We recently got ont he phone with Trivium bassist Paolo Gregoletto about the new album Silence In The Snow, the 10th anniversary of Ascendancy, Iron Maiden, keeping in shape, and more!
Read on to find out what Paolo had to say...
Maniacs: Silence In The Snow has a classic metal sound and clean vocals. What made you decide to go in this direction?
Paolo: “A couple things I think. We were writing for a couple months before we begun production and we really spent a lot of time conceptualizing what we wanted to do with this record after 10 years of doing this. I think one thing that really inspired us to really make a record with melodic vocals was the tour we were doing. We were doing a lot of music festivals, a lot of arena shows and… y’know, when you tailor your set to bigger audience like that you tend to go towards your melodic side.”
“In all honesty, our biggest songs have always been our more melodic ones with screaming inter-mixed, but mostly big melodic hooks. So, we decided that was going to be the challenge this record : to see if we can make a record such as this without the heavy vocals and if we could make it catchy, if we could make the riffs powerful, if we could make from start to finish a record that made sense, to have this melodic mood. And it was a challenge; it’s not easy to do that. I think sometimes with screaming you can kind of rely on it. Just kind of throw it on there and we didn’t do that!”
Maniacs: Were there any artists who influenced this sound?
Paolo: “One thing we didn’t want to have was a retro album. We didn’t want it to sound like an album that came out in the 70’s or 80’s, but we looked back at albums we love, whether it was Metallica or Iron Maiden. We really focused on how they made those records, why they’re great, why the songs are timeless. So we looked at bands we’ve always looked up to and channelled the ideas of what they were doing with a modern spin on production and inter-mixing some of our newer influences, stuff that I would consider new like melodic death metal style riffing and stuff like that. That’s still a very big part of our sound.”
Maniacs: Will you continue with this sound on the next record?
Paolo: It’s hard to say exactly what we’ll do with the next record. I think with this record we’ve definitely turned a new page for our band and for us it’s important as we grow older in the band that the music reflects that as well, so we keep on expanding the sound and expanding the horizons and also look back to what we’ve done.”
Maniacs: What was the inspiration behind Silence in the Snow’s artwork and title?
Paolo: “We’ve had the song title since 2007-2008 when [the track Silence in the Snow] was initially written. The title is actually a translation from a Japanese story that the lyrics were inspired by. It’s about how this Japanese folk lord battled all over the place. We wanted the album to use this skull logo that we made last year and we wanted it to be a photo instead of just art or a drawing, so our friend made four in different matte colours. We tried a couple of variations but we settled with the white on white which we felt was the most striking of all the photos that were taken and it was an introduction of the new logo for our band.”
Maniacs: What’s your favourite track on the record?
Paolo: “When I start to listen to the record start to finish it’s hard to really pick them but since we’ve been playing them live I really enjoy playing ‘Until The World Goes Cold’. I didn’t know how that song was going to play live and it’s actually a little different than I was expecting. It’s really been fun to play and it’s awesome to see people reacting to it.”
Maniacs: It’s 10 years since Ascendancy came out. How do you reflect on that?
Paolo: “It’s crazy to think it’s been that long now. We’ve been through a lot and it feels good to get to 10 years because it feels like a mile-stone in any sort of band or even business or anything. To do 10 years of one thing is amazing so I think we’re really proud that we’ve done it; that we’ve made it through ups, downs, and we’ve also got a lot to look forward to now. It’s awesome, it’s a great feeling!”
Maniacs: What do you think of the latest Iron Maiden record (The Book Of Souls)?
Paolo: “We’ve been listening to it a lot on the bus and I think it’s probably my favorite thing they’ve done since Brave New World and maybe a Matter of Life And Death. I really like those two albums a lot. I love the song ‘The Red and the Black’ and the first song ‘If Eternity Should Fail’. It doesn’t feel like 8 minutes, it’s crazy.”
Maniacs: What else have you been listening to lately?
Paolo: “Oh man! I’m always listening to stuff old and new. I loved the new Disturbed (Immortalized)! What else have I been jamming? I listened to the new Bring Me The Horizon record (That’s The Spirit), I really liked that a lot. They did a pretty cool heavy/alternative rock album. It’s been cool to see that thing grow. They definitely don’t mind experimenting and I can really appreciate that.”
Maniacs: What do you think about while you’re signing CDs?
Paolo: “I put on a little bit of music and sit down with a coffee or tea and just go for it! You get into a rhythm and you tune it out. You get used to it after a while, the only thing is every time you do a record there’s more of them. It’s kind of a good problem to have.”
Maniacs: What do you do to keep in shape on tour?
Paolo: “You really have to make yourself get out there work out and be active. It’s very easy to be lazy. I’ve gone through spurts of being lazy and you just gotta get moving and do stuff. I run for a few miles, workout, smash through a bit of jujitsu in one of the conference rooms. We’re always trying to make time for that and also eat good food not just go for fast food. I gotta say I feel better and more in shape now than the first couple of years we were actually on tour. It’s a good thing because I just turned 30 a few days ago and it’s nice to be in better shape now than when I was in my 20’s.”
Maniacs: What do you listen to while you work out?
Paolo: “It depends. If I’m running it’s usually fast-paced. A great album for a 30 minute run is (Slayer’s)‘Raining Blood’. It’s 28 minutes long and it’s a good way to pace yourself. I can go through tonnes of music but it’s usually rock and metal. Maybe some ACDC or Metallica, or something a little more extreme. You gotta have the right rhythm to get into the mindset for working out.”
Maniacs: Can you give us any hints about when you’ll be back in Australia?
Paolo: “2016 is going to be the bulk of our Touring, so if it’s going to happen it’ll happen sometime around then. I don’t know whether it will be a festival or if it’ll be a headliner. I like both, so we'll see how things pan out. We’ll definitely be down there because we don’t seem to skip it ever.”
Silence In The Snow is out now on Roadrunner Records. Get your copy now on the Maniacs store!
