Paolo Gregoletto – Trivium, Bass

Sunday, March 22, 2009

After discovering a way to avoid paying the $22 parking rate at the Forum in Inglewood, CA (hint, they allow you to park at Hollywood Park if you’re working with the bands), I walk to the TRIVIUM tour bus where greeted by their Tour Manager and escorted to to the backstage area where I am introduced to Paolo Gregoletto (bass) and Matt Heafy (guitar & vocals). I sit with Paolo for a moment but we quickly learn that there is an over abundance of press being conducted so we return to the tour bus to have a quick chat and see what’s been going on with Florida’s own, TRIVIUM.

This tour has been your best run yet of the US so far, what makes it better?

It’s a whole new audience for us and it actually feels like we’re making progress here. Sometimes you go out on tour and not that it’s a bad tour, but you’re playing to people who already know who you are, they either like you or don’t like you, they’ve already made up their mind. On this tour it’s almost like a fresh start with a whole new crowd of people. Obviously our fans are out supporting us, but I’d say some of the places we play, especially like the midwest, 80-90% of the people had no idea who TRIVIUM was beforehand so it’s cool.

So you got the SLIPKNOT crowd who would already be acquainted with you at least by name anyway?

I don’t know, it’s kinda weird like, they’re really into a whole new level especially on the mainstream side of things. We don’t have mainstream radio support. We’re not into that world so there’s a lot of people coming out who don’t know us at all.

But they’re feeling it?

Yeah, it’s been really great. We’ve felt really welcome not only by the band but by their fans as well.

That helps! You got the oddball band in the middle with COHEED AND CAMBRIA.

Yeah, it’s cool though. The one thing is we all share a common bond is that we have very diehard fanbases. There’s a lot of TRIVIUM fans coming out, a lot of COHEED fans coming out, and definitely a shitload of SLIPKNOT fans. It’s cool, it’s just different dynamics.

So how many days left in the tour?

We’re almost done, 4th show til the end.

Then what?

Then we have a couple weeks off, then a few shows up in Canada with SLIPKNOT. Then we head to Japan and Australia for a headlining tour. Then all the summer festivals and Mayhem.

Mayhem looks good this year.

Yes, we’re headlining the Jagermeister Stage.

That’s a good bill.

Great bill and very diverse.

Great bill and more extreme this year.

I’m looking forward to it; short set, middle of the day, it means I can party and do whatever I want afterwards. (laughs)

What about this tour now? You were warming up backstage right now playing on guitar, is that more of a device to warm up on?

Well, I just jump on Matt’s guitar sometimes just to try to write stuff and for warmups more for stretching and vocal warmups. Or if I warm up I warm up on my bass and do all the chromatic, boring, useless sounding things but they warm your hands up.

You have a pretty technical stance on your delivery; it’s very precise. How much time do you put into practice or warm up before you go on?

Definitely try to put as much as I can into it. For me, the vocal warmups and actual stretching for a tour like this for arena shows it’s a little cold inside the building so I think that’s probably first and foremost the thing I focus on. 30-minute sets really easy playing wise as we’re playing pretty straight forward songs that really go over well to a new audience in a big place like this. Mostly the physical side of it that I worry about the most.

With the coldness of the arenas, do you feel disconnected from the fans from being so separated especially for those people up in section 221 in the top of the arena?

Well some of the arenas have been a cool setup, still a big place, but with a couple thousand people but they’re not like those gigantic arenas. Madison Square Garden was ridiculous; I couldn’t even see people it was just like an abyss. The hard thing to do when you’re in arenas is to make everyone feel a part of the show and get everyone’s attention. Especially when you’re the opening band I mean a lot of people are just waiting to see the main event. You have to come out and make everyone feel a part of the show and get people amped up and all four of us have to put out as much energy as we can and try to pump people up.

This is your first time in arenas though isn’t it?
In the States it is yes.

Was it scarey walking out your first couple nights?
No, it was like a rush. Every night when I go out I don’t feel scared going out. I know the songs well, I mean playing and stuff isn’t a problem. Our crew is super pro. It’s just that rush of coming right out and seeing the people there is just awesome.

Is there much movement down below?

Yeah Yeah! Every show it kind of varies. Some days it will be completely insane. Sometimes it takes a couple of songs for people to warm up then when they’re feeling it they start really getting into it. Some people like to watch. For me either way is good as long as people are reacting to it and they’re loud. That’s the main thing. If they’re just sitting there quiet it’s like, come on!

You’re in LA though tonight.

True. (laughs)

That’s the worst part about LA though.

Yeah. The thing is, sometimes LA, I don’t know. Sometimes I think New York has been more like that than LA has; you never know. It’s kind of a gamble with the big cities. Regardless of what people are doing, we come out with the same intensity. My kind of philosophy on this thing is that if you’re going to go out there and hope to feed off the crowd you’re gonna have a lot of shitty nights especially when you’re a new band to people you have to project the energy. You have to keep going until the end even if it’s not the greatest moshpit you’ve seen. You have to look like you’re having fun. You should be having fun this is a great job.

Talk about your transition into arenas?

SLIPKNOT asked us onto this and we have to Thank them for that. We started off in our van making enough to get gas in the van and get to the next place. And just continue doing what we do trying to get better with our live show and progress that way. It really wasn’t overnight and it kinda seems like people look at us because we’re young that it seems like it was overnight. We definitely worked from the ground up. A couple years ago I couldn’t imagine we’d be opening for SLIPKNOT on their US arena tour let alone we’ve done it with IRON MAIDEN in Europe.

Talk about Europe vs. America fan reaction.

TRIVIUM fans around the world it’s the same reaction. Europe’s not one singular thing, it’s like each country has it’s own scene almost. You might be big in Germany and Austria then you go to Scandinavia and you’re playing clubs. It’s totally a different thing, it’s definitely taken a lot of time to earn people’s respect over there.

Once you earn it there, they’re much more loyal, especially if you’re playing with MAIDEN.

You gotta step up, you gotta bring more than your A game. We had heard the horror stories that there was one band the crew was telling us that got like 200 Euros worth of coins thrown at them and that the entire front row stood with their middle fingers up in the air like the whole set. We had heard about that and we’re like, well, all we can do is go out there and be as aggressive as possible and hope they dig the music we play. That was probably one of the most fun tours we’ve done. When we played in Spain and Italy it felt like we were headlining as they gave us such a warm reaction it was awesome. And it was awesome seeing MAIDEN every night. That was probably the one tour I went out and watched the headliner every night.

What are your 3 career highlights?

Not counting this one (current tour) because we’re not done with the tour yet. I’d say opening the main stage at Download in 2005, opening for METALLICA, and doing the tour with IRON MAIDEN. It really doesn’t get any bigger than MAIDEN or METALLICA.