As one of metal’s most popular bands, Florida four-piece Trivium are crusaders in their ascendancy. With news of a European tour scheduled for Spring 2017 in support of latest release ‘Silence In The Snow’, we look back at our chat with with bassist Paolo Gregoletto. “This is the very first interview for the new album cycle”, he told eonmusic excitedly in August 2015; “I can’t wait to get started!”.

Photo: Press.

Hi Paolo, I see you’re drumming away with your hands - you must be excited to get out there tonight?
Yeah, I’m ready. It’s our first time playing Bloodstock so we’re really excited and I’m just stoked to play again. We haven’t played a show in over nine or ten months.

Has it really been that long?
Yeah, we’ve just been busy with the album and we weren’t really able to say anything about it. We had to bite our tongue for a while, and it got to the point where you want to just let people know that you’re doing stuff.

So it was the stay ‘silent’ approach?
Yeah. With the last album we were showing the process of making the album as we were doing it. It was cool for kids to see, but from the standpoint of having a big release and everyone finding out at once like a big surprise, it kind of killed that. So this time it was nice to just focus on the record more than promoting the record as you’re making it. We just focused in on the music and kept our heads down and worked.

That’s two very different approaches.
Yeah, I think you’ve got to try it all, and that’s what we do. With the last one, [‘In Waves’] we put it up online that we were doing it months in advance before finishing it, and with this one just kind of let people wonder what we were up to.

So you created a bit of mystique this time around?
Yeah, because although we were all online and talking to fans, we let the album build mystique. People know who we are and know our story, but they didn’t know what the album was going to be like, so you have to use that to your advantage. Now with our staging, we haven’t posted any pictures or anything, so when we play the show it will be the first time that people see what we are doing.
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So Bloodstock is the big reveal then?
Yeah, and that’s been the fun thing. Everything that comes out has been a big revealing. With the album we did a teaser thing with the skull [artwork], which is the logo to the album and the band. Also the first thing they heard and saw was the video for ‘Silence In The Snow’. That was intentional because we wanted people to have both the video and the music instead of just releasing it separately. It made it a bigger event and we wanted people to see the images, and now when they hear the song, that video will come to mind. 

‘Silence In The Snow’ is very striking, image-wise.
We talked about making this album so far in advance, and it boiled down to, in my opinion what sums Trivium up; being a modern metal band but with classic influences. I feel like when we’ve really done it right, we’ve found the right balance, and ‘Ascendency’ and ‘Shogun’ are good examples of that. It was the same with this record, and once ‘Silence’ [the song] came about, that was the thing that really honed in the vision for what we wanted for this record and the imagery to be. We wanted it to have the classic but modern look, and to strike a balance, because if you go too much like a classic or a throwback thing, then it feels like; oh, I’ve seen it before.

You’ve never been shy of showing your influences.
Our influences are really so wide. For me, this festival is great because when I was fifteen or sixteen, these were bands that I was listening to, and it helped shape my own playing and where I went [musically]. It would be hard to see where the extreme stuff influences us, but it did, and it shaped us into being into this style of music. Trivium is such a blend of so many things that you pick up over the years, and you just kind of work it into your sound in different ways that aren’t maybe as apparent as others, but they’re there.

Trivium have topped the bill on the second stage at Download, but Bloodstock is your first ever UK festival headline appearance. How does that feel to have made it to that level?
It’s kind of crazy, you know, it almost doesn’t feel real in a way. When we play, maybe at the end I can go “oh wow”, and I can explain it, but right now it just doesn’t seem real. I mean we’ve been at this for a long time, but at the same time, it doesn’t seem like that long, so it’s just kind of shocking I guess. It’s testament to the fans we have here.

The band has a lot of fans in the UK. In 2005 you played an early morning opening slot at Download that has gone down in legend.
Yeah, it was just crazy. You never expect those situations to happen and it does. It’s the same with Bloodstock. We played Download last year and then there was talk of this [Bloodstock] happening and you never anticipate that stuff. Usually the biggest moments in your career come about when you’re not expecting them; you make the albums, you plan the tour and those happenstance moments are just like; “wow, where did that come from?”

Finally, with the album out in October, what’s next for the band?
We’ve left the schedule open into next year, but you never know what comes around the corner. We’ve booked up this year with what we’re going to do. We’ve got an American tour right after this, but mostly it’s just let the album come out, and do a little bit of touring. But 2016 is going to be a full on. We’re seeing what other bands are doing – hey, should we pair up, should we do a headline? That’s what we’re at at the moment. We know where we’ll be, we’ve just got to pick out with who, and what works best.
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But I’m sure you’ll not be strangers to these shores.
Oh definitely. That’s a plan for us. This is just a great way to kick it off. It’s nice to start in the UK at a big festival headlining, and we couldn’t have picked a better way to start off our album cycle. 

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Trivium kick off their 2017 tour in Dublin on 11th February.  

Trivium 2017 U.K. and Ireland Tour Dates:
11 Feb - Dublin, Academy.
12 Feb - Belfast, Limelight.
14 Feb - Birmingham, Institute.
15 Feb - Manchester, Academy.
16 Feb - Glasgow, Barrowlands.
17 Feb - London, Roundhouse.
18 Feb - Nottingham, Rock City.

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