Artist:  Trivium 

Date: 7 December 2011   

MM - Hi Corey great to meet you.
Corey - Hi ..

MM - The "Defenders of the Faith Tour” started off in Southampton at the beginning of the month, how’s it been going so far?
Corey - It's been awesome.  All the shows have been killer.  We have had great crowds having a lot of fun, all the bands we are friends with.  We did Europe before the Defenders show so we have been on tour a long time.  Tonight’s the second to last show, then we get to go home and get some time off.

MM - After the UK, you then return to the States and Canada for a mammoth tour and finish off in Australia, that’s a huge schedule. 
Corey - We get back and have the holidays going on.  We have a show on New Year’s  Eve, that’s in Orlando, then we are home for another ten days, then we are pretty much on tour 'til April.

MM - Dedication!
Corey - Yeah!.

MM - It’s one hell of a line up, with In Flames, Ghost, Rise to Remain and In-sense.  Which band has most impressed you so far? 
Corey - We’ve toured with pretty much all of them.  Inflames and Rise To Remain a lot and Inflames have always been a killer live band.  The first time we toured with them was back in 2007, I believe.

Rise To Remain, we brought them out on tour with us in 2008, no one had heard of them at that point and they hadn’t put out any music at that time.  We knew their management and stuff, they were just getting started, so it’s cool to see the progression they have made since then to now.  They sound fucking awesome now.  It’s a lot of fun to see Ghost, I had never seen them before.

MM - They are a strange addition to the line-up. 
Corey - It's cool.  I didn’t really get a chance to listen to the record much before the tour, but seeing them live and hearing them play live, the songs get stuck in your head.  It's really cool stuff.  It's cool to have a band like them who have a totally different sound.  Every tour we have done, we try and bring something different and try and give people a variety of music.

MM - The first time I saw you was supporting Iron Maiden.  Then you played the City Hall In Newcastle, which was a bit of bizarre venue as it's all seated, but luckily we got to stand at the front.  It was quite amusing as Matt Heafy was asking the crowd to circle, then it was like ... oh you can’t! 
Corey - Yeah at that point in time we hadn’t really played many seated venues, but we have done like three months of venues with all seats.  And in the past we have done the Dream Theatre tour and all of their shows were seated venues. So we have now kind of got used to it.  There’s different ways to kind of get the crowd involved with the show without the mosh pits.  There’s other ways you can get the interaction going without the physical body movement.  We have kind of honed our craft regarding playing seated venues.

MM - I've been looking at the setlists for the tour so far.  Have you got a favourite song to play live and off the new album 'In Waves'. 
Corey - They are all pretty fun.  I think the highlight is the 'Ties That Bind', it’s got a lot of dynamics, different things in there, cool guitar parts and solos.

MM - It’s a totally brilliant album, I love it.  I really love the Sepultura cover 'Slave New World', it's brilliant.  Any chance you will be playing that tonight? 
Corey - We haven’t played that for a couple of years.
MM - I know that! I am just being dead cheeky, any chance of playing it tonight?
Corey - We were doing it live for a little while…

MM - What music or bands are you currently listening to?  Are there any new bands really grab your attention?
Corey - New stuff?  I haven’t really gotten anything.  Rise to Remain gave me a copy of their album and I have had the chance over the last week or so to listen to it and really like it a lot.  Most of the stuff I have heard has been the bands that have been on tour. Usually when I play music in the dressing room it's classic stuff or stuff that’s been out a long time, so it’s not necessarily new.

MM - There’s a band called Fury UK who have been on tour recently with Iced Earth and I know they would love to tour with you.  Fury UK are sort of like old school metal but with a new twist, they are absolutely fantastic, they really are.  They've supported bands like Blaze Bayley, Michael Schenker, Saxon ... 
Corey - Cool, so they are playing for the old schoolers ...
MM - I always give them a heads up cause they are awesome and definitely worth checking out.

MM - You have toured with some of your favourite bands such as Iron Maiden, Metallica and Slayer, to name but a few.  What would you say is your biggest achievement so far?
Corey - That’s kind of a broad one, obviously playing with your favourite bands is always cool,  we have done a lot of killer shows and toured with a lot of great bands and done a lot of big festival shows.  I guess everything we have done is the kind of achievement thing.  Even playing some random show in a different country and 1,000 to 2,000 people turn up, you are from the other side of the world and people knowing who we are, that’s pretty cool.  Getting to travel all over the world for a career and getting see a lot of places we probably would never have seen.

MM - Who has influenced your music over the years? I have noticed with the album 'In Waves' it’s a progression. 
Corey - I don’t really listen to music to inspire me to write anything.  Usually we just talk about it amongst ourselves.  What we want to do.  We write riffs.  I have a pretty good ear for ... like I have heard that before ... let’s get rid of it, that sounds too typical.  We always try to write unique riffs.

When we did the new record we put everything through the grinder to make sure it sounded unique. A unique style that kind of stood out.  The record has its own vibe.  The song writing has a unique sound.  That’s what we always try to do and keep progressing.  We like to keep it fresh when writing songs rather than writing the same crap over and over.

MM - Any plans to return to the UK next year / any festival appearances on the cards ? 
Corey - Yeah we were just talking about that today.  We're definitely coming back for festivals in the summer.  I am assuming we will be down on one of the Download days, and we have been talking about coming back during the Fall to play some smaller places, all the city’s and corners of the UK.  Bringing the metal to people who live further, so they don’t have to spend a shit load of money to get to the major cities.  It’s going to be kind of like our old school tours.  Bring the party to places that don’t get so many shows. Get up to some of the other places up in Scotland, like the islands.  

We are going to do some interesting stuff.  There’s a lot of tours going on in England at the same time and we have taken into account the fact that people don’t have so much expendable income these days.  We often get e-mails saying they can’t afford the tickets or the distance to travel, so we want to try and get to these out of the way places.  So we are going to play smaller shows so people do not have to travel so far.

MM - That’s what I really like about Trivium, you are fan focused and have not forgotten your roots.  For me personally, it’s been great to meet you.  Any messages you would like to give to your fans?
Corey - We will be back next year (2012) and, maybe pick up the new record ('In Waves') if you haven’t  had a chance yet .  Thanks! 

Interview by: Seb Di Gatto

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