Trivium are currently gearing up to release their brand new album What The Dead Men Say via Roadrunner records. The follow up to 2017’s The Sin And The Sentence, the album has been receiving excellent reviews from critics and is set to be a major hit with fans as well. Prior to the release of the album, our senior editor got the opportunity to chat with bassist Paolo about the processes behind the new album and his thoughts on who will be headlining the major festivals in the next few years.
Trivium are gearing up to release the brand new album entitled What the Dead Men Say. How has the response been to the songs you’ve released so far?
The first two songs got a really great response right out of the gate. I feel like our fans are really pumped with some new music, especially given the circumstances, and we’ve had a great response to the teaser we put out for the third single today. Whenever we get to play these songs live, I can see that one for sure being in the set. Also, the last song will be a good one to end with on a headlining run in of doing an encore. When we get back on the road, particularly on headline runs, it’ll be easy to rotate the songs around so we might well end up playing every song on the album.
In comparison to other albums, was the production process behind this album any different?
I think we mostly kept it the same although we recorded the drums last this time which is the first time we’ve ever done that. Overall it was the same as last time. We split up the writing into three different writing sessions and we decided we wanted to keep the album to about 9 or 10 songs if we could. We would do three songs, go out on tour, and then come back and listen to those and write some more. Once we’d done those sessions, we then went into the studio with Josh to record them. We found that process really worked for us on the last record as it allowed us more time to rewrite stuff if we wanted to and review material as we were working on it.
How do you get your amazing bass tone?
Thank you! It’s literally my live rig which is a Kemper. It was mixed with something else on the last album, which I liked as well, but I think on this album it’s the purest version of my actual tone. It’s pretty basic and Josh is such a great mixer that he’s able to get a great tone out of it almost right away. I use a classic Ampeg head with a 8×10 cabinet as my profile on there. I used to own one of those, which ended up getting stolen out of a van after I loaned it to a band. The Kemper is just the easiest thing to travel with and gives me the classic tone which is great.
What’s something you want to see less of in the music scene?
I guess, the first thing off the top of my head, I think something that’s probably bigger than the music scene is the clickbait stories on the internet. It’d be nice to see less of that and more of the deep dives into music. I understand, however, that the way the internet works and how things are paid for don’t really line-up with that. I mean, it’s tough as there’s so many things you’d want to see different and I feel kinda sad when I see great bands just not getting the attention. It should be easier than ever to discover new bands with the rise of streaming, but I guess that might be the case. I know on Spotify with the tailored playlists to you, it just kind of reinforces what you like and doesn’t bring in too many newer acts. I think the pandemic is going to change a lot of things so we’ll see what it’s going to be like soon.
What’s the best meme you’ve seen/created?
I think probably the funniest one at the moment, which is kinda dark, is the Ghanaian funeral dance guys. That’s been my favourite over the last few weeks and it’s usually tried to something kinda morbid. I guess at the moment the gallows humour is what’s getting people through things. It kills me every-time I see it and the music that plays with it is so funny to me.
I have also been enjoying the ongoing saga between Trapt and Ice T. I had my little chapter with that which was kind of fun. I like to get into stuff like that just to wind people up to see what they do. Some people might think it’s a bit of a PR stunt, but I don’t really think it’s that. But yeah, it was really funny to see ICE T just shut the dude down like that. He’s a literal legend in hip-hop, metal and acting and you can’t really get better than that. Trapt tried to do that but just failed completely.
How did you end up getting your dogs?
I inherited one when I started going out with my current girlfriend. She got Lady in Georgia by rescuing her from the side of the road. We then got Mochi from the rescue in Chicago last year. I think a friend of my girlfriend sent a picture of him from the rescue and we ended up falling in love with him after seeing him. He’s like a really odd mix of dog and is weirdly proportions. He looks like a cartoon dog if a kid drew one.
Which bands do you think will be headlining the main stages of the big festivals in the next 5 to 10 years?
That’s tough to answer. In a perfect world, I’d say Fit For An Autopsy as we’ve been championing them for a while now. I’d love for a band like that to get a shot at headlining a festival with the full production and everything. I’d say Power Trip as well, as they’ve been doing really well recently. I’d also love to see Overkill up there along with Soilwork. Soilwork are so underrated and I feel like they’ve just not been pulled through for whatever reason.
If you had to put together an ice cream sundae, what flavours of ice cream and toppings would you use?
I definitely like espresso taste with my ice cream. I’d definitely put some chocolate chunks and maybe a fresh cookie or two in there as well. I really like a chocolate and coffee flavour in my sundaes.
What’s your thoughts on Matt’s Twitch channel?
I think it’s really been great. I was technically the one who introduced it to him a few years ago as I read about it somewhere. Matt had started doing stuff on youtube and I mentioned to him about it as I thought that might suit him better as it’s in realtime. He then setup a thing and started it which then led to it growing into something parallel to the band. When you think about it, it’s kind of like his side-project but is still very related to Trivium. We’ve streamed a lot of shows on there and is kind of an extension for the band, but also an area for Matt to be creative.
When we’re able to travel after this es, we’ll be thinking of doing some live-streaming of rehearsals and doing some experiments around that. Matt’s built up a really good following with that now so it’ll be cool to do some more of the live-streamed concerts and rehearsals. We have all the gear we need to do it so we’ll figure something out from that.
What The Dead Men Say will be released through Roadrunner Records on April 24. Pre-order on Amazon and you help this site.
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