the new record is called “Dive In.” I’d probably say that, just because it has so many crazy parts. It starts off super chill and then it gets super rowdy and then it has a pretty chorus part and a crazy breakdown at the end. It’s just a wild card. You could pretty much do anything to that song.
 

Where do you think you’ll be in 20 years?

First, I’ll be celebrating the anniversary of the 20th year of this interview. [Laughs.] Hopefully still involved with music somehow and flying around and having a really big plane and being with all my buds.
 

You mean Matthew Lillard and Ryan Reynolds?

Yeah. We’re all going to be hanging out. It’ll be a good time.
 

What member from any other band would you want to have answer this questionnaire next?

Let’s make it good. Let’s make it juicy. I would love to see Rian [Dawson] from All Time Low answer this.
 

Lastly, if you could choose your own epitaph what would it say?

It would be really cool to have it be old school, Haunted Mansion style and make it really ridiculous. Like, “Here lies Timmy, he partied too hard.”

[Header photo credit: Adam Elmakias]