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Interview with
MICHAEL BARR
from
VOLUMES

(5th December 2021)

Interview by – Sabrina Sutton

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PHOTO CREDIT: LINDSEY BYRNES

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Earlier this week, I sat down with lead vocalist Michael Barr from L.A based metalcore band, Volumes. And, I’m not going to lie, folks. I was nervous.

I can’t say I’ve listened to a lot of metalcore in my time. I can’t pretend that I’m super well-versed in the scene. So, how was I going to conduct an interview with an artist of a genre that I hardly understood and (admittedly lazily) hadn’t given a real chance thus far. What I can tell you though, is this:

1. Even if metalcore isn’t your thing, Volumes’ new album happier? explores some really heavy yet relatable themes. The lyrics are raw, and the melodies really complement the underlying beauty that sometimes comes of pain.

2. The band is smart. They knew what they wanted to achieve with this album – where they wanted to place the band for future music. And they achieved just that.

3. My goodness, Michael Barr and Myke Terry can sing. Yes – sing. Their ability to so seamlessly shift between their clean and unclean voice qualities really had me hooked.

Oh! And Michael Barr is really, really nice. We like Michael Barr.

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Sabrina: How is it in L.A.?
Michael: It’s warm here right now. I was surprised. I’ve been home for like a week; we just got back from tour. So, I was in all these cold, cold cities, and it’s like 80 degrees here.

Sabrina: I love that for you, haha. And, thank you for taking the time to talk to me. Let’s start with the tour! How did that all go? It’s the first time you guys have been able to play live shows since the world shut down. Did it feel odd being back on stage, or did it feel pretty comfortable?
Michael: It felt pretty comfortable. It felt like I picked up right where I left off. I’ve been a part of the band since I was 18, and then I departed for a couple of years, and then I came back. So, pandemic aside, it had been five or six years since I had played any heavy music. So yeah, when you throw that in the mix combined with a couple of delayed tours, it becomes pretty nostalgic but surprisingly comfy at the same time.

Sabrina: Well, I actually know you from your solo stuff more so than I do from Volumes, so I wanted to ask, how has it been going back to heavier music? Or, I guess, the unclean vocals? Because you didn’t really use that in your solo work.
Michael: No, not at all. It’s usually the other way around. People identify me with Volumes, and they have no idea that I even made any solo music. So thanks for checking it out. But yeah, it’s something that was a huge part of my life for years, and I never fully strayed away from it. But, I didn’t ever think I would be in a heavy band or start my own heavy band again. It’s just kind of where life has taken me. Solo music is something I’m still doing, but it was also a rough path. It’s hard to break through a completely different genre of music when you are synonymous with another one. And so, coming back just felt very comfortable. Everything from stage to studio, I kind of realised how much I miss being in the heavy band.

Sabrina: And also being a part of a band! Because doing solo music versus being in a group is completely different. I listened to the episode of the MetalSucks podcast that you’re on, and you commented on how good it was getting back in contact with Raad (Raad Soudani – bass). That being able to creatively collaborate again showed you how you had grown and how he had grown. How did that play out in the songwriting process? Was it like a completely different experience compared to, you know, six, seven years earlier, before you left? Or did you kind of fall back into old grooves and methods of songwriting?
Michael: Well, the easiest part was the producer that produced the album, happier?. He produced all my solo music, too. So he was the link to making it all work, which made me really comfortable coming back in and re-entering the band. So, having our kind-of mascot – our producer – for the band and for my solo music just made it feel seamless to me. Just like another session with Daniel — his name is Daniel Braunstein, by the way, he’s amazing.

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Sabrina: On the topic of producers, you also mentioned that you recorded and produced this album over lockdown, so everything was stalled for a while. You ended up having to do Zoom sessions. But when you guys eventually got to the studio, you smashed out like half the album really quickly. Did you just have a lot to say? Were you holding on to the songs until you could be together? What was it like producing and recording a whole album during this time?
Michael: Yeah, it was very different. I’ve pretty much used the same studio for everything that I’ve ever done here in L.A., and we started (the album) there. Then, yeah, everything got shut down, and we had to ask ourselves, ‘Are we going to make this?’. Because some people were just putting their albums off. Everyone was in a different situation. We definitely didn’t want to put anything off or stop anything. So we just decided to set up a studio at our bassist’s house. And it was hard at first. But by, I don’t know, by month two of making stuff, it just felt fine. We all acclimated, I guess. It’s not ideal going to someone’s apartment and making a big record. We were kind of scared at times. Stuff sounded different. Luckily though, we had a couple of weeks to go back in at the end of the pandemic and go to the proper studio, and we recorded everything properly.

Sabrina: Did you have to re-record a lot of what you did at the apartment?
Michael: Just a couple of tracks. We kept a lot of tracks and a lot of sessions. But it was just one of those things where we listened back, and we just didn’t sound good. Like…

Sabrina: It didn’t sound right.
Michael: Yeah, it just didn’t sound great on the set-up we were recording on (in the apartment). We had to kind of sift through it all and make re-recording sections our priority.

Sabrina: OK, well, I wanted to read you something about your album from a review – “happier? is a powerhouse from start to finish exhibiting the absolute musicality volumes possess and the songwriting experience of a band at its best”. Do you agree? Do you think this is Volumes’ best songwriting?
Michael: Well, that’s a really gracious review. We all feel like that, and we kind of knew that was happening. When we wrote the first couple of songs, we kind of all looked at each other and said,”this is going to be better than we thought it was going to be. This is going to be big. It’s gonna be a big album for us”. A culmination of everything we’ve ever been through or done as a band kind of comes out on this album; it’s pretty cool.

Sabrina: You guys explore a lot of heavy themes in this album. So I want to ask about the title, happier? with a question mark. Is that ironic? Is it that you guys are happier now? Was this album the journey you had to take to get somewhere happier? Like, tell me about why this ended up being the title.
Michael: Sure. Yeah. The song Happier? is an old demo from like 2007, and it was just something that’s been floating around our hard drives for years, and we pulled it back up and realised, “OK, this is actually a really good song”. So we just threw it in the tracklist, and it ended up being our favourite song out of the whole album. I think now that the album’s out, a lot of people are gravitating towards that song. We threw the question mark in there to have a conversation point around the name instead of it just being a demo.

Sabrina: You tried to create an opportunity for a deeper conversation.
Michael: Yeah, we had an opportunity to talk about being happy after a pandemic that the whole world went through. To talk about the band being happy after all the trials and tribulations we (the band) have gone through. It was one of those situations where we thought, “This is bigger than us”. It kind of superseded our initial intention of “Oh, we’ll just do a title track.” So organically, it kind of got its own narrative. And then, when we announced the album title, a lot of people were really into it. It’s turned into this huge conversation point.

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Sabrina: OK, tell me about Bent. It’s the cleanest song by far, especially after the sledgehammers that are FBX and Malevolent. It kind of reminded me a little bit of your solo stuff. Maybe that’s just because of the clean vocals, I’m not sure. But why did you put it there in the album? Why did you decide to bring out such a vocally clean song?
Michael: I think we always had that bubbling somewhere. Before I left for the first iteration of Volumes., there was always talk about adding more singing. So it was kind of an inevitable situation. Me coming back into the band in late 2019, the goal I had was “we’re going to make that album that has all these big, big songs with big choruses”. So that’s kind of how the idea came about. We knew we were going to write four to five huge singles to elevate the band and reconnect with the fans. And then everything else is just going to sound like nostalgic Volumes and good heavy music. So we placed Bent in the tracklisting after we came out super strong with that O.G. vibe.

Sabrina: Something people are familiar with.
Michael: Yeah, to let people know we still have that aggressive and heavy side. We knew that we were going to put out all those singing songs first, and everyone was going to be confused; have a lot of questions or concerns about where the album was going. So we were like, what better way to soothe some of those concerns than to put two super-heavy songs at the start of the album, so when people initially listen to it, they’re just like, “Oh, OK, they still got it”.

Sabrina: That’s very smart. No, it’s such a clever way to point the band where you guys want to go without disappointing anybody. But I am running out of time! So to finish up, you guys have just come home from one tour. Are you going to do a happier? album tour? And is Australia on the cards?
Michael: I actually just came from a meeting today, and we’re definitely talking about international touring. That’s definitely in our conversation for next year. We’re doing a tour in the Spring and February, and March with two great big bands that I can’t really say anything about right now, but that’s a U.S. tour. That’ll be great. So up until then, we’re just kind of prepping for that run.

Sabrina: Yeah, prepping for what’s going to be an absolutely huge…I guess a huge comeback, really?
Michael: Yeah, we just did a tour here (in the U.S.) for four weeks where we were the headliner, and that went really well. That was a big entry back into the world. And now we have the opportunity to tour two big bands in the spring. And that’s definitely going to be more of a comeback for us, for sure.

Sabrina: Amazing! Thank you so much for your time. Absolutely lovely to meet you. Good luck with everything, and I hope to see you in Australia soon.
Michael: Hopefully, yeah! Australia and Europe are definitely where we want to go internationally, so you will see us there. Definitely.

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Get the metallic juggernaut here.

HAPPIER?
Track Listing:

01. FBX
02. Malevolent
03. Bend
04. Get Enough
05. Lets Me Down
06. Man on Fire
07. Weighted
08. See You Again
09. Into You (Hurt)
10. Void
11. Happier?

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Follow VOLUMES

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Press Release 22nd November 2021 (below) HERE

VOLUMES
new album
‘HAPPIER?’
Out Now
on Fearless Records

VOLUMES
‘Happier?’
(Album Review)

27th November 2021

Review by Karl Anchique 

Review HERE

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AMNPLIFY – DB