We hate seeing bands lose members. Once we are musically attached to a group, anyone walking out is an upset, but lately we are beginning to see the positive side to some of these switch ups. You should take Trivium for example. The metal band has had several members come and go since the group’s formation in 1999. Most recently, Trivium replaced the original drummer, Travis Smith, with Nick Augusto. It’s difficult to say goodbye to Smith after his decade long career with Trivium, but with a fresh face, the band can keep the energy flowing by spicing up their sound. Also, we can’t help, but find Trivium to be generous for extending their arms out to another musician and letting him live the life of a metal God. There is no need to remind Augusto to be grateful for this opportunity because we already got that impression from him when we chatted him up last week.
We had a lot to discuss with the drummer. Starting off, the band is gearing up for the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, which kicks off July 9th in San Bernardino, California. Yes, we know we have addressed the festival’s lineup numerous times, but it is just so badass that we must reiterate it once again. You’ve got Trivium, Megadeth, Machine Head, Disturbed, Straight Line Stitch, In Flames, Unearth and more. We swear that’s the last time. Note we crossed our fingers on that statement. The group’s fifth album, In Waves, will drop August 9th via Roadrunner Records. So the touring has only just begun with the Mayhem Festival.
Augusto answered every question we threw at him in detail. We’ll already pat ourselves on the back for this interview below because what we’ve got for you Shockya readers is the latest Trivium news, from Augusto’s favorite tune off In Waves to the band’s possible set list for their upcoming shows. No need to thank us. All we want for you to do is read the interview below with devilish metal smiles on your faces.
by Lonnie Nemiroff
You have been part of Trivium for a little over a year now. Do you still feel like a newbie? Or does it feel like you have been playing with them forever?
After we made the record, it feels more like I am in the band now. Before we made the record, I still felt new because not a lot of people heard my drums on an actual CD yet, except I did one song with Trivium for God of War, “Shattering The Skies Above,” but no one really heard a whole album. I toured with them enough times, where I feel part of the band now. So ya, it definitely feels like more of a tight knit group now than it ever did. I think the CD solidifies that.
How has it been touring the world?
It was f*king amazing. It was like the one thing in my life I really wanted to do that I haven’t done yet. So, I left the country for the first time with them and the first place we went was Indonesia. It was pretty awesome. Just going to all these places is like the coolest thing ever cause if it wasn’t for the band, I wouldn’t be traveling to all these places on my own. I wouldn’t be able to, either afford it or just there wouldn’t really be a point because now we get to play shows in all these places. It’s even a better trip going there and playing. It’s been amazing.
Any crazy road stories?
Nothing I can pin point, but there is always some drunkness and these is always…um, I don’t know just depends what part of town your in I guess. There was some pretty rough places we went to in the UK. Well, we went to this place in the UK, we played a bar and our guitar tech almost got in a fight with all these guys there. There’s been a bunch of stories like that, but nothing too crazy where anything has affected a show or anything that has gotten really out of hand.
Are you guys looking forward to the Mayhem Festival and playing alongside band’s like Megadeth and Disturbed?
Oh definitely. Megadeth, I listened to them since I was young and that was one of the bands that definitely got me into metal. Disturbed, they are really awesome guys. We toured with them last month in Australia and New Zealand and they treated us really well. We got to know them and we got along with them really well. It’s always nice to tour with other bands that are really cool, even though they are like the big headliners you know? They treat the other bands just like normal. They don’t look down on anybody. I am really looking forward to seeing Megadeth, Machine Head and In Flames. It’s going to be an awesome tour and it’s going to be a lot of fun.
Do you know your set list yet? Are you planning on playing tracks off of In Waves?
Ya, we are actually going to do a half and half set and then maybe some shows we’ll rotate. I think we only have a 40 minute set or less than that, so we are probably going to play like three songs off the new album then three old songs and then maybe switch it up another show where we play more old songs and less new songs. We actually have a lot of songs already practiced, so it really depends. We want to see how the crowd reacts to the newer songs and we’ll kind of go according to them. We are going to change the set list around maybe and kind of see how things run. We have a set list right now for the first show, like half and half, but we are going to see how that goes cause we never played some of these songs before live.
On to “In Waves”…Why did you guys choose to use this track title as the album title?
Well, first Matt came up with “In Waves”. We looked at all the song titles and we said can we really name any of these songs titles the album? I don’t know. “In Waves” sounded the coolest. The two words together sounded interesting to everybody. We thought about it for a while and it went along with our pictures and our storyline that we had for the album and the artwork. Just the title fit the rest of everything with how it looked. It just seemed appropriate and we just picked it. It sounds different from the rest of the album titles that Trivium has had.
How was it shooting the video for “In Waves”? Can you talk a little bit about the meaning of the tune?
Matt’s pretty much the mastermind behind the storyline and everything. He has got it all mapped out in his head. I think it was really cool. He tried to think of something different, like a different album for metal and a different kind of theme, instead of just like killing or some normal stuff. With the video, we wanted to have something different than us just playing. We wanted to have a storyline and then the next video, we’ll run a to be continued… from the first one.
You guys just released “Dusk Dismantled.” Will that be the next video?
No, I don’t think so. We have plans to do a video for another song. We have a song that is probably going to be on the radio in August. We are going to campaign for the song. It is called “Built To Fall” and I think we are going to do a video for that. I don’t think we are going to do a video for “Dusk Dismantled” just yet, but it’s always a possibility.
Do you have a favorite track off the new album?
It’s really hard to pick a favorite. I’d probably say my two favorite songs are “Inception of the End” and “Forsake Not The Dream.”
What do you think set this album apart from the four prior albums?
The music is different for one. With making the album, from what I’ve heard from them, we had more control over this album. I think there was a different vibe when I joined in with the band. They started coming up with different ideas and opening up more. It was more like free record with whatever we wanted to do. The whole artwork, the vibe, the lyrics and everything is just different. It is just a more mature Trivium. I think what we are doing now is what we really want to do and everyone is pretty 100% on it. There is really no looking back.
The album drops while you guys are at the Zoo Ampitheatre in Oklahoma City. Got any special plans lined up for that show?
We haven’t really talked about anything special for the show, but maybe we’ll play an all new set, maybe all new songs. You never know So, I am not sure yet, but we’ll definitely do something because we’ve been waiting for the album to come out forever. We’ll throw a party. We’ll play all new songs. Something like that, but we’ll definitely plan something out.
