Trivium

TRIVIUM
by Jason Walsh

The technically-proficient guitar virtuosity hailing from Florida’s land of metal and more metal found themselves thrust into yet another amazing year of constant road work. Trivium does not sit still long, and spend unimaginable amounts of time touring. Still supporting the 2008 release of “Shogun,” their fourth full-length offering that saw the band blending the Japanese thematic endeavor into a conceptual conclusion, the four-piece from Orlando have been across the world and back with no sign of slowing down. Taking the better elements of the likes of Metallica and Iron Maiden with a huge twist of South Florida speed, Trivium continues to fulfill its destiny of playing everywhere they can.

The Roadrunner Records artists are all about the road and where it takes them, and their arrival is met with a sea of excited humanity, ready to see what the boys from Florida can throw. Following unimaginable numbers at this year’s Download Festival in Donington Park, England, Trivium joined Slayer and Marilyn Manson for the summer’s biggest and baddest metal festival of the season. I caught up with vocalist and guitarist Matt Heafy as the Mayhem Tour had just gotten underway.

JW: So Matt, how are you doing today?

MATT: I’m doing great. We actually just got here. We got here late. Our tire blew up on our bus, but we made it on time and that’s what counts.

JW: So where you at? You’re in Denver right now?

MATT: Inglewood. Inglewood, Colorado. Which I believe is close.

JW: How’s the Mayhem Festival going?

MATT: It’s the best U.S. festival we’ve ever been on before without a doubt. Everything about, everything from the vibe of the tour to the crew on the Mayhem tour to all the bands. I mean everything is really amazing. Everything’s a fun vibe and very great. It’s been the best thing I’ve ever been on.

JW: How are the fans reacting to it? Are you guys having a good impact?

MATT: Yeah. It’s been amazing. We knew it would be good, but we didn’t know it would be this good. Ahhh…a good live band is something we pride ourselves in being and we came to this tour prepared and our fans have been coming out in droves. Every single day we’ve been doing multiple signings that have been lasting like an hour to two hours a day. It’s been a really, really amazing thing. I can’t believe how good the reaction has been.

JW: What are you guys going to do after the tour? What’s in store for the band?

MATT: As soon as the tour is over, we have two headlining tours across North America, back to back. The first one is secondary and tertiary markets and the next one is all major markets. I think it’s a good mixture of dates throughout the U.S.. We’re pretty much going to hit everything with this tour.

JW: So who are you guys going to be hitting the road with on this tour after the Mayhem festival is over?

MATT: It’s not entirely announced yet. Whitechapel has been confirmed for both tours, that’s all we know for now. Both tours are going to have four bands total and the lineups are going to amazing. We definitely have Whitechapel secured for both.

JW: You guys working on a new record right now? I mean it’s pretty tough to do that when you’re on the road, but do you have some material you’re looking to record soon?

MATT: We’re going to start recording probably the middle of next year, if not the, yeah probably second or third quarter of next year. But we’ve been writing, yeah. It’s not exactly writing time where we’ve felt inspired so we’re just going to try and get everything together. Between all of us, we probably have twenty or thirty songs. We’re definitely going to narrow it down and pick our best songs for the band.

JW: Very cool. So…is this still fun for you? You still have a good time going out and doing this?

MATT: God…how could I not? I mean, of course it is. If it wasn’t so fun, I wouldn’t be here. It’s the best thing in the world. I mean, go out and your job is to play guitar and sing. It’s a really amazing job and I still love it to this day. I don’t want to do anything else in my life than this.

JW: What is it that drives you to keep writing new music, and keep going out there, getting on that stage in front of people and watching them lose their minds?

MATT: I mean it was like rain since I was like a little kid…‘don’t want to do this, don’t want to be in a band, don’t play no for a living.’ When I was twelve I said ‘this is what I wanna do,’ and that’s how I joined the band and it’s amazing. I guess what keeps me going is that you can see years later like where it’s going. It’s finally starting to happen for us…and now it’s like the whole world picking up at the same time. It’s just really amazing to see all our hard work finally going to something good. I mean our goal is just to play anywhere in the world where any people will see it and that’s we want to do.

JW: Now when you were a kid and you first picked up a guitar and started playing, did you ever think you would be touring on the level that you’re doing and going to all these countries?

MATT: I mean I always wanted to do it but never really thought anything past that. I didn’t know what it would be like and now that I’m in it, it’s incredible. No matter where we are, it’s like taking a free vacation. I mean you’re anywhere in the world that’s culturally significant and you can see what the world’s like firsthand. Do whatever you want. It is what you make of it. Rather than just sit there and do nothing all day…no matter where I am, whether it’s the U.S. or Europe or Japan or Australia, I try to go and see as many things as possible and learn about where I am and experience what local culture’s here.

JW: Do you think right now, Metal and Hardcore have always been kind of like in peaks and valleys, and right now it just seems like there is just a lot of heavy metal and hardcore bands out there. I mean sometimes it seems to go up and then down, and a lot of these bands die out. Do you think it’s kind of in an upswing right now and it’s going to stay like this? What do you think?

MATT: I don’t know if it’s in an “up” or a “down.” All those years ago it’s going up and down, and the one constant is this. There’s always some new “thing,” the new thing that everyone wants to jump on top of, and they make a big deal about something…the thing we’ve always said early was to separate ourselves from that because we’re not part of any specific thing that’s going on. Everybody said we were labeled as one thing, and we’re like, “we’re not that.” I think that’s something a lot of the newer bands need to understand. They need to not allow themselves to be lumped in with some kind of trend that’s going on and just do what they want to do. So, yeah, I think things are going good here. You know, they could go up, they could go down, but it’s a matter of each band trying to find their own thing, and their own destiny, and try to paint their own picture.

JW: For the kids out there, the ones that are in the garages, doing their bands, they got aspirations to do something bigger, what would you say to them to inspire them to follow their dream and do it?

MATT: The band’s starting off?

JW: Yeah.

MATT: The most important thing is to write songs that connect to people. No matter what that means. That doesn’t mean to make a pop song. You just got to make music that connects to you , the artist, and that connects to the people around you and the audience you want to have. There’s so many bands nowadays that it’s all about how heavy they can be, how technical they can be, or all this nonsense. In the end, it’s all about a song. Bands make songs…try to create the best songs that mean the most to you, and mean the most to the people even around you, and go from there. And you just got to crush the live. We’ve met a lot of bands out here that are like, “dude, how do I make my band get bigger…” Just to be better than every smaller band in your hometown, you have to be a better live band. You gotta be tighter, you have to practice more, you have to want it more. And that can’t be forced, you can’t force wanting it more. The whole band has to want it the same amount that you did or it’s not going to work out. You’re going to want to have that have that same drive as you do. If you do that, you’ll make it work out.

The “Into the Mouth of Hell We Tour” tour hits the road on September 11, with Whitechapel, Darkest Hour, and Dirge Within, hitting the “secondary and tertiary” markets Heafy discussed previously. The “major market” tour should be scheduled soon after and you can hit their website (www.trivium.org) for updates. Following into the new year, they have booked the Soundwave Festival tour in Australia featuring headliners Faith No More, My Chemical Romance, and Jane’s Addiction, in February. Then, they start the “Into the Mouth of Hell We March” tour of England, the isle that holds a special place for the band, of which Heafy stated, “the UK was the first place in the world to truly embrace Trivium and make us feel like we had a home away from home on stage.” This will be a number of British dates throughout March.

No rest for the touring wicked.

OLDE YORK

OLDE YORK
by Jason Walsh

From the city that spawned some of the greatest hardcore bands of all time comes yet another group of urban dwellers, bringing back the true roots of the underground in a time when memories start to fade of where it all began and what it was all about. Olde York is a four-piece unit from Brooklyn which has gone through a considerable amount of lineup changes since the band’s inception, but have finally released their first full-length, “Empire State,” on Countdown Records.

“’Empire State’ is an album we’ve been trying to work on for some years now,” said band founder and guitarist Blake Farber. “After all the demos, 7-inches, and tours we finally nailed down a full-length which we are very proud to present. I’m also very satisfied with how much support our label is giving us. It’s great to see this album in almost every continent around the world and hopefully in every kids ipods or mypods around the world.”

The band started with a chance meeting in the unlikeliest of settings where many like-minded people, such as Farber and future frontman Ted Wohlsen, would gather in the borough.

“Olde York came by Ted and I meeting at Punk Metal Karaoke,“ Farber said.

“They had a live band playing behind you, it was pretty cool,“ Wohlsen said. “They would do Bad Brains, Black Flag, Anti-Nowhere League, et cetera, as well as a bunch of metal stuff. Anyway, I had this party one time at my place with all those guys, and Blake came to it.”

“We jammed out, and I was fooling around on the drums,” Farber said. “Since we shared the same style of music, he said ‘come by again and we should jam and start a band.’”

“At the party, Blake had been playing drums,” Wohlsen said. “So, I thought he was a drummer. Shows how wasted I was to think he could play drums. Anyway, so he comes over like the next day or something and is like, ‘actually, I play guitar, not drums,’ so I was like ‘OK, cool.’ I was playing bass, like really distorted and fuzzed out, and him on guitar, and we came up with some songs.”

Wohlsen spent eight years previously in his first band endeavor as the singer for Big Mistake before hooking up with Farber. They went through a couple singers in Olde York and were looking for someone to fill the vacant seat behind the drum kit.

“We don't have a permanent drummer and are trying different people out,” Wohlsen said. “Until Blake goes, ‘oh, hey, I forgot, my brother plays drums.’ So, that is how Dev (Farber) got into the band. This is when the name came about. We were hanging out, I think we went to a friends party or something, and were drinking 40s. I said "‘hey Olde English, that's a pretty cool, name,’ and Blake was like ‘but we aren't English...how about Olde York?’ and it stuck.“

With their second singer leaving, Wohlsen stepped back up to the mike, like in the old days with Big Mistake. “Rather then find a new singer, I decided to go back to singing since that is what I did in my old band and I was much better at that then at the bass.”

This change of Wohlsen to vocals and brothers Dev and Blake on drums and guitar, engraved the core center of the band into concrete, and they continued to roll from there. Demos, 7-inches, and a lot of road time, the band was coming into their solid formation and a full-length was just the next step.

“It actually felt like it took a long time to get it together,” Wohlsen said. “We go in to record the album, and we get our friend 6 Pack Jon, who plays bass in Caught In A Trap and guitar in About To Break. We get him in to co-produce the record with us, cause he is amazing with guitar sounds and we wanted to have someone in that wasn't directly involved with the music, you know to have that objective ear, cause Blake and I tend to get into it over stuff, and Dev and our bassist at the time Kyle, kinda just keep quiet about things more, so having that outside person helped a lot.”

This brotherly tension is common in bands, but add actual siblings to the mix and the disputes are sure to escalate. “The family affair aspect definitely makes it tough sometimes,” brother Dev Farber said. “We definitely end up fighting half the time, but at least it makes it easier to be direct and I think that's more important than always getting along.”

However, the bond between brothers, whether by blood or “found family,” has always been a significant part of hardcore culture. The strength of this family is what holds the circle together.

“Having a brother in the band is classic HC style,” Blake said. “It’s a family thing, so what’s more family than your own blood? But it’s great having him in here. When we play, we don't have to even talk to each other, since we’ve been together for so many years. You just know what each facial
reaction represents. But in the most loving way, we still argue sometimes.”

In the triangle that is Olde York, Blake, Dev, and Ted also have three distinct professional careers that compliment the forward progression and growth of the band. In other words, they have some good jobs and important skills that has helped them along the way: Ted is a recording engineer with his own aptly named studio, “Empire State Recording Company,” Blake is a videographer who has worked with the likes of Alicia Keys and David Samborn, and Dev is as graphic artist who surprisingly used his talents on the CD.

“Graphic Art for me is a good way to get the rent paid and keep the creativity going,” Dev said. “That's how I see it for now. When the new album needed some layout work done, I was right there to help, since it happens to be my day job too.”

Wohlsen has had a pretty amazing career in the city, working with numerous NYC hip hop acts as well as punk, metal, and hardcore crews. “I went to school for Music and Sound Recording, and after I graduated, I got a job at The Hit Factory, NYC, as a runner. From there I moved up to assistant, and then started engineering sessions, mostly hip hop, like KRS-One, Wu Tang Clan, Wyclef Jean, Run DMC. Most the big names in hip hop and R&B, I worked with. I got kinda burned out on it so I started my own studio, where I was living at the time in Park Slope, Brooklyn. As it turned out, about a year or so later, The Hit Factory closed its doors due to the rough economy. So, then I moved to where I am now and opened Cook Street Sound, where I was doing more hip hop stuff, then when I made the commitment to go all punk, hardcore, and metal, cause that is what I really wanted to be doing, I changed the name to Empire State Recording Company, to differentiate it from Cook Street Sound. This was right around the time when we were getting ready to record the album, and I liked having the album name and the studio being similar. It kinda provided that circularity for me, you know? So recently I've been doing stuff for Reagan Youth, Skam Dust, and a bunch of local hardcore and metal bands like About To Break, The Mug$, Vermefug, and Grizzly Smith.”

And, the directorial skills of working as a filmmaker and music video producer by Blake was an even greater benefit to the band, in more than one way. “Filmmaking always interested me since I come from two parents who are both photographers,” Blake said. “They’re both very visual mediums, so I love tying them into one. Being a director/filmmaker in the band not just helped me produce a fun hardcore music video, but from the directorial side of things it helps manage the band. It really helps coming back from a film director point of view, since managing a band is very similar to directing a film.”

The dynamic shared by the three musically is only complimented by what they’re everday job skills can bring to the table.

“The fact that all of us have different careers that help out the band is amazing, Blake said. “Besides saving us tons of money on hiring those people. We have creative control to come up with a great project. The reason being that it comes from the heart and not some guy whose in it to make a buck. Next member we need to get: a screen printer, FREE SHIRTS!”

The use of the studio in making “Empire State” a reality helped tremendously as well. “Well, it certainly made it much cheaper to make the record, plus it's really like a labor of love, and I think we are all really proud of it.”