Paolo Gregoletto – Trivium

Martin Michea had the pleasure of chatting with Paolo Gregoletto of Trivium. He had a great talk, mainly about their new album ‘Silence In The Snow’ (out on October 2 via Roadrunner Records), but also Soundwave Festival and whether he would audition for the position as Metallica’s bass player if given the chance..

After a brief introduction, and a chat about time zones, I asked Paolo if it feels like Christmas is coming, since we’re only a week away from album release.

“Yeah! It’s getting more exciting as we get closer. Couple of weeks ago you’re in-between putting out the record and having finished it. People are going to start hearing the whole thing and  it is exciting to get it out, support it and go around the world once more.”

Trivium are well-known for their usage of social media. I wanted to know if Paolo believes that it is important to stay humble towards the fans, even as the band is becoming more famous.

“Oh yeah definitely! I mean, when it comes to metal and rock bands, they are usually the most down-to-earth guys. Most of us started at the bottom, started in local bands, toured US in a van for months and months. It’s more of a humble beginning in a genre like this and I think fans are expecting us to put in the time and effort. Just don’t lose sight of that, that’s the key, most bands I’ve met are like that, they appreciate doing this and that it is a very rare opportunity.”

Silence In The Snow – out on October 2 via Roadrunner Records

“That’s exactly what we were after. You know, that was kind of the only way we could describe it, classic but modern. Classic in the sense that we channelled some of those classic influences, something we’ve always been into. The modern side of it was that we wanted it to sound like a modern metal record. We still incorporated a lot of our own metal influences. Which at this point is becoming classic at our own rate. We’re always trying to push our sound forward and make sure that every record we have has a clear vision and something unique about it. After ‘In Waves’ and ‘Vengeance Falls’ we wanted to take a left turn, try something else and incorporate the seven strings into the sound once again. Also, try to focus more on the melody. It’s also a very vocally dominant record, the vocals really have to carry the songs. We knew that we could make an album that was heavy and catchy but it really falls onto Matt’s shoulders to deliver on the vocal end. He put a lot time into preparing for it, to make sure that he was ready.“

While on the subject, I felt that I had to praise Matt Heafy’s efforts on this album, because they are truly outstanding. I wanted to know how Matt ended up working with the Matt Sanders’ (Avenged Sevenfold) vocal coach.

“Yeah, it all started when we had a little bit of a mishap on tour. We had a late show, a very early show and a border crossing. It was a terrible miscalculation on our part. We were already quite worn out, and Matt strained his voice and he was swollen, so he couldn’t do the rest of the shows on that week, we had to cancel. Matt from Avenged Sevenfold hit up our Matt and he said, “Hey man, I heard what happened. I’d love to introduce you to a guy that I go to for vocal lessons. And it helped me after I had the problems.” And so that’s kind of how the connection was made between our two Matts. So he started training with this guy Ron Anderson. He just really helped Matt refocus and learn techniques to preserve and to strengthen and enhance. He even ended up relearning his screaming. Which has taken literally a year and a half, over and over trying to learn this new techniques. After 12-13 years of doing it one way, to learn a new way is like learning a new language! So that’s where we’re at. It took a lot. But it’s our livelihood as well as our passion, and it was scary to have something like that happen, but it was a necessary thing for us to through to get to where we are now. Matt is stronger now than ever live and on the record. It’s great, it was a challenge for us. The vocals had to carry the record, and I think Matt crushed it. I’m really excited to play some of the other songs. For me on this one, I get to do a lot of the backing parts with him. They’re not super challenging but they’re definitely a step above what we’ve done in the past vocally, I like that we’re pushing ourselves.”

Before conducting this interview, I had a look at Trivium’s current setlist, and I noticed that they have premiered three new songs live already. I was curious about the reception they’ve received so far.

“Well we play with in-ears every night, so it’s hard to tell what people are singing. But I popped my in ears off for a few nights when we played ‘Until The World Goes Cold’, there’s a part when I can do it. And people were singing so loud, I was really surprised. The longer the songs have been out, the better the reactions have gotten. We want to make sure that you can kind of get what we’re doing on first listen.  They are songs that grow on people, I’ve heard some say that. It seems like the longer it’s out the better it gets!”

In May last year, while the band were on tour with Volbeat, they parted ways with drummer Nick Augusto. Their drum tech at the time, Mat Madiro, had about 24 hours or so to learn the entire set list and step up as the new drummer. Mat had never before recorded any material in this way, and I wanted to know how the Trivium camp handled this situation, and if it was difficult for Mat personally.

“I think it definitely was, I mean, it was all brand new for him. He’s never recorded like this. The way we looked at it, we had a very small window to get this album done with our busy schedule. We decided to keep Mat on board. We had a lot of music already written, we had a lot of drum ideas. We had a good idea about where we were going with it. We gave him everything we had. We just made sure that we were helpful and constructive. Kind of like pointing out things to think about. When you record with a person who’s never recorded before, you have to explain everything that you need, and what’s going to be done. It was interesting, this being our seventh record, to explain the kind of things that sometimes can be second nature to people. We’ve always been involved on every end and every aspect of the writing. We didn’t like just throw him in the deep end. “Elvis” (Michael Baskette, producer) was very specific on the song writing part of accents, fills, those were kind of his marching orders.”

I then asked Paolo if they were planning on returning to Australia on their upcoming tour cycle. I also asked him, even though he can’t say anything, if they will be playing Soundwave next year.

[laughs] “To be honest I haven’t heard anything, it’s always possible that our agents have been talking to AJ (Maddah), but you know, we love coming down there and we’ve worked with AJ and Soundwave a lot, so there’s a possibility that we could do it. I guess it just depends on what their plan is for the bill and what our plans are. Hopefully. We’ll be down there for sure one way or another, we’ll just show up and play if we have to!”

To wrap up the interview, I wanted to know if Paolo would audition to be Metallica’s bass player if he could travel back to 2003.

“Well, I don’t know if I would’ve been good enough for them then! I would’ve loved to if I wasn’t in Trivium and if I was as good as I am now. But they’ve got a great bass player, Rob’s amazing. Probably the best guy they could’ve gotten for the job”.

‘Silence In The Snow’ is available Oct 2 from Roadrunner Records. Secure your copy from JB Hi-Fi and iTunes.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcIlZ3luYHc&w=560&h=315]

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