{"id":9963,"date":"2012-06-30T15:22:39","date_gmt":"2012-06-30T05:22:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=9963"},"modified":"2012-08-22T07:48:05","modified_gmt":"2012-08-21T21:48:05","slug":"spencer-sotelo-of-periphery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2012\/06\/spencer-sotelo-of-periphery\/","title":{"rendered":"Spencer Sotelo of Periphery"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n<\/a>\u201cI would say that it\u2019s an album that still has that true Periphery sound, but it\u2019s got more than that now, it\u2019s not just one person writing the music anymore, it\u2019s everybody as a whole, there are so many different aspects of input going in to this album.\u201d<\/p>\n

With their debut album in 2010 and EP already under their belt in the space of a year it seems that Metal \/ Prog \/ Rock band Periphery don\u2019t know how to slow down.\u00a0 With a new album out now, and trust us, it\u2019s awesome, Periphery are sure to start turning heads, that\u2019s if they haven\u2019t already\u2026<\/p>\n

We chatted to Periphery front man Spencer Sotelo ahead of the release of their new album \u2018Periphery II\u2019 to discuss the album, touring and this time it\u2019s personal\u2026<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been lucky enough to hear the album and wow, its killer, but if you had to give us your review, your sales pitch, what would that be?<\/strong>
\nI would say that it\u2019s an album that still has that true Periphery sound, but it\u2019s got more than that now, it\u2019s not just one person writing the music anymore, it\u2019s everybody as a whole, there are so many different aspects of input going in to this album, its way more varied that anything we\u2019ve done and we\u2019re really proud of it and we can\u2019t wait for people to hear it you know.\u00a0 I can\u2019t wait for people to hear it.<\/p>\n

Being your second album, what have you done this time around that you learnt from making the first?<\/strong>
\nWe took a little bit of a different approach, what we used to do with songs, Misha would have these demos that he would write himself and then we would kind of just try and structure them, but this time what we did was, we sat down, the three guitar players mainly, sat down and pretty much wrote this entire album out together, and structured this album together, rather than it being done over the internet or one person\u2019s place or another person\u2019s place.\u00a0 It was all done and written as a whole band and we took it to an actual studio this time, it wasn\u2019t a bedroom recording on this album, like we took it to an actual studio here in Maryland that\u2019s owned by one of our good friends Taylor Larson, he recorded the album and mixed the album and it came out sounding awesome, we got to record live drums and the equipment we used was way better than the first record.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t go direct with the guitars on this album, you know, real guitars YAY, out of real cabs and they sound awesome you know!<\/p>\n

It feels like there\u2019s a real live recording element to the album too\u2026<\/strong>
\nAbsolutely and I even took it another step further, I said we\u2019re doing this the real way, we\u2019re gonna do it the real way through and through you know, all the way down to the vocals so I said I\u2019m not using any of that bullshit auto-tune or pitch correction or whatever you want to call it.\u00a0 I use a little bit of it for harmonies and underlying harmonies just to clean things up and strap them down, but any of the main vocals that you can really hear are not tuned whatsoever, not in the slightest.\u00a0 I\u2019m really proud of this record, it feels like there\u2019s a band playing for you, you know?<\/p>\n

What was the inspiration behind the songs for this release?<\/strong>
\nJust what we\u2019re feeling at any certain time when we\u2019re writing them.\u00a0 I wrote all the lyrics and vocals for this album obviously and for me it was just the type of mood I was in during the day where I\u2019m writing the lyrics, I could be in a happy mod, I could be pissed off about something and I would just tailor the vibe of the song to what I was feeling.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t write it perse about what I\u2019m feeling, I would just use the energy of what I was feeling to write a track that fits that mood you know.<\/p>\n

Is that where some of the titles such as \u2018Facepalm Mute\u2019 , \u2018The Gods Must Be Crazy\u2019 and \u2018Froggin Bullfish\u2019 come from?<\/strong>
\nYeah, some of them were old demo names that don\u2019t have much to do with what the song is about, but some of them do.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Naming of the album, Periphery II \u2013 what\u2019s the idea behind that?<\/strong>
\nWell, it\u2019s kind of funny actually, what we were planning on doing first was, it was going to be called \u2018Periphery II\u2019 and then have some kind of funny sequel movie title, you know like the first one we came up with was \u2018This Time It\u2019s Personal\u2019 and that actually made it in to the album credits.\u00a0 It\u2019s not on the cover but funny fact, if you look in the album credits in the back of the book it says \u2018Periphery II \u2013 This Time It\u2019s Personal\u2019 and there were a couple of other ones floating around like \u2018Periphery II \u2013 Cruise Control\u2019 and things that don\u2019t really make sense but they sound like funny movie titles you know.\u00a0 Our label didn\u2019t like that idea, they didn\u2019t like the goofy vibe, they wanted to keep it serious so we just kept it \u2018Periphery II\u2019 some people will be calling it \u2018Periphery II \u2013 This Time It\u2019s Personal\u2019 because it is in the booklet ha ha.<\/p>\n

At fourteen tracks and close to seventy minutes of music, was it always the goal to try and fit as much on as you could on this album?<\/strong>
\nYeah, we just have a lot of material man, we even had to cut songs that we wanted to put on it, just down to the best ones, the ones that we wanted most on it and the cut ones can be used for future albums, we write really fast and efficiently, we wanted to give the fans their bang for their buck.\u00a0 A lot of bands these days will write thirty or forty songs and says that\u2019s enough and don\u2019t really want to give anymore away than that, but with us we just write so much, so it\u2019s like why not give it all away in one album?\u00a0 Do it, the fans will love it and it\u2019ll last longer with them, they won\u2019t get sick of it as soon, they\u2019ll have a lot of material and let\u2019s saturate for a little bit.<\/p>\n

And it just means you get to play it all live and play for what, four hours when you do?<\/strong>
\nYeah right ha ha ha yippee.<\/p>\n

You also have some special guests on the album such as John Petrucci, Guthrie Govan and Wes Hauch on the album doing solos, how did that come about?<\/strong>
\nWell John Petrucci, we were on tour with the band Dream Theater this year and long story short, we showed him a couple of the tracks we were working on for the album and he loved it and we casually asked him if he wanted to do a guest solo and he said he\u2019d love to, so he wrote it out and recorded it and it turned out awesome.\u00a0 Wes Hauch he plays in The Faceless, he\u2019s a really good friend of ours, he\u2019s one of my favourite lead players so we asked him to do it and of course he said yes, he\u2019s such a good friend of ours he wouldn\u2019t turn that down.\u00a0 Guthrie Govan is probably Misha\u2019s favourite, well I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s favourite but one of his top 5 favourite guitar players that\u2019s for sure and we hit him up online and asked him if he wanted to do and apparently he said yes, I didn\u2019t even think he knew who Periphery was, but apparently he did because he jumped on it.<\/p>\n

Pretty soon you\u2019ll just have an album of guest guitarists doing leads\u2026<\/strong>
\nRight\u2026 we won\u2019t even need to play anymore ha ha<\/p>\n

Touring wise, what have you got in store for this album?<\/strong>
\nThe first tour after this album comes out we will be hitting up Summer Slaughter in the US, that\u2019s with Cannibal Corpse, Between The Buried and Me, The Faceless, Veil Of Maya and tonnes of other awesome bands, it\u2019s like a month long tour we\u2019re hitting up in the US.\u00a0 Then after that, heading over to Europe with Between The Buried and Me for a month doing a co-headline with them.\u00a0 As far as after that we don\u2019t have any plans after that.<\/p>\n

Any chance we\u2019ll see you back in Australia anytime soon?<\/strong>
\nOh I would love to, there\u2019s talk about it, we\u2019ve been talking about it with our people and we\u2019re trying to make it happen as soon as possible as we all love going down to Oz-land.\u00a0 We just have the greatest time every time we go down there and the fans are just crazy down there I love it, they\u2019re just great people.<\/p>\n

Being in the band for only two years now, how have you seen it and yourself grow as an artist in that time?<\/strong>
\nWell with anything, you do it long enough and you grow in to that and you become better at what you\u2019re doing.\u00a0 I think just over the past three years of recording myself when I\u2019m home in my spare time, touring for three years, it just lends itself naturally like I\u2019m obviously going to grow in my role more because I\u2019m doing it constantly.<\/p>\n

Obviously with a number of line-up changes over the years, does Periphery now feel like the perfect unit?<\/strong>
\nAbsolutely, I wouldn\u2019t change a thing about it, and we have somebody, I don\u2019t know if you know, we lost our bass player last year and we haven\u2019t hired anybody yet, but it looks like we may have filled that spot.\u00a0 I\u2019m not allowed to disclose anything on that yet, but with the person we have chosen to fill it, to fill the bass spot in our band I feel like this line up we have now is the most solid line-up we\u2019ve ever had and I wouldn\u2019t change a Goddamn thing about it, and I want to keep it that was for the rest of Periphery\u2019s career.<\/p>\n

When will we know about the bass player?<\/strong>
\nI have a feeling you won\u2019t have to wait too long to get the announcement on it.<\/p>\n

Besides the touring, what does the rest of 2012 hold for Periphery, are you constantly writing or do you wait until you\u2019re off the road?<\/strong>
\nOh we\u2019ve already started writing for our next album ha ha, we don\u2019t waste any time.
\n\u2018Periphery III \u2013 This time we\u2019ve done it quicker than you might have thought\u2019?<\/strong>
\nYeah right ha ha ha, because originally we were talking about doing two albums this year and we thought, if we release another album this year after releasing an album that\u2019s that long, we feel like people would just overlook it, like \u2018ooh there\u2019s another one coming out, let\u2019s check out the next album\u2019 we didn\u2019t want to make it seem like we weren\u2019t proud of this album.\u00a0 This album, we\u2019re so proud of it, we just want to let it chill out there for a little bit and people to get used to it before making anything else.\u00a0 We may be done making a new album before the year is over, but we definitely won\u2019t be releasing it this year or early next year or anything like that.<\/p>\n

Essential Information<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong> Washington, USA<\/p>\n

Band members: <\/strong>Spencer Sotelo \u2013 Vocals, Misha Mansoor \u2013 Guitars, Matt Halpern \u2013 Drums, Jake Bowen \u2013 Guitars, Mark Holcomb \u2013 Guitars.<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong>\u00a0 Official Facebook page<\/a><\/p>\n

Latest release:<\/strong> \u00a0Periphery II \u2013 (June 29, Roadrunner Records Australia)<\/p>\n

 
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