Vic Fuentes Biography

Vic Fuentes started playing guitar at the early age of 7. He and Mike began their musical journey together when they formed the band ‘Early Times’ in 1998. They released three EPs before they had to change their name to ‘Before Today’ for legal reasons. Around this point, they signed up with ‘Equal Vision Records’. The band released their only album, ‘A celebration of an Ending’ in 2004. Two years later the group disbanded. Despite that, the brothers continued to make music, and they didn’t lose the recording contract. They started a new group and named it ‘Pierce the Veil’, after a phrase Vic learned in a sociology class in college. The group released their first album ‘A flair for the Dramatic’ on June 26, 2007. The Fuentes brothers then held an audition for more members; Preciado and Perry were hired soon after. Vic and Mike joined the supergroup project ‘Isles & Glaciers’ which was formed in 2008. They released their first and only EP to date, ‘The Hearts of Lonely People’, on March 9, 2010. After the release of their second album ‘Selfish Machines’ on June 21, 2010, ‘Pierce the Veil’ went on to multiple tours across America, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. The album reached the no. 1 spot on the ‘Billboard Heatseekers Chart’.

They signed a recording contract with Fearless Records on August 23, 2011, and released ‘Collide with the Sky’ on July 17, 2012. It has since then become their most commercially successful album, emerging at number 33 in the list of ‘Rock Sound’ magazine's best albums of 2012, and winning the band many awards. On November 11, 2013, they released the DVD ‘This Is a Wasteland’, a documentary on their first world tour. ‘Misadventures,’ their fourth album, was released on May 13, 2016. Like the other albums, this one too has been received favorably by the critics. According to ‘Alternative Press’, which gave the album a 90/100 rating, “Every single track is a winner. Misadventures expertly redraws PTV’s own map, celebrating their impossible blend of ambitious, creative obsessions and the electric crackle of raw intensity".

In July 2018, the band announced that they were working on a new album. In April 2020, during the COVID quarantine, they released their rehearsal song, "Hold On Till May," on Youtube. After dropping their singles, "Pass the Nirvana" and "Emergency Contact," in late 2022, the band came out with their latest album, “The Jaws of Life,” on February 10, 2023.

Fuentes and his band found themselves in the midst of a controversy when they allegedly brought in a second artist to recreate an original piece, ‘Escape’, made by Daniel Danger, without his explicit consent. The band initially reached out to Danger for licensing ‘Escape’ and for him to work on the layout for the artwork of their album ‘Collide in the Sky’. Danger either wasn’t available at the time or couldn’t do the job within the timeframe the band provided. The band was on a deadline with just two weeks to finalize and print a complete design and layout, and apparently considering another concept was out of the question. So they approached another artist for it. Ultimately, however, the artwork concept was credited to Danger.

In 2016, a woman accused Mike of statutory rape and demanding nude photos. The incident happened almost a decade before the allegation came out. At that time, the woman was 16 and hence a minor according to California law. Soon after, another girl came on Twitter and stated that Mike had asked for her nude photos when she was 15. Following the controversy, Mike decided to step down as the band’s drummer.

Vic Fuentes is of Irish-Mexican heritage. He was born in San Diego, California, USA on February 10, 1983. His mother is Vivian K. Fuentes. His father, Victor Gamboa Fuentes, is a former Mexican jazz musician who gave him his first lessons in music. Besides Mike, he has two half-brothers and a half-sister. He got his high school degree from ‘Mission Bay High School’ before enrolling at ‘San Diego State University’ to study Graphic Design. He dropped out of college after three semesters to pursue a career in music.

He started dating model Danielle Victoria Perry who has appeared in the band’s music video for the track ‘King for a Day’. In March 2021, the couple got engaged. In April 2022, Vic and Perry got married. They announced the birth of their daughter in February 2023.