Six piece progressive metal juggernaut, Periphery will be returning to Australia next February in support of their new album Periphery III: Select Difficulty. We talked to guitarist Micha Mansoor at the end of last year to discuss the upcoming tour and the new songs, their Grammy nomination and the success of their previous albums Juggernaut Alpha & Omega.
Misha: How are you doing man?
Andrew: Yeah I’m doing very well, how are you?
Misha: Good man, it’s been a long day but I’m excited to start thinking about Australia all of a sudden.
Andrew: Yeah we’re looking forward to seeing you guys here! Are you guys on tour at the moment?
Misha: No we’re at home. We’ve been at home since October.
Andrew: Oh OK so when you get back on the road will Australia be the next thing or do you have another tour before that?
Misha: Yep that’s it, I’m off until then.
Andrew: OK cool well we saw you last year in October when you opened for Devin Townsend which was a fantastic tour, how was it for you guys?
Misha: Oh that was amazing, we love those guys! Some bands that you tour with your families just get a little bigger and Devin and his crew, that’s how it feels. He came to town the other day and we hung out after he played and it immediately went right back into that mode and that feeling of, ‘Oh here we go!’. They are really good people, love those guys.
Andrew: Yeah I’m a big fan of Devin Townsend and their drummer RVP who is a phenomenal drummer who I had a chance to meet and is such a super friendly, down to earth kind of guy.
Misha: Yeah and one hell of a drummer too [laughs].
Andrew: Yeah absolutely. Well this time around you are headlining and you obviously have a new album that came out recently as well so what can we expect? Can we expect a lot of the new material this time around?
Misha: Absolutely. We’re probably going to actually be playing a very similar set to what we did on our U.S. tour because it was so PIII heavy, it was really a brand new set we put together and the PIII stuff went over so well live surprisingly so. Because we put it in there because we’re selfish and we’re like, ‘We wanna play these!’ but it ended up being a good call in hindsight and since it worked and it ain’t broke, why fix it. So I’m really excited, it’s my favorite set we’ve put together and as I said the new material seems to be going over really well live and with even more time for people to digest will hopefully be as good if not better.
Andrew: Yeah obviously if fans have a bit of time to memorise the songs I guess the energy and the crowd reaction is a little bit better than something that is brand new I suppose.
Misha: And that was what was weird is that we normally assume that and we went on tour about a month after it came out so we were like, ‘Alright we’ll play these songs but just be ready that people might not be used to them or whatever’. But it was crazy, people knew everything and were singing along with everything and I was like, ‘Oh my god, you guys listened to this’ [laughs]. It was a very nice treat for us.
Andrew: We’re looking forward to hearing these new songs live. You had the Juggernaut albums come out only a year or a year and a half before that which is such a close time between albums, at what point did you start writing songs for this new album?
Misha: We’re always writing and sometimes I think we just get into a writing mood. We ended up having quite a bit of downtime last year and after the Juggernaut cycle for various reasons and when we have downtime we end up writing. It got to a point where we were just rushed for ideas, when you’re itching you gotta scratch the itch so we’re lucky to have a team that surrounds the band that’s very supportive in what we want to do creatively especially. So when we said alright let’s do a new album, they were like ‘Alright I guess that’s what’s going to happen, let’s make the arrangements’, and it’s great!
Andrew: The Juggernaut albums were such an epic release, now that a bit of time has passed since they came out how do you feel about those songs and the success of them?
Misha: I’m very happy with that album. That album was a much more difficult process for so many reasons and I think part of what was exciting about “Periphery III” was going to be not that [laughs]. Now we can go back to doing albums the way we do it where we just do it whatever we want and what was exciting about Juggernat was the challenge of being limited and we usually have no limitations, our record label hear the album when we deliver it. So there’s noone telling us what to write or how it should be or whatever and with that freedom it’s exciting but after a certain point we were we were like, ‘Well it might be fun to have the restriction of a concept album’. And that was fun in it’s own way, it was very challenging but the band was in a very good place after Juggernaut. We sort of learned a lot from that and we sort of had this feeling that the next album we do was going to be a really fun one because of where the band was at mentally and as a group, we were in a healthy place. So all those things sort of converged in a very positive way.
Andrew: What was some of those things or the most important thing that you learned from the Juggernaut albums then?
Misha: I think how to communicate. I mean it’s a really boring answer and a really sort of generic, cliched answer but it really is just how to communicate about things that are difficult to take. We don’t care about a lot of people’s opinions but we really care about each other’s in the band and when people don’t like your ideas or you are getting your song cut, these things are hard but we also have to have no ego about it. We can’t be egotistical about those things, it has to be for the sake of the band. It doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt and it doesn’t suck and there’s just a way of expressing…we’ve found a system that works to where we can sort of officially go through the writing process while minimising the butthurt for everyone and everyone is understanding what it is. It’s like, No you don’t suck, your idea doesn’t even suck. It’s just not right for this or that but it’s not a reflection of you as a person’. It’s so obvious in hindsight and so easy to say but in the moment when you are emotionally attached to ideas or whatever, that can be very difficult and it’s something we worked on for years. It’s not just Juggernaut but I think during Juggernaut is where we sort of really honed in on how to handle it and PIII was sort of the test that worked out very well.
Andrew: So it sounds like everything is quite healthy in the band at the moment.
Misha: Yeah absolutely. It’s sort of like the best it’s ever been and there have been some dark times in the past so it’s a very positive thing.
Andrew: That’s good to hear. Speaking of good things, I believe “The Price Is Wrong” has been nominated for a Grammy which must be a pretty cool thing for you guys.
Misha: Yeah it’s more surreal than anything because the Grammy’s just never really entered our head as a thing that we would ever be associated with. It’s so far removed from our line of thinking and in any case we wouldn’t be writing for the sake of getting recognition for any award but then despite the fact that we write very selfish music as I put it and then somthing like the Grammy’s recognises it for a nomination, it was just sort of like, ‘What? Really? Someone has made a mistake and we’re about to find out who’. It’s really cool but it’s just wow, we never expected that in a million years that I would never guess that would happen, it’s very exciting.
Andrew: Do you know who you are up against?
Misha: I think we’re up against Gojira, Baroness, Megadeth and Korn? So they actually got some legit metal bands, like whoever was picking the metal stuff was paying attention [laughs]. It’s not bullshit metal choices, it’s covering the range quite fabulously! Someone else asked about this and I said no matter who wins – it won’t be us – but no matter who wins it’s a win for metal, it really is for bands like that being nominated.
Andrew: Yeah definitely but all that being said, as much of a fan as I am of the other bands I hope you guys win and that track in particular is great so I think it deserves to win a Grammy.
Misha: Thanks! I don’t even know if I agree with you on that [laughs] if I’m going to be honest! It’s a fun song but it’s not a great song [laughs].
Andrew: [laughs] Well is that one song you won’t be playing live then? Or will you as it’s one of the singles off the album.
Misha: Yeah and that is a fun song to play live. That is what that song really is because it’s just a fun live song! But yeah that one is always a highlight of the night for me.
Andrew: Well as I said we look forward to it and before I let you go, is there any last words that you have for the Aussie fans before you make your way to Australia in February?
Misha: Just that we’re really excited to come back. We always have a wonderful time in Australia and it’s such a treat to be able to come back semi-regularly even and to play for the Australian crowds. The cities are beautiful, it’s going to be a wonderful time of the year and I keep saying this in interviews as well but I live in Washington D.C. and it’s cold as shit right now so I want to be somewhere warm so I can’t wait for that part [laughs].
Andrew: [laughs] Well in February it’s going to be quite hot, right in the middle of summer so expect some warm temperatures definitely!
Misha: Well it’s quite bitter cold here in February so I think I’ll take that [laughs].
PERIPHERY AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES
Thursday, February 2: Max Watts, Brisbane
Friday, February 3: Metro Theatre, Sydney
Sunday, February 5: 170 Russell, Melbourne
Tuesday, February 7: Fowlers Live, Adelaide
Thursday, February 9: Capitol, Perth
Tickets through Destroy All Lines
