Wow, I did yet another interview with yet another metal band. You should all be shocked.
Periphery, in case you don’t know, is an increasingly popular progressive metal band that toured very recently with Dream Theater. Misha, the genius behind the band, was interviewed by yours truly during their tour Protest the Hero, which is transcribed below. Also, if you’re interested, you can download the interview, which is linked below in .pdf format. Enjoy!
Bröötalisk: First of all, congratulations on convincing everyone that there was a little Misha along the way. Had me scared that Periphery was going to have to take a decade long hiatus.
The Bulb: That was kind of the point of the post, wasn’t it? You like that little bit at the end? “Periphery’s touring plans will have to be a bit more strategic.” I’m like, trying to break it to you guys slowly *laughs*. Yeah I’m not gonna have kids for a while.
Bröötalisk: Were you surprised that everyone had bought it at first?
The Bulb: Well, I guess I’m starting to understand the comments system a little better because there’s something like 500 comments on there right now and people are still congratulating me even though I said “April Fools”. And I made a separate post above it that says “April Fools. I’m not really having a kid.” But I guess people don’t read the comments. They just see the thing and comment. There will be conflicting comments. But it’s still worth it. Still worth it.
Bröötalisk: Jumping off of that, you are pretty public when it comes to Facebook and the internet in general, more so then a lot of musicians I know of. Why is that?
The Bulb: That’s the way it’s always been. Even though we’re touring at a much higher level and all that. That’s all we kind of know. That’s the dynamic that we’ve always had. The dynamic that we’ve pursued with our fans. We like keeping people in the loop and getting involved with that. It’s like how our band came to be. I just think it’s doing what we’ve always done.
Bröötalisk: Do you think it’s contributed to your rise in popularity and success over the last few years?
The Bulb: I think that’s the only reason why. I think we have that to thank. And that’s why we’ll probably keep on doing it. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
Bröötalisk: One of the many things I’ve read on your Facebook posts is your ever loving relationship with Protest the Hero (not). I know you don’t actually hate PTH, but where did that stem from?
The Bulb: I thought it would be hilarious to say that we hate Protest the Hero and that they’re a bunch of douchebags and then have a tour where we’re in direct support of them. But no, we love them. We love them to death. They’re not only one of the sickest bands out there, and one of the best live bands that you’ll ever see, but they’re also just really cool dudes to hang out with. What’s not to like? And they’re from Canada, so they’re not even violent. We could beat them up if we wanted to, and we don’t.
Bröötalisk: You were recently touring with Dream Theater, and you even had an interview alongside John Petrucci. Did you ever think, when you first started with Periphery, that you would get to this point?
The Bulb: Never. Never ever ever. Not in a million years. I dreamed about it but the whole point of dreaming about something is that it’s something that you don’t actually expect to happen. Otherwise, you’d be like, “Oh I can’t wait for this to happen!” It was always like, “Oh man that would be so cool if I could hang out with John Petrucci and jam with him and all that.” But never in a million years did I actually expect that to happen. Even with that having happened I still don’t believe it. It’s surreal and weird.
Bröötalisk: Another random internet thing you do is answer a shit ton of questions and post your answers on Facebook. Have you ever gotten any weird and interesting questions before?
The Bulb: I’ve gotten plenty of those. Those are the majority of them, and then people get all butthurt when I can’t answer them. And the thing is, I’ve tried to be on a positivity streak lately because I used to get really sarcastic with people and I think a lot of people misconstrued it as me being a douchebag. Online tone is really hard to read. So, even though in my head I’m reading it like this, I can see how it could be misconstrued in that way. And then I have to explain and all that. So I’ve just tried to avoid those now. The whole point of getting a Formspring in the beginning was to have this sort of “frequently asked question” kind of thing that I hoped everybody would reference. That was a complete failure. That did not work at all. But it’s fun. I get good questions. I answer all that inspire a response, although most of them don’t. So I just go past them.
Bröötalisk: What do you think of all the controversy behind Djent and whether or not it’s an actual genre?
The Bulb: I honestly don’t even care anymore. If it’s a genre, if people call it a genre, then that’s cool. I don’t know what it is, cuz I hear bands get grouped in and I’m like, “They’re a djent band? Alright. Weird.” It doesn’t matter. The fact of the matter is that it’s grouped together some really cool bands and it puts us in a group of peers. A lot of those bands I really respect and I really dig what they’re doing, whether or not you can call them djent or progressive. So that’s kind of a cool byproduct. People are calling us that. I don’t mind if they call us that. I would never self apply the term though because we’ve always been just progressive and that’s how we’ve always approached everything and we will always be a progressive band. Which basically is a shortcut to just doing whatever the fuck we want. It’s true though. It’s true. There’s no limitations because you can just be like, “It’s progressive!”. That’s why it’s weird. And that’s what I like. And I feel like any other genre would have a limitation including djent. So that will never be our approach. But if that’s how people identify us, then that’s awesome.
Bröötalisk: You’ve said in the past that you have enough material for 3 full albums. Can you give me any details on any or all of these upcoming albums?
The Bulb: Well, originally we were trying to put 2 albums out at once. One was going to be a concept album. And then we got a Dream Theater tour offer. And we rearranged everything for that. But what band wouldn’t? It’s a dream. You’d rearrange your whole goddamn life around it if you had to. So that’s what we did. And we kind of split it up. Originally we were going to take 4 or 5 months to do both albums. But now we’re just focusing on just doing one, and we’ll write the second one when we have time this year. So our plans got kind of screwed. I do apologize to everyone who was expecting two albums to come out at once, but that’s just the way life works sometimes. And I can’t say I’m disappointed. We got to tour with Dream Theater as a result.
Bröötalisk: Last question: what are some bands that have impressed you lately? Any favorites?
The Bulb: I haven’t really listened to a lot of music in general. I just don’t put on music that often. And when I do I just really get into one band at a time. But bands that I’ve been into recently would be the Deerhunter, Karnivool, one band that we toured with that just blew me away was The Contortionist. I think that band is doing something awesome. I can’t wait to see what they do with their next release. Other than that it’s just electronic stuff. I say this to pretty much every interview, but when your surrounded by metal bands, it takes a really special type of metal band for you to really get into it, cuz you’re just surrounded by metal all the time.
Brootalisk: Yeah, I’ve noticed that whenever I ask a metal band what some of their favorite artists are, it’s almost never a metal band.
The Bulb: Yeah, because it’s like work. Not to sound that it sucks like work, it’s just you’re around it all the time. So when you listen to something, you won’t pick something that sounds exactly like the bands that you’ve been subjected to all day. And even though the bands are usually killer, you just want a change of pace. I find that other type of music very refreshing as well. And that’s not to be misconstrued for a dislike of the genre, because if I could do it all again I would still be in a progressive metal band. Metal just has the best energy live. That’s where people just go nuts. Even with my favorite bands, the crowd reaction is kind of subdued compared to what I’m used to and what I would expect from a crowd now. But yeah, I like being in a metal band. I think you’d find that a lot of the bands that I listen to don’t listen to their type of music and probably do listen to metal because it’s so different. And that’s their break from it. So that’s probably why you see that.
Interview: Periphery Interview
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Loud Rock Director - Punk dude with Metal and Hardcore undertones. Constantly stage diving and high fiving!