Live-Metal.Net - Interviews: Trivium

For fans of Orlando, Fla.’s Trivium, the band’s 2005 sophomore album, Ascendancy set the bar and is the standard for everything before and after in their career. So naturally, after two excellent, yet more varied albums in The Crusade (2006) and Shogun (2008) that saw Trivium trying to establish a new sound, Ascendancy seems to be the blueprint for In Waves. No more emulating Metallica or any other of the band’s idols and influences—this was going to be an honest, hardcore Trivium record. And mark my words: Not only is Trivium my pick for breakthrough band on this year’s Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, but with In Waves, Trivium will be metal’s biggest breakthrough in 2011 and into 2012. And a big part of this is due to the band’s new drummer, Nick Augusto, a former drum tech for the band who joined as a full-time member in late 2009 after Travis Smith parted ways. On new songs like “In Waves,” “Dusk Dismantled” and “Black,” Augusto’s triggered, hard-hitting, ferocious style brings the band to a new level.

Trivium has spent the hot summer months alternating opening the main stage on this year’s Mayhem Festival before embarking across the U.S. as openers for Dream Theater's “A Dramatic Turn of Events Tour.” Later in the year, they’re heading to the U.K. for “Defenders of The Faith III,” with In Flames, Ghost and others. On the Mayhem stop July 31 in Camden, N.J., Live-Metal.net’s Jeff Maki talked with Nick Augusto about the festival, details of In Waves and his transition into the band. Warning: Generic questions may follow.

Live-Metal.net: The first generic question I have is, “How is the Mayhem Festival going so far?”

Nick Augusto: It’s going great. We’re reaching out to a new audience. On this tour, it’s more like a radio crowd because we’re on the headlining stage, so it’s cool. It’s been awesome. It’s like we’re gaining a lot of new fans, and there’s nothing bad to say about the tour—it’s been good. It’s been awesome.

Now were you on the tour with the band for the first Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem they did in 2009?

I was drum-teching then. I joined in October of 2009, so it was like right after.

Being the new guy in the band, has it been everything you thought it would be? Has there been anything really surprising?

Just being in it—how do I explain it?—it’s like a whole different world. Working for them and then actually playing, it’s fucking great. It’s been an easy thing to get used to because I used to be in a band with (bassist) Paulo (Gregoletto) before he did Trivium. So we jammed for years and I’ve known him and we grew up together. So it was a pretty easy transition to just start jamming with him again. But yeah, it’s been cool. I’m meeting a lot of new people. And I just want this record to come out and can’t wait to hear the feedback on that. It should be fucking sick.

So is it safe to say that you were actually a huge fan of the band before you joined back when you were the tech?

Not really—no. I’ve been friends with Paulo for so long that I didn’t look at it like that. We were just friends and Paulo was in “that” band, and he’s my buddy. When I started working for them more and more, I definitely caught on to the music and I was like, “Man, I’m missing out on this shit.” But I’ve learned to really love it though—all the songs we play live, it’s a fun set to play.

Big difference. (laughs)

My former band (Maruta) was like blast beats and fucking crazy shit, but this has definitely taught me how to hold back and do new things and play shit that I’ve never even played in a band before. But it’s made me become such a better player since I joined, and it molded me into playing all this new shit and stuff that I couldn’t before.

So you already mentioned the new album, In Waves, but just how involved were you in the writing of the album and everything?

Very involved, because as soon as I joined, that’s when they were really starting to write for it. So I joined right when they started recording riffs and shit. And I had total control over what I wanted to do on the songs, and I would ask them for input. To be honest—and I know it sounds cliché—but we all had our part in the CD. It wasn’t just one person, because without any of the members writing the stuff it wouldn’t have came out how it did because everybody brought something to the table for this record. So yeah, it was all split equally, and I was there since they started working on it every day—we just practiced and fucking practiced.

So this is like your rookie album going on here. I’ve seen things in the press where (vocalist/guitarist) Matt Heafy was comparing it to Ascendancy. So now that you’ve been in the band for awhile and have heard Ascendancy, and with working on this, how would you compare the two? I think Ascendancy is the best Trivium record and the one I first got into, and I remember just playing out that fucking thing all the time.

Sure, yeah, yeah. I agree. I would say (In Waves) is like the brother or the cousin of Ascendancy. It’s got that vibe and the aggressiveness, but it’s got a new style of riffs and shit. But there are a lot of songs on this album that just have screaming, no singing, so that kind of reminds me of old Ascendancy. But this album just has the aggression of Ascendancy. It doesn’t sound like it. I just think it has the aggression of it and then some. But comparing both albums, I would say that they’re two totally different albums, but this new one would probably be the closest sounding to the old one.

Are there any songs in particular that you feel are your own? Maybe you put in the part that made the song or maybe you had the main idea for it?

Yeah, I tried to lock up with the guitar as much as possible. I know some of the songs do little shit here and there, like solos and I just try to keep it tight. There’s definitely a lot of things that I’m proud of that I did on the CD that I’m like, “Yeah, that fucking part sounds awesome!” Like on certain drum parts that would kind of be unconventional, instead of doing (the same old), I’d try and make it more interesting. But are there any songs in particular? Yeah, I’d say that one of the songs that sticks out the most is called, “Caustic Are the Ties That Bind.” It’s got this big clean part in the middle of it, but the drums sound fucking huge—recording came out great. So I feel like that one is probably my favorite song to listen to and has some of my favorite drum shit going on.

Generic question number two: “Have you made any great friends in bands while out on this tour? What bands are you hanging out with the most when you’re not playing or sitting here with guys like us?”

Bands we hang out with most—probably Machine Head. And those guys are really fucking cool. Other than that, there’s All Shall Perish. We haven’t met a lot of people on this tour so far, but I’ll say the ones we’ve partied with the most are probably Machine Head.

OK, 24. I’m 34 and I was like 16 or 17 when Burn My Eyes came out, and it was just fucking killer. That’s still one of my favorite albums that stands to this day. But being as young as you are, are albums like Burn My Eyes as big of an influence on you?

For this tour, I would say it’s the newer stuff. But for us as a band, as Trivium—yeah, the older stuff. That’s the stuff that got us into them. But they’re playing a lot of new stuff of their new album (The Blackening). But I’d say the older stuff is more influential on me. But for this crowd, I think the newer stuff appeals to them more. They know about the newer stuff more than Burn My Eyes.

Was it ’94? (laughs)

Yeah, that’s the year I graduated. I’ve bought a house since then, had a job for 15 years, had a kid, been married twice. Like so much shit has happened between that album and now. It’s interesting to hear a take from a younger metal fan. I’m sure they’ve heard the album, but it’s hard these days—you got to go back and find the shit and listen to it.

We’re playing “In Waves.” We’re playing the song “Built to Fall,” that just got on radio last week, and I think that’s the only new ones. We’re just playing the two new songs. We’re going to wait for the album to come out and then play more, but we just kind of want to keep the crowd interested because if they don’t know shit, or any of the songs, it’d be like just sitting there. Some people know some of the songs because we have them on YouTube or something. But other than that, we’re trying to sell it because they don’t know it yet. But it’s going good though even though we’re playing new songs. People are responding to it and stuff.

With the news of In Flames dropping off of the Mayhem tour and heading home, what does that mean for your upcoming U.K. tour with them later this year? Is it still going to happen?

It’s going to happen, as far as I know. I think they’re just dropping off this tour, but the rest of the touring is going to happen. The only thing I heard is that they were dropping off this tour. Other than that, everything is still scheduled as planned. This was all news to me this morning, and it’s always changing, so I don’t know. We’ll see.

[Editor's Note: Earlier in the day of this interview, In Flames issued a press release stating they were forced to cancel their current U.S. shows as part of the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival and its own headlining shows due to a terminal illness of one of the band’s family members.]

The album, In Waves comes out August 9, so check it out. I think it’s definitely the most honest Trivium record that the band has made. No bullshit—we did what we wanted, and so please check it out.