Spencer Sotelo & Misha Mansoor - Periphery 'We’ve Far Surpassed Any Expectations'
It’s wild to think that Periphery haven’t set foot on Australian shores since a whole pandemic ago and then some. I feel like there was a period where we saw the band almost annually, so to have such an extended gap feels incredibly odd, even more so when you consider that the band has released two of their strongest albums since their last visit in 2017, so there’s a lot to catch up on.
With the band finally returning to Australia this week as a part of the stacked Monolith Festival lineup, I had the distinct pleasure of catching up with frontman Spencer Sotelo and guitarist Misha Mansoor to discuss what we can expect after such a long absence.
Periphery IV and V are two of the longest albums in the band's catalogue, with V’s nine-song tracklisting coming in at 70 minutes. With both festival sets and headline shows happening on the Monolith run, the band has to be very strategic with how to structure their sets.
Spencer: We’ve played 'Reptile' a lot and for me, that song feels pretty long live. I love the song, but it always feels like a big chunk of the set and that it would take a while to get through it. For some reason, some of the longer songs from Periphery V don’t feel that way. I don’t know if it’s because of how the songs are structured, but I feel like I’m not trudging through anything to get through it.
Misha: For a 16-minute-long song, I’d say that 'Reptile' feels a lot shorter than it actually is. But there is this sort of awareness on Spencer’s end as a singer, because he only has a certain amount of minutes he can do a night singing and screaming before it takes a toll on his voice. As a guitarist, I can go for hours and it wouldn’t really matter, but Spencer’s gonna feel it before we do. So, we always have to be cognisant of Spencer when it comes to putting together the set so we don’t tire him out.
One of the immediate standout tracks on Periphery V was 'Wax Wings', a truly monumental, melodic opus that sees Spencer belting at the top of his range for almost 7 minutes straight. Having taken the song to a live setting, it certainly turned out to be one hell of a challenge, but also a perfect example of how the band's writing and recording process forces them to step things up for the stage.
Spencer: That song is a prime example of when we’re in album mode and writing, I’m not thinking about how I’m going to do it live. I always kind of use it as a way to make myself better and just deal with it when the time comes and we’re figuring it out. But that one definitely took a lot more work than I thought.
Misha: I remember when we were writing it and saying that he was his upper range a lot and he said ‘yeah, but it sounds good.’ And that’s kind of the rule. We’ll figure it out and we always do, but sometimes it takes more of a toll on us than others.
The albums are very sacred and the writing process is a very sacred thing. In some ways, I’d like to think the albums will outlast our ability to tour them in a way. There’s a lot of songs that just won’t make it into the set because they’re from older albums so they won’t get priority, but they’re still out there and they gonna get listened to.
Periphery have been an independent band for a number of years now, with IV being the first album released on their own label 3DOT. While they’ve always had complete creative control when it comes to their music, Misha confirms that there has been a lot less pressure and lot more fun when it came to creating the last two albums.
Misha: It has everything to do with the very same reason that we started which was ‘this is a fun thing to do, I love hanging out with my best friends in the world and making music with them.’ We have great writing chemistry and we know what it feels like when we’ve nailed and we know what it feels like when we haven’t nailed it. It just needs to feel like a win, like a ‘fuck yeah’ moment.
For example, there’s a song on V called 'Silhouette' that was very controversial. A lot of people hate that song and it’s their least favourite Periphery song, but that’s fine. I totally get why that might be the case, but when we were doing it, there was a thing we were going for and we liked it and I love that it’s on the album. After all these years of doing it, we’re fine-tuned with it and we trust each other. If we’re all on the same page about it, then we know we’ve got something.‘
When Spencer joined Periphery in 2009, it marked the beginning of an epic journey that has taken the djent heroes around the world and has seen them release a stellar catalogue of albums. Looking back at the beginning, the guys are still just happy to be doing their thing and admit there’s no way they could’ve envisaged the band would be where they are today.
Spencer: I remember thinking that if we could play to 600-700 people a night, we had made it. The first tour we ever did, we were playing to 20-30 people a night. We’ve far surpassed any expectations I ever had for our band. We’re way beyond that now and I’m super thankful for it every day. Us being able to do what we want to do, how we want to do it, I’m super thankful for it.
Misha: Us getting to go to Australia and have anybody show up and know who we are is insane. Our approach was never to take over the world or to even have any fans. It was just a fun thing. We get to do this and can be fairly self-reliant because of technology and make albums ourselves. We get to do it with people we love and have a really great time. That’s the goal, and everything else is just gravy.
Interview by Nicholas Simonsen
Periphery play Monolith Festival and select sideshows.
All tickets here
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Monolith Festival 2024
November 2 @ Fortitude Music Hall, Bris
November 9 @ PICA, Melb
November 10 @ Hordern Pavilion, Syd
Australian Sideshows
November 3 @ Brightside Outdoors, Bris
November 5th @ The Basement, Canberra
November 8 @ Max Watts, Melb - SOLD OUT
