The second interview on the Black Crusade Tour of Lukie and Gilles was with Matt Heafy, singer of Trivium. When we met he told us he wasn’t feeling very well. He got a food poisoning on the day before. Something he also said to the crowd later that night. Even though he couldn’t talk about what he ate that night before and was feeling like crap, he didn’t mind talking about a lot of other stuff. Because of the bad quality of the recordings it took us a while to work this interview out, our apologies for that.
Do you have a lot of interviews today?
“No, no”
I guess it’s a good thing we don’t have a camera huh?
“Haha yeah!”
How’s life going?
"Yeah it’s going good. Except for me puking outside of the bus last night, but that shit happens. I never got a food poisoning before, but it happens. Life goes on I guess, but it’s still crappy.”
For everybody who has been lying under a stone, could you introduce yourself to our readers?
“We’re a band that has been around since ‘99 or 2000. I think on the end of this tour we did about 600 shows. We got 3 albums out; two of them are on Roadrunner. We’re writing for a new one, which should be out by the end of next year, hopefully. That’s about it.”
Can you tell us something about the new album? About how it’s going to sound like?
“I can tell you a little bit, I can’t say that much though. It’ll sound like the best things that we’ve have ever done on our previous albums and everything that we’ve been known for doing.
For example the screams, are they coming back on the album?
“It’s gonna be a little bit of everything that Trivium as a band and that our fans have ever liked.”
Who has written the most stuff?
“All of us. We’ve got about twenty songs written I think.”
And the inspiration of the songs, from where do you get them?
“Musically of lyrically?”
Both.
“Lyrically it’s hard to say. I want people to define the lyrics for themselves when it comes out. I can’t say exactly what they’re about. Musically it’s not a specific place or not a specific point of inspiration, it just comes on its own.”
This tour, how is it to play almost sold out show every night with Machine Head, Arch Enemy?
“It’s fucking amazing, we’ve done Australia and the UK so far and Paris. It’s been ridiculous, I think in Australia there were 6 or 7 thousand people a night, UK 4 to 7 thousand people a night. Europe is gonna be thousands every night. I think it’s the best metal package that’s been around in years. The press isn’t saying it but it’s going very well, I wouldn’t tour in any other way. Normally it’s one cool band or two cool bands and now there are five of them.”
Do you only like the big venues now or do you also like the small venues?
"We like both. They both have their pros and con’s. I mean, small venues are very intimate, but when we play on very big stages we can really give a nice performance with many lights and a huge stage decoration.”
Do you still get nervous every time you get on stage?
“No, just excited.”
Is it getting a routine?
“No, it will never be a routine in a way that it’s like boring or the same old thing. The shows are always the best thing of the day, everything else is just preparing for that show.”
Annoying press talks…
“No, they are definitely the ingredients a band needs. Press and videos and all that stuff are just as important as the show in a way. It’s about getting your band out there and people being able to see different angles of the band. Not just the show or the album.”
About videos, you were nominated for best metal video award for Becoming The Dragon.
“Yeah it was the cheapest video we ever shot and we weren’t planning for shooting it. The label had no plans for shooting a video single and we were like fuck it we’ll pay for it and it turned out really fucking cheap, I can’t say how much. Just one guy, one camera in a shitty black room and it was the best day we ever had. It was really weird.”
In other ones you had a lot of fans in the video?
“Yeah a lot of them showed up, they’re very dedicated.”
The website Triviumworld.com is just for the fans right?
“Yeah I think we update our sites, including our Myspace and the official one, more then any other band that I’ve ever seen. Our fans are amazing with more then hundreds of people all over the world. We’ll chat with them, hang out with them after the show and things like that.”
Do you have a crazy fan story?
“Fans give us really cool gifts and they have Trivium tattooed on their body, our logo on an arm of leg. Some guy even gave me his guitar and it’s really expensive and it’s hanging on my wall back home right now. Hopefully he doesn’t want it back, haha! I like seeing that sort of things, but I myself don’t have any band tattoos and I’ll probably never get one, but it’s amazing that a fan is so dedicated to Trivium.”
Are your tattoos inspired by your Japanese background?
“Yes indeed. Both my arms are ancient Japanese images.”
What’s your favourite song to play live?
“Uhm, I think that will be ‘Like Light To The Flies’.”
Are there songs you never have played live before?
“We’ve never played ‘The Crusade’, but I think it will be pretty cool to try that one day. You’ll have to wait ‘till a headline tour though.”
Do you look back at former shows in countries and are you adjusting your set list to that?
“Yeah!”
Trivium released some songs for soundtracks for movies, such as The Cave and Underworld. Do you like those movies or is it just business?
“I’ve never seen The Cave and Underworld 2 wasn’t as good as the first one, but I don’t know why our songs are on those soundtracks. It’s just a thing from the label.”
What do you do when you’re in a tour bus or something? Do you watch many movies or?
“I like to watch TV or DVD’s and playing video games.”
Are you also writing during a tour?
“We wrote The Crusade on tour and that was okey, but I prefer to write at home.”
Was it a dream come true to be asked by Kerrang to cover a song from Metallica’s Master Of Puppets?
“It was really cool! We were happy that we were the first one to pick a song and are playing Master Of Puppets for years now, so…”
What do you prefer: opening up for Metallica, Iron Maiden or this tour?
“That’s really hard! They are all great in their own way… Metallica is the band that did get us all into metal, Maiden got one of the coolest live shows ever and that’s a big inspiration for us and this is fucking cool, ‘cause we’re partially headlining this tour.”
We heard from Jon from Shadows Fall that this is a great tour and all bands can get along fine with each other…
“Yeah, it’s really cool! One day we where talking and it was like: “We should tour together!” and this is the result, so… Haha!”
What is the most memorable thing you achieved so far?
“I have to say this tour I guess. In the UK we had the highest amount of attendees for a metal tour and we destroyed everything. In Europe it’s also fucking madness!”
If you had to sing along with a band tonight, which band would it be?
“Machine Head!”
Not with Angela?!
“Hahah, no way, I can’t sing like that!”
Which singers do you look up to?
“Yeah, Bruce Dickinson and Dio for example.”
What is the question you’ve been asked the most?
“Uhm, definitely the question where we get our name from!”
And what is the worst question you’ve been asked?
“If I rather fuck a dead body, shit or an animal… I’ve been asked worse questions, but that one is by far the most gruesome one.”
Do you guys party a lot after shows?
“Not really, we did that when we just got started… Some bands do it and they still play good the next day, but I know my own limits. I knew that when I go too crazy I won’t perform that well and I think as a band you have a responsibility towards the fans.”
Do you have something to add to this interview or something to say to our readers?
“Just check out our website: trivium.org!”
Thank you very much for your time!
“Thank you too!”
After the interview we talked about languages. About Japanese, but also how you say “how you’re doing” and “thank you” in Dutch. During the show later that night he actually used these sentences, so we are happy we were able to teach Matt something!
