In the new Stencil Mag (issue 41) I had the pleasure of interviewing the bassist of one of the biggest American modern metal bands around...Paolo Gregoletto of Trivium! Here is where originally featured in Stencil Mag:
https://issuu.com/stencilmag/docs/issue41/114
Interview - Paolo from Trivium:
How did you first get into playing bass?
I was first playing bass when I was eleven years old and me and group of my friends were having lunch at school one day and decided we wanted to play at this yearly festival at school, so we each pretty much picked an instrument and I picked bass and it suited me, and we played things like ‘Dammit’ by Blink 182 and I played For Whom The Bells Tolls (Metallica)…that was pretty much how it started for me.
Can you tell us a bit about when you first joined Trivium, as well as what it was like to be an upcoming band in Orlando, Florida?
When I joined Trivium…I’m actually from South Florida so we’re about three hours apart and we get together for like a year, so we kind of knew each other and they needed a bass player urgently, as the original guy left on the first tour and the next guy didn’t work out on the second so and I had just graduated high school and it pretty much just went from there.
When did you first realize that Trivium was going to be a career lasting band?
I mean it wasn’t really until we came over to Europe and UK I was like this could definitely be something much bigger than I thought it would be. It makes you think there are possibilities for life here and mine was when we first toured and it was like if we could do this here then it might be possible....it’s pretty mind blowing that it has been this long from 12 years now and yeah it’s been awesome.
So what made you want to re-release 'Ember to Inferno', and personally, what track means the most to you from that record?
Well the original deal was a couple of years ago, the record came back to the band after the original deal was up and the album you couldn’t get it in pretty much on all the streaming sites, stores or online, everyone was pretty much having to buy it of Ebay and Matt decided to put all the demos from Ember To Inferno blue, red and yellow demos and took it to Corey and I and some others, and came up with this whole kind of total beginning demos or early Trivium days type thing to put out. It’s really cool and it’s a bunch of different colours vinyl’s .
What has the response been like so far for the re-issue of Ember To Inferno?
People that haven’t heard it before are hearing it for the first time online, it’s exciting – if we play it live it will be good to see how people react.
You guys were only in your early 20s when you started to become successful, so what was it like, to have to tour the world that young, and what do you think you learnt the most from that time?
It was an experience…we learnt more about people all over the world and how music brings people together. It definitely changed my outlook on life and the world.
Okay so let's jump forward here. How happy have you been with the feedback to 'Silence in the Snow', and what do you think the release has done for the representation of Trivium?
I mean here in the states it’s really been our break through record I mean having the radio play some of our music.
What songs are you still really enjoying performing live from that record, and why?
One I really like to play is ‘Rise Above The Tides’ I think because of the vibe …it’s fun and treated well live, it’s very melodic and I think it sounds better live than on record… it’s been fun to work them in and see as the record has gone from being a new release to a year old so see which songs kind of latched on with people live.
How did you end up working with Ihsahn on the track Snofall, and what was that whole process like for you?
We kind of had a good idea of what we wanted and he had a general idea and so we hit up Ihsahn and pitched the idea of doing the intro and he gave us a rough mop up of what it would be and we were just really stoked with ended up being this cinematic dramatic menacing intro so we just let him go at it.
It's been ten years since the release of 'The Crusade', so looking back on that time, what do you remember the most, and how would you say this record compares to anything else Trivium have done?
Kind of a little bit of a contentious time for us… we just finished all the ‘Ascendancy’ stuff and we never really thought about the record so I just kind of remember we learned a lot of lessons and the benefits of pre-production and taking your time and having some space away from touring to really think about what you what to do and that’s one of those things you have to go through and learn and it was a little rocky behind the scenes… some of the songs were my favourite to play live.
Touring wise, what have you been up to this year, and can you give us a couple of personal highlights from your time on the road?
If the right tour comes along then we will do it and just keep doing the festivals…I mean all the festivals we did this year and Rock On The Range they were incredible.
How excited are you for your upcoming UK tour, and what can attending fans expect?
We are very excited because it’s going to be the last tour of the album and we want to end on a high note and before the next break before we start thinking about any new music.
Can you give us one or two of your highlights from performing in the UK before?
Download festival it was huge and the gigs we did with Iron Maiden in 2006 they definitely stick out.
Overall, how would you say the sound of Trivium has grown since you first started out?
I mean Matt’s become a more melodic singer…it would be weird not to feature him more as a melodic singer than just like oh yeah a screaming vocalist with bits and pieces here and there. I mean when you play live it’s awesome because we can really cover any of our albums and we are able to pull them off exactly the way they were on the record and it’s nice to have such a dynamic set and songs.
What else can we expect to see from Trivium as we head towards 2017?
Once we have finished the touring we are going to take some time out and think about what to do next and for us just to like renew energy in the band and we are excited about a new record.
www.trivium.org/
https://www.facebook.com/Trivium/
Check out all the other interviews and content in the latest Stencil mag all for free!
https://issuu.com/stencilmag/docs/issue41
Also in the issue is my review of Trivium's re-release for Ember To Inferno: Ab Inition (Deluxe)- https://issuu.com/stencilmag/docs/issue41/181
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