Sumerian Records founder and CEO Ash Avildsen talked about Periphery not making big bucks. He said:
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“Periphery – they’re incredibly talented, I love the band to death and we’ve had great success together, but they are their own worst enemy. They get in their own way.”
“No, it’s the too ‘precious’ thing. That band, they have a song called ‘Jet Packs Was Yes,’ which is a hop-skip and a jump away from being a massive hit… I would talk to Misha about this and go, ‘Dude your band should be so big. I know you can get the kid in the front row that is air-guitaring and knows the riffs in and out. But how do you get the guy that’s in the back of the arena that’s got the nosebleeds seat to still feel that connection from your music when you’re on stage?’
“They were doing the Deftones tour and I was like, ‘Guys, this is a mainstream tour. You need to play ‘Jet Packs Was Yes,’ you gotta connect with these people.’ And they didn’t want to do it. I finally convinced them to do it and they’re like, ‘Oh man, this song is going over great,’ and it was like, ‘Yeah, and you wrote it.’ It’s like these bands that get too precious for their own hits.”
UPDATE: Misha shared the following comment via Reddit:
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“Hey guys: It’s pretty simple: We want Periphery to be a fun passion project and creative outlet. We don’t really care about being a massive band or making crazy money with the music, and that has been our approach since day one. Ash is a businessman, and wants his bands to be financially successful. Sometimes that means our interests are at odds, and contractually we had set things up to be in our favor so we couldn’t be forced to make decisions we didn’t want to.
“With that said, and even in Ash’s own words in the interview, when he came to us with good ideas, we definitely listened! Ultimately we had a good run with them, and I’m grateful for our time on the label, but we have wanted to try starting our own label for a while now, and we finally have the means to do so!”