Soundwave Festival

Biography

TRIVIUM INTERVIEW

It’s almost hard to believe that it has been eleven years since American head bangers Trivium first formed, it wouldn’t take too long before the band would release their debut album ‘Ember to Inferno’ which sparked interest by Roadrunner Records representatives who quickly signed the band. In 2004 Trivium recorded what has been classed as the bands landmark album ‘Ascendancy’ which sparked four singles including ‘A Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation’ and ‘Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr’. Released in March of 2005 the album would go on to chart very well on the American Billboards as well as hitting #4 on the Top Heatseekers chart. With the help of heavy metal magazines like Kerrang, Metal Hammer and Hit Parader Trivium were fast becoming this generations heavy metal kings. With an ever growing popularity the band were now playing on large bills like Ozzfest, and Download festival alongside Metallica, Machine Head, and fear factory to name a few, it would also see the band embark on their first ever Australian tour as one of the acts performing at the big day out festivals.

Coming off the back off of a very successful album and touring cycle the band went on to release ‘The Crusade which sold more than 35,000 copies in the first week. Many websites started classing ‘The Crusade’ as one of the metal albums of 2006, but some metal fans were not sharing their enthusiasm. With vocalist Matt Heafy changing his singing style from grueling screams to more vocal harmonies and the band’s music becoming much more thrash orientated, many metal fans started to class Trivium as a second rate Metallica cover band, a branding which is still sometimes heard today. Holding their heads up high, Trivium continued to delight their loving fans and set out on a massive sold-out world tour. The band would once again return to Australia for sold-out Black Crusade shows with Machine Head and it was clear that much of the crowd in attendance were there to see Trivium.

In eleven short years the band have gone on to play with some of the world’s most respected metal artists and their last album ‘Shogun’ proved once and for all to critics and skeptical metal fans that Trivium are a band that is here to stay, they are not a fad or any kind of second rate cover band. ‘Shogun’ is an album which merged all the best parts of the bands previous work into one album and fans certainly weren’t disappointed! With tracks like ‘Into the mouth of hell we march’ and Insurrection’ it’s easy to see why this has become the bands highest charting album to date! The success of ‘Shogun’ has seen Trivium stay out on the road for almost two years, playing to metal fans around the globe, a tour which has seen the band return to Australia not once but twice. During the bands second leg of the tour drummer Travis Smith announced that he would be sitting out the tour due to personal reasons so the band called on long-time friend Nick Augusto to fill in. Only two weeks ago the band officially announced that Travis has officially left and Nick would be his permanent replacement.

Trivium are about to take the next step in their amazing journey, returning to Australia this week for their fifth visit to play the Soundwave Festivals alongside Anthrax, Anvil, Meshuggah and Faith No More. The band who are set to record a new album in the summer of 2010 will be performing the brand new song ‘Shattering the Skies’, giving Australian fans a taste of what’s to come. I had the pleasure of catching up with Trivium Bassist Paolo Gregoletto last week to discuss the bands return to Australia, his thoughts on playing the large festival bills, the bands upcoming album plans and much more!

Sit back as we march into hell with one of metal’s finest bass players… Paolo Gregoletto!

Soundwave: Hey Paolo, thanx for putting the time aside to speak with us today, how’s everything going?

Paolo Gregoletto: Everything’s been great man, we just finished up a new track in the studio and we’re rehearsing for the tour now!

Soundwave: Awesome dude! Firstly, it’s fantastic to see Trivium heading back to Australia this week for the Soundwave festivals, you have played here a few times now, besides the shows what do you most look forward to when you organize an Australian tour?

Paolo Gregoletto: This time we have quite a few days off cause we’re only doing the one sideshow as we just did a headlining tour there in back in May, so we’re just going to take it easy! I like the laid back vibe in Australia, it’s really awesome to go out have beers and have fun. There is nowhere else in the world that’s such a relaxing place! Every city is cool and unique in its own way, there’s always new stuff that we get to experience when we come down there.

Soundwave: Besides doing the Soundwave festivals, you’re also be doing a headline show in Melbourne with Anvil, what can the Trivium fans expect from you guys this time around when you hit the stage?

Paolo Gregoletto: Well, depending on how long our set is, we’re rehearsing twenty songs and if they let us, we’re going to play everything. We’re going to play the new songs; we’ll play some covers as well. This is going to be the most intimate show that we’ve played yet in Australia. I checked out the venue online and it looks really cool, I can’t wait to come back!

Soundwave: A few years back you guys played on the Big Day Out bill and this time you are back for Soundwave, are you a fan of doing the large festival shows or would you much prefer to be doing the smaller more intimate venues, no doubt both have their advantages!

Paolo Gregoletto: It’s very split for me, I enjoy doing both! If we were just to do one we would get tired of it, it gives you something to look forward to, and it’s something different. The festivals… there is always an excitement around them cause it’s not your show, there’s a lot of unpredictable things. Getting to play with other bands is always cool, right before we play Anthrax is onstage and that sets the bar pretty high for us to top and I love that. I love having to come out and outdo the band before you; it makes you want to play better.

Soundwave: Paolo, this year’s Soundwave has some amazing bands on the bill Meshuggah, Anvil, Faith No More, This Is Hell to name just a few! Will you be putting time aside to check out any of the other bands throughout the festival dates?

Paolo Gregoletto: Definitely, I will try to catch what I can at the festivals depending on press and whatever else we have to do, but if there are any cool sideshows wherever we’re staying we will be going to see some for sure, that’s where the fun will be! Usually we stay at the same hotels as some of the other bands and you end up hanging out and making new friends it’s a really amazing atmosphere and vibe!

Soundwave: Mate, have you guys talked about filming or recording any of the upcoming shows for a possible future live release?

Paolo Gregoletto: I always have my camera with me and I like to film all of the shows, but it’s not nearly at the high quality that would be needed to make a DVD. I’m not too sure; I think we’ll wait until the next album cycle to do something like that! We want to be able to make it into something different. We will probably wait until we get another album under our belt. We’re just started to come into our own as a live band so if we wait a little bit longer we can make something special.

Soundwave: I do want to talk to you a little more about touring but first… you guys recently went back into the studio to record a new track for the videogame ‘Gods of War III’ titled ‘Shattering The Skies Above’ tell us how that came about?

Paolo Gregoletto: We were approached about it during the fall and they asked us if we would be interested in doing a new original track, we were all very excited that we were going to have the chance to record something new. We knew that we wouldn’t be getting into the studio for the next album until the summer of 2010 so we jumped at the opportunity and we started thinking about how it was going to come about. I think I was the first to say “hey, I’ve had this riff that I’ve wanted to work on for a while and I’d really like to use it”, so I started off a demo on garage band and I showed Matt and Corey. I showed them how the riff went and we started piecing it together. Everyone contributed parts to make it better, every step of the way, it was very collaborative whether it was writing the song, laying down the drums or the guitar and bass tracks, vocals it was very much being produced by Trivium, all four of us! We tried everything and that’s how this song came about and turned out so good. Obviously I am bias but I am really excited about what we were able to achieve?

Soundwave: Now Trivium fans are in for a real treat as this song features Matt, Corey and you all sharing the vocals for the first time! Is this something you guys have wanted to do for some time now…

Paolo Gregoletto: Not necessarily lead vocals… Matt does the lead parts, but this is the first time that Corey and I have done the parts exactly the way that we will be doing it live. It really gives it that vibe that we have live and when we sing and do back up to Matt it has a different vibe to Matt just singing to himself on a Cd. That was one thing that we felt was missing from our album recordings and we want to make our album recordings and our live shows similar in the fact that what you hear on the Cd is what you’re going to hear live!

Soundwave: You also recently recorded a cover of Sepultura’s ‘Slave new World’, which is very cool! But I’m curious, from all the songs in the world that you could have covered why did you guys decide to record this one?

Paolo Gregoletto: Well, the way it started out was we were jamming with Nick who [at the time] was filling in on drums for us and we were going through songs. Right before we started the second leg of the US tour we were playing some Slayer songs, we were doing Sepultura and some other random stuff. We thought it would be really cool and different for us to do a Sepultura song, no one would be expecting us to do that! It’s always been one band that I’ve always wanted Trivium to cover and we agreed to cover a song off ‘Chaos AD’. To us ‘Chaos AD’ was the middle ground of where they were going and where the band had come from! We’d talked about doing ‘Beneath the Remains’ but didn’t really know if many people would have known what it was….

Soundwave: Oh dude, that would have been amazing to hear!

Paolo Gregoletto: It’s still on the table; it’s one that we’re talking about for the future. We’ve talked about taking a week off and recording as many covers as we can and ‘Beneath the Remains’ will definitely be one of them.

Soundwave: Mate, I’d love to see you guys throw together an album of covers rather than one of those obligated run of the mill record company greatest hits albums!

Paolo Gregoletto: I would rather do that to! It’s easy to do covers; I guess most of the ideas have already been thought of in the song, the lyrics are already there. We tried to stay true to the original with ‘Slave new World’, we tried to make it sound heavier and cooler than the original by adding in a couple of things but we tried to stay as true to the original as possible. It sounds awesome… it’s heavy as shit!

Soundwave: Now Paolo, it was just announced that Nick is now officially the new Trivium drummer, no doubt the Australian fans will welcome him with open arms, is this his first trip to Oz?

Paolo Gregoletto: Nick will be coming down to Australia and he’s an awesome dude that I’ve known forever. This is his first trip out of the US and to come down to Australia for your first overseas tour it’s an exciting thing. We all can’t wait!

Soundwave: Paolo, I want to talk to you a little more about life on the road… When you look back on the countless shows you have played, what’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened to you whilst performing?

Paolo Gregoletto: It’s actually on the special edition of the ‘Ascendancy’ DVD. We are playing at the London Astoria; it was one the first ever headline shows that we did with 2000 people. Corey always wets his hair and the stage was already slippery to begin with, I walked over to his side of the stage, I didn’t even run nor do anything… I put my foot up on the monitor and my other foot just went out. I was aided on the floor and I took the microphone down with me too, I got up in a second but everyone saw it!

Soundwave: [Laughs] and it is always those moments that someone seems to capture on a camera too [laughs]

Paolo Gregoletto: Oh yeah, we kept it on the DVD, it’s pretty funny! [Laughs]

Soundwave: How about the crowds, from up onstage I’d imagine you have seen some insane shit happening whilst you’ve been playing?

Paolo Gregoletto: Oh yeah, that’s where most of the insane stuff happens. I have jumped off and into the crowds before! It’s usually one of those things where you think back and go “well I probably shouldn’t have done that”, but in the moment it’s cool. I like when people are having a good time, not getting hurt but just letting loose and have that as their release… its awesome!

Soundwave: With the band returning to Australia this week, tell us… how do the Aussie crowds compare to those in the USA and Europe?

Paolo Gregoletto: Definitely one of the most intense audiences! When we did the first headlining show in Brisbane, the entire stage and club was just soaked in beer. It was like a washing machine of beer, we smelt so bad after that show! It was such a fun night, you could feel the energy, it was an electric show! It was one of those shows where everything went right and the audience was way beyond anything you were expecting.

Soundwave: Paolo, we’ve hit the part of the interview where our readers get to find out more about the real you… how many bass’ do you take on the road with you?

Paolo Gregoletto: I’m taking one on the road with me this time because we’re checking all our gear on the plane. At most I’ll bring two, I’m really simple. I’ve have made my rig so simple that I can put it into a four space rack or carry it around on my shoulders if I want, that’s the way to do it and that’s my suggestion to any bass player or guitar players, obviously drummers are a different story. I think the more simplistic your rig is the better you will sound in the end. It’s very very easy when you can get endorsements to want to get a lot of free stuff and I love trying out stuff but when it’s good I like to stick with it, I don’t like to change things too much. A lot of people become gear junkies when someone says it’s the latest thing, the new thing but it’s not always necessarily the best, you have to just stick with what works!

Soundwave: What was the first concert you attended and how much of an impact did that have on you musically?

Paolo Gregoletto: The first rock concert I ever went to was Ted Nugent, actually it was a Rock Never Stops concert and Slaughter opened. It also had Quiet Riot, Night Ranger and Ted Nugent. I was probably about thirteen when I saw that and it sold me on rock music. You’re blown away when you can see a band that can really play their music. Ted Nugent is awesome, he is so funny, regardless if you agree with his views, he is one of the funniest dudes live… he shreds, he shoots flaming arrows... you can’t beat that!

Soundwave: There is no doubt Trivium have left a huge impression on many of today’s younger metal artists and like myself you guys have grown up influenced by some of the greatest rock & metal bands on earth! Who have you been surprised to learn is a fan of your work?

Paolo Gregoletto: A lot of the newer bands getting signed for example a new Roadrunner band Meet Me Within… I met them and they said that they really liked ‘Ascendancy’ and really dig our band, and that’s really cool to hear. We’re not far off in age but that’s the trippy thing, something that we did five years ago is now starting to make it’s true impact on people and that’s really exciting and I hope that the stuff that we’ve made since then and the stuff that we make in the future has that impact. In a positive way I hope that bands keep trying to push themselves and I hope that something that we’ve made influences somebody to do that!

Soundwave: Paolo, with Trivium returning to Australia later this week and with Nick becoming a fulltime member of the band the fans want to know what else is on the horizon… you guys are no doubt already in writing mode for the next album?

Paolo Gregoletto: Well, we’ve been writing and rehearsing a couple of new songs in our normal rehearsals, its well on the way! We are moving very quickly with it, we are going to write and record way over an albums worth of material. We are going to do way more than we have to so if games, movies or TV shows come up we will have new exclusive music for them. We will probably record in the summer… I think that’s the goal.

Soundwave: Lastly a question I ask of everyone that I speak with… who is the one band you never want to hear again and why?

Paolo Gregoletto: There’s so many! There’s no easy way around that question…

Soundwave: [Laughs] no mate, there isn’t!

Paolo Gregoletto: Man there’s so many fuckin bands; there are tours of bands I never want to see again! This is one of those questions where I could really give it to someone [laughs]. I’m gonna say that the whole genre of Screamo music, the breakdown stuff; I’ve never been a big fan of that. Now the shit that has the dance music in it, it’s bizarre. That music is terrible! I don’t like to ever say that something’s bad, cause someone could be saying the same thing about Trivium but dude we’ve never done anything that shitty! I’m pretty critical and there’s songs that we’ve done that I’m not really that thrilled that we’ve made but I would prefer to play those songs everyday for the rest of my life then hear anything that has a breakdown into a dance beat!

Soundwave: Paolo, thanks once again for your time today, it’s been a pleasure I look forward to seeing you guys in Sydney next weekend, do you have any last words for our readers?

Paolo Gregoletto: Thank you guys for supporting Trivium and getting us to the point where we’re headlining a stage on a festival down there, it’s unreal, this is our fifth time, you’ve made more than a couple of dreams come true for us!

*******************************************************************

There's no such thing as a band born to greatness. To succeed in the world of music there's a whole energy-sapping storm of hard work to plough through. Florida's TRIVIUM has surely earned the major contender status that has been afforded them by their legion of adoring fans and the international media.

Their 2005 Sophomore release, Ascendancy, was a bold and dynamic statement of intent that confirmed the potency of TRIVIUM’s precocious talents and charisma. Kerrang! declared it “the most skull-peeling collection of pulverising metal grooves and fretboard annihilation you'll hear in a long time.”

With a swag of awards and sold out stadium tours left in their wake, TRIVIUM have returned with their latest album, Shogun, “and it’s a genuine exercise in global domination” – Metal Rage. They have taken their music to new compositional and technical levels while the album's brutal, bone-shattering production means that they've never sounded heavier or more powerful. Shogun is a monstrous achievement that promises to have the cynics and naysayers choking on their toast. “Considering how much ambition is on display here, Trivium may have finally churned out their very own ‘Master Of Puppets’". - Metaleater.com

The track "Into The Mouth Of Hell We March", was featured in video game Madden NFL 09.