The word bromance is thrown around a lot these days, however it is the most appropriate term to attach to my interview with Tom the bass player from Periphery as we discussed the weather, the process of making a remix album and Periphery in Australia.
Fresh off the back of their latest release Icarus EP, I got talking to Tom about how the fans responded to the album. “People dug it over all”; Tom explained, “We had a remix contest on it, and that was one of the themes, we wanted to bring back ‘Icarus’ – the song, and expand on it.” Using different DJs from different styles of music, new life was breathed into the song, which has now been adapted into a “weird artsy, almost 90s trance” as well as “a straight up club mix”.
Being a long time fan of remix albums from Metal bands, I have often wondered about the production; I asked Tom if he felt disconnected from the process, “Well, obviously other people did it, and we didn’t have a hand it in, but that’s just part of the remix aspect of it, you trust it with other people and you want to hear it; it’s awesome hearing how they spin the work you have done”. The EP features remixes from a German based DJ, Misha (another member of Periphery) and PeteyG, who debatably (and Tom agrees) created the best mix of the lot – “I still pump that track!” continues Tom.
Delving into the history of the band’s releases, we got talking about Periphery’s change of direction, namely the stark differences between their debut self-titled release and the Icarus EP . I asked Tom what he thought of the rumours of the band moving more towards an ambient, atmospheric (softer) brand of metal, “Eh, I think what happens is we just don’t have that much material out, as of recently, I think that what we do as a band is a very broad range of styles. There are a whole heap of tracks on our first release, but they even speak to everything that we do. No – I don’t think we are moving in that direction. Tom continues to mention their second album, currently in the early stages of production, “it’s going to be all over the place, with some stuff that people will take as more accessible’’ but ensures that it will still be brutal.
Clearly a highly experimental band, I asked Tom if they had decided on a direction for the next album, “the only thing I can really say about that is that we are playing around with the idea of making a concept album, whether it will be encased in that album, or reoccurring themes on the following albums”.
Periphery are returning to Australia for the second time with Tesseract for the League of Extraordinary Djentlemen tour, so the conversation turned into his past experiences here and what Tom thought, “we had a fantastic time the last time we came – It’s going to be a bit different because we are headlining, but I love Australia”. Perhaps pushing the envelope, I attempted to steer the conversation towards the technical side of the tour and how they plan on translating the remix album to a live performance. “That’s a really good question” Tom started … but decided to leave us all in suspense. I suppose a little mystery is a good thing!
The band has already had to move venues in Melbourne due to the high demand for tickets so make sure you don’t miss out on remaining tickets on their Australian Tour!
FRIDAY 29 JULY BRISBANE, THE ZOO
SATURDAY 30 JULY SYDNEY, THE ANNANDALE
SUNDAY 31 JULY MELBOURNE, THE HI-FI Buy Tickets
