Trivium - Part Two
The concluding part of our natter with Trivium bassist Paolo.
Rocklouder scribe Michael Snowden last week caught up with Trivium lynchpin Paolo Gregoletto to ask what the guys have in store for their latest UK tour, the reasons behind the band's split with drummer Travis Smith and plans for their anticipated fifth studio album. Here's the second part.
Read part one of the interview
Do you read your own reviews and if so how do you deal with criticism?
Yeah, I read reviews and I read a lot online. When someone goes over the line and says personal things or things that aren’t really called for I instantly dismiss it. It’s cool to read reviews here and there but you can’t really live by it. I think with 'The Crusade' we read into that stuff a little too much and it was a lesson learnt. It doesn’t affect me that much. It’s part of life. It’s people’s opinions, as long as people don’t misquote us or take us out of context.
Do you still feel like you’ve got a point to prove?
I definitely feel that we have something to prove. It’s hard for me to ever feel like we ‘made it’ or that we have nothing left to prove. As good as 'Shogun' was, I don’t think it’s the definitive statement of our band. With every new record it’s a new statement of who you are. I’m excited about jamming these new songs as it’s us, and you can hear the elements from the previous albums, but Nick’s drumming brings a whole new dimension to us. It’s new but it’s still something that you can put the Trivium stamp on. We’re just trying to perfect what we do best and now with Nick I think we can fully see through our vision of what Trivium is and what it can be.
Earlier you mentioned your Sepultura cover. If you could have any band cover one of your songs who would it be and what song would you like to hear them cover?
How about the band opening for us, Rise to Remain. I think that they could probably pull off something off 'Ascendancy' [Trivium's 2nd release], something cool, something fast and heavy like 'Drowned' and 'Torn Asunder'.
You’ve toured with metal heavyweights such as Iron Maiden and Metallica, did you learn things from those bands during the tours together?
We definitely learnt a lot from all those bands. They’re really professional and put on really great shows. You can only 'punk rock' it so much at a certain level, but for us we are playing a lot more high profile tours now and we’ve got to give people their money’s worth. It doesn’t have to be that every single move we make is rehearsed and planned, but it’s got to feel like it’s a real set and that we're a professional band. I think now we’ve learned to focus on the details more and that’s what bands like Machine Head, Maiden and Metallica did. They’re really detailed with their sets.
What do you see in Trivium’s future? Are you aiming for arena tours or are you comfortable playing the smaller venues?
It’s one of those things that you can never plan for. We could never have planned five years ago that we would be doing this here in the UK and touring the world. First and foremost, the goal is to write this album and make it the best it can be, and we want to win new fans. You can’t really plan to be an 'arena band', it kind of just happens. We just going to try and make the best music. If we make good music and people connect with it we can become that kind of band. It takes a lot of time. It’s taken us five years to get here.
You set goals for yourself because you’ve got to have some aim for what you are doing in life. I think it’s unrealistic to say the next tour we will be touring arenas but for us to say we want to come back with a tour like this and sell it out before we get here is a more realistic goal. It all comes down to timing and having the right record like 'Ascendancy' was for us. It was the best time for us and we were the right band at the right time to connect with people.
You announced yourselves to the UK as one of the opening bands of the Download Festival in 2005. Does that still stand as a career highlight for you guys?
It definitely does. I think in terms of, not just in the UK but, worldwide touring that raised our profile overnight. We went from an unknown band to one with a lot of buzz and hype just because of getting moved up [onto main stage]. It was the perfect situation for us. Coming in from the Road Rage tour there was a buzz about us and 'Ascendancy' had a big buzz. Getting pushed onto the main stage kind of took it over the top. After that we had the Kerrang! cover. It was like everything lined up perfectly and everything was on our side to help take us to the next level.
Did you have an idea how big of an opportunity it was at the time?
I can’t really remember what we were thinking at the time. We were just excited people were there. We knew it was big but it wasn’t until after the show that we realised something special had happened. People were buzzing about it for the whole week. It was a real once in a lifetime type experience. We’ve played Download Festival twice since and this last time was one of our highlights as we were able to headline a stage. We’re more comfortable in our skin doing those kind of festivals. Before we knew how to play our songs but we didn’t know how to play to 40,000 people. We just did what we could and it worked.
How are your fans in the UK? Do you get approached a lot whilst you are over here and do any of them overstep the mark?
Our fans are cool. We get gifts and letters sent to us but I can’t think of any one particular weird experience. I never feel uncomfortable being approached by anyone. You’ve got to accept that when you're in the public eye that people may look at you differently. If you see a movie star it’s the same thing. Obviously we're on a smaller scale but its all part of the lifestyle. The bigger you get, the more people who will approach you.
So you wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the movie star level of fame?
If that’s the trade off for having their salaries, then I could think of much worse things...
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