TRIVIUM Frontman Talks Next Studio Album

Stephanie Stevens of The Daily Rock recently conducted an interview with guitarist/vocalist Matt Heafy of Florida metallers TRIVIUM. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

The Daily Rock: So I heard that you have stuff written for a new album?

Heafy: Yeah, we have some stuff — not as a whole band, but each individual guy has maybe ten to twenty songs. I have done about fifteen, but I have gotten rid of all but six because I kept the good ones as I kept going on, the newer songs I was writing were stronger and better so I got rid of the ones that weren't as good. Paolo [Gregoletto, bass] has a bunch of songs, like twenty or so, but he keeps cutting back as well. Everyone keeps writing as many as they can, but then cutting back the weak ones and not worrying about trying to make them better songs.

The Daily Rock: Have you always done that — write as many as you can then cut back?

Heafy: No, before we used to set a certain amount. I remember before we did "Shogun", we planned out each guy does this to this many amount of songs and we will pick the best at the end and on this one we said let's just go for it. The way people think about songs these days, I don't know if everyone does, but songwriting is just like an instrument, the more songs you write the better you will get and the better the songs will get.

The Daily Rock: I know on "Shogun" you put in a personal touch with your Japanese background. Did that change your way of songwriting going so personal into songs?

Heafy: I've done it before, but "Shogun" only had a little bit, maybe two of the songs referenced it as in the record title obviously. It's definitely something I learnt more about myself and heritage and where I came from thanks to being in this band. I was born in Japan and moved away at one and didn't see my family until our first Japanese tour when we opened up for ARCH ENEMY in 2004/2005. So, I got to meet them then and thanks to the band I get to go back once a year and learn more every single time and more about the culture and people there, so it's definitely thanks to the band. I think subconsciously I want to have that in there and pay homage for giving me knowledge of where I come from.

The Daily Rock: Have you continued with what you learn from your culture? Are you putting that into the new record as well?

Heafy: We have all loose ideas right now. Musically, it is getting closer to finishing a more realized idea but lyrically and generally, with the entire record not being written and purely in the developmental stages, we are thinking of it as something that we want to be recognized by any kind of fan, whether you like metal or not, whether you speak English or not, 'cause we are definitely a band that travels internationally around. I have done a style of words that is almost hard to interpret even if you speak English, so I'm not saying we are dumbing ourselves down, but I want it to be universally translatable no matter where we are. I don't know how to make that happen, but we definitely want it to sound like TRIVIUM but with the best possible songs. We always try to keep true to what our heart is as a band but we want to diversify, and not diversify for the sake of ourselves, but to find where we are going as a band. Nowadays, we know more of what is right for our sound. If we look across all four records, we know what kind of parts should be there for the next thing and what shouldn't be there.

The Daily Rock: No new music until 2010?

Heafy: Yeah, we will start getting into the studio by April 2010. We finish up this tour [Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival] in about two weeks and then four weeks off and then two back to back headlining tours. First one is WHITECHAPEL, DARKEST HOUR, DIRGE WITHIN and us and then the next one will be CHIMAIRA, WHITECHAPEL, DIRGE WITHIN and us. So it's like a 63-date tour throughout North America. We have a mark off in Australia and maybe Southeast Asia and other parts of Asia, Australia, U.K., Europe and then time for next record.

Read the entire interview from The Daily Rock.