TRIVIUM Guitarist On Releasing Single Tracks: 'The Way Our Music Is, You Want A Full Record'

PureGrainAudio's Mitch Lafon conducted an interview with guitarist Corey Beaulieu of Florida metallers TRIVIUM at this year's edition of the Heavy MTL festival, which was held August 11-12 at Parc Jean-Drapeau in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. You can now watch the chat below.

Asked if TRIVIUM is planning to return to the studio soon to begin recording the follow-up to last year's "In Waves", Corey said, "Right now we're on our last North American tour. And then we've got a few other things, like South America and a European headlining tour. That wraps up November 20 — [that] is the last show — but then the rest of the year is gonna be, I guess, recharging; we're taking a break. And as soon as January hits, we're pumping out a new album that will hopefully be out maybe August or September next year; that's kind of the goal."

According to the guitarist, TRIVIUM has been amassing new ideas for the past few months while touring the world in support of the band's latest CD.

"The whole time we're on tour, we're always writing," he said. "So we're always coming up with ideas and we've been demoing, just on a laptop, in the back of the bus — very do-it-yourself-type stuff. But it sounds great. We're really getting the ideas worked out and we're just trying as much done on tour that we can possibly do and get the songs as best as they can be, so once we get off tour, we don't have to sit around for a couple of months trying to figure out what the fuck we're doing. We just wanna get in the studio and get this stuff recorded."

On the topic of whether it's still important for a band like TRIVIUM to make full-length albums as opposed to putting out singles and EPs, Corey said, "We like making albums. We write so much material because it's not just one person in the band that writes the songs. There's so many [songwriters in TRIVIUM], so it's like for every album, anyone in the band could write anywhere between four and seven songs, and you combine that with everybody and you've got 20 songs. We like the cohesion of a full record, listening to it all the way through, and I think a lot of metal fans like that; metal fans aren't single-buying, flavor-of-the-week, whatever-is-hot-on-the-radio-type thing…"

He continued, "The way our music is, you want a full record, 'cause it's like… If my favorite band, like if the TESTAMENT album that just came out, if it was just one song that was awesome, I'd be like, 'Goddamn, I wish there was ten more songs to listen to.' One song is kind of like dick tease. A single, you listen to the song, and you get stoked on the album, 'cause you wanna hear more new songs. So if there was just the single, I'd like, 'This sucks. I wanna hear more music.' Everyone wants more, and if you just give them one song, you've gotta keep putting out another song pretty quick, because people are gonna want a good collection of new material to listen to.

"I'm all about full albums and putting the work into that and putting it out there and letting people absorb it and enjoy it as a whole piece of art instead of just three minutes of music.

"We get to make an album every couple of years, and when we have that opportunity, we get really into the process. We love playing in the studio and we love creating. And you only get that opportunity to be in the studio in that evnvironment every couple of years. If we just went in for one song, you really don't get the gears going. There's a certain time in the studio once things start moving along and things start rolling off. Then you get really into the zone and things are just flying and you're playing great, ideas are flowing. You wanna really be able to take advantage of that.

"Our music lets us be able to go out and play shows and stuff, so you've gotta take advantage when you have the opportunity to really harness your inspiration and your creativity to the max. If you're only doing one song at a time spread out, you really don't get… If you do a song and a tour, you're not really getting in the zone for whatever you're trying to do.

"When we're touring, we're touring, and that's our mindset: touring. When we get in the studio for a couple of months, we're in the mindset of the studio, and if you just keep flip-flopping them, you're kind of like all off balance. I like to keep them… When you know you're going into the studio, you know ahead of time, and you're just like, 'Let's do this. Let's have some fun with it.'"