Over the weekend, Periphery guitarist Mark Holcomb did a Reddit AMA. It was pretty mundane for the most part and consisted a lot of people asking guitar-related questions, but then someone asked about Mark's old project with Periphery's Misha Mansoor Haunted Shores. I remember Mark saying the project was dead once he joined Periphery, so his answer when asked what the deal was with the project really surprised me.
"Misha and I have tentatively set aside a couple weeks in the fall to write/record a new album, as soon as we're done with the 3rd Periphery record"
Everything about that statement makes me excited, if not a little curious. For one, Periphery took Haunted Shores' "Scarlet" (here's the Haunted Shores version, here's Periphery's) and "Passenger" (Haunted Shores and Periphery) and made them their own. So I'm interested to know how they would divvy up what would be Haunted Shores material and what would be set aside for Periphery. Oh, and then that statement basically makes known Periphery are shooting to have their album done before the fall! Yes! Holcomb also talks about guest soloists on the new Periphery record, or a lack thereof:
"Nope – we've decided as a band to have no guest soloists :)"
His love of black metal:
"I fucking LOVE older black metal and some modern stuff – grew up obsessed with Emperor, Ulver and a bunch of other bands. I wouldn't say it plays any role in our influences (sadly… haha)."
What kind of music he plays outside Periphery:
"I love alot of shoegaze and bands like Sigur Ros, Godspeed you Black Emperor, etc… i wanna start a black metal/death metal band soon. and I love electronic music but couldn't write it to save my family at gunpoint."
The possibility of a new instructional video like the one he did for Guitar Messenger in 2010:
"I am planning to put something together for Guitar Messenger or maybe even an independent thing for my YouTube channel. People have been asking how to play alot of sections from Clear and PII, and i've always hated how sloppy I played in the first vid series, haha. now I can redeem myself!"
Holcomb also talks a little bit about how Periphery got to be such a big name:
'There was no one thing [that made us huge], but hard work, a solid team around you, reliable personnel, and always treating people well, whether they're peers, fans, industry people or whatever. being a dick can cancel out any of the aforementioned traits."
