Recommended Aussie Tunes:Psycroptic | The new single "A Fragile Existence" | Listen

Interviews : “It was a pretty easy transition” – An Interview with Myke Terry (Volumes)

By on June 7, 2017

Volumes – Myke Terry

Replacing an iconic singer in a high-profile band can be a daunting and difficult process. For any number of reasons, fan backlash, adapting to new personalities and new ways of working, ensuring your creative voice gets heard and so on and so forth. But, according to Mike Terry who recently replaced Michael Barr in prominent Californian progressive metalcore band Volumes, in this case it has been about as smooth as can be imagined.

“It was a pretty easy transition,” he recalls, “I had the full support of the band, first of all, they really made me feel super at-home. They just wanted me to be on-board, as much as I wanted me to be on-board. It just seemed to work, straight away.”

Terry feels that he was allowed to have his own creative voice in the band and in the songwriting right from the word go. “Yeah, there was never a power struggle, it was never like ‘it has to be done like this, it has to be done like that’. I’m very easy to work with, I like to think, and I want to what’s best for the project and so does everyone else. So it was just like, let’s come to terms, let’s figure out how we can make this happen.

“It was such an easy process.”

Another potentially complicating factor was the fact that Terry had come from a pretty damn high-profile band himself previously, Boston-based hardcore band Bury Your Dead. Especially with regard to differences in the way both bands operate, write, think etc. But again, according to Terry, there were virtually no issues there either. In fact, in a lot of ways, the opposite is actually the case.

“There are differences, but the basic formula I think is always the same,” he opines, “you got to put a record out, and then you gotta tour, and you gotta get along while you’re doing both those things. So for me, going through Bury Your Dead was cool. I knew what to expect from being in a big band. There’s some things you can and can’t do, you have to act a certain way. I learned that by being in Bury Your Dead and getting to that point, being in a big band.

“It gave me the cues for me to just snap in, to this band.”

Volumes have had their own controversies over the years, and these have been well documented. Terry has been aware of what has gone one and, yet again, didn’t see it as an issue. “Yeah I knew about it!” He laughs, “I knew it was a thing. But I didn’t quite know that the boys like to get as wild as they like to get, but, whatever man, fuck it! I’m just as crazy, if not crazier, and we got each other’s backs, so it’s all good.”

Terry’s arrival has also seen a sizable shift in the band’s musical output, as will clearly be seen when their third album, the aptly titled Different Animals, is released in early to mid June. There is an even greater sense of variation and diversity in the songs than was there before, and Terry says that this was a pre-meditated thing.

“We really wanted to explore different avenues, we wanted to take the record all over the place,” he states, “we wanted to just pull no punches with this album, we wanted to put into it as much as we could.”

He is not concerned that existing fans of the band will respond negatively to the extreme dynamics of the record. “I think they’ll be surprised, but I think the surprise will be a pleasant one,” he says, “I don’t think they’ll be caught off guard or thrown aback. I think it’ll be okay.”

The band are set to head out on tour across the States with Born of Osiris, and Terry is extremely confident that this touring cycle with include a trip to Australian shores. “It definitely will, yes,” he confirms, “we’ve been talking about it, and I think we’re going to be coming in early 2018. We’ve got the rest of this year booked up already, but we will be coming though.”

Volumes’ new album Different Animals will be out worldwide via Fearless Records on June 9th. Click here to read our review of the new album, Different Animals.

 

About

Rod Whitfield is a Melbourne-based writer and retired musician who has been writing about music since 1995. He has worked for Team Rock, Beat Magazine, themusic.com.au, Heavy Mag, Mixdown, The Metal Forge, Metal Obsession and many others. He has written and published his memoirs of his life and times in the music biz, and also writes books, screenplays, short stories, blogs and more.