Misha Mansoor (born October 31, 1984), also known as Bulb after the name of his solo project, is an American musician, best known as the founder of and one of the three guitarists in the progressive metal band Periphery. He is also a part of the projects Haunted Shores and Four Seconds Ago, and Of Man, Not of Machine.
Mansoor is considered to be one of the forerunners of the djent movement and is often erroneously attributed with the invention of the word itself (whose invention he attributes to Meshuggah guitarist Fredrik Thordendal). With Periphery, Mansoor has recorded, produced, and released seven studio albums: a self-titled debut, Periphery II: This Time It's Personal, Juggernaut: Alpha, Juggernaut: Omega, Periphery III: Select Difficulty, Periphery IV: Hail Stan, and Periphery V: Djent Is Not a Genre. Mansoor has been named one of the Top 20 best guitarists of the 2010s by Guitar World magazine.
Early life
Mansoor was born on October 31, 1984, to Ali Mansoor, an economist associated with the World Bank who served a term as Secretary to the Minister of Finance in Mauritius. Mansoor is Mauritian by descent but was born and raised in the US. He is also Jewish and can speak French. Mansoor attended the University of Toronto, originally majoring in sociology before switching to philosophy, eventually dropping out to pursue his passion for music.
Career
Bulb (2004–present) Mansoor first seriously started writing and producing music when at college at the University of Toronto. It was here that he and a friend decided to form a band called Bulb, and started posting demos to SoundClick in 2004. While the project ultimately did not work out and the friendship faded, Mansoor adopted the name Bulb as his online alias and continued to post demos to the Bulb SoundClick account. Mansoor would regularly post his music to the Meshuggah, John Petrucci SevenString.org, Andy Sneap Ultimate Metal online forums. Eventually, Mansoor's reputation as a songwriter and a music producer in the metal scene began to grow. After Mansoor founded Periphery in 2005, he would often transfer songs between the two projects. With the international success of Periphery, Mansoor still continued to release demos and new music under the Bulb name, but at a lesser frequency than before. In May 2013, Mansoor announced that he would be working on his first solo album, which would be written, performed and produced entirely by himself.
Starting June 2020, Mansoor released all of the Bulb Material in his Archives, a set of 10 albums that would be released bi-weekly, starting with the newest Bulb material and going back to the oldest, with 2 of the albums being filled with purely orchestral and electronic music (Being the tenth album the best known for containing the song "Absent", which many people associate with Windows Longhorn.). Mansoor has also announced that he is currently working on his long-awaited Bulb solo album, which is due in 2021.
On May 14, 2021, Mansoor released the single "Parabolica", along with its accompanying music video, and announced that the Bulb solo album, titled Moderately Fast, Adequately Furious, will be released on July 16, 2021, via 3DOT Recordings. Mansoor, an avid racing fan, named the track "Parabolica" as a reference to the Curva Parabolica turn on the Monza Circuit in Milan, Italy.
Periphery (2005–present)
Mansoor formed Periphery in 2005, originally starting out on drums for the band before transitioning to guitar. Periphery went through numerous lineup changes before settling on a lineup of Mansoor, Jake Bowen, and Alex Bois on guitar, Matt Halpern on drums, Tom Murphy on bass, and Spencer Sotelo on vocals. Periphery released their self-titled debut album in 2010 to critical acclaim. In 2011, Bois and Murphy left the band, eventually being replaced with Mark Holcomb and Adam "Nolly" Getgood, solidifying the core Periphery lineup. Periphery went on to release six more studio albums (Periphery II: This Time It's Personal, Juggernaut: Alpha, Juggernaut: Omega, Periphery III: Select Difficulty, Periphery IV: Hail Stan, and Periphery V: Djent Is Not a Genre) and two EPs (Icarus and Clear), all to critical and commercial success.
Haunted Shores (2009–present) In 2009, Mansoor joined the Mark Holcomb-led project Haunted Shores, with the project eventually evolving into solely being the duo of Holcomb and Mansoor. In 2010, Haunted Shores released its first set of new music with Mansoor on a split EP with Cyclamen. The project went on unannounced hiatus from 2010–2017, but became active again with the release of the Viscera EP, with features from Jørgen Munkeby and Devin Townsend.