On Gunning For A Grammy & Peripheral Enterprises

Periphery sticksman Matt Halpern wraps up a phone conversation with the band's manager to take The Music's call. Naturally, their Grammy nomination (in Best Metal Performance for The Price Is Wrong), announced less than a week prior, was being discussed.

The ceremony occurs mere days after their Australian tour concludes. Being recognised alongside fellow nominees Megadeth, Korn, Gojira and Baroness is laudable for the US prog-metallers whose humble gestation ensured a dedicated, yet niche, online following. Interaction via musician and band forums, and home-made recordings, created an underground stir. "It's ridiculous that we have a nomination," the drummer gushes. "We're a new band really in a category like this; we have to get the word out there to people. We were just strategising ways to really introduce ourselves as people and as a band to all the members of the Grammy board that will be voting. Because that's really the only way they're ever going to find out about us enough to weigh in."

"We were just strategising ways to really introduce ourselves as people and as a band to all the members of the Grammy board."

Heavy music categories are typically topical at awards shows and the fact that Beyonce and Disturbed will face off for the Best Rock Performance Grammy further spawned requests to overhaul selection processes. "There's some new blood on the Grammy board, and there's some really good people that already have been doing a lot of great things for the scene," Halpern says of the metal aspect. "Now they have the ear of the people on that board, so they're able to actually push some real bands into there that really do fit the category."

Not that the djentlemen have much time for self-congratulation as, touring aside, respective members have intensive (ahem) peripheral enterprises to maintain. For instance, Halpern recently launched drum sample company GetGood Drums, a partnership with fellow Periphery personnel Misha Mansoor and Adam 'Nolly' Getgood.

"It would be really hard for any of us to do this, to make a living just on the band alone that could really support our lifestyles and so forth. So it's a really good thing to be forced to be creative outside of your initial project, because it helps to create more and — at least in my mind — more of the life you want. Because even when I'm not working with Periphery directly, the things I do get to work on are indirectly related to Periphery and our audience.

"When I joined Periphery I realised that if I really work hard and figure out creative ways to continuously engage the audience and the platform that we have, then I'd be able to really work on things that I wanted, and not have to worry about the other stuff [having day jobs]. It was a gradual realisation that we all individually and as a group worked to have. We came together and then we all worked as hard as we did to all help the band as a whole, and also to support each other... Because we each have other endeavours that we take seriously. I'm very happy to be part of a group, to be on a team and in a band with people that are so productive and so inspiring."