TRIUMPH bassist Mike Levine spoke to Sweden's Metal Shrine recently about the band's anxiously-anticipated reunion. Here are a few excerpts from the chat:

Metal Shrine: First off, what was it about the offer from Sweden Rock Festival that really made you decide you were gonna do this?

Mike Levine: "Eehh, you know, that´s a good question. I guess it was because it´s gonna be in the summer season and the thought of that it would be good for us to play somewhere else than in North America, for a change. Not that we've recently played anywhere. (laughs) We thought it would be a lot of fun to go over and do it in Sweden and it was a good offer and it was early enough. Now we can get there and come back and not screw up other potential dates."

Metal Shrine: I was just thinking that you´ve must have had other offers made to you in the past?

Mike Levine: "Yeah, but this time the agent actually sold us to the offers as opposed to a promoter phoning him saying 'Do you think the band is gonna play this year?' He just contacted everybody and said that Triumph's gonna be available for festival dates this summer, so let's see the offers folks!"

Metal Shrine: Cool! But are you rehearsing right now or what´s going on?

Mike Levine: "I'm wood shedding as you call it. I'm actually in Jamaica, but I've got an amplifier and guitar here, but it's hard to concentrate, but I'm getting through it. It´s a lot easier to practise back home than it is down here. Rik (Emmett - vocals/guitars) and Gil (Moore -vocals/drums) have gotten together a bunch of times in the studio, just bashing away and running through songs and working on the set-list. We communicate back and forth on which songs we're probably gonna end up with in the set. We've isolated it to what we're not gonna play, so..."

Metal Shrine: Are you gonna go for a classic greatest hits set or are you gonna throw in some more obscure songs?

Mike Levine: "You know, I think people wanna hear their favorite songs, so it´ll be a combination of the real big songs and songs that weren't so great. (laughs)"

Metal Shrine: What about the stage set then? Is it gonna be a big elaborate stage set or are you mainly gonna focus on you guys?

Mike Levine: "Because of the limitations for eehhhm... what´s in house on the staging at the festival, bringing a set over is hardly worth it, with all the special lighting and things like that. It would turn into a nightmare. But hopefully we'll be able to put together a few surprises."

Metal Shrine: What are the plans after this? I´ve read that there are plans for a full blown tour in 2009. Are you gonna sit down and write an album or is it just gonna be touring?

Mike Levine: "We want to get through this stage first and find out that we can still play together and have fun and then also travel together and have fun. It's been a long time so we wanna just play a few shows this summer before we commit to real major undertaking, a tour. If all the stars line up in the right place and everybody's still up for it, then we'll see, but that's still undecided."

To read the entire interview head to this location.