T3M: Thank you for taking some time out of your schedule to talk to me today.

PG: Yeah, no problem.

T3M: When I first heard The Crusade, I was immediately blown away by the musicianship and especially the vocal performance. What's your opinion about the labels some people put on your music, such as "metal-core" or more recently "thrash metal"?

PG: When you start writing the songs you go with what's in your heart, and what you feel like writing. The whole label thing just makes everything so clinical sounding, like 'this is this' and 'this is some genre of this genre'. When you do that, it's not music anymore, it's just classifying everything. All musicians and bands play the same exact notes, but just play it differently to create new things. If our music sounds cool to people, then that's great. The labels are going to be there forever. People are always going to try to label stuff.

T3M: What's the fan reaction been like so far to the change in the band's sound?

PG: It's been great. There are changes, but we didn't change our musical direction drastically. We're still playing heavy music. We just injected a little bit more fast stuff into it and experimented with new things. It's been great because the people who have been our true fans since we started are always into the stuff that we do. Last night was our first night starting this tour, and it was just awesome because no matter which songs we play from which CDs it's just the same level of intensity, it never dies out.

T3M: Yeah, we had a chance to see you in March while you were touring with Lamb of God, Machine Head, and Gojira. The crowd was one of the most responsive, energetic, and rowdy crowds we've ever witnessed. You recently toured much of Europe... how does the fans' reception overseas compare with that in North America?

PG: When it's our show, when it's a headlining show, no matter where we are, it's always the same... it's intense. The people that really like us, they know everything about us, they know all the songs, they don't know just the singles. I guess the real differences you see is when you're new to people in different countries. When you're in the States, it changes from state to state, and when you're in Europe, country to country. Sometime places are more responsive when you're a new band, sometimes they're not. You just got to go out and give it one hundred percent, and try to leave an impression on them. I think we've done a fairly good job of doing that when we're the new band to a bunch of new people.

T3M: Which songs do you think people seem to react to the most during shows?

PG: There are a lot of songs that definitely get people going. It always seems like Like Light To The Flies, Pull Harder [On the Strings of Your Martyr], and Gunshot [To The Head of Trepidation] always get the crowds going. And from The Crusade; To the Rats, Unrepentant, Entrance [Of The Conflagration]... all those songs. It's really like they have a lot of energy to them. You just can't not move when you hear them.

T3M: Which songs are your favorite to play live?

PG: That's kinda hard, because there's so many I like playing. We played last night, for the first time, Becoming the Dragon and that was pretty cool. I'm looking forward to playing it again tonight.

T3M: The Family Values tour is kicking-off... what can fans expect from Trivium during the tour? Anything else new in store?

PG: We don't have the longest set in the world. But we're going to play the new song. The majority of the people who are going to the show have never seen us, so for them it's going to be all new. We're just going out and it's going to be a very intense set... big stage, so we're going to be all over the place. Just expect a bigger Trivium show.

T3M: Are there any bands on the Family Values tour that you're really looking forward to seeing or touring with?

PG: I'm looking forward to seeing all the bands because it's such a diverse festival... there's definitely a lot of different stuff on it. I think I'll be checking out all the bands over the few weeks that we're out.

T3M: Make sure the Invitro guys make an aluminum foil mask for you.

PG: Yeah, I heard about that (laughs).

T3M: Are there any cities you're looking forward to playing in, maybe the hometown Florida shows?

PG: Yeah, those will be good. Texas is always good too. We're just looking forward to [the tour] because there's going to be so many new people seeing Trivium for the first time. This is going to be the first tour in a long time where there's going to be lot of people who don't know who we are, so that's cool.

T3M: After Family Values, what's next for Trivium?

PG: We have a few weeks off. We might be doing some demos for the next CD. It depends... we're not sure yet if we're going to start doing some then or not. Then we're heading over to Japan to play in a festival for a few shows over there. Then we start on The Black Crusade, a tour that us and Machine Head are co-headlining through Australia, UK and Europe. That will probably be the last thing that we do for The Crusade album.

T3M: I read that Shadows Fall is going to support you on that tour as well?

PG: Yeah, there's a couple bands. In Europe it's Dragon Force, Arch Enemy, and Shadows Fall. Then in Australia it's Shadows Fall and Arch Enemy. It's going to be a big tour. It'll be fun.

T3M: I know it's only been about nine months since the release of The Crusade... but fans are always hungry for more... has the band started working on any new material?

PG: We're writing a lot of shit. That's all we do, that's our jobs. We're always recording on our laptops, or coming up with ideas... thinking ahead. We're going to take our time, so people shouldn't expect anything within the next six months, but we're always working on new stuff.

T3M: You've been touring quite a bit over the past few years. When you actually get some downtime, what kinds of things do you like to do when you're not touring or recording?

PG: Catch up on sleep. That's definitely a big one. Over this long break we had I went golfing. That was cool. Mainly I just like to hang out with friends I haven't seen, and just chill-out. I don't really want to do much of anything but sit around the house and do normal things.

T3M: Do you have any advice for musicians, maybe bass players in particular, who are just starting out?

PG: The main thing is to just keep practicing, and get better at what you do. That's half of it, the rest is luck... things happen. You can only try hard and hope.

T3M: Good or bad, what kind of advice did you get?

PG: I didn't really get advice from other musicians, maybe just from the people who taught me. I guess the best advice was from my parents to keep a level head and not get an ego.

T3M: Thanks so much for your time. It was great speaking with you.

PG: Yeah, no problem.

| 07.20.2007 | Interview by J. Pierson |