Speaking Volumes: Calabasas Musician's Band Touring the World

A little more than three years ago, the band Volumes didn't exist – today, the groove metal band is signed to a major label, has put out two records and is touring multiple continents.

At the center of it all is Calabasas resident Michael Barr, who is one of two vocalists for Volumes.

Barr, originally from Woodland Hills, got started in the metal scene roughly eight years ago when he started hearing about local bands and going to shows.

"When I was in Woodland Hills, there were a lot of good local bands that I looked up to," he said at the recent New England and Metal Hardcore Festival. "... That's kind of how I got started – I was really obsessed with these bands and the whole hardcore/metal scene was kind of a mystique to me."

"I was just drawn to it in some weird way," Barr added. "I started hanging around my local venue, met the right people and started my first band."

The 22-year-old vocalist said that he was in a band with current Volumes guitarist Diego Farias and a former guitarist, which eventually broke up. The trio got together with co-frontman Gus Farias, who was also looking for a new band, and formed Volumes.

"We would hang out and listen to music," Barr said, "and we kind of turned to each other one day and said, 'Why don't we just start a band?'"

After finding a drummer and a bass player, the band got together and recorded a six-song EP entitled The Concept of Dreaming. Soon after, the band started to tour on a somewhat local basis.

"It kind of started out as a joke," Barr said. "In the studio we just tried to record the heaviest, bounciest stuff we could and make it sound ridiculously good. It was a total studio thing and it fell into a full-fledged touring band real fast."

A buzz started around the Internet about the talented young band. The buzz eventually caught the eye of the metal label Mediaskare Records.

Volumes signed with Mediaskare in November of 2010 and released its first label album, VIA, in September of 2011. From there Barr said the experience has been something special.

"Since signing, it's been a whirlwind," he said. "In the past year we've done [about] eight U.S. tours, we've gone to Canada a few times and we're leaving for Europe in a few days. It's definitely been a fast-paced roller coaster."

The touring, which Barr said will take Volumes overseas at the end of April for one month with metal giants Veil of Maya, has created a love/hate relationship with the young vocalist.

"I hate it and I love it – I hate it more at times," Barr said. "In the end, I'm doing what I love everyday and I've had some of the best times of my entire life on tour in the past year, and that says a lot. So on the days when I'm hating life and I want to go home, at the end of the day it all melts away when I get on stage."

Volumes will be touring this summer on the Scream It Like You Mean It Tour. Dates for the tour will be announced in May.