By Mitch Lafon

Florida-based metallers TRIVIUM are set to unleash their new album, In Waves, in August, but before that anxiously-awaited moment, the band rolls into Heavy MTL on July 23rd at Parc Jean-Drapeau in Montreal, PQ. Singer/guitarist Matt Heafy sat down with BraveWords.com for a quick band update on the creation of their new studio album and subsequent tour.

BraveWords.com: The new album, In Waves, has been three years in the making. Tell me about the process and why did it take so long?

Matt Heafy: “We were touring a ton off the Shogun record and we had a year plus off as well (that was supposed to be writing time). Three years before actually starting the record, we started brainstorming the idea of the album. Do we want an album that has every single aspect that was involved with the record either visually or auditorily all to be tied in together and all to match? Two years before the actual recording process, we started writing a lot of the songs. Some of the earlier songs that are still around are: 'Inception Of The End', 'Built To Fall', 'A Grey So Dark' and 'Forsake Not The Dream'. Those are songs that have been around for two years now. They’ve gone through a ton of change and work, but they’ve been around for that long. A year before the actual recording process, we started working on the visual art. With this record, we had three production team people: Colin Richardson (producing), Martin ‘Ginge’ Ford (co-producing), and Carl Brown (engineering). We also had five visual artists including Danny Jones who worked on the graphic design and was the creative director of the record. He worked on the new website, new logo, and new merchandising. Jonpaul Douglass did the photography and Ramon Boutviseth did the In Waves video and he’ll be working with us in a month on the 'Built To Fall' video, so there were a lot of people involved with this record to make it what it is. We didn’t want to make a record that was just a soundtrack to a movie. We want to release the entire movie and that’s what In Waves is to me.”

BraveWords.com: Will you actually make In Waves into a movie?

Heafy: “Only metaphorically, but my goal is for all the music videos across this record to all be like mini-movies. The In Waves video was merely a part of this saga that we have in our heads. The next video is Built To Fall, which happens immediately after In Waves and there will be more and more parts coming out. We’re hoping it’ll be five to ten parts long. A big thing with us was to have every single thing be in the same realm. We want the way we look on stage and the way we look in the videos to match the packaging, to match the live DVD, to match the documentary and to also match the music. RAMMSTEIN do that and nail it perfectly. Every record of theirs is something amazing. They are (one of) my heroes and I want to tie this all together in a way that is uniquely our own. I want to push the boundaries of everything we’ve ever done and what I see metal doing nowadays.”

BraveWords.com: Would you qualify In Waves as a concept record?

Heafy: “The biggest thing with this album is that we want to re-instill creativity and imagination in the listener and in the viewer. That’s why we are not giving any straight up answers on what anything is supposed to mean or what anyone is to take away from it. However anyone wants to take this record whether all related or not or just on the surface with cool music and pictures or digging deep… there is no right or wrong answer.”

BraveWords.com: Before MTV in the ‘80s. Music in the ‘60s and ‘70s was very personal. The meaning and images is what came from your head. It’s nice to not have a band force-feed you what you are supposed to feel and think. In the ‘80s, it was all here’s a titty shot, here’s the band onstage…

Heafy: “Exactly.”

BraveWords.com: The band is also going back to its roots by reclaiming your sound from a couple of albums ago…

Heafy: “You know I’ve heard people make that comparison that it’s a return to the previous… I think the main thing that is similar to Ember or Ascendancy is that we made the music that we wanted to hear and didn’t think, ‘what are people going to like’. With Crusade, we made a record that was kind of reactionary to the previous record of all the goods and the bads. We wanted to make something that was completely different and with ‘Shogun’, we wanted to tie everything together. With In Waves, we didn’t think of anyone or what anyone would think. We made the music we wanted to hear. We made the videos and visuals that we wanted to see. So it wasn’t, ‘hey, let’s try to make a record that sounds like anything else’. We just wanted to make a record that is without a doubt, Trivium. In Waves just sounds like Trivium.”

BraveWords.com: You said that you wanted to make the music that you wanted to hear. Is that the reward for being successful because in the past you maybe had to listen to a record company executive or were you always free to do what you wanted to do musically?

Heafy: “We were always completely free and we made exactly what we wanted to make with every record, but in hindsight… We’re very constructive with all of our records and I’ll look back and think ‘you know what that songs doesn’t fit, or I don’t like the way we looked in those promo photos, or I don’t like that music video’. Mistakes had to happen and I wouldn’t change them even given the opportunity. They’ve allowed us to grow and become what we are now.”

BraveWords.com: There’s no such thing as mistakes in rock n’ roll. It’s all part of the growing process and learning process.

Heafy: “Exactly.”

BraveWords.com: And mistakes are what make live shows great. It’s nice to hear some feedback or a flubbed lyric because, at least, you know the band isn’t running tape.

Heafy: “Exactly and we’re completely against running tape, Pro Tools or Auto-Tune. There are a ton of bands that do it. Metals bands that don’t even have singing (that are all screaming) use backing tracks live and I think that should be illegal. Obviously, for things like strings sounds or a click-track is fine, but when you are talking lead vocals or guitars that aren’t really there… that’s NOT cool and that’s something that we are very against.”

BraveWords.com: When you hear rumors of bands like MÖTLEY CRÜE that are triggering extra-backing vocals to beef up their sound. It just makes you wonder, ‘why did I come to the “live” show?’

Heafy: “Yup…”

BraveWords.com: Speaking of live shows – you’re playing Montreal’s Heavy MTL show on July 23rd. Are you looking forward to coming to Montreal?

Heafy: “We’ve played Montreal maybe ten times, but we’ve never played a festival. We’ve always supported bands or headlined a club show. Festivals like in Japan or Europe is where we can grab a lot of new fans. So, that’s what we are looking forward to being able to play in front of a lot of people that haven’t heard us before and bringing them into our band.”

BraveWords.com: Do you change anything about your performance when you approach a show like this?

Heafy: “We play it by ear. On the Mayhem tour, we’ve played a different set every single day trying to figure out what set we like because the stage we’re on has shitty speakers. So, super-fast super-technical things don’t translate well. We have to play more anthemic sounding songs or songs that have slightly simple grooves as opposed to the shredding stuff. We’ll, obviously, play the familiar songs with a couple new songs, but we try to keep the audience in mind. If it’s a lot of people that don’t know who we are… we’ll carefully pick the songs that will make a bigger statement than not.”

BraveWords.com: Heavy MTL is a first class festival…

Heafy: “That’s awesome because we’ve played a lot of shit festival in our day. Mayhem has been the most organized, but Ozzfest was shit. We were treated like dog meat, but I know the Montreal one will be amazing because I’ve heard a lot of really good things.”

BraveWords.com: Nick Augusto – how was it recording with a new drummer?

Heafy: “It was a great thing for us because Nick comes from a technical death metal/grindcore background. Drummers that are good at those styles can play anything. He can play any amount of technical things and nail it. It was a good mental state for us because we knew this drummer would be able to handle anything and he was completely open to all the conceptual ideas that we had going on with the record. We could see that he was up for it, so we knew we’d be in a good place. We knew that creatively we were back. I’m not saying that it was all Travis’ fault, but the chemistry between the four of us wasn’t working. We needed a change and we needed someone that was up for doing everything we do. I’m not saying Travis wasn’t, but the four of us in a room weren’t able to make anything anymore. We weren’t a constructive band anymore, but with Nick it’s like we’re a new band. It’s like we’re a local band that just formed and made their first demo. So, it’s a really good thing…”

BraveWords.com: Obviously this excitement translates into the new music…

Heafy: “Definitely, because we knew we could do whatever we wanted. We knew Nick would be able to meet the challenge. It was completely stress free for us and that’s why we were so into creating… We’ve already started talking about writing new songs for whatever comes out in two or three years from now.”

BraveWords.com: From the business end – is Nick a full-member or a hired gun?

Heafy: “He’s a full on member. He’s like any of the other guys. It’s 25%, 25%, 25%, 25%...”

BraveWords.com: That’s a good deal for him…

Heafy: “Yeah – he’s full on.”

BraveWords.com: You just mentioned that you are writing songs that might come out in two or three years. Do you write all the time and might you do an outside project or a solo album?

Heafy: “I used to bounce the idea of maybe producing bands someday, but I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to do that. I have fun conceptual ideas, but things I would do by myself. I want to do an album that would be a fictitious band where every single song is a different genre of music… a country song into a black metal song into a pop song into a punk song – that kind of thing. I’ve written cool little electronic things, but I don’t think I’ll ever release them. Things that are along the lines of DEPECHE MODE/Rammstein and I’ve written some acoustic things, but Trivium is the full extend of everything I do. If I ever do anything different, I probably won’t say it’s me.”

BraveWords.com: You’re also working on a Epiphone signature guitar…

Heafy: “Yeah. I’ve been a Gibson artist for two years or so now. I started playing Gibson as a kid. It was the first real guitar my dad ever bought me. It was his dream before I was even born to have a son that was a Les Paul player. At first, I was too ‘small’ for Gibson to ever sign me. They were like, ‘Trivium who?’, but one day the European department in Germany approached me and said, ‘we’d like you to be part of the Gibson family’. They brought me in and really took care of me and they talked to me about a signature model. So, I thought it would be a really good idea to release an Epiphone instead of a Gibson because if I were to release a Gibson Les Paul custom with my specs… It would be like a $6,000 and nobody would be able to buy. So, we’ve been specing out the Epiphone thing and I want it to be good enough for me to play onstage and in the studio. I want it to be the exact same thing that kids can buy in the stores and that’s a very big thing with me. The thing I’m playing live is the same thing you can buy at your local store. It has to be affordable, but also good quality. So, we are in the prototyping process, but I haven’t seen anything physical yet.”

BraveWords.com: Are you hoping to have it out this year or is this for 2013?

Heafy: “I’m going to lobby to have it out by Christmas time this year.”

BraveWords.com: How much input do you have in making the guitar? Are you hands on or do you simply rubber stamp whatever they show you?

Heafy: “No no no… they were like what body do you want? What do you want to do with it? I can do whatever I want with it and I want a Les Paul custom body with all my specs. I’m actively involved…”

BraveWords.com: Last question – you mentioned that your dad bought you your first guitar. What does your dad mean to you in terms of your whole musical career?

Heafy: “My entire family has always been so supportive of me being in the band. He started managing the band when I joined (I was twelve years old) up until about two years ago. He was integral… there was a point where I had to choose between going on tour or going to college and he said, ‘you can go to school anytime. You should go on tour.’ I went on tour and have been on tour ever since.”

BraveWords.com: And that’s not a typical thing for a dad to do. They’ll usually say, ‘get an education, so that you have something to fall back on…’

Heafy: “My whole family have always been really into it and we’ve all been very lucky. It seems like everyone in the band has had that kind of backing (from all of our family members). It’s really important to me. I’m not saying it’s impossible without it, but for me – it would have been impossible without it.”

BraveWords.com: That’s great. Will you be coming back to Canada in support of the new album, In Waves?

Heafy: “I don’t know if it’s hitting Canada or not, but we’re doing a DREAM THEATER support tour in September. Then, we do the UK and Europe with IN FLAMES, GHOST, RISE TO REMAIN and INSENSE.”

For more visit: Trivium.org.