You were nominated for a Grammy. What does that feel like?

Misha Mansoor (guitar): It’s crazy. To be honest, it’s not the kind of thing that I think was ever something we were really considering. Obviously the Grammys are something we’re aware of, but it was never really on our radar as far as things we might be able to achieve. Just looking at the nominations for bands past for rock and metal acts, it didn’t seem like we’d ever be on that kind of list. It was a very, very pleasant surprise for us. I remember hearing about it before it was announced and I was like, “Nah, that’s gotta be a mistake.”

The Grammy you were nominated for is in best metal performance. What do you think makes your performance stand out?

Mansoor : I feel like [“The Price Is Wrong”] is such a strange choice. I would say there’s a lot of more accessible songs and dare I say better songs on the album. I think what it is is maybe there are certain people on the voting board there that like more modern stuff and maybe it’s a sign of a transition. It seems to be in our favor because the other nominations were equally surprising and cool to me. It seems like we’re in good company.

This is an assumption on my end, but there were probably people in the past who didn’t really listen to metal and just were sort of checking some boxes. Obviously there are some influencers there [now] who actually do listen to rock and metal. Maybe that’s where the shift is coming from, and if that’s the case, I think that’s a very positive thing.

Even last year they voted in August Burns Red! Slowly, more modern metal bands are being considered for big awards like this.

MANSOOR: Yeah! I was like, “Well, someone messed up there and they’ll never make that mistake again!” But apparently they did! Maybe it’s just that it’s becoming more acceptable. I think it is. Maybe the average person finds something that they can take from it rather than sort of dismissing it and writing it off as just noise.

What do you think it is about your latest record, Periphery III: Select Difficulty, that really drew people in?

MANSOOR: I know from our end it was definitely the most cohesive effort as far as even abstract things like our mental wellbeing and just how we are as a band; how we get along. It was the most fun album. Albums are very stressful processes normally but this one was very stress free. And it should’ve been stressful if anything because it was done in a very short time period. I’d like to think that that’s reflected in the album is that you can hear that we were having fun with it.

How did you approach crafting this record?

MANSOOR: We’d done Juggernaut not that long before that and that was sort of our big, sprawling concept album. The first three albums Periphery released aside from Juggernaut were just complete freeform. It was whatever we felt like [writing]. Juggernaut was sort of imposing a limitation on ourselves to a concept. We were trying to tell a story and it was a very difficult thing to do because it had to work on so many levels. So when we were finally done with it, we were kind of relieved.

Where do you aim to take the band from here?

Mansoor: The Grammy nomination isn’t something we were ever aiming for. We just write music for fun and whatever happens, happens. We’re going to see how long we can ride this ride and when it’s done we’ll be grateful. We’ve been fortunate, but that luck’s gonna run out someday and when it does I’ll just be really happy with what we’ve done. If the band were to end tomorrow, I’d be really happy with what we achieved, just being able to write music rather selfishly if I’m honest. We successfully have our cake and eat it, too. It’s our music. We have full creative control over everything. The only rule in the writing is, “Does it sound good?”

How do you feel about Megadeth taking the Grammy?

Matt Halpern (drums): Megadeth are legends in the metal world. I wore their shirts and listened to them in elementary school, so it was an honor to simply even be nominated alongside them!

If it were up to you, who would you like to see nominated in the metal and rock categories?

Halpern: Well, to be completely self-serving, we'd love to be nominated again! Aside from that, we have too many friends in too many great bands to name just a few. How about the current metal scene as a whole wins a Grammy? That'd be sick.

What did you think of the Metallica/Lady Gaga mashup?

Halpern: We thought it was awesome. It looked like they had a blast on stage and it's cool to know Lady Gaga grew up listening to the same music as [we] did!

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