TRIVIUM BASSIST RESPONDS TO ASKING ALEXANDRIA TOUR BACKLASH, INFAMOUS $1.31 ROYALTY CHECK TWEET
The news that Trivium had been announced as a tour opener for Asking Alexandria definitely raised an eyebrow or two; it’s not like Trivium are the tr00est of the cvlt and they’d otherwise be on this tour or something, but surely even the most elitist amongst you can admit that Asking Alexandria is a bizarre fit.
But it turns out that’s exactly why they took the tour. Metal Insider’s Zach Shaw asked bassist Paolo Gregoletto “what up with that?” in a recent interview, and it turns out that it’s not because they lost a foosball game to Ghost:
Yeah, that was a really random tour offer. When we got it, we were like “Alright… that’s different.” It wasn’t something we were actually planning on doing, but we looked at it objectively and were like “Alright, we just did the Dream Theater tour,” and that was a really outside the box tour. I’m sure a lot of people were saying the same thing, like “Oh, Trivium touring with Dream Theater? That’s kinda weird!” But we did it, it was a totally different experience. When you’re outside the box, and not playing the normal tour, like I’d consider this [tour with In Flames, Veil Of Maya and Kyng] to be a comfortable tour. 99.9% of the people [we’re playing for] know who we are, into what we do. Us and In Flames fit very well together. The Dream Theater tour, to me it’s as far left as you can go, and as far right as you can go with Asking Alexandria, which is a heavy band but not in “this” heavy world. Like that’s the Warped Tour heavy metal, and not saying that in a derogatory way at all. Literally there is another heavy scene that exists and parallels in some ways and in some ways so different.
Our whole thing was when we got the offer, what were we going to be doing in that time anyway? Originally, I think we were possibly going down to South America with some other bands, and that would have been amazing. But the focus of this album has been the U.S. and hitting it as hard as possible and from every angle. We were just like “You know what, we should do this. It’s going to be way different.” A lot of people that are into our band might not like that we’re doing it, but to stay relevant and to keep new people coming into our music, we have to do tours like this. I am definitely looking forward to it because if it really is as many new kids as I’m hoping it is and kids that are that young, there very impressionable. If they’ve never heard us, we could be their gateway into this side of the heavy world. And that’s just the way I look at it. Either way, we’re playing the same music that we would be playing on these kind of tours.
Gregoletto’s got some other interesting things to say as well, including the explanation behind Matt Heafy’s infamous royalty check tweet and the band’s new 360-degree record deal:
Since Trivium is pretty well-established, would the band ever consider doing a 360 deal?
That’s what our deal is.
Oh, I didn’t realize that.
That’s starting from this [In Waves] record because all Warner bands I think if they don’t now will have 360 deals, but that’s another area of contention with people. And all I can say from all situation is that it’s only been beneficial because I feel that it makes the label have more incentive to do more with us, and at the same time it makes us work harder because we’re getting more opportunities with touring and everything else that comes with it. For us, I have nothing bad to say about it at this point, and I know a lot of other bands that have had a lot of success. I want to say that it’s Paramore, they have a 360 deal and it’s fucking done amazing for them.
It’s interesting to hear an artists speak favorably of 360 deals; you rarely see that. Read the rest of the interview at Metal Insider.
-VN
