Swigged! にCoreyのインタビューが掲載されています。
長いですが読みごたえのある内容でしたので、以下に貼りました。
最後まで読むと、たぶん2010年末までには次のアルバム制作を始めるかな・・・なんていう発言も。
You’re currently touring with some pretty big names, Coheed & Cambria and Slipknot. How’s that been going so far?
The tour has been amazing. Out of any, this would be our best tour in the U.S. It’s really good for us, especially with having a new record out, to have our first big U.S. tour with Slipknot. They’re doing really well and a lot of people are excited that they’re touring again. To have the opportunity to play in front of a new crowd – to people who might not have normally heard of us – we get to have the opportunity to change a lot of peoples’ minds. When it’s all said and done, later down the road we’re going to see the benefits of this tour. Reaching new fans and growing our fan base at home is good. This is one of the biggest tours of the year.
The three main bands are all pretty different musically. Have you and the others been getting along?
Everyone gets along great, regardless of the different musical styles. We’ve been hanging out with everybody – the guys from Slipknot are fun to hang out with and the guys from Coheed are nice guys. It has been a really chilled, relaxed tour with everybody just having a good time.
You guys have toured with some pretty legendary acts –ie, Metallica, Iron Maiden – what have you been able to draw from those experiences playing with such great musicians?
We’ve always liked the big production shows – something that is visually appealing rather than just how it sounds. We try to push ourselves to try and reach the same level as those we look up to. By touring with guys like Maiden in Europe, we’ve had a lot of experiences on arenas and stages so coming on this tour, we know how to handle a larger stage and are very comfortable playing those kinds of venues. For people who have never seen us before – or even our own fans who have only seen us at clubs – they get a whole different kind of show. They get to see what we do when we have a bigger stage when there’s more room to move around. Our shows are better because we have more options.
Do you find it difficult to stand out when playing with those acts?
We just do what we do. When we play in front of a new crowd – when there’s a packed arena and the majority of the people don’t know who we are – we just go out and give it to them. You’re not going to get instant energy from the crowd the same way, lets say, Slipknot would. People just instantly flip out for [Slipknot] whereas we have to work more for a crowd’s energy. We come out with all guns blazing and by the middle of the set, everyone gets into it. People just respond – some of these shows have been amazing. You kind of have to attack the audience and get on the offensive.
You’ve been asked about the polarizing effect of your band in the past – how metal fans either love you or hate you. I’ve given it some thought and believe the issue comes from the notion of authenticity. Fans believe what you provide is real metal whereas your opponents feel your brand of metal is not. What do you say to this?
I don’t give a shit. People can question our “metalness” all they want. The first genre of music I got into was metal – I know just as much about it as the next fucking person who talks shit. That’s all we love though. We grew up on old school metal and play the kind of music we listen to and enjoy. You can’t get any more real than that – just playing music that comes from the heart. With every band, there are always people that talk shit. But the bigger you get, the more haters you get. People always try to knock down those who are doing well. Slipknot has a shit load haters. We have ours. Coheed has theirs. It just comes with the territory.
Do you think this issue has come up because you’re signed to what is essentially a major label, rather than a reputable “underground” label such as Nuclear Blast, Earache, or Relapse?
Maybe – I don’t know. There are a lot of bands that are still in the underground that you never hear people shit on, but when they get bigger, people think they’re not cool anymore. They lose that “That’s my band” deal. I think a lot of people need to get over that shit. If nobody listens to a band, they’re not making money and can’t afford to keep making music. We’re better off with them becoming more popular because we know they won’t stop because they can’t pay their bills. [Laughs] Everyone – even the people who shit on the bands – if they had the opportunity to do what we or other bands are doing, they would want to reach as many people as possible and try to be successful. At the end of the day, music is awesome and fun, but if you do it 24 hours a day, it’s also your job. Nobody wants to go to McDonald’s and flip burgers for free. We definitely have the coolest jobs, but it’s also known as the music business for a reason. There is work to it.
Moving back to the tour, have you been playing any of the new music this time around?
The first three tracks we play live are from our newest album. It’s a good way to kick it off – those songs are really good to ease people to know what we’re like. With The Ascendancy, there’s so much screaming in the songs that people who may not have heard us would find us intense. The new songs have a balance of both – people get into them. The tempo and style of the songs we’re playing cater to a bigger arena. It’s not always one hundred miles per hour where things can sound muddy. Then we end with three old songs. We try to pick the strongest songs that capture a lot of people’s attention. We’re trying to do songs people can translate and understand in a live setting. It seems to be going pretty well.
How did you guys get involved with the making of your latest video, Throes of Perdition?
I really don’t do too much with the videos. – it’s Matt who gets into the video stuff. Our director who we worked with on this video and on the last one [Ramon Boutsiveth] – who’s actually a good friend of ours – really understands the band and knows what we’re all about. He and the band are on the same page with all the creative stuff. Matt gave him a few visual ideas from different movies that he has seen where he liked the colors and the way it was shot. He wanted to take those styles and adapt them into the video –we’re into that visual stuff. Our label wanted us to consider other options, but after reading our director’s script it just fit the song. When we showed up for shooting, I was really blown away. Once we saw the editing, with all the colors and effects, I was really surprised. I knew the video was going to be cool from seeing the set, but all the things he did in post-production blew me away. Looks like we spent shitload of money on a video when really we didn’t have to. It was done very creatively. The more videos we do with Ramon, the better they get. I can’t wait to do the next one.
Is the next video coming soon?
We’re actually thinking of something pretty wild, but we’ll have to convince our label. It will be pretty off the wall and ambitious – something nobody would expect. It’s a cool idea but it would be pretty epic. Further down the road, I hope it’s something we could do, but we know it couldn’t be shot as fast as a normal video. It’s not really something you’d play on MTV, but fans would eat it up.
Were there any regrets with the way Shogun turned out?
The only record where I had some after-thought was with The Cruasde, but we didn’t have too much time to do that album, so we’ve all had ideas come to us too late. Recording that record was very spur of the moment. With this one, we worked on the songs for so long that we would change parts, demo them, listen to it for a while and try more shit. When Nick [Raskulinecz, producer] came into the picture, he had some ideas that would help let the songs flow better and in the studio we would add little things. Given the time, we could try all the different ideas and possibilities. By the time we finished the new record, there’s nothing I would change.
We just ran into Nick the other day, he came out to a show in Nashville. He’s stoked to do the next album with us. We have a bunch of ideas where we could take things on the next record, tone wise and guitar. With Shogun, everything turned out the way it was supposed to. The next one will have new ideas. Maybe the guitars will sound more crushing. It’s whatever hits you that moment. Shogun is the best record we’ve done so far – it has the most energy. It was the record we had to make at that moment to show everybody what we got.
Where do you see the next album going? Has writing for the next album started already?
It’s hard to tell. We’re always writing riffs and stuff – but we won’t have a good grasp of where it’ll be going until we’re a few songs in and see the overall vibe. I really liked the flow and the balance of different kinds of vocals on Shogun, so I hope we can branch off and do new things with that. Maybe songs with all screaming or all singing. We won’t be doing that for years By then, we’ll have lots of ideas written and see where it goes We don’t force anything, it’s very natural. If something sounds cool, we use it and build off it. If we like the song, we use it regardless of if it’s super heavy or melodic. If we dig it, we feel our fans will too.
Do you feel any pressure by the label to create songs that are commercially successful?
Roadrunner is not a full-on major, though they are under the umbrella of one. But they’re a metal label and we always told ourselves if we wrote a song that worked on the radio, and we liked it, we wouldn’t care. We’re not going to focus on making our songs [for radio]. If something is going to be picked up by the radio, we want it to be a Trivium song and not just a radio song. We just write songs that we like, which can be melodic or heavy. Maybe someday it could happen – look at Slipknot. They have heavy songs and commercially successful songs. There can be a balance, and it can work.
Where do you see the band going?
Lots of touring. This tour lasts for a few more weeks, and then we go home. After that, there’s Japan and Australia. Then we have a few European festivals and will be headlining the Jager Stage at the Rockstar Mayhem Fest Tour. It will be cool to follow this tour up with that. After that, more touring. Maybe by the end of 2010, we’ll be working on a new album.